Acadian Ancestors and This and That

Transportation in Sainte Anne Kent County was probably like many other new villages in the times of our ancestors. They had no roads so they travelled through path's in the woods or by boat up and down the rivers by canoes or Dores. The folks from Sainte Anne would travel via the rivers to attend Mass in Bouctouche or Richibouto Village. And when they travelled through the small beaten paths in the woods, they would do so by horse and wagon and in the spring they would get stuck in the mud and mire and can you imagine the times that they had? Some of the men laid down logs or pressed them into the mud in order not to sink any deeper. According to one of the elders , the men would travel though the woods or by water as far as Memramcook to meet the ladies. To them it was an everyday way of living. . In the winter times they would use snow shoes made of animal hides on the snow so that they would be able to stay on top of the snow and not sink in. The other day I was visiting Mom and they showed this native american making snowshoes and Mom said to me "My Dad used to make those, and he would make a small pair for my mother because her feet were so small. "She continued saying he would lace them up with the rawhide and then wet the rawhide and it would shrink and make the snowshoe stronger. It is so interesting to me, just listening to stories about long ago or reading about it.
Because our ancestors did a lot of those things that is talked about.
Now on another note, I have added more names from the 1940 Obituaries in the Evangeline French Paper which I translated to English on my website at www.acadian-roots.com Click on Evangeline obituaries. I have also added a new page on Genealogy Resources, if you are looking for a webhost, or for anti virus software or genealogy software of any kind or genealogy links check out my Genealogy Resources while you are at acadian-roots. Some of the links are subcriptions and some are free.
Well a few days ago I bought an exterior hard drive and I decided to save some of my information so that I don't lose them. Anyway I am not too smart on this part so I wanted to save my files on Acadian-Roots, so I downloaded a program called Zilla and I fiddled around until I found a way to download my files from Acadian-Roots, if you have ever been there you will see I have a huge photo gallery along with my site. Anyway my tranfers started, and it kept going and going and going , I saw these files being transferred, 1000, 2000 ,3000, Wow 'What is being downloaded anyway?" Well would you believe it also downloaded every photo that is on my photo gallery? I have over 6000 files transferred or saved. WOW. That is a lot of files. So now if ever my computer crashes I have all that stuff on an exterior hard drive.
I would suggest if you have a lot of things on your PC that you do not want to lose, to buy an exterior hard drive, you can get different amount of Gigabytes, mine has 320 GB. Should last me a while huh?
I would also like to mention that this week Petit Francois will announce the winners of the contest he is running, and if you want to enter for the month of October, send him an email with your name address email and mention Acadian-Roots or acadianroots in your email to
ptitfrancois@yahoo.com

Thanks for the visit do stop by again.
Have a great day
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Sainte Anne Kent County New Brunswick

Do you have ancestors who lived in Sainte Anne de Kent at one time or another? A few days ago, I went to a second hand store looking for books for my friend who was in the hospital. While browsing through the books , I decided to go look at the french books, and to my surprise, I saw a book on Sainte Anne de Kent by Anselme Chiasson and Arthur Poirier. Of course I picked it up right away to add to my book collection.
The pioneers of Sainte Anne came from Memramcook New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Minoudie, and elsewhere. They settled on vacant lands that later on the acquired. It is hard to pinpoint an exact time when they began settling there but there were some settlers before 1800. Some names of the first settlers according to land grants. Before 1900 Sainte Anne village included Caissie Village, St Martin,St Gregoire, St Francois and St Gabriel. Usually the families would live on the land for a long time before applying for land grants. And many times a group would apply for land grants and divide the land between them.
In 1805 in Caissie Village we find Jean Pitre, Simon and Laurent Richard,Sylvain and Laurent Babineau. In 1815 in Caissie Village we find Antonin Boucher,Josue, Olivier and Pierre Caissie, Dominique and Placide Richard and Charles Maillet. Fidele and Raphael Caissie got their lands in 1821. Other names who settle in and near Sainte Anne including Choqpish were Simon B Richard, Simon and Celestin Maillet,Laurent and Belonie Leblanc they were in Chocpish. In Saint Edouard we find Felix Leblanc and Moise Bastarache.
There were also english settlers such as Michael Harris the first english settler in Sainte Anne. He arrived in Richiboucto from Ireland. Later a young man from Escuminac named Martin Nowlan came to work for Mister Harris. Martin Nowlan married Polonie Robichaud of Bouctouche and had three sons. In nearby St Pierre we find Ken ,Neil, Norman Bowman and Archie McIntosh,Jim and Isaac Carter,Roberts, Johnsons, John Butler, Elliot McDonald and John McDonald. Maxime, Lucas and Charles Daigle later arrived in St Pierre. And then five brothers Maxime, Andre,Thomas,Jude et Dominique Boudreau arrived from Beaumont New Brunswick.
The first pioneer of St Gregoire was Gregoire Richard ,the one from St Francois. Lamand Maillet came from Memramcook. Honore Caissie was the first one of Belair later St Raphael ,Honore came from Richiboucto Village. Later followed by brothers Calixte and Amable LeBlanc.
Saint Maurice was named after Maurice Arsenault who came from the Cap Pele area and was from Prince Edward Island. Pierre, Louis and Olivier Savoie later settled in Saint Maurice. St Oliver was founded by Maillets and Allains from St Norbert. Au fond de la Baie was founded by Edward Jaillet who left his name is St Edouard. The Jaillets were Swiss Huguenots. Arriving in Memramcook with a friend Armand Surette he converted to the Catholic Faith. Perry Road had Pierre Perry from PEI as the first settler. In 1900 Sainte Anne and St Pierre amalgamated bringing the population up from 70 families to 90. In 1985 Sainte Anne's numbers rose to 400 families with a population of 1500 people.
The pioneers of Sainte Anne did not bring a fortune with them only courage and hope of a better future. First of all the men came mostly through the paths in the woods and on foot.They came from as far as Minoudie,Prince Edward Island , Memramcook and surrounding villages. On their way they would stop and rest at the homes of Acadians in Bouctouche and Cocagne. All they took for belongings were a pouch of flour, probably rope, a musket and an ax. The first arrivers would take land near the water and brooks in order to be near water for drinking and bathing and also for fishing.
They chopped down trees ,pulled out the tree stumps and cleared their land. Then they built their home , they built log cabins and insulated them with Moss. Then the men went and got their families. Can you imagine the courage of these women, leaving their homes to go to live in the wilderness. But they were going to land that would belong to them, they would not have to work for Desbarres of Minoudin and Memramcook. They wanted their own homes and land. In the beginning they had no matches so the native americans taught them how to make a fire by rubbing stones together or two sticks together.
In the book I am reading it says that they would take a turnip and take all the inside of it out, then add some cod fish oil inside and a wick and light it and have lights so they could see. Then they learned to make candles. Imagine being there and having to really work hard and to do without lots of things that we have today. But these pioneers were determined to make a better life for themselves and their families. They cleared their land and built homes. They hunted and fished for food, and gardened and picked berries and so on. They had to endure our harsh winters. We are so so very lucky, don't you agree?
Have a great day
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What is Genealogy?

Definition of Genealogy is "descent traced continuously from ancestor,study of pedigree. To me it is so much more. It is a hobby, it is a challenge, it is keeping a part of our history from being lost. It is about knowing who we are and where we come from. It is exciting at times, especially if we find out some of our ancestors were important or even if they were scoundrels. No matter what we find we should always remember, we are here because of them. A very important thing to remember , because of them, we continue to live and have children who have children and so on. Today I went to the genealogy center as I quite often have done since the bug hit me in 1976. When I go , I feel right at home and I can relax among the old records and microfilms and censuses. The time goes by so very fast that I am always dissappointed that I have to stop what I am doing and leave. Today I looked for some obits and information that was asked of me to find, no luck today, but tomorrow is another day. I also worked on obituaries to add on my website, I have copied the obits for January, Feb, March ,April and May , so when I return I shall do the month of June. It takes a lot of time to do the obits, since many obits are hard to read so I can only add what I can read. But even if I add just one or two names, those names may be very important to someone else who is doing genealogy. A sister, a brother, a location, a date , one of these has to help someone out there. So I keep on doing them hoping that my efforts are worthwhile. And when I go to the genealogy center, I know a lot of people there, some who have worked there for a long time, some who are doing genealogy just like I am. And it is alway nice to hear Hello Aline how are you? Or like today someone said "What are you working on now?" Obituaries I replied. grin. So when you hear the word genealogy remember what I have written in today's blog. It is more than tracing our ancestors it can be very frustrating , or dissappointing or exciting and for me it is just plain FUN. Thanks for the visit, do stop by again.
Have a great day
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Peddlers, how many of you remember?

Peddlers were people who would pass the houses to sell their wares. Most of the times they were strangers. A lot of the times the people would be glad to see them, it would save them a trip to town or to the store. In the book of Saint Mary is a sentence regarding peddlers "It would be easier for them to find a job than sell from door to door. "In the book it also mentions in 1905 or around 1905 some villagers remembered a man going from door to door with a bear all dressed up and he would perform and they would donate money. Also some peddlers sold hooked rugs from door to door, another sold pots n pans, another sold clothes, and some native americans would go door to door to sell their beautiful baskets.

A certain Michel Caissie would travel door to door on his bicycle to sell lottery tickets, combs,and whatever he could sell. This Michel weighed around 200 pounds and he would stay over whenever the villagers invited him in.

Some sold religious things such as statues, crucifix,image and so on.

The peddlers that I remember were the ones who came by my home and sold all sorts of fish and shellfish, (boy their trucks sure stunk)grin. I also remember someone coming by selling pots and pans and silverware. Mom bought some of those. I remember Watkins dealers coming to our home, Mom used to buy their medicated ointment and their fruit drinks and spices. My mother in law once told me that during the Depression she would go pick oysters, shuck them ,put them in bottles and go sell them door to door. I myself remember picking blueberries and going door to door selling them for ten cents a quart. I worked hard for those ten cents. grin. And I remember selling door to door for Regal's. Especially during the Christmas Season. My sister sold for Avon. Do you remember the milkman came to the door,or the ice man used to bring big blocks of ice for our ice box?

We sure have come a long way since then, now we have internet, and deliveries, so we pick up the phone order our Pizza and poof it has arrived. But again maybe they too are peddlers, did they not come to my door with the Pizza? grin.

Then we had the photographer with the pony coming by to take photos of the kids. I think everyone or nearly everyone has a photo of someone on a pony.

These are all part of our past, if you enjoy reading today's blog,think about your great grandchildren reading about peddlers of our times. I think later on down the road all these little stories we share will be appreciated and enjoyed by someone. I personally feel that memories are to be shared ,photos are to be shared, our history is to be shared and most of all our life should be shared while we are still able to think ,to write,to talk, now is that time to do it. For our descendants some of whom we will never know, but they will have a piece of us to remember.

Thanks for the visit, do stop by again .

Have a great day

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FUNERALS in 1933

Have you ever wondered about how funerals were held way back in the early 1900s? Well the photo on the left is of a funeral back in 1933. This was taken on Albert Street in Moncton. Where is the casket? Well if you look at the back of the buggy, you will notice a blanket draped over the casket. The casket held the body of my baby sister Loretta. My Mom is driving in the front next to the driver.This was in the month of December and they brought my little sister to the cemetery and they buried her then and there. There was no waiting for spring to arrive. My Mom and Dad tried in vain later to know where she was buried, they know approximately but never knew for sure, there were two babies buried on the same day. It is sad not knowing where our love ones are buried. Again, tombstones, crosses, plaques, markers are a must when our love ones die or perhaps years from now they will be forgotten.

Now why did I talk about Funerals? Well today I created a Children's Memorial Garden among my Memorial Garden on my website at www.acadian-roots.com ,

and the first little baby I have added is my sister Loretta. So stop by and say hello or even a little prayer . I do hope you like my memorial garden, I hope to add more names as I go along.

Thanks for the visit, do stop by again one day soon.

Have a great day

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SOLDIER'S COVE Cape Breton photo

These two young girls age around 13 or 14 lived in Soldiers Cove in Cape Breton NS. This photo was taken around 1928.
If you know them, please comment below this blog. They could possible be McLeods according to Mom. These two sisters were very close .
The reason we have this photo, is because my grandparents were in Soldier's Cove for a while . My grandfather worked there for a short while. My grandmother is the other one that you cannot see in the photo, she was pregnant for my aunt at the time.
On another note, I am not sure if I told you this before, but being on the Internet is sure great sometimes. I once told you I met a cousin a few years ago and we shared photos and stories and have been friends and in contact every since. Now a few days ago another distant cousin approached me. They are related through the sister of my great great grandmother. The sister moved to the USA ,married there and had eleven children. I am hoping that they can find some old photos to share with me and perhaps my great great grandparents may be among them.
Speaking of Old Photos, if you are on Facebook, check out Old Photos of New Brunswick, where I and others have posted a lot of photos. If you have old Photos of New Brunswick,such as Kent County,Westmorland County, of sceneries, of people, please come share them with us. By doing so, it might give others a chance to be able to see their ancestors. Remember , that the more we share our photos, the better chance of them surviving through the years. Some of us may lose our precious photos for numerous reasons, if we share, we have a chance of getting them back.
Thanks for the visit, do stop by again.
Have a great day
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Petit Francois Contest and our Drive

First of all I will talk about our Saturday Drive. We decided to ask my Mom and brother if they would like to go for a drive somewhere, and yes they replied. So we left and headed for Bouctouche to get an ice cream. (Mom loves ice cream). We also stopped and bought some poutine rappee and some Rappure to bring home.
Then we decided to take Mom to see all the flowers and trees at the Irving park.
The weather was beautiful so we drove slowly through the park. We saw all these different kinds of trees, firs,spruce,weeping willows, maples, and then we saw a sign Elizabeth's Garden, so we went through the gate and we were among the flowers. Flowers of reds, yellows, whites. There were roses, carnations, black eyed susans, there were rock gardens and we can to the one in the photo above with the waterfalls. So very beautiful to see. We really enjoyed our day. Now what does Bouctouche have to do with Petit Francois? Well first of all P'tit Francois des Bois is a weekly article in the french paper L'Etoile. It is written by Everard Maillet and he has done a great job at writing little stories in French Chiac , and the story centers around Petit Francois who lives Au Fond de La Baie in Bouctouche and there is such a place as Au Fond de La Baie and the photo was taken at the park on the same road.I have added the articles on my website at http://www.acadian-roots.com/ and I have translated the stories to English, it may not be word for word but the story is the same. I had stopped for the summer months but had saved the articles and I have finished adding nine stories on my website. Also P'tit Francois has a contest going, it began the first of August and every month he will have a draw . The winner will receive a basket of soap from Oliver's Soap Ltd valued around fifty dollars and there will also be gift certificates valued at twenty five dollars. It doesn't matter where you live, they will mail the prize to you. The contest will run every month until Christmas, so if you don't win the month of September, enter again for October and so on.
Send an email to P'tit Francois with Contest in the subject line,
your name, mailing address, email and please mention acadianroots blog in your message to let him know you were here? His email is ptitfrancois@yahoo.com
Good luck everyone.

Obituaries from the French Evangeline Paper.

Why did I title this blog Obituaries from the French Evangeline Newspaper? Well as you know I do my genealogy research at the Centre D'Etude Acadienne at the University of Moncton. This genealogy center has a wealth of information. I have been going there since 1976 and I still don't know a quarter of what is there. When I was doing my own genealogy, I began looking through the French Evangeline Newspaper dating back to the late 1800s for anything I could find on my ancestors. Then I looked for obituaries for other folks that they had reqested.
When my late husband Gerry came down with Alzheimers and my time was limited , I could not leave him, I began cutting out all the acadian or french obituaries from the Moncton Times and Transcript. I would cut them out and paste them in a scrapbook.Why did I do that? I don't really know, all I know it kept me busy at home. I believe I did some from 1992 to 1995. I donated them to the Genealogy Center.
A few years ago, I decided to transcribe some obituaries from the Evangeline Newspaper, and since the genealogy center had up to 1931 indexed, I decided to do from 1935 on. I Did 1935,1936,1937,1938 and 1939. I had added them on a DVD, but decided on adding them on my site at www.acadian-roots.com also. I finished adding them last night. Now some of the obituaries are from so many different places, New Brunswick,Nova Scotia,Prince Edward Island, Maine, Massachussetts, Connecticut,Rhode Island ,New Hampshire,Quebec, Ontario,British Columbia, Alberta and more.There are around 1683 obituaries in all. I am hoping that by posting these obituaries I will be helping people from all over in finding their elusive ancestors.
Next I want to mention something else, on my webpages you will see a support my website and it will be posted on various pages, first of all, it was suggested to me that I add a support link on my website to help with the upkeep of my website and the travelling and the researching. It is not mandatory to do this. Even if no one does support my site, I will still keep on adding things to help others. Now I have added the url on various pages because sometimes people do not come into my website from the main page, some come in from doing a search in a search engine, so they come to the page they are looking for. So please do not worry if you see the little piggy or url on various pages ok?
Again getting back to my website, I want to also let you know very soon Petit Francois will be returning to my website. I have collected some of the articles which I shall soon be adding and translating into English.I will add an icon next to Petit Francois in the sidebar to let you know I have begun adding the articles again.
I have received good responses about my translations, so watch for the return of P'tit Francois.
Thank you for the lovely visit, do stop by again, and be sure to check out the new Obituaries on my website. You never know who you will find.
Have a great day
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Graves without Tombstones

Why am I going to talk about graves with no stones? Well because I am feeling pretty good about a good deed done by myself and my family.
Three weeks ago I went to the Mall and on my way out there was this office set up to sell monuments. So I went inside and inquired on prices .Well to my surprise they had a sale on a flat Placque, the size was 20 by something. So I hurried home and told Mom and my brother about the sale. And we decided then and there to have one done for my Dad who died five years ago. His not having a marker really bothered me. And the best of it, is that he is buried with his grandparents who also had no Marker on the gravesite. One of them died in 1941 and the other in 1951. All these years I am sure there must have been someone searching for their grave. So we have ordered the stone with both their names and we added Grandson and my Dad's name and dates of birth and deaths. What a nice feeling to be able to do this.
I am sure many years ago , folks were poor and could not afford tombstones, it is a shame because sometimes records get lost , records burn and so does the location of their burial. So now is the time to put stones or even a small plaque on some graves of our ancestors so that others will not have a problem finding their ancestors. I have a grandfather and a baby sister that are buried in a cemetery and we do not know where. Blueprints have burned so all we know is that they are somewhere in that cemetery. If you cannot afford a stone, ask the cousins and aunts and uncles to help out. Make it a family project. Have some kind of fundraiser to buy a stone. Where there is a Will there is a Way as the saying goes.
That''sssssss allll ffffolks. grin.
Thanks for the visit, do stop by again
Have a great day
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ARSENAULT'S OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

IF you have Arsenaults in your family line who were on Prince Edward Island at one time or another, Jean Bernard has published the first Arsenault's of Prince Edward Island. The book has 750 pages and is well researched and documented. So if you want to follow your grandfather or greatgrandfather to Pierre Arsenault the first one to arrive then I would suggest you buy the book. It sells for $47.50 each. Mr Bernard is also preparing four more volumes of the Acadians on PEI, Volume two will be Albert to Francis,Volume three will be Gallant, Volume four will be Gaudet to Overback and Volume five will be Paquet to Witzell.
Contact Mister Bernard at jeanbernard61@hotmail.com .
On another note, I am always working on my website at www.acadian-roots.com , and I was wondering if there is anything that you my readers would like to see added on my website? I am working on a project now to be added early in the fall. I am open to suggestions, I want to add something that will benefit all you genealogy researchers.
You can answer by leaving a comment or contacting me through my acadian-roots.com website.
Well last week my brother went to see a cousin of ours and while he was there he came across a photo of my parents taken when they were newly married. What a treasure to find such a photo, my brother had one made for me. I am sharing the photo with you. A treasure to behold and another photo to share with my son and his family.
Thanks for the visit do stop by again, you never know what I will be blogging about.
Have a great day.
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LA SAGOUINE AND VIOLA LEGER

Have you ever wondered about La Sagouine? What is she all about? Well La Sagouine is a novel written by Antonine Maillet a great writer. The novel was inspired by a real person named Sarah Cormier. In the book, La Sagouine was born in Kent County New Brunswick and a daughter of Pit who was a son of Boy who was a son of Thomas Picote. She was a poor uneducated woman struggling to raise a large family during the Depression.She was a beautiful woman in her younger days and times were hard she became a prostitute. Later she married her cousin Gapi. She married him twice, once protestant and then again Catholic (hey Mom and Dad did that too grin). La Sagouine and Gapi had twelve children and nine of them died during the Depression. For the rest of her life La Sagouine became a scrubwoman. The book itself is a collection of monologues. Here are a few of them.

"Us,we aint educated, "n we don't talk fancy... The priest him, when he preaches, he talks like the doctor's missus throwing out sum big words dat he can turn into a mean sentence. They call that Litterature? Us we aint never seen a speech of litterature in all our lives. We talk with the words we have in our mouths enn we don't go too far to find them. We got em from our fathers that got em from der forefathers. From mouth to ear you could say.(by Hans Runte).

Next about the Depression; " Why yes during the depression times had gotten so bad dat a person could not sink no lower. But when time gets dat low they decide to do something not to let us die. During the Depression for example they invented Soup. From dat time on,things started to get better for us. Every month we had our sack of flour,jug of molasses n sometimes even buckwheat to make pancakes. The Depression saved us from downright poverty.

Who is the actress who plays La Sagouine? Well her name is Viola Leger.She was born in Fitchburg in 1929.She was teacher and later she met Antonine Maillet and became friends. Viola Leger went to Boston to learn to teach theater, then a year later she moved to Paris to study to become an actress at the Jacques LeCoq school. While she was in Paris she received a call from her friend Antonine the author of La Sagouine asking her if she would consider playing the leading role in the play, so Viola returned home. She played La Sagouine over and over again all over the country, by the year 2003 she had played over 2000 times in French and in English. Viola Leger also acted in other plays such as The Smugglers,The Bourgeois Gentleman,Evangeline Deusee, The Racket,Harold and Maude and many more. In 1978 she was given the honor of Chevalier de L'Ordre de la Pleiade, in 1989 she was awarded the Officer of the Order of Canada for her servide to Canadian French Drama and in 2001 she was appointed Canadian Senate by Jean Chretien and she served until 2005. She is a great lady of the performing arts in Canada. And when we attened the Leger/Trahan reunion at the CMA2009, she was there and I had the honor of having my photo taken with her.
I hope you have enjoyed today's blog and if you are ever in Bouctouche New Brunswick be sure to check out Le Pays de La Sagouine and maybe, just maybe you will see a great lady on stage. Thanks for the visit ,do stop by again.
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Come to the Acadian CMA2009

And why should you come to the CMA2009? Well first of all, you will meet old friends and make new friends along the way. You will be able to chat about genealogy, and family, and different cultures. You will meet Cajuns and if you are Cajun you will meet Acadians . There will be people from all over the world. All gathering in Northern New Brunswick for weeks of fun and laughter.
You will be able to listen to talented singers and muscians, you will hear cajun music, acadian music. Singers like Zacharie Richard and Edith Butler and others will perform on stage.
There will be tours, there will be booths with people selling souvenirs and different foods.
And on August 15th is going to be a great day, first of all around 11 am, if you are in the area come meet us near the Carrefour de Mer in Caraquet. We will be wearing yellow, get a yellow hat and come meet us. And also on Acadian Day Aug.15 there will be a tintamarre (parade) in Caraquet and I can imagine the people who will be marching in it with all their Acadian and Cajun colors, a sight to behold. Then a big stage show in Caraquet where I am hoping to be sitting close by to see Zacharie Richard and Edith Butler perform. The excitement is mounting, and the day will soon be here for us to leave to go.
I have already met a couple from Louisiana who are on their way to the CMA today , what a lovely couple and we are meeting them again in Pokemouche. They are coming to meet us at the Carrefour if possible. So I really hope to meet a lot of online friends. See you there.
On another note and still talking about reunions, our Bergeron-Damboise Reunion in Fredericton was a success. On our last day, we had a tree planting ceremony on the grounds of the home of the Lieutenant_Governor of New Brunswick who also had a reception at his house for us. What an honor for all who participated. So is that all there is for the Bergeron-Damboise reunion? I doubt it because some are already asking when is the next Bergeron-Damboise reunion? And some think that Louisiana would be a great place to have it. I would also like to see it being held in Quebec, if not for the next reunion ,then the next one after that should be in Quebec. And wouldn't it be fitting to have it in Montreal where Barthelemy had his bakery? Hmmm. Something to think about.
We have had a few days of nice weather, sure hope it stays that way for the CMA.
Thanks for stopping by and for listening.
Have a great day
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Another reason why

In today's newspaper there is an article, about a man who lives in England, and while he was going through his father's stuff ,he came across a photo album he had never seen before. It was his father's album of when he was in the air force and at one time he was stationed in Moncton.
His son seen all these photos and names and he decided to contact the Library who told him to contact the newspaper. This album had pictures taken during World War 11 and the son who has never been to Moncton is coming down with his album to share with people from down here, probably some relatives of some who were on the photos. And it will be the first time the son ever comes to Moncton.This was a very interesting story because a person never knows what stories can be found in photos. And when we find photos among the belongings of our ancestors and there are notes or names, and they are not related to us but probably friends of our ancestors, it would be so nice if we could get these photos to the descendants of the people in the photos.Even if there are no names on these photos, donate them to archives or museums. One hundred years from now, someone may say " My look at the way they dressed!". Or "the same style is coming back." Look at the way she had her hair, look at the kinds of shoes they had on.
If you find old photos among your grandparents or even if you come across Old Photos at yard sale, pick them up and if you don't want them ,donate them. This is so very important.
I keep looking for old photos just in case there were some of my great grandparents or great great grandparent. What a find that would be for me. On my father's side "Williams" they did not take too many photos, so there may be someone out there with photos of Jake Williams and his kids, pictures that I would love to have copies of. Jake Williams lived in Moncton and in Notre Dame. Also Amand a Denis Cormier from Sainte Marie in New Brunswick, got married three times, and it would be nice to have photos of his kids. My grandmother was from the last wife. Maybe one day some photos will turn up. That is sort of why I first started Old Photos of New Brunswick on Facebook hoping someone would post a photo that I want, but now I have this group to share any old photos of New Brunswick with others.
Changing the subject, I am on my last page telling you about our Bergeron-Damboise Reunion we had a couple of weeks ago. I have also added some folks who came in my photo gallery on Acadian-Roots.com there will be more photos added.
So now it is time for me to go (you know where!). Yes the big TH (Tim Hortons).
Until next time , thanks for the lovely visit and do stop by again.
Have a great day
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Mom's stories

Well today we went over to Mom's with a cup of coffee for her, of course it was Tim Horton's coffee. While we have drinking our coffee, we began talking about old photos and the past.
The conversation came to hospitals and when we were born. And Mom began talking about my siblings and I and our births. She said Old Doctor Baxter delivered all of us except my youngest sister, he had gone on vacation and appointed another doctor who also became unavailable.
Anyway the questions began. I said Mom you were a midwife back then were you not? Oh yes she said. She continued " There was an old lady in the village (Parkton) at the time and when she could not go, they would ask me to go.
She said " We were like a nurse, and usually the doctor would be there. She said we had to put the patient asleep sometimes, because some of the cases were hard ones. I said how did you put them to sleep? She replied" well the doctor would give us a gauze to put over their face or nose and a little bottle of eather and he would tell us how many drops to pour. " She said "Mrs LeBlanc nearly died when she had her first baby, so she had to be put under longer than the others. Then she said" I was there for Mrs Hache, "for her third baby" ,and for Mrs Williams for her first one. This made me proud of my Mom, she helped with the births of other babies.
Then we started on when I was growing up. First of all you have to know that my oldest sister was what I call "dainty". Mom said she had made this little pink dress for my sister, and when she outgrew it, Mom put it away for her next daughter, but another son came along, then another son. Finally she had a little daughter named Aline. She said " you were a cute baby". So she passed me down the cute little pink silk dress that she had made with love and was once my sisters.
Mom said at the time I had two little front teeth and one day she said I lifted my dress and bit on it and ripped it to pieces. tst tst. grin. Then she said " Aline had to wear glasses and she always came home either with them broken or lost. I look at all my photos growing up and would you believe there is something wrong on most of them? Either my socks are rolled down, my straps of my skirt crooked, my sweater buttoned wrong, my hair not parted straight. I said to Mom " where did I come from? " grin. But no matter what, she still loved me for who I was.
It is always so nice listening to Mom talk about when we were young or when she was young. Now speaking of what I looked like growing up, I haven't changed because at our reunion last weekend, someone took a photo of me and I was wearing a headband with a crest in the middle. Guess what? The crest was on the side instead of the middle. See I haven't changed. grin.
Thanks for listening do stop by again.
have a great day
Aline

In Memory of Gerry

The wonderful man in this photo is Gerry, and this was taken after we announced we were getting married. I remember he was dressed in a white sport coat and a pair of black pants. And I remember Mom was hanging clothes out back on the clothes line and he said to Mom "We're getting married". That is all he said.

He was a confirmed bachelor at the time, I bet many girls tried to win his heart, but guess what? I did. We got married and were blessed with a beautiful baby boy, and I remember how proud he was of our son . From the time our son was a baby until the time he was a man. Gerry was so very proud of him. I remember him playing with our son for hours, on the floor with a train set or a truck. He loved our son and I know he loved me.

Gerry was a hard working man, he took his electrical trade before he met me and he worked for Acadia Electric, then he worked for CNR railway. He worked there for 28 years then he took an early retirement, but that didn't stop him from working. He worked on so many stoves, dryers, and anything that would require an electrician. He was known to be a very good electrician.

Our son who was like his dad a confirmed bachelor took the plunge and married. They blessed Gerry and I with a beautiful grandaughter ,Gerry loved her so very much. I remember he used to tease her and call her "Bad Cat". She would look at him, smile and call him a "Big Indian".

Then we were blessed with a grandson , well I can still see the glow on Gerry's face when first of all our son called us" we were taking care of our grandaughter" and he said "it's a boy".

Gerry was as proud as could be. For a little over four years ,Gerry enjoyed the grandchildren and loved seeing our son and daughter in law arrive with them. The reason I am saying the four years, is because in 1995 Gerry was diagnosed with Alzheimers Disease. He got worse and worse as the years went by. ( for all of you out there who have love ones with this awful disease, I know what you are going through). So on July 27 1999 ten years ago, God came and took Gerry home.

Today is the anniversary of his death, the weather is calling for rain, I am going to try and get to the cemetery. Gerry; If you can see me, or hear me, rest in peace.

Love always

Aline, John,Joanne,Tina,David and a new addition Buddy.xxx

Bergeron-Damboise reunion

Well our Bergeron-Damboise Reunion has come and gone. After all our plans and preparations we had the reunion. We had people from Louisiana, Maine,New Hampshire, Maryland,Virginia,New Hampshire, North Carolina,Tennesee,Las Vegas, Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. What a great reunion.

We had rain on Saturday which sort of was a let down but it cleared and from the Park and Motel we went to the old Acadian Cemetery. I will post a photo of our group at the cemetery. Now the cemetery has no tombstones or markers at all, there is one monument depicting an Indian Princess or woman. Because the native americans say that that cemetery is an Indian Cemetery, yet there were acadians found in a mass grave in that same cemetery and the bones were tested with DNA , one of the skeletons was Anastasie Godin .

It is possible that some Native Americans shared the same cemetery, because back then the Acadians and Native Americans lived side by side.

It would be so nice if the government would declare the cemetery and the former grounds of the Sainte Anne de Pays Bas Church a historical site. It would be a place for Acadians to return to visit.

We marched from the Lieutenant Governor's house to the cemetery, the ones who could not walk it, drove. Arriving there, Jan Bergeron said a prayer and then some walked around the cemetery. Then we formed a group and took the photo above. We took more photos there but I will share this one. I want to create a page that is more detailed on my acadian-roots website. But I am waiting to receive more photos so that I can choose the ones that will go with the story.

After our day at the cemetery, we finished at the Legion Hall listening to music.

The manager of the Legion announced our group, we were around 38 who went.

The next day we went to a Mass said especially for our group by Father Savoie and then we went to our Hall for a lunch and lots more.(which I will tell you on my website later). We ended our reunion with a tree planting ceremony on the grounds of the Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick ,Honorable Chiasson who also allowed us to visit the house and enjoy a nice reception given by him.

This was thanks to Mister Bernard Theriot who made it possible for us.

Everyone is talking about the reunion and saying "when and where will our next reunion be?" Some were saying "What about Louisiana?" "Or Quebec?".

Time will tell. So now you know a little bit more about the reunion. Stay tuned for more stories and photos.

Thanks for the visit and have a great day.

Aline

Children May Want To Know

Are there any of you out there who are looking for a lost love one or parents? If not, I do know that there must be lots of children looking for their parents. They want to know who they are and where they come from. They want to know if they have brothers or sisters somewhere.
Many children have been adopted out, regardless of the reason, they were given up for adoption.
I know of some women who have been reunited with their son or their daughter. And it has been a happy reunion. Children need to know, that sometimes there are reasons why they have been given up . Maybe because the mother wanted a good home for them and could not afford it?
Or maybe the mother wasn't married and afraid of what others would say.
I myself have a half sister whom I haven't found yet, I have it narrowed to two woman, it is one of the two but which one? I have them in my mind, I would love so much to find out the truth and my half sister. Perhaps some day I will find out for certain.
Now another thing, during the world wars, men went overseas, and some had children born there, and they returned to America without their child. Those children must be wondering which one of the soldiers is my father? And while the men were gone ,sometimes their wives had children that they had to give up for adoption.
We hear stories of parents and children finding each other, some may be dissappointed at what they discover but regardless, we are who we are. If you are a child looking for your parents, you need to remember ,no matter how your parents turned out, without them, there would be no you. And maybe all these years your mother has had a very heavy heart having to give you up.
I would love to see all the mothers who gave up their child find that child one day, and all the children out there who are looking and wanting to find out who they are, I wish with all my heart that you would all find that parent. One thing I would like to add, is "To all of you who are searching ,even if you have been looking for a long long time, Never ever ever give up looking and searching. Post on message boards, go to Adoption Boards, look for clues.
I wish you all lots and lots of luck.
Now it is time for me to prepare for our Bergeron-Damboise Reunion this weekend, tomorrow we load three cars with lots of goodies. So I will say goodnight and thanks for the visit.
Do stop by again.
Have a great day tomorrow
Aline

Soldier's Cove, photo, and rowboat

Hello everyone, well first of all I would like to mention that I found the family name of the photo from Soldier's Cove since I posted it. They were a McDonald or MacDonald family from Soldier's Cove. I hope by sharing this , that someone out there may recognized them.
I think I have already told you the story passed down to me from my Mom about Soldier's Cove, but I have new followers so I shall tell the story again.
When Mom was around 10 years old maybe 11, her father moved the family to Soldier's Cove where he had found work as a saw filer . Mom remembers a mill and behind the mill was a river.
And Mom and two of her brothers one nickamed Ti-Ti and the other Dee_Dee. Dee-Dee was the youngest and he was alway getting into some mischief or trouble, and because he had a crippled arm he usually always got away with it. Anyway Mom said this time, the three of them were by the river and Dee-Dee got on this log ,(probably imagining it was a boat) and all of a sudden he began drifting towards the channel,(the deepest part of the river) when Mom and Ti-Ti noticed him, he had drifted quite a ways out, so Mom said there was this old rowboat on the side of the river so they both jumped in and they noticed it was leaking , so Ti_Ti rowed the boat and Mom bailed the water out with a can she said. Can you imagine seeing this in your mind?
They reached Dee-Dee and got him back into the boat and back to shore.
I have written this story down and put it in a book I made for my grandaughter along with other stories of when Mom was a little girl. Do you have any little stories about your parents or grandparents such as this one? Why don't you take time and write it down, try to name where it happened, and when it did, who were the people and so on. If you want to, make it similar to a diary, everyday if you remember something write it down. One day maybe not today or tomorrow but one day someone somewhere will enjoy finding and reading this diary or notebook of yours.
On another note, I just colored my hair , suppose to be medium brown, sob sob it looks black. Tomorrow I go get some streaks put in, I just might look something like a skunk. grin.
Have a great day and thanks for the visit.
Aline

Chezzetcook and Soldier's Cove

Hello everyone, first of all why did I mention Soldier's cove? Well my mother told me she remembers being there when she was little because her father had gotten a job there probably in a camp. Anyway Mom came across this photo among her photos ,this was a family from Soldier's Cove , she did not know anything about them so I posted it here hoping that some of you readers might just recognize the people. This would have been taken in the early 1900s.

Now let's change the subject, I was reading a book called The Acadians of Nova Scotia and inside I found the following about Chezzetcook Nova Scotia:"Several hundred Acadians were brought to Halifax as prisoners between 1758 and 1762. Some were deported and some were permitted to settle in various parts of the province. A certain number of these prisoners made their way across Halifax Harbor to Chezzetcook, maybe because of the Marshlands, but most likely because of the MicMac settlement known to French Missionaries for many years. Family names still common today in West Chezzetcook and Grand Desert which can be traced to those former prisoners are Boudreau,Bellefontaine,LaPierre and Wolfe. Despite of the appearance of the surname Wolfe ,it is a french name.Augustin wolfe was born in Alsace France in 1721 and appears in 1751 in Halifax as a colonist.Besides the prisoners there was another group of Acadians all whom had been living in Cape Breton and were giving permission to settle in Chezzetcook, they included names like Petipas,Bonin,Roma,Manet and Mayet. And Chezzetcook also became the home of Breaus and Bonnevies from Miquelon and also for Simon Julien a deserter from the Napleonic wars. In the first part of 1770 there were around 12 Acadian families in chezzetcook and when the Bishop of Quebec made his visit to Nova Scotia in 1815 there were 47 families.Thought you would enjoy reading this little tidbit on Chezzetcook. I believe one of my Bellefontaine ancestors was there for a while.Thanks for the visit, I need a break, a coffee break , a Tim Horton's break. grin.Do stop by againHave a great day

Aline

Genealogy of the Acadians of PEI Book

I would just like to know if any of you readers would be interested in ordering books on the Genealogy of the Acadians of Prince Edward Island. The author Mister Bernard has done some very intense research and is creating five volumes with around 700 pages each. These Volumes will be sold at 47.50 each volume
Volume one is ARSENAULTS
Volume two is ALBERT to FRANCIS
Volume three is GALLANTS
Volume four is GAUDET to OVERBACK
Volume five is PAQUET to WITZELL.

I have told him I would see how many orders I could get for him, so if you are interested, I have created a email address just for this. Email me with the volumes you are interested in , your names and emails and I will forward them to him and he will contact you.
My email for this is mrsaline@live.com


Have a great day
Aline