FrancoAmerican Gravy: Family History & Stories from Upstate New York, Quebec and Acadia

Stories of family and ancestors who lived and worked in Cohoes (textile and garment workers, butchers and barbers), Waterford (canalers), Whitehall (farmers and canalers), Port Henry (iron miners and Civil War soldiers), Champlain (canalers and farmers) and other towns along the Champlain Canal in New York State with some diversions to the places they emigrated from....Quebec (landless farmers, shoemakers, sailors, soldiers), Acadia (more farmers), and even Cornwall, England (tin miners).

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Christmas Day in Fullerton, California 1961

Al Rivet, Sonny Yetto (Guertin) and Jim Laurent, all originally from upstate New York where the winter blows hard and cold, share a Christmas Day in California without shoveling snow and where the temperature is above is above 80 degrees Fahrenheit. They just cannot believe Harriet can walk barefooted on December 25th!!!

Monday, September 15, 2014

Claudette, daughter of Gérard Lacasse. Rimouski, Qc. ARE YOU STILL READING???

Claudette, if you are still reading and checking this blog, please send an email to me at FrancoAmericanGravy@gmail.com. I have been trying, unsuccessfully, to contact you since you commented on the post about our mutual grandaunt Marie Anne Lacasse in 2012 !!! Merci!!

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Sunday, September 14, 2014

ACGS, NNYACGS or NYPL?

If I want to spend a day researching French Canadian & Acadian ancestors with materials that are not available online, I have a few choices and have to make some decisions. I can drive to Manchester New Hampshire where the American Canadian Genealogical Society resides in a former school. It is a 3 hour 39 minute drive according to Google maps and about 225 miles. It is always well worth the trip and I visit my in laws at the same time but it is a long haul for a weekend. I have made two breakthroughs in my brick walls at ACGS helping me to learn some brick walls are only made of plaster.

Alternatively, I would drive to Dannemora in Clinton County where Northern New York American-Canadian Genealogical Society moved their library last year. That's 4 hours 50 minute and 315 miles. It is open from 9 to 3 on Saturday. I have not been to NNYACGS in a long time and would love to see the new library in the new location.

The third choice is the path of least resistance using less gas guzzling mileage, less transportation time and less money using MetroNorth trains and a few block to the New York Public Library at Bryant Park. That was the choice I took yesterday when I wanted to use Dictionnaire Genealogique Familles Acadienne, the definitive work documenting Acadian ancestors by Stephen White. I emailed the library three days ahead to be certain the books would be available and got a conformation. Saturday morning , I took the train to Grand Central and walked two blocks to Fifth Avenue and Library Way.

And there were the volumes waiting for me when I got to the reserve desk...

How lucky to have three good choices to read and obtain documentation! By the way, below is a photo of myself with Denise Lamarche-Blanchard, Lucie Leblanc Consentino from Acadian Ancestral Home, Stephen White, genealogist in residence at the University of Moncton in New Brunswick and author of the books above, and Marcelle Comeau during the Leblanc Family Reunion at the Acadian World Congress.

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Evening in Caraquet, New Brunswick

If you visit Perce Rock.....

If you visit Perce Rock, remember to get up early, very early if you want to bond with the stone. The best way to visit the rock is to wake up before the sun and start walking before other folks. Here's my photos when only a few people were up and about at Perce Rock.

late morning along the hiking trail behind the Catholic Church

back to the base of the trail

and then in the afternoon with the children fishing on the docks, the voices of families walking the board walk, the kayakers, the tour boats, bright sunshine...

and in the evening, sharing the view, sharing the shore with dogs

and finally at twilight

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Acadian Tragedy, Rivet and Glode-Mylott Ancestors, The Pembroke and the St John's River

One again, I am returning to the story of The Pembroke. In an earlier post (October 2010), I wrote about the ancestors of Edith Mylott née Glode who in 1755 were exiled from Annapolis Royal aboard The Pembroke. At that time, I didn't include the fact that an ancestor of Rivets, Prudent Robichaud, was also aboard that same vessel as well as others. The story of The Pembroke is a true hardship story and probably one that historians will likely never know in detail. The tragedy of The Pembroke was the basis of fiction by Mary L Weekes.

A fictionalize story of The Pembroke can be read in Acadian Betrayal. It use to be available on the internet. If you cannot find a digital copy, it sometimes appears for sale on Ebay - but I suspect it wouldn't hold your interest for too long. It is a typical melodrama.

The story of The Pembroke is a subplot in the tragedy of the Acadian people who were ousted, expelled, excised from the area around the Bay of Fundy from September through December 1755 by New England colonials under the authority of Governor Charles Lawrence and William Shirley, colonial governor of Massachusetts. Over 7000 Acadian people were dispersed into small ships and sent to colonies along the North Atlantic seaboard and Haiti. Some ships sank at sea, some were refused permission to dock and passengers remained without food and sanitary conditions in the ships while disease took over. One ship, The Pembroke, was the exception. Its Acadian passengers overtook the crew and commandeered the ship across the Bay of Fundy to St John in present day New Brunswick. On board that ship, were not only the Guilbault ancestors of Edith Glode and her sons, there also were the Robichaud, Melanson and Belliveau ancestors of Claire, Albert and Raymond Rivet of Cohoes, New York. According to the article written by Paul Delaney on Acadian Ancestral Home, the probable leader of the Acadians on The Pembroke was Charles Belliveau. He is also the great great great great great grandfather of Claire, Al and Ray Rivet!!!

After bringing The Pembroke into the mouth of the St John's River, the Acadians were discovered by the English provoking an engagement, firing of arms, taking of English prisoners and ultimately burning The Pembroke so it could not be used against them. Subsequently, the Acadians made their way to present day Fredericton, New Brunswick, then a French settlement called Saint Anne des Pays Bas where they wintered enduring malnutrition and exposure to the harsh environment. The Rivet ancestor, Prudent Robichaud, quite elderly, died sometime during this struggle and somewhere along the Saint John River. It is believed the Acadians including Charles Belliveau, Charles Melanson, and their families made their way north via canoe on the St John's River through Grand Falls (Grand Sault) to present day Edmunston regions and then onto the Madawaska River to Lac Temiscouata (present day Quebec). The route continued from Lac Temiscouata overland and via waterways to Trois Pistoles on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River concluding in Ville Quebec.

Unfortunately, Charles Belliveau and Charles Melanson, like many of the Guilbault family, are believed to have succumbed to smallpox in 1758 and 1757, respectively, after completing their harrowing escape.

Below, the St John River near Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada

Below is a recap of the stories written about Acadians in this blog so far. This list includes some early posts that may not have been well researched but I am reviewing them for accuracy and hope they will "make the cut"!

Acadian Update 2016

Acadians, not Cajuns, in our Families

Acadians in the Mylott-Glode Family

Acadians in the Rivet Family

Acadians in the Wills & Beauvais Family

The Pembroke

Remembering Acadian Ancestors

New Acadia, St-Jacques-de-l'Achigan, Quebec

Images of St-Jacques-de-l'Achigan

Petite l'Acadie in St Jean

Teaching Children about Acadian Ancestors

On the Way to Acadian World Congress 2014

We are the same...

"almost an idiot"

Lord Family of St Jacques de l'Achigan

Monday, August 25, 2014

For my Wills Cousin's Granddaughter - Paul Benoit, an Acadian in Our Beauvais-Bissonnette Family Tree

I have been writing about my travels this month in the land of Acadia. A few months ago I purchased a children's book titled Evangeline for Children by Alice Couvillon and Elizabeth Moore with the intention of sharing Longfellow's epic with the children in the family who have at least one Acadian ancestor.

So my first victim is entering 2nd grade in primary school next week. I am going to try this book out on her.

Second grader at the County Fair with Painted Face

This second grader has Acadian ancestors in her Beauvais and Bissonnette line. I am posting her line so other Bissonnette/Bisnett and Beauvais/Bova from Cohoes and Waterford who descended from Celena Beauvais and/or her father Solyme Beauvais may also know how they have an Acadian great grand ancestor.

So if you are a Wills or Bissonnette or Bisnett, start from Celena Beauvais who married Joseph Bissonnette. If you are a Beauvais or Bova, start from Solyme Beauvais and go back in time to Paul Benoit:

Living daughter (2nd Grader) of

Living Female, who is the daughter of

William Robert "Bob" Wills 1923-2007, who was the son of

Elizabeth Bissonnette 1880-1936, who was the daughter of

Celena Beauvais 1850-1942, who was the daughter of

Solyme Beauvais 1821-1902, who was the son of

Genevieve Benoit 1799-1832, who was the daughter of

Paul Benoit 1751-1831

who was just four years old when the events in this story of Evangeline occurred.

He probably experienced the Acadian Deportation as a small child.

He was the son of

Geoffroy Benoit 1716-1769

He and his wife were exiled to Lancaster in the Massachusetts Colony

where they lived until they were able to move to Quebec.

He was the son of

Claude Benoit 1686-1743,

he was the son of

Martin Benoit 1643-1714.

Martin was born in France and came to Acadia to start a life with his wife, Marie in the spring of 1671 aboard l'Oranger.

Children's Area at the LeBlanc Reunion
CMA 2014

Acadian Update 2016

Acadians, not Cajuns, in our Families

Acadians in the Mylott-Glode Family

Acadians in the Rivet Family

Sunday, August 24, 2014

We - and our flags - are all the same

Thinking about people, flags, and symbols...

I have a full time job working in the Bronx, New York City usually interacting with people of many different cultures, religions and languages. My ancestors who migrated from Quebec to New York for jobs and work really do not seem much different than the fathers and mothers I meet everyday at my work. They are struggling, often working several jobs and want their children to get a good education. While living and working in New York City, I noticed how similar the Acadian Flag and the flag of Puerto Rico are...the lone star set in blue with red and white stripes. Here's photos of a PR day parade in NYC. The more I look at the photos, the more the celebrants look the same: colors, faces, children and fun!