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"!