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).

Friday, August 19, 2016

Acadian Family Update

Six years ago I started writing about the Acadian Ancestors in the three families I research most intensely - the Mylott family of Waterford & Whitehall New York, the Rivet family of Cohoes New York, and the Wills family of upstate New York, Cornwall and Quebec. In the past six years I have learned a lot about them through reading & researching and getting help from a special lady, Lucie LeBlanc Consentino, who hosts the website Acadian Ancestral Home. Thanks to Lucie and her sharing, I think I'm able to explain to others and to myself the story of these ancestors with some accuracy and confidence. It is a big story and vast history involving Acadian families being pushed and pulled across the globe and throughout the English, French and Spanish colonies of the mid 18th century. For me personally, it is a history that brought the ancestors of the Rivets, Mylotts and Wills together 200 years before Al Rivet, Claire Rivet, Ray Rivet, Arthur Mylott, and Dorothy Wills came together in the working class neighborhoods of Cohoes and Waterford, New York. For this reason, the story of the Acadians in my families will always be the centerpiece of my family's genealogy. Antoine Bourg and Antoinette Landry who married about 1642 and a founding couple of Acadia, are common ancestors of Al Rivet, Claire Rivet, Ray Rivet, Arthur Mylott and his siblings (Milo and Edgar), and Dorothy Wills and all her siblings (Celina, Julia, Anna, John, Elizabeth, Muriel Etta, Larry and Robert). The Rivet family emigrating from St Jacques de l'Achigan and the environs of Joliette, Quebec certainly have an overwhelming number of Acadian ancestors who resettled in this areas after the exile. Some Mylott and Rivet ancestors were thrust together on the journey and drama of "The Pembroke". Some Wills ancestors were exiled to the port of Boston where the dying words of our 6th great grandmother, Jeanne Hebert, were recorded by Timothy Hutchinson, a later governor of Massachusetts colony, in 1755.*

FrancoAmerican Gravy & Lucie LeBlanc Consentino
on tour July 2016

During July 2016, I was fortunate to be able to travel with Luce's Acadian Ancestral Tour for a week to historical sites, memorials, museums, churches, rivers, shores with Fundy tides that are a part of Acadian history. This included locations in present day New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. The bonus was traveling with 40+ Acadian cousins who are all lovers of genealogy and history - especially Acadian genealogy and history. Planning and preparation for the tour started more than one year before with Sandra Goodwin of Maple Starts and Stripes and Lucie researching sites and securing the travel services of Fred Clark. Forty plus adults and one easy going teenager had the trip of a lifetime! Merci and thanks to everyone. Soon, I hope to post some of the photos I took and reflections I felt during this amazing tour.

A quiet moment inside the Magical Mystery Tour Bus

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"!

Acadians - an Introduction

Acadians, not Cajuns, in our Families

Acadians in the Mylott-Glode Family

Acadians in the Rivet Family