Book 21: Tracing Your Ancestry: French Acadian, French Canadian
Tracing Your Ancestry: French Acadian, French Canadian is a resource that will provide the family historian with the knowledge of how and where to begin; so, too, will they find themselves armed with ample websites to guide their search. Being of both French Acadian and French Canadian ancestry, author Michele Doucette felt it important to consolidate a book that other researchers might find beneficial, based on what she was able to uncover in the course of her own published research than spanned close to twenty-five years. Whilst this was not a book that I ever intended to write, it was a book that demanded to be written. As an amateur genealogist and family historian of 25 years, I know how important it is to validate and authenticate your work. As a result, I...
Book 19: Men and Women of Renown: The Companion Volume
SYNOPSIS Men and Women of Renown: The Companion Volume is the second maternal genealogy tome from this author. The early Acadian settlers were mostly farmers. Farms were located along the banks of rivers that flowed into the Baie Française (Bay of Fundy) with Grand-Pré being the great agricultural area of the colony. Rather than clear the uplands, the Acadians drained the marshes along bays and rivers by building dykes (large, tall mounds of earth covered with grass) and aboiteaux (drainage systems with trap doors that let water out, but not back in) to keep sea water out. An amazing people, the Mothers of Acadia mtDNA Project is serving to paint a picture of the wondrous mtDNA diversity amongst the French Acadian women. Filles du Roi was a term that meant...
Book 18: Men and Women of Renown: My Maternal Ancestry
SYNOPSIS Men and Women of Renown: My Maternal Ancestry is the first maternal genealogy tome from this author. Genevieve Massignon, author of Les Parlers Français d’Acadie, sought to establish the origins of the French Acadian people based on linguistics, making the argument, in 1961, that many Acadians came from the Poitou region, south of Loudun, mainly because they were still speaking the old language, one rich and thick of Rabelais and Montaigne. She was also able to locate a number of records from the Poitou area that bore many of the same surnames found in early Acadie. Some of the villages in this area include Martaize, Aulnay, and La Chaussée. As a young man, Vincent Breau had been recruited as an agricultural worker for the fledging French colony of...
Book 17: Germain Doucet (Sieur de LaVerdure): My Paternal Genealogy
SYNOPSIS Germain Doucet (Sieur de LaVerdure): My Paternal Ancestry Following the St. Germain-en-Laye Treaty of March 29, 1632, it was by order of Cardinal Richelieu (Minister of State to King Louis XIII), that Commander Isaac de Razilly came to re-occupy the colony; so, too, did Germain Doucet (Sieur de La Verdure), the progenitor of this author’s family, accompany him. Sailing from France on July 4, 1632, they arrived with a variety of livestock, seeds, tools, implements, arms, munitions, and other supplies, at La Have (LaHève), located at the mouth of the La Have River in present day Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia, on September 8. In keeping with the forced Deportation of the French Acadian people, the family of Joseph Doucet and Anne Surette were exiled from...
Genealogy: My Favorite Past Time Activity
Reflecting back on my Junior High days, history was my favorite subject. By the time I entered High School, I was lucky enough to come across a teacher who made the subject area come alive for me; so much so, that upon entering University I was working on a BA while majoring in History. Interestingly, my son began his University career in the exact same manner. My paternal grandmother, Beatrice Muise, transitioned on May 20, 1954. I so wish that I had known her, but I was not born until August 13, 1962. I have no idea what she looked like; there is no individual in the family who seems to have any pictures. My paternal grandfather, Jean-Avite Doucet, know affectionately to everyone he knew as Harvey, transitioned on October 23, 1965. I was just three years old,...