Acadian Ancestral Home

Dear Cousins,

Well when I take a look at the last date I posted on this blog I am totally amazed at how long it has been. Don't let the absence of a few months fool you for in all of that time, I have been very busy digging into records of all kinds. I even started up a new Roots Web mailing list: Acadian-French-Canadian at RootsWeb and it is going very well. It is like one big happy family where everyone is helping everyone. You've got to love it!

If you think you might be interested in subscribing just send a message to ACADIAN-FRENCH-CANADIAN-L-request@rootsweb.com

Just write SUBSCRIBE in the subject line and the body of your message should be blank. That will automatically subscribe you to the AFC list as we call it. Hope to see you there.

Other than that, last week I added transcriptions of the parish registers for Beaubassin, Grand-Pre and Ekoupahag. The latter register was one of Father Charles-Francois Bailly's registers. A later register was transcribed under the supervision of Stephen A. White, Genealogist Universite de Moncton's CEA - that later register was deposited at Caraquet and is called the Caraquet register. Meanwhile it contains no information whatsoever regarding the inhabitants of Caraquet in that time period.

I have also been very busy uploading New Brunswick cemetery photos taken by Hector Boudreau, his wife Jeanita (LeBlanc) and Francis LeBlanc of Moncton. There are presently over 30,000 photos of cemetery headstones that can be accessed at the Acadian Ancestral Home

I believe that there are at least 41 cemeteries at this writing and there are more in the mail that Hector mailed out on Friday. Come next spring they will resume photographing cemeteries they have not yet done. Since last Friday, fifteen volunteers from the AFC Roots Web list began indexing all of the cemeteries. I am so very grateful to all of them.

In the middle of all this activity, I received a message from another member of the AFC list who offered to send me photos of two Cape Breton cemeteries taken by her. I am thrilled. I would just love to have Nova Scotia Acadian cemeteries on my web site.

So as you see we continue to make available to all of our cousins, whatever information can be found.

This past weekend was Veteran's Day in the United States and Remembrance Day in Canada. Sunday on the AFC list, we remembered all of our veterans and all of our ancestors who served in the military. Don't ever forget to thank a veteran! Without their service we would still not be living in free countries - in free democracies.

Backing up a bit into August, I had a really great trip to France and England with our two daughters. What a memorable trip! While in Paris we were able to find the church where some of our first ancestors (on my mother's Levesque side) were married, baptized, buried and migrated to Quebec. The church is still an active parish. When I told one of the ushers the purpose of our visit, she kindly gave me a copy of the history of the church and a description of everything in the church. We took many photos that I plan to get on my web site and create a page just for that church on the Acadian Ancestral Home.

I should also mention that at the end of September I went to Moncton with my good friend Lorette Leafe. We had a wonderful trip and it is always wonderful to see Stephen White and to do some research at the Centre d'etudes acadiennes at Universite de Moncton/Moncton University.

So as you see no moss has gathered since my last blog and there is no idleness in these bones!

That is a quick update but while I am at it I want to wish all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving! It is hard to believe Thanksgiving is next week. If you have loved ones serving overseas they will be as close to you in heart and spirit as you are to them. We pray for all of you.

I'll be back soon. That is a promise!

Hugs to all of you dear cousins and friends,

Lucie