Késsinnimek - Roots - Racines

Biographies

Fr. Owen Taggart

Shortly after I acquired a computer, a priest friend asked me if I would take part in an "Ask A Priest" message board. At the same time, he suggested that I not use my baptismal name, in order to place a "respectful distance" between my on-line persona and the Bishop of my diocese, just in case some inquirers did not like the answers I gave to their questions. Like my ancestors Jacques Payan (Saintonge) and Jean-Baptiste Monty (Bordelais), I adopted a "nom dit": Owen Taggart. In fact, the name is an Anglicized spelling of the Gaelic "Eóin an't Saggarth" (pronounced "Owen Taggart") which means "Father John".

Born of an Irish-American father and a Franco-American mother, I have been bilingual since I learned to talk. I attended Notre Dame du Perpetuel Secours parochial school, Assumption Prep School and College. I taught French in public schools for a few years, then was assigned to the American College Seminary at L'Université Catholique de Louvain. I graduated with the degree of STB (Bachelor of Sacred Theology) from the Katholieke Universitet te Leuven, and was ordained to the priesthood. Some years later, I was assigned to graduate studies in Canon Law, and obtained a JCL (Licentiate in Canon Law) at Catholic University of America. I am presently an Official of the Tribunal of my diocese.

My interest in genealogy started early. When I stayed overnight at Mémère's, I would sleep in the room that had been Mon Oncle's, before he became a priest. There were a lot of books on his bookshelves, but there was very little material of interest to a young lad. I did find one topic in a Commentary on Canon Law that I could understand, at least a little: the presentation on consanguinity and affinity. When I asked questions about cousins and ancestors, my aunts were happy to draw up charts outlining how I was related to my cousins, my mother's cousins, and Mémère and Pépère's cousins. They also explained why the Church frowned on marriages between family members who were too closely related to one another. So, in a sense, my interest in canon law began with the same book as my interest in genealogy.

Those events occurred a long time ago. It was nearly a half century later that I discovered that Thérèse Ménard dit Lafontaine was an ancestor of both my grandmother and grandfather, through each of her husbands. That's another story, probably one I will tell in my first article. Soon!

Email Fr. Owen at Owentagart@aol.com

Dolorès Robillard Benoît

English version

Professeur à la retraite depuis 5 ans, je suis intéressée par la généalogie depuis quelques années. Tout cela a sans doute débuté dès mon enfance où les objets anciens avaient sur moi une grande attirance. Dès que je voyais un objet ayant appartenu au siècle passé, il fallait que j'en trouve la provenance et l'utilité. La vaisselle ancienne a toujours été pour moi un objet de curiosité. Curieuse de tout connaître, j'ai commencé à faire quelques recherches sur mes ancêtres à la naissance de mes petits-enfants voulant leur laisser non seulement des noms mais des anecdotes se rapportant à leurs ancêtres.

C'est ainsi qu'un jour où je cherchais sur internet à me renseigner sur mes origines maternelles, je trouve un site où il était fait mention des Léveillée. Je me suis alors dit que peut-être que le gars qui écrivait sur ce site pouvait m'aider. Ma première question en généalogie à cet illustre inconnu fut donc : « Parlez-vous français? »; il en rit encore aujourd'hui. Cet homme dont je vous dévoilerai le nom plus tard, me répondit dans l'affirmative et qu'il était prêt à m'aider même s'il habitait les Etats-Unis et moi le Québec car il avait une bonne banque de données sur les Léveillée.

Après quelques mois de « Pitonnage sur internet », il me dit qu'il m'enverrait quelque chose qui me surprendrait énormément. Il m'envoya alors l'extrait de baptême de son père. C'est ainsi que j'ai découvert que mes grands-parents étaient les parrain et marraine du père de mon correspondant américain. Et que ma grand-mère était la sœur de son grand-père. Depuis ce jour, Normand Léveillée et moi, car c'est bien de lui dont je vous parlais, en plus d'être des petits-cousins, sommes devenus de véritables inséparables sur internet. Nous avons eu le plaisir de nous rencontrer depuis ce jour. Il était déjà venu visiter mes parents avec son père et sa mère alors qu'il avait à peine 12 ans. (Cela fait déjà très très longtemps……)

Comme vous pouvez le constater mes recherches en généalogie m'ont fait découvrir un homme extraordinaire qui a su malgré les distances m'aider dans mes recherches en généalogie et surtout à me faire aimer la généalogie. Je souhaite à tous de rencontrer un jour dans leurs recherches un généalogiste aussi compétent que lui pour les aider dans leurs recherches et leur faire passer de belles heures de découvertes en généalogie.

A l'occasion, je viendrai vous parler des "Us et coutumes" du Québec ancien, agrémenté parfois de recettes typiques des chasseurs et trappeurs du début de la colonie. A bientôt.

Retired teacher for the past 5 years, I have been interested in genealogy for several years. All of this is ther result of my childhood where old objects really had an attraction for me. As soon as I saw an object belonging to a past century, I had to find out its origins and its use. I have always been very curious about old dishes. Curious to know everything, I began to research my ancestry upon the birth of my grandchildren because I wanted to leave them not only our names but anecdotes about their ancestors.

One day when I was searching on the internet for my maternal origins, I found a site which mentioned Léveillée. I said to myself that maybe this guy who had written all this material could possibly help me. My first genealogy question to this illustrious unknown was therefore: "Do you speak French?"; he laughs about this today. This man which I will tell you his name later on, answered me in the affirmative and that he was ready to help me even though he lived in the United States and I lived in Québec because he has an extensive database on the Léveillée.

After several months of "chating on the internet", he told me that he would send me something that would surprise me enormously. He sent me a copy of his father's baptism certificate. It is then that I discovered that my grandparents were the godfather and godmother of the father of my American correspondant. And that my grandmother was the sister of his grandfather. Since that day, Normand Léveillée and I, for it is he about whom I have been speaking, in addition to being cousins, have become inseparable friends on the internet. We had the pleasure of meeting each other since that day. He had already visited my parents with his father and mother when he was 12 years old. (That's a long time ago...)

As you can see, my research into genealogy made me discover an extraordinary man who, despite our distance to each other, has helped me in my genealogical research and especially to help me love genealogy. I wish that all of you meet someday in your research such a competent genealogist as I did to help you in your research and to have you spend many beautiful hours in genealogical discoveries.

Occasionally, I will write about "Usage and customs" of ancient Québec, and will add at times recipes typical of hunters and trappers at the beginning of the colonial period. Until the next time.

Louise-Andrée Éthier aka Sundance Aquero Sharp

Sundance's Corner:
Born near Montreal, in Verdun near Lachine across the river from the Kanawake reservation; a cold winter night Feb. 24, 1944, almost fifty-nine yers ago. Around 7:00p.m., my Mother began her six mile trek from her sister-in-law 's home in Lachine when a sudden blizzard almost made the feat impossible. Falling in the snow, my mother came into labor and almost never made it home. I was born safely at Verdun Hospital that night around ten thirty p.m. Those were the circumstances of my birth in the cold Canadian winters during World War II. My father, an insurance man, was travelling to study his profession at the Travellers Co. in Hartford, Connecticut during the week and came home on the weekends. He was away the night I was born. Being a proud and ambitious French-Canadian man, he bought me two sets of encyclopedias on the occasion of my birth (how the card read): one in French and one in English! I lived in Canada for eighteen winters before moving to New York City with my mother and her new American husband.

My parents decided to send me to English school so that I would be bi-lingual. In high school, I attended the Convent of the Sacred heart, Sault au Recollet, where co-incidentally, three of my ancestors had been brought there to the nuns for a time after being kidnapped by the Mohawks and French Canadians in the Deerfield Massacre of 1704, three hundred years ago: Abigail Stebbins, Thankful Stebbins and four year old Joseph all of whom were put in the keep of a Mohawk woman named Ganarstarsi. In those days, young children who were kidnapped were in great demand especially by Indian families who had lost their own children in wars. There is controversy surrounding Joseph's upbringing and little was written down on him so it all depends on which historic view one looks at or seems most credible in view of the times as to where he was raised the longest. It is certain however, that he and three of the Stebbins childrens chose to remain with their captors after the family had been redeemed several lyears later. The Mother and Father returned to Deerfield without four of their eight children.The Stebbins lines in Canada became what is known as the Mohawk lineage.

I married in 1965 and in 1967 flew to California to raise my family. My profession was to do art and to write. However, as a stay-at-home Mom, most of my work was in the production phase and little of the business. I was happily married for at least eight years and then tragedy struck and a divorce ensued ripping the family apart. I returned to New York City in 1980 and began my career in the arts. I painted and exhibited my work and I was hired to teach French at the Hudson School for the gifted, a private school in Hoboken New Jersey. I had one class that taught Native American Art in French. I also sang Indian songs with my own group of one classial guitarist and a Bolivian flute player. We gave concerts and made public appearances regarding the environment called In Balance with Mother Earth and Father Sky from 1982-1986 when I moved to Arizona to further my work advocating for human and Indian rights as well as for the conservation of Mother Earth's resources. The Bahai Center in New York City was very supportive of my speaking on these issues.

We held candle light ceremoinies for Peace on Earth and lit the flame of brotherhood on the day of the commemoration of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. Since 1989, I have been living with my husband and youngest son. My husband passed away September 2002; he was a social worker for Indian Health Services. We assisted an existing Dance group whose director had become very ill at the time and taught traditional dance to the youth and The Talking Circle. All these from the traditional perspective. Prior to our coming there were youth dying in car accidents every week. The mortality rate in these two tribes went down. Let us say that I have lived from the North East to the South West (full circle from the very cold to the very hot weather) where I am today researching my roots and Késsinnimmek wherever I go for all of family is the key to Peace and Unity in this world. I recently became a proud member of the Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook/Abenaki People and rejoined the most ancient of my roots and ancestors, this ancestor being an Algonquian maiden by the name of Mite8ameg8k8e who married a French soldier Pierre Couc Lafleur in the 1600's bearing many children and descendants.; and the beautiful Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha to whom I had great devotion as a child especially at the Sacred Heart Convent where lived an elderly nun, Mother Nealis who taught art classes and who was the one who had painted such a famous picture of Blessed Kateri that we see on holy cards today. Each link in the fabric of life seems to have placed me in modern times in the ancestral nest without knowing it at the time, but very much being surrounded by the spirit of the ancestors especially at the Sault. In my ancestral memory, I see how the workings of the spirit drives us to do and to be who we are especially if we search for the truth. Our ancestors and relatives never leave us. As remote as Yuma, Arizona is from Lachine, Chambly and Montreal, due to this new gift of the creator, the internet, I am able to find family "Késsinnemek " through my roots, racines as I have ever been able to in the past which is an affirmation that we are all connected, and all related.

Zobi Widobaid and metandossantz8angan!

Jim Carten

Regardless of the Irish name, I am a Québécois, a retired seaman and shipyard worker in the Québec City area. Writing has always interested me. By today's standards my formal education is not anything great, however the education of life has vastly filled the voids of any previous education dictated by society. My writings are formed within my mind which I consider to be the "birth" of a river which flows south to my hands and my fingers become its estuary or delta. It just flows from mind to fingertips. Those who chose to read me will have to put up with "dunno's", mebbe's" a few French words occasionally and my tongue-in-cheek humor. History and genealogy are two subjects which can become mind boggling and although I enjoy both, I like to see the possibility of injecting a humorous note occasionally to lighten up the load of some stick-to-the-facts books I see around.
Besides early morning, first coffee paragraphs, I enjoy working in the woods, in fishing camps, cross-country skiing, bicycling, inline skating, good food, good wine and good blues music.
I really hope that Norm can get his dream to become a reality and if I can render service to aid the cause, well, that will make my day.
Email Jim at j.carten@globetrotter.net

Jean Quintal

(Drummondville, QC, Canada), anesthésiste-réanimateur à la retraite, devenant de plus en plus sourd. Dans ma famille, je ne suis pas le généalogiste mais le raconteux [storyteller] un peu radoteux [often rambling on].
Mon patron est saint René Goupil, un des «saints Martyrs canadiens» maintenant dits «premiers martyrs jésuites de la Nouvelle-France» ou "First Jesuit Martyrs of North America".

Up in Québec, they keep saying to me : " The main problem with you, Jean, it's you never tell your story the same way in English than in French? " To make sure I do, je vais écrire en français… et en latin when necessary ! J'allais oublier de vous dire que je perds la mémoire et que mes histoires de raconteux se voudraient la mémoire retrouvée du passé oublié.

(Drummondville, QC, Canada), anestheologist-reanimator retired, becoming more and more deaf. In my family, I am not the genealogist but the storyteller often rambling on.
My patron is Saint René Goupil, one of the «holy Canadian Martrys» now called «first Jesuit martyrs of New France» or «First Jesuit Martyrs of North America».

Up in Québec, they keep saying to me : " The main problem with you, Jean, it's you never tell your story the same way in English than in French? " To make sure I do, I will write in french and in Latin when necessary ! I was about to forget to tell you that I am losing my memory and that my stories as storyteller would need the refound memory of the forgotten past.
Email - courriel : jquintal@dr.cgocable.ca

Juliana L'Heureux

A Marylander from Baltimore, Juliana L'Heureux, née Jubinsky, moved to Southern Maine several decades ago and settled in the Portland area. Starting in 1988, the Portland Press Herald in Portland, Maine has published her stories about Maine's Franco-American population.

Her column appears every Thursday. She also writes for Le Forum, a newspaper for the The Franco-American Centre on the Orono campus of the University of Maine.

Juliana is married to Richard L'Heureux, a Franco-American descendant. She can be contacted by e-mail at jrhappy@gwi.net.

A few of her columns and book reviews can be found on her website at:

Upon my (ed.) invitation to join our group, she responded "Yes, I am interested. I would like to write about the French influence on North American spiritual shrines, i.e., Ste-Anne de Beaupré, St. Ignatius Mission in Montana, Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City, the Cathedral in Sante Fe, NM. I have been so very intrigued by how the French have influenced these amazing North American shrines."

Henri-Vincent Gosselin is a Franco-American, born in Brunswick, Maine, who is tremendously proud of his Canadian ancestry. His Irish Godfather, Henry Moore, who traveled from New York (where he was employed at the N.Y. Daily News) to attend Henri's Baptism in Maine, threatened the pastor who entered the name "Henri" in the baptism certificate. "His name is 'Henry' with a Y," he shouted. The pastor replied: "I baptized him as 'Henri' - and that's the way it stays!" And it did !

A graduate of St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., Henri earned a Master's degree in Journalism at Boston University, and served as Sergeant/Major of the First Battalion, 5th Infantry Combat Battalion, at Heartbreak Ridge in North Korea in 1952-53, during the Korean war. Returning to Maine, he served as the editor of several Maine weekly newspapers for 42 years - with his final 26 years as editor of the Church World, Maine's award-winning Catholic newspaper.

After retirement, he traveled throughout the world - visiting every continent except Australia-New Zealand. Then he proceeded to write a book about his Canadian paternal ancestor's great-grandson, Major Clement Gosselin, who served as a spy for General George Washington, and recruited several French-Canadians to assist the American colonists to win their freedom from England - and was wounded in the decisive battle of the American Revolution at Yorktown.

His second book describes the heroic service that his maternal ancestor, Eustache Lambert, provided the Jesuit missionaries as they evangelized the Hurons and Iroquois Indians in New France (Canada) in the 17th century. "His description of the customs and habits of the Amerindians is faithful to their ethnological background and breeding. In his narrative, he is careful not to offend the sensitivities of the Huron and Iroquois people," according to Fr.René Latourelle, one of the foremost historians of the era.

Both books are available in English and French editions.

Lucie LeBlanc Consentino

I was born and grew up in Massachusetts. The daughter of an Acadian LeBlanc descendant and a French Canadian Lévesque descendant, my passion for genealogy began during my childhood when in sixth grade we were asked to research our family by interviewing our grandparents. When Mémère Lévesque told me we had a Indian princess as an ancestor, I was hooked! Though I have never found any links to such an Indian/Native grandmother on that side of the family, I have found one on my father's LeBlanc side of the family. Since then I have accumulated a wealth of knowledge on Acadian and French Canadian genealogy and history. This web site was built to share the highlights of my research with people everywhere.

A member of the American Canadian Genealogical Society of Manchester, New Hampshire, I have written for the society's the American Canadian Genealogist quarterly. An interview about my work was published by the Eagle Tribune of Lawrence, Massachusetts; another interview took place with the Old Farmer's Almanac. There have been many requests for articles pertaining to Acadian research. In April 2004, an interview with Radio-Canada was televised in the Maritimes.

On International Women's Day, March 8, 2000 I was placed on a list of top notch Acadian women who contribute to the preservation and pride of their Acadian Heritage by Michel Belliveau, then President of the Belliveau Family Organization, Baie-Ste-Marie, Nova Scotia.

Every summer I travel to the Maritimes to do research at the Centre d'études acadiennes, University of Moncton and visit Acadian Historic sites. Presently, I have been working in collaboration with Stephen A. White on Acadians deported to Pennsylvania in 1755.

My passion is shared in lectures on Acadian history, genealogy and research for genealogical societies and schools.

I have served on the Board of Directors at the American Canadian Genealogical Society as Vice President, Conference Chairperson for 2001, 2002 and 2003, Acadian Acquisitions, Editorial Board; Acadian researcher for the Research Department and volunteer to help visitors to our society with their research. I am also a member of the Immigrant Archives Genealogy Group in Lawrence, MA.

Many people ask if I am available for hire. The answer is yes! I am available to research family lines for people of Acadian descent and French Canadian descent.

Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home
http://acadian-home.org
http://www.promises.acadian-home.org/frames.html
CMA 2004 - www.cma2004.com
Grand-Pré - www.grand-pre.com/
www.umoncton.ca/etudeacadiennes/centre/cea.html

Elise Dallemagne-Cookson (1933-2005)

Elise Dallemagne-Cookson has lived in North and South America, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, and the South Seas. She began her career as a film publicist in Spain, where she worked on the production of the epic film, Alexander the Great, and then as an independent film producer in Hollywood and New York before being sent to the Belgian Congo on a Foreign Service assignment. There she married a Belgian riverboat captain, explorer, and rancher. Following the Congo's independence, she and her husband immigrated to Argentina, where they established a dairy farm.

Upon her return to the United States, she worked with venture capitalists and European banks on Wall Street for nine years before moving to Cherry Valley, New York, where she initiated a foreign language program in the public school system and established sister schools in France and Spain for her students.

Dallemagne-Cookson's writing career began in 1995 with the publication of her first memoir, The Bearded Lion Who Roars, where she recounts what it was like in the Congo just before and after that country's independence from Belgium. This was followed by a novel, The Ombú Tree, based on her life on her farm on the pampas of Argentina during the 1960s, where military coup followed military coup, and just before the beginning of what became known as "the dirty war" there. Her third book, The Filmmaker, also a novel, is based on her life in Hollywood during the 1950s and the people she knew who were victims of the witch hunts of the McCarthy era and the House Un-American Activities Committee. The Red-Eye Fever - Adventures in the Belgian Congo is a memoir that recounts what it was like when she first arrived there before independence and participated in safaris - crocodile hunting in particular. Her most recently published book, Marie Grandin - Sent by the King, is a historical novel - a tale of high adventure in North America during the 17th Century and is based on the life of her ancestors who arrived in Quebec in 1664. She was working on her sixth book -the biography of the well-known French artist, Jean Tabaud, who died in 1996. It was to be based on his own memoir of his life in France and Germany as a prisoner of war during World War II.

Elise passed away in November 2005.

William J. Brennan

A native of Brockton, MA, Bill Brennan graduated from Boston University with a degree in history. He worked more than thirty-six years with federal agencies, including thirty-one years in the Washington, D.C area. He served two tours in the Executive Office of the President and retired from the U.S. Department of Energy from which he received the Distinguished Career Service Award. He retired to Marion, MA, where he wrote two novels about the experiences of ethnic groups in assimilating to America.

His well-received first book, A Tattered Coat Upon A Stick, ISBN: 0-7388-0785-0, published in 2000, is a study of the problems facing Irish and Italian immigrants and their second-generation offspring in Boston during the period from 1910 to 1930. It climaxes with the executions of infamous anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti in 1927. His second book about Franco-American and Irish workers in the cotton textile industry in New England, Au Revoir, L'Acadie, ISBN: 1-4137-0835-8 was released in January 2004 by PublishAmerica of Frederick, MD. The story of ethnic and labor strife was inspired by a visit to the Museum of Work & Culture in Woonsocket, RI.

In 2002, Brennans returned to Fairfax County and he is hard at work on his third novel. In keeping with his long time interest in the plight of outside underdogs, this book is about the horrific treatment of the Japanese Americans who were interned by the U.S. Government during World War II.

Bill lectured extensively about his first book and taught the writing of historical fiction for the South Coast Learning Network, the adult education system for the towns in Southeastern Massachusetts.

Email: brennan01@cox.net
Visit www.William-Brennan.com for more information.

Dorothy (Bassett) Hauschild, BA

entered this world as a complete surprise to my mother on New Year's Day in 1946. My grandfather had rushed her to Ludlow Hospital in Ludlow, MA because she was complaining of abdominal pains. Eleanor Agnes Bassett gave birth to me two minutes to midnight, almost January second. My family was not prepared for this sudden arrival, but my grandfather decided to take me home until better arrangements could be made. I lived happily with him and my step-grandmother until I married in 1966.

During my early teenage years my grandfather Horace would tell me bits and pieces of his childhood growing up with his parents and 13 siblings in Ludlow. He was my inspiration to search out the family history, which I began when I was in college. Part of my degree in psychology required that I create a genogram, similar to a family tree. That genogram was my motivation to intensify the research that I am still working on today. My minor in Art history and technique helped me to appreciate and analyze period photographs. I have taught a class on dating old photographs for my genealogical society and found it to be very rewarding to help others appreciate and identify their ancestors.

I am the president of Western Mass. Genealogical Society here in Western Massachusetts. Our volunteer members provide research and education to anyone interested in genealogy/family history preservation. I am also a member of La Societe des Filles du roi et Soldats du Carignan, Inc. whose genealogist has helped me to establish Jean Besset of the Carignan Regiment as my primary descendant.

My writing experiences started with articles for The American Elm, the newsletter published by Western Mass. Genealogical Society, and has now expanded to book reviews and articles for Les Filles du roi. I am pleased to have been invited to contribute to Kessinnimek-Roots-Racines.

Email: Dorothy at dor1946@comcast.net

Louise Dubrule

I was born in 1938 on the family subsistence farm in Berkshire, Vermont. My brother, sister, and I were first-generation American on both sides. My father’s people came from the region of Canada called La Beauce and my mother’s from the Lac St. Jean area. From age five on, I grew up in Richford, Vermont and eventually married my high school sweetheart, Maurice Dubrule.

For twenty years, I was an Army wife and saw postings in the U. S. and Germany. I worked as a secretary for the YMCA in El Paso until our first child was born. When my husband retired and started a second career, I went back to work as the resident substitute teacher at the nearby Middle School with assignments in every class offered over the next eleven years.

We have a daughter Michelle who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. She has given us a granddaughter, Kristina who is a Junior at Arizona State University, as well as a grandson, Cohen, who is in second grade. The younger daughter, Monique, is on staff at Texas A & M University, as is her husband who is also an ordained Deacon. Monique is a one-year cancer survivor.

When Maurice and I retired for good, we made two trips to Britain and poked in every church and museum. These days, my time is spent with a needle in my hand. I make four or five quilts every year to be given as gifts or donated to charitable fund-raising programs, and I enjoy doing large, complex counted-cross projects. When I’m not stitching, I’m reading or cooking. My family says that my aim in life is to keep people warm and fed!

Email Louise at loumoe@swbell.net

Pierre Montour

English version

Pierre est né à Montréal, province de Québec, durant les années 50. D’abord journaliste et photographe autodidacte de 1975 à 1997, il complète des études en Droit de 1997 à 2002. Diplômé de l’École du Barreau de Montréal, il possède un permis d’exercice mais préfère agir actuellement à titre de directeur général de Corporation métisse du Québec et l’Est du Canada, un organisme sans but lucratif voué à la défense des droits ancestraux et territoriaux des Métis au Québec et l’Est du Canada devant les gouvernements et les tribunaux. Il a deux enfants devenus grands. Ses intérêts sont variés, spécialement pour l’Histoire. Il descend des familles métisses Couc dit Montour, Camirand, Comeau, Garceau, Girard, Lefebvre, Lejeune, Richard, Blanchard, Landry, Gaillou, Rivard, Thunès, Pothier, Alavoine, Savoie, Levron, Doucet, Melenson, Dugas, Blanchard, Radisson et Lambert. Il est lié à la communauté métisse de la rivière Saint-Jean, au Nouveau-Brunswick, celle du Bas Saint-Laurent, au Québec, cette autre de la Beauce, au Québec, et enfin cette dernière de Trois-Rivières, au Québec, et des Grands Lacs, en Ontario.

  Pierre was born in Montréal, province of Québec, during the 1950's. First of all a journalist and self-taught photographer from 1975 to 1997, he completed his studies in Law from 1997 to 2002. Graduate of the School of the Bar, he has a certificate to practice but prefers to act at the present as Director General of the Metis Corporation of Québec and of Eastern Canada, a non-profit organization dedicated to the defense of ancestral and territorial rights of the Metis of Québec and of Eastern Canada before the governments and the Courts. He has two grown children. His interests are varied, especially regarding History. He is a descendant of the Metis families of Couc dit Montour, Camirand, Comeau, Garceau, Girard, Lefebvre, Lejeune, Richard, Blanchard, Landry, Gaillou, Rivard, Thunès, Pothier, Alavoine, Savoie, Levron, Doucet, Melenson, Dugas, Blanchard, Radisson and Lambert. He is linked to the Metis Community of Saint John River, in New Brunswick, that of the Lower Saint Lawrence, in Québec, that of Beauce, in Québec, and finally the last at Three Rivers, in Québec and of the Great Lakes in Ontario.

Joe Darwin Palmer

An American from Vincennes, Indiana, which was once part of New France, where the French legacy barely survives through street and family names, Joe Palmer is an English teacher who represented our governments and foundations in Africa and Asia as a professor of English as a foreign language. He taught applied linguistics in the TESL Centre of Concordia University in Montreal for twenty years before retiring to the Eastern Townships to write.

Monique Reed

Monique was born and raised in El Paso, of good French Canadian stock. She is a botanist at Texas A&M in College Station. When she's not playing with plants, she likes to cook, read, make quilts, and embroider. She lives with her husband, David, who is a computer specialist, a deacon in the Catholic Church, and a photographer.

The sig line in her email address is Latin. It's from a silly phrase book and means basically, "Don't insult me unless you can do it in Latin."

Louis Henri-Charles Paré

Louis Henri-Charles Paré was a journalist who lived in Nashua, New Hampshire. He was a reporter and editor for many French-language newspapers in New England in the years 1902 to 1950. They included weeklies in Biddeford, York County, Maine and Laurence, Massachusetts, and dailies in Fall River, Bristol County, Massachusetts and Manchester, New Hampshire, where he was managing editor for 25 years of "L'Avenir National." Following that, he was the editor of "L'Impartial" and "The Nashua Telegraph" newspapers. He was a communicant of St. Louis de Gonzague Church in Nashua.

Louis, after completing grade school in Biddeford, was sent to classical college (8 year course) at Ste. Marie du Monnoir college at Marieville, Québec, a six year prep course, continuing at the college of Ste. Anne-de-La-Pocatière, where he received his BA degree in 1900. He won second prize in the Québec province-wide oratorical contest for the Prince-of-Wales prize.

Louis at first wanted to be a priest and joined the Cartesian Monastery at Barcelona, Spain for six months, until released for health reasons.

He then started in French language newspaper work. He was a reporter in several places, including Lawrence, Massachusetts, where he met and married Parmelie Bellerose. The family moved to Manchester, New Hampshire, when Louis was hired by L'Avenir National as editor early in 1913. They lived at 185A Beach Street, where Parmelie died January 19, 1918.

The above biography was submitted by his granddaughter Diane Szabo.

Diane Szabo

I was born in Manchester, New Hampshire. On April 1, 1941, my family moved to Concord, New Hampshire where I lived with my parents, two brothers and two sisters until November 1943 when my siblings and I went to live with my mother's sister on a working dairy farm in Goffstown, New Hampshire. I became "the little farm girl" until I graduated from high school; milking cows, cleaning stalls, feeding a large assortment of animals, haying, canning fruits and vegetables, etc. I hated the work, I must admit, but I truly loved all my animals.

Having taken business courses throughout high school I was prepared to enter the business world, which I did after graduation by working at New England Tel & Tel in Manchester. I then met my future husband and, after marrying in 1957, together we set out on our great adventure, leaving New Hampshire with all our worldly possessions packed into a small trailer which we towed across country, ending up in the San Fernando Valley, California. We remained in southern California until 1960 when we headed for San Jose, California, where I reside today.

Our first child was born in 1959. In total, we would have three beautiful daughters who, between them, have given me four wonderful grandchildren and one great granddaughter.

I began work for the IBM Corporation in 1966 and remained with them for twenty-five years. Some of the positions I held were: secretary, executive secretary, administration manager, technical publishing manager, second line administration manager and purchasing manager. I received several awards while working at IBM, the most prestigious being the Division President's award for Excellence in People Management. The award was a beautiful sculpture created expressly for this award and $5,000. I am very proud of this accomplishment.

In 1995, my two sisters and I vacationed together in Orlando, Florida. At dinner one evening, we were discussing the fact that my dad would be turning 95 in the year 2000. We decided then and there to plan a family reunion in celebration of his 95th birthday and that we would begin preparing the Paré family history. My dad had already started this project and had given my sister many family group sheets he had handwritten. My sister turned them over to me and I was off and running. Now, genealogy has become a full-time hobby. What began as a project of approximately 200 people in my family tree has ended up with 70,000 names currently - and still counting. The family reunion for my dad went off without a glitch and he was extremely happy that we were able to use his data to create a wonderful family heritage album for him. In August, 2005, my oldest sister called me from New Hampshire to advise that Dad was failing quickly. My sister, Connie, and I traveled to Manchester to visit him "one last time. While we were there he was, thank God, lucid and conversant and we had good chats together; he wanting to talk about his childhood and the bridge he built. We could never figure out what bridge he was talking about. Nevertheless, I returned home to San Jose after a two-week visit and on October 20, 2005, my dad passed away, just weeks shy of turning 100. I miss him terribly.

After my dad passed away, the papers he had saved from his father, Louis Henri Charles, were turned over to my oldest sister. In the stack of papers was an article my grandfather wrote from an interview with Philippe Lemay, a French-Canadian immigrant. This article can be found in several installments of Norm Léveillée's newsletter "Késsinnimek-Roots-Racines." The remainder of the articles written by my grandfather do not lend themselves for further posting, however, we continue to seek out other possible articles through the newspapers he worked for in the past. Should any come to light, I will be delighted to share them with this newsletter community.

Along with genealogy, I enjoy quilting, crocheting, gardening and enjoying my daughters and grandchildren. Through my genealogy project I have met many "cousins" and wonderful people who share my interest. I not only work on my own immediate line, but I assist my daughters with researching the lines of their husbands. It is truly a great hobby.

Richard "Winter Owl" Aubrey Payne

is a Freelance Writer and Community Activist that makes his home in a place called "Owl's Nest" in the old hunting grounds of the Arapaho and Cheyenne, on the scenic Cache La Poudre River, in the foothills of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. His father was born on the reservation of Oklahoma and is of Welsh, Cherokee and Wyndot decent. His mother is Welsh and Blackfoot. The Cache La Poudre is a wild and scenic river that flows through the Roosevelt National Forest. His home inspires Payne, who is a devout Roman Catholic to write about Native America and its art. This story was the perfect blend for Winter Owl. He holds an Associate of Fine Arts Degree with an interest in Art History, from Spokane Falls Community College. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Education from the teachers' college at Eastern Washington University, where he studied to be a secondary teacher majoring in communication Studies and English and theatre. He later obtained his Master of Arts Degree in Diverse Learners only to begin his study at Colorado State University in Educational Leadership. He studied Counseling at CSU. Rick loves research and it shows in his writing. The idea of researching the art inspired by Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, the Lily of the Mohawks was right up his alley. It was a labor of love from beginning to end. Mr. Payne's love of books has motivated him to write three of them; COLLIN THE CANADA GOOSE, written to help his community to live in harmony with these beautiful birds, CHARLIE THE SHY COWBOY, which was written to educate people about shyness and the wonderful world of cowboys, and THE REAL REEL INDIANS, written to educate people about real Native American of First Nation people (claiming a connection to a recognized tribe) who play the roles of Indian characters in television and film.

Click for photo of Rick

Charleen Touchette

Charleen was born in Woonsocket, Rhode Island to a devoutly Catholic French Canadian family in the mid-1950s and raised speaking French and English. Her great grandparents were Quebecois, Metis and Acadians who left Canada to move south to work in the New England mills of Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut. As a child attending Ecole Jesus Marie, her community was still mostly French Canadian.

She is the author of It Stops with Me: Memoir of a Canuck Girl (2004) and author and curator of ndn art (2003). Her writing and art appear in Women Artists: Multicultural Visions, Feminist Art Criticism: Form/Identity/Action, Original Sin, The Reflowering of the Goddess, Gathering of Spirit and Following the Reindeer Woman (2005) - some available at Amazon.com.

Touchette was awarded the 1998 National Women's Caucus for Art (WCA) President's Award. Her art has been exhibited at New York's Museum of Modern Art and Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art and the United Nations' Palais de Nations in Geneva. Touchette has organized and curated exhibits at the Queens Museum, Chicago Cultural Center, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, New Mexico's Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, The Institute of American Indian Arts Museum, and Santa Fe Art Institute. She has taught art and art history at Walker Art Center, Minneapolis College of Art & Design, and the Institute of American Indian Arts. Touchette lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico with her husband and four children, and is also a Yoga teacher. She is working on Dreams of Beauty: Visionary Art TouchArt Books (2006).

Links

Email - TouchArtBooks@aol.com
TouchArt - Charleen's website
It's a Sweet Life - On FAWI's exine

Jacques Dunant

Je suis né en France de parents suisses et j'ai émigré au Canada en 1952 J'ai fait toute ma carrière dans le domaine de l'architecture, comme dessinateur, technicien et enfin chargé de projets pour divers ateliers d'architectes à Montréal. Avec la famille nous avons déménagé à Boucherville vers 1964 et le charme de cette ville et les expériences de son fondateur m'ont conquis. En 1971 avec des amis on a fondé une société d'histoire qui existe toujours et qui est encore active . Mon intérêt pour l'histoire date de cette époque et la généalogie de cette famille continue à me tourmenter les méninges. Voilà le début de mon histoire simplifiée.

Oh, j'oubliais la Société s'appelle SOCIÉTÉ D'HISTOIRE DES ÎLES PERCÉES et elle a plusieurs publications à son actif.

I was born in France of Swiss parents and I immigrated to Canada in 1952. My whole career was spent in Architecture, as a designer, technician and finally in charge of projects for various studios of architects in Montréal. My family moved to Boucherville around 1964 and the charm of this city and the experiences of its founder have captured me. In 1971 with some friends, a history society was founded which still exists and is still active. My interest in history dates from this era and the genealogy of this family continues to torment my brains. Here is the beginning of my simplified history.

Oh, I forgot that the Society is named SOCIÉTÉ D'HISTOIRE DES ÎLES PERCÉES - History Society of the Îles Percées.

Amitiés,
Jacques

Denise R. Larson

Denise R. Larson was born and raised in Bristol, Conn., a red-brick factory town in Southern New England. Her paternal family (Rajotte-Bergeron) had been recruited in the 1920s to move from St. Germain and Montreal to Bristol to work in the clockworks industry. Her maternal family (Duperre-Levesque) had relocated to Bristol from northern Maine and Fall River, Mass., where Great-grandfather Duperre had been a weaver in a mill.

As a child, Denise’s father insisted that his children not speak French at home so that they might escape the prejudices he encountered as a child after his move to Connecticut. Denise was allowed to study French in school and developed enough of a working knowledge so that when the 1976 Bicentennial of the United States spawned an interest in family history and genealogy, she put her French language skills to use in researching her French-Canadian ancestry.

Joining the Foreign Service so that she could see the world, especially France, Denise met and married a handsome Marine Sergeant, who was in charge of the Embassy guard. Together they traveled the world and made their home in several states, raising a son and a daughter. Finally retiring to Maine, Denise was able to utilize the excellent resources of the Maine State Library and Archives in Augusta to continue her work in genealogy, tracing her maternal line to Canada’s first colonists, Louis Hebert and Marie Rollet, and her paternal line to Gilles Rageot, first notary to the first royal court in New France. Helen Desportes, born in Quebec ca. 1620, is an ancestor in common to both lines.

Using her research experience, Denise worked for several years as the manager of the Sagadahoc History & Genealogy Room at Patten Free Library in Bath. She went on to be an editor at a local daily newspaper for five years and enjoyed writing stories about local history and seventeenth-century French exploration of the North American coast.

Denise earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Charter Oak State College with concentrations in cultural studies and writing. She and her husband enjoy vacationing in Quebec Province and Nova Scotia to visit family-history areas and do genealogical research. Her hobbies include photography, playing Canasta, reading history, and writing novels.

Freelancing as a researcher, writer, editor, tutor, and interviewer, Denise participates in several Web sites about French-Canadian culture and contributes to a number of publications, including LeForum, the cultural journal of the Franco-American Center at the University of Maine. She has written a paper, “Companions of Champlain,” a story of life in early Quebec, excerpts of which will be published by LeForum in 2007. She can be contacted at francadian@yahoo.com.

Paul Rondeau

I was born in 1953 and grew up on a ranch outside the small French Canadian community of Lisieux, Saskatchewan. Throughout my life, I have always been very interested in historical events, biographies and the genealogy of my own French Canadian heritage. All my forbearers came from Québec and homesteaded in the southern part of Saskatchewan during the early 1900s.

My older sister Colette and I were among the last to have had the experience commuting to a one room rural school house on horseback. Our ranch bordered an English speaking community where we attended Hay Meadow School. Coming from a French speaking family, I vividly remember Colette having to translate the first few days of instruction and classmate conversation for me. As a young child, you are able to quickly pick up a second language and in no time I was fluent in English. Two years later, with the closing of Hay Meadow School, we were forced to travel the eight miles by bus to the French speaking school in Lisieux. Once again I was immersed in my first language and found it difficult to readjust. Higher education (grade nine to twelve) in French would have meant boarding at least thirty miles away from home so for high school I was bussed to the nearby town of Rockglen. After graduation, I moved to Saskatoon where I met my wife Bev. We now live in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, with our three daughters Shara, Janelle and Karlyn.

For several years now my daughter Shara and I have both enjoyed filling in the blanks of our family tree. We are always interested and in search of new stories and links to our extended family. I am a regular visitor to this site and I hope to contribute more stories from western Canada in the future.

Norm Léveillée, editor and contributor

A teacher in the Rhode Island public schools from 1960 to 2003. He has served as a teacher of French and administrator at all levels. He has also been active in a high school Television Productions course, finishing his teaching career in the EWG TV Studio at the Exeter-West Greenwich High School in Rhode Island. He retired in 2004. As an honor to his commitment to technology at Exeter-West Greenwich Junior/Senior High school, the School Department renamed the EWG-TV Studio