Késsinnimek - Roots - Racines

Here's what she wrote:

I'm pleased and honored to join the Késsinnimek-Roots-Racines writers' group of men and women who celebrate their French-Canadian heritage. My goal is to share some of the amazing stories and not-so-well-known facts about the early days of Quebec that I have collected while doing research for "Companions of Champlain," a paper about Quebec's pioneering families. The grand celebration of the 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec will be held next year, in July 2008. I can hardly wait!

Denise 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...

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.

You can read the entire story at

Rédaction

C'est avec grand plaisir que notre e-zine vous présente une nouvelle auteur.

Voici ce qu'elle a écrit de soi-même:

C'est un plaisir et un honneur pour moi de m'avoir joint avec les auteurs de Késsinnimek-Roots-Racines, hommes et femmes qui célèbrent leur héritage franco-canadien. Mon but est de partager des histoires émouvantes and de petits évèvements des premiers jours au Québec - histoires et évènements que j'ai trouvé en recherchant pour "Companions of Champlain", un document de familles pionniers au Québec. Nous fêterons la grande célébration du 400^è anniversaire de la fondation de Québec en juillet 2008.

Denise est née en Bristol, Conn, une ville d'usines construites en briques rouges au sud de la Nouvelle-Angleterre. Sa famille paternelle (Rajotte-Bergeron) a été recrutée durant les années 1920 de St-Germain et Montréal de venir à Bristol pour travailler dans l'industrie d'horloges. Sa famille maternelle (Duperre-Lévesque) sont venus à Bristol du nord de Maine et de Fall River, Mass, où son arrière-grand-père Duperre était tisserand dans une usine...

Denise a reçu un Bachelier d'Arts de Charter Oak State College en études culturelles et écriture. Son mari et elle aime bien passer leurs vacances au Québec et en Nouvelle-Écosse pour visiter les lieux d'histoire et de famille and y faire de la recherche. Ses intérêts comprennent la photographie, jouer au Canasta, lire l'histoire, et écrire les romans...

Comme chercheur, écrivain, rédacteur, répétiteur et interviewer, Denise fait partie de plusieurs sites web de la culture franco-canadienne et contribue son talent à plusieurs publications, comme LeForum, le journal culturel du Centre Franco-Américain de l'Université de Maine.

With heating fuel prices going up as the temperature goes down, Mainers are wrapping themselves in lap robes like their grandmothers did to stay warm. The Europeans who came to New World in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had an even more difficult time dealing with the cold. They assumed that the climate near the St. Lawrence River would be the same as that of France because both are within the same degrees of latitude...

June is the favored month by modern brides. School is over, families can gather, and travel is easy. In the early days of Quebec, after its founding in 1608, winter was the time for get-togethers and celebrations. The harvest finished in October, and food was plentiful. Travel conditions were not an issue as everyone who came from France settled near the fur-trading post in Quebec or in nearby Beauport. Winter was a time when the colonists were left on their own, with no hope of visiting ships until spring. This presented a social need to stay close to one another and share in family and community events...

He did it! This ol' boy opened a can of worms the day he married Elmina ( Mina) Perron because her mom was Adelaïde Tremblay and when you get into that clan down around the area of Les Éboulements, you're going to have to wait out dispensations for marriages. Just for the heck of it let me take you to meet the family...

Only Last July, this year 2006, our family was going through some family differences that divided us. To console me , a solicitous family friend , Nena Javellana said to me “ I will pray to Kateri Tekakwita for you and your family.” I didn’t think much of her offer then , as I didn’t know who Blessed Tekakwita was. But, soon after, unexpectedly, my brother made a surprise move granting me what I was hoping for, as a solution...

This story was written in French by my grandmother, Rita Lucille Préfontaine nee Beauregard (a direct descendant of André Jarret Sieur de Beauregard). She was born on January 26, 1910 in St. Gérard, Québec. She presently resides in the Grasslands Health Centre in Rockglen, Saskatchewan. Like her mother, she is an avid reader...

Cette histoire était écrite par ma grand-mère, Rita Lucille Préfontaine née Beauregard (une descendante directe d'André Jarret Sieur de Beauregard). Elle est née le 26 janvier 1910 à St. Gérard, Québec. Elle habite présentement au foyer Grasslands Health Centre à Rockglen, Saskatchewan. Tout comme sa mère, Rita adore lire...

These days, in the late autumn of our years, we live in Texas, far removed from the Vermont of our youth. The thought of ‘home’ tugs at the heart, and because of that we subscribe to “Vermont Life”. The pictures are of familiar scenes and the articles remind us of what special people those stalwart Vermonters were…and still are...

Several years ago, a friend, who knew my dedication to Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, asked me if I were aware that there was a chapel dedicated to my cousin Kateri. I was not aware of that. So, I ventured to find Exeter Road across from the former Ladd School. When I arrived there, I went into the chapel and was happy to find a beautiful statue of Tekakwitha, an altar, chairs and kneelers. As I found out later, the little chapel had been built by a small group of parishioners, some of whom I knew. I prayed to her as I had been for several years to watch over my family - her cousins (very distant, but still related). As I was leaving, a priest emerged from the farmhouse. And to my surprise, I recognized Fr. Gerard Sabourin, a classmate of my days in the seminary back in the 1950's...

Family autobiographies are heirlooms, especially when authors publish their stories. Although family possessions may erode with advancing age, an autobiography will find its way into the heart of an extended family and contribute to the ongoing oral history. Publishing family stories was a formidable task in 1979, when Alvine Cyr Gahagan published "Yes, Father", in the first person. Cyr's daughter, Yvonne Cyr Bresnahan, of Manchester, NH, recently sent me a copy of her mother's published autobiography...

World Day of Peace - Homily of Archbishop Peter Gerety - Archbishop Emeritus of Newark, New Jersey - Given on January 1, 2007 - St. Charles Borromeo Church - Brunswick, Maine:
Our Mass today is being offered as a solemn prayer for peace in our time, universal peace among the nations of the earth. We gather for this purpose in response to the request of our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, that all over the world, Catholics join together on this first day of the New Year to offer the Holy Sacrifice begging God for the blessing of true peace in our time...

Today is Tuesday January 16, 2007 and I need to write about love. There are two things I love very much, animals and helping the poor. As a child my family was “poor” and I do mean dirt poor! It breaks my heart to see a family living in the kind of poverty I sometimes had to experience as a child. I do think that God loves poor people, what else can explain why he makes so very many of them? When I was 21 years old I left the Episcopal Church and became a Roman Catholic, and at my Confirmation (which is a Holy Sacrament for Catholics) I took the name of Francis, after a Saint I greatly admire and truly love. I became Francis Richard Aubrey Payne as a matter of a very personal choice, which I now share with you. Why did I find love in the character of St. Francis?...

On October 15, 1701, a daughter, Marguerite, was born to Marie-Renée Gauthier de Varennes wife of Christophe Dufrost, Sieur de la Jemmerais, Lieutenant of the Royal Troops in New France, a native of Médréac, Diocese of Saint-Malo, in Brittany. Marie-Renée's family had been established in Nouvelle France somewhat longer, one might say.

Le 15 octobre 1701, Marie-Renée Gauthier de Varennes, épouse de Christophe Dufrost, Sieur de La Jemmerais, Lieutenant des Troupes Royales en Nouvelle France, originaire de Médérac, Évéché de Saint-Malo, en Bretagne, donna naissance à une fille, baptisée le lendemain à l'Église Sainte-Anne de Verchères.

Jean est né aux Trois-Rivières le 6 février 1667, il y est baptisé le 7. (1) Son parrain est Arnoul de Laubia capitaine de Carignan et sa marraine Périne Picoté de Belestre. Il est donc le huitième enfant dans la famille. Nous ne savons rien de sa jeunesse ni de son éducation. Il vient relativement jeune, avec ses parents aux Îles-Percées et imite trois de ses frères aînés en entamant une carrière militaire. À dix-sept ans il accompagne le gouverneur De La Barre à son expédition de l'Anse-à-la-Famine.

Jean was born in Trois-Rivières on February 6th 1667; he was baptized on the seventh.(1) His godfather was Arnoul de Laubia captain in the Carignan troops, and his godmother was Périne Picoté de Belestre. He is therefore the eighth child in this family. We have no information regarding his youth or his education. He was quite young when he arrived in Îles Percées with his parents, and entered a military career as three of his eldest brothers did...

Sent to us by Jacques L'Heureux, in the Friends-List
Dr. Layne Longfellow, a relative of Maine's well loved poet, is traveling to UMO from Arizona to take part in a panel discussion following the showing of a film he narrated: "The Story Of The Acadians." The program has been scheduled to take place during a week marking the 200 th birthday of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow...

Dina pense à vous 59:
Amie, ami de Dina,
Noël a laissé chez vous ses rayons de paix et de joie ? Il vous a enveloppé de ses rayons pour l'année 2007 ? Jésus " prince de la paix " n'a-t-il pas déjà sollicité votre cœur, à vous, pour qu'avec lui vous deveniez artisans de paix? ...

Dina is thinking of you 59:
Dear friends of Dina,
Christmas has left you rays of peace and joy ? Its rays bundled you up for the year 2007? Jesus " Prince of peace " request your heart so that with Him you become " artisans of peace? ...