Hi all ,

First I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas , and hope you all stay safe and warm for the holidays . Christmas will be here in a few hours in this part of the world and other parts it is already christmas . I just thought it would be a great thing to think about when you set down to eat your christmas dinner , to think about what it was like for our ancestors on christmas Day . How did they celebrate their christmas day and what did they had for a christmas meal ? What did the children get for gifts ? And did they put up a christmas tree and what did they use for decorations ?

Well I guess that it for now , got a few more things to do before Santa gets here . So once again Happy Holidays and stay safe .

Rick

Great News ..

Hi all ,

Thought I would post this here , It would be great to be-able to read this diary..

Forgotten diary sheds new light on Acadian deportation of 1755

Transcripts from a diary kept by a young American soldier fighting for the British is giving historians a new twist on the deportation of Acadians from the Maritimes in the 18th century.
In 1755, 30-year-old Jeremiah Bancroft signed up for one year as a militiaman with the British military.
He kept an almost-daily diary of his service, which took him from Boston to Beausejour, N.B., and later to Grand Pre, N.S., where he participated in the deportation of Acadians.
A transcript of the diary was found by historical archeologist Jonathan Fowler and was publicly displayed Thursday at Saint Mary’s University by Fowler and Earle Lockerby, an expert on the deportation.
The deportation forced the French Acadian population from Nova Scotia after they refused to swear an oath of loyalty to the British.
Bancroft was a junior officer to Lt.-Col. John Winslow, whose own diary provides much of what is known about the deportation, which displaced about 7,000 Acadians in 1755 to Britain, Louisiana and France.
The diary also fills in historical gaps at Grand Pre from mid-November to the end of December, when Winslow left Grand Pre for Halifax.
Neil LeBlanc, Canadian consul general to New England and former Nova Scotia cabinet minister responsible for Acadian affairs, described Bancroft as a level-headed man who believed in God and the betterment of man.
“At the same time he was not a regular militiaman so he looked at things perhaps differently,” said LeBlanc, who is also a prominent Acadian.
Bancroft’s account of the time differs from the diary kept by Winslow. Bancroft was lower down the chain of command and had no reputation at stake, said Fowler, who teaches at Saint Mary’s.
“By and large, the kind of humanity that emerges with respect to the New England or Anglo-American experience is one of organized chaos,” said Fowler.
He called the British soldiers in Bancroft’s account “weekend warriors” who were not good at following orders. Fowler bases his description on passages depicting violence, desertions, thefts and insubordination in the unit.
Fowler first discovered the typed transcripts, transcribed in 1925, at the Nova Scotia Archives in the mid-1990s. Bancroft’s original diary hasn’t been found.
In the transcript, which Fowler and his students have studied for 10 years, Bancroft expresses fear, fatigue, pride, happiness and inner conflict.
Fowler said Bancroft’s writing helps to humanize the events of the deportation.
Within the Acadian and British camps, he said, the transcript allows its readers to “detect the individual and often varying motives and interests ... that we’ve regarded as more or less uniform.”
In one passage, Bancroft describes the reactions by Acadian men who learn that they’re losing land and cattle, and the guilt he feels in his role as enforcer.
His writing is often ungrammatical and plagued with spelling mistakes, but the feelings he conveys are clear, such as a passage dated Sept. 5, 1755, when Bancroft writes, “Seing themselves so Decoyed the shame and confusion of face together with Anger so altered their countenense that it cant be expressd.”
The transcript increases our understanding by reporting Acadian reaction to the deportation, said Lockerby, who became aware of the diary in 2007 after visiting a former colleague who was an ancestor of Bancroft’s.
Images that are portrayed in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “Evangeline” of Acadians going to ships in unison and following orders are debunked in Bancroft’s diary, he said.
Bancroft’s witness account tells of a shooting and of escapes by Acadians, including one by two men fleeing a church, which was not previously known.
The widely adopted and idyllic images of the poem are misleading, said Lockerby, adding that it was written almost 100 years after the deportation by a poet who is not believed to have visited the province.
Lockerby said Acadia was a real place with real people, who had an opportunity to fight back, and they did.

Beaubassin Public Archaeology Dig 2009

Hi all ,

Hope you are all doing great on this very warm weekend , Just want to say I will be taking part in the dig at Beaubassin again this year . Here is a little about it ..


Beaubassin and Fort Lawrence National Historic Sites of Canada
Public Archaeology Experience 2009


The ultimate interactive experience is coming to the Chignecto Region! For the third year, the exciting "Beaubassin and Fort Lawrence Public Archaeology Experience" will be available to the public in July and August 2009! Visitors will take part in a unique archaeological excavation, discover real artifacts from the historic Acadian village of Beaubassin and Fort Lawrence and understand how archaeologists recreate the past!


Beaubassin and Fort Lawrence

Located on Fort Lawrence Road near the Nova Scotia Visitor Information Centre at 5 minutes from Fort Beauséjour – Fort Cumberland, and 45 minutes from Moncton.

Beaubassin, a newly acquired site by Parks Canada, will unearth through the "Public Archaeology Experience" artifacts attesting to the Acadian way of life before the Deportation. The Experience will also include Fort Lawrence, a British fort constructed within the former Acadian village of Beaubassin, which commemorates the struggle between the French and the British Empires.


Schedule for the day:

9:00 a.m. Welcome and orientation at Fort Beauséjour - Fort Cumberland NHS.

9:10 - 10:10 a.m. Introduction to archaeology and historical overview.

10:30 - 12:00 p.m. Participation in excavation activity at Beaubassin and Fort Lawrence.

12:00 - 12:45 p.m. Lunch (on your own).

12:45 - 3:00 p.m. Excavation and archaeological work continues for all participants.

3:00 - 3:30 p.m. Wrap up and finale


Beaubassin and Fort Lawrence National Historic Sites of Canada
Public Archaeology Experience 2009

Registration requirements:

Registrants should be in good physical condition to participate in the excavation. Activities will proceed at a comfortable pace, though some physical exertion will be required. The on-site field lab will provide the opportunity to participate in less strenuous archaeological activities.
It is not required to have prior archaeological experience.
Registrants must be at least 17 years of age in order to participate.


Dates :

July 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 30 , 31 .

August 1 , 2 , 6 , 7 , 8 ,9 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16

The dig is only being done on , Thursday , Friday , Saturday and Sunday .

We are going for the 9 of August ..

Thanks

Rick

Just a short note

Hi ,

Well first I just want to say that I am sorry for not posting here lately . Been a little busy with work and working on Dad's house and putting in the garden . I have also been working on getting everythings ready for ours family reunion , which will be on the 19 of July at the Amherst Lions Den . I send out 88 letters and I and hoping everyone will be able to make it . I will be having all of my Arsenault family history (2496 pages) there this year so I should have some family history that might help some one . Still working on the door prizes and items for the silence auction . Plus we will once again we will be having a potluck supper , so everyone are being ask to bring their favorite dish . Well I guess that all for now .. will post more again soon , got a wedding to go to this Saturday in Oxford and an auction to work this Sunday in Moncton on Melanson Rd .

Take care .
Rick

Got My DNA Test Result

Hi all ,

Well I got my DNA test results back today , It will take me a few days to go through it , and see what I will add to my website .. Once I got that done , I will make a new webpage and add it to the website . I will let you all know when I get it done , it go back over 5000 plus years ..

Here is a picture of my map ..

Rick ..

Arsenault Family History

Hi all ,

Well it another new month , and we all hope for better things ahead , My friend Richard send me all he had on the Arsenault , and with what I had , I changed it all over into MS words , I now have 2496 pages of family history . I started last night to print it all off , I have 750 pages done and about 1740 pages to go . I am hoping to have it all printed off before ours family reunion in July .
Still waiting to hear back about my family DNA test , hope to get that back soon ..

Well I hope you all have a great weekend and that we DON"T get anymore snow ..

until next time ,
Take care and be safe
Rick

Just a short note

Hi all ,

I know its been some time that I have post here , but been a little busy with work and other things . Well as you all know we got another snow storm , this time about 32 cm of snow . Well just thought I would give you an update on my DNA test . I got it and send it back to familybuilder DNA company , I just got an e-mail back from them today . They told me that they got it back in their lab and I should know something in about 4 weeks ..
So I will let you all know what I find out then ..

I also what to thank you all for dropping in and reading my blog .. so until next time .
You all take care and be safe ..

Rick

Ice Storm

Hi all ,

Well that was a good ice storm we had on Monday night and Tueday . We lost our power from 11:15pm Monday until 7:00pm on Tueday. We didn't have any work but also never had and heat . We drove around Tueday most of the morning and afternoon , then went back home . Mum didn't like it very much but didn't say to much about it . Alot of tree down and power wires all around town and out in the country . Got a few pictures of the ice on everything and one of a little bird up in a tree at my place .

Well just wanted to let you all know that we made it through and still going .
Take care
Rick

Hi all ,

Well another week is gone and March will soon be here . Today I got a lot Arsenault family history to go over . My friend Richard in the states send me all of his files he had on the Arsenaults . I just started looking at it and it will keep me busy for some time . So I want to say Thank You Richard for sending me all of this family history . With this history I can update my family history and my family tree . So once I get time to go through all of it , I will beable to update my family tree on my website .
I am also still waiting to get my DNA kit in the mail , hopefully it will come this week coming and I can get it done and return to them .

Well I guess thats it for now , hope you all have a great weekend and that we don't get to much snow on Sunday night ..

Thanks once again Richard for the CDs and the program to open it ..I got the cemeteries CDs done and will get them in the mail on Monday , when I go to work .

Take care everyone .
Rick

Good evening ,

Well I took another step today in my family history project , I order an YDNA test kit . So I am waiting to receive it in the mail . Then I will send it back and should have my results back with in 4 weeks .
results include: your migration map, your DNA markers (for YDNA) or differences relative to the Revised Cambridge Reference Sequence (for mtDNA), and your haplogroup.The migration map will detail the migration patterns associated with your ancestors, living many thousands of years ago.Your DNA markers or differences are unique to you and, in the web 2.0 tradition, are fully portable for use with other DNA testing services.A haplogroup is a group of similar haplotypes that share a common ancestor with a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) mutation. Haplogroups pertain to deep ancestral origins dating back thousands of years.

Will let you know more about this when I get my results back ..

Hope you all have a great evening ..

Rick

Hello everyone

Just thought I let you know that I have my new webpage up ... Its a little history on the Arsenault's family .. Its about Jean Pierre Arsenault , Born approximately 1756 in Acadia and died in Bic , a small town that he founded on the St. Lawrence River .

The story of this immegrant goes back to the French and Indian War,Which started in 1754 and ended in 1763 . During this period of time the English claimed from the French the land known back then as Acadia (Henry Wardsworth Longfellow in his famous story of Evangeline mentions this place called Acadia and the story is about a woman called Evangeline who escaped the English at this time , becausethere was a lot of killing going on . Down in Louisiana , where there was a lot of what we call today Acadains there is quite a bit of history.These people migrated to there during this time when they were fleeingfrom the English . In the encyclopedia it mentions the name of LouisArceneaux , which I think could be a brother or some relative of the above person , who we are talking about . Spelling is not the same , but thru the years spelling in names has changed from the original spellingwho is right and what is the right spelling it is hard to know .

To find out more . check out my website , and the page , Jean Pierre ...

Thanks for dropping by ..

Rick

Just a short post ..

Just a short post ..

I was not feeling too good on the weekend , so I didn't get any work done on my new web page . I am hoping to get back to it soon and have it done soon . We are in the middle of another snow storm here , they are calling for anywhere from 10cm to 30cm of snow before it is all done by tomorrow afternoon. And with some freezing rain mixs in with the snow in some places ..

Hope you are all in where its nice and warm ..
Take care !
Rick

Storm on it way

Well I see there is another storm coming our way , this time they are calling for up to 30cm of snow . And also with rain and freezing rain mixed in with it , just might be a day off from work :). But first it will have to warm up alot , right now its too cold out for snow ..

Well if we get this storm tonight and tomorrow , it will be a good day to get caught up on some of my work at the website and family history . I got to start working on our family reunion for this July and also make some plans about going to the Big family reunion this summer in New Brunswick .. the last one in 2004 was here in Amherst , and we had 850 plus at it . so this one should be good and bigger .. :) I hope so .. and also can't forget about the Dig at Beaubassin this summer too .. can't wait to take part in that again ..

Well I guess I better get going and get some work done ..
Thanks to all of you that dropped in ..

Rick

Coldddddddddddddddddddddd

Hi all ,

Well here we are again , in the freezer -32c and beleive me its cold out side this morning . Just thought I let you know that the new web page is about half done . I think you all will find it interesting and something that he didn't know about the Arsenault family history . I hope to have it all done and uploaded to the website by this weekend . Well I guess I better get to work , got to keep the bills paid .. LOL

I hope you all have a great day .. and keep warm !!

Rick

New Web page coming soon

Just thought I let you all know whats going on ..

Well I started to work on my new page for my website , it will be a Family story of Jean Pierre Arsenault , that founded the town call Bic . I will be adding the story as it was told to one of his descendents by her great-grandmother .. I should have it done in a few days but first I will let her see it before I posted it to the website .. A long with it , I will add part of his family tree ..

Well I guess that all for now , more to come ..

Rick

Hi ,

Well another cold day , with the wind its -39c here . I think it will be a good day to do some more work on Minudie's cemetery file and some work on the website . I have some more family history coming from a cousin in the state , can't wait to read that .. By what I was told about it so far .. I am sure its going to be great to get and read .. And maybe if I am good , she will let me add some of it , to my website .. so I promise to be on my best behavior .

Rick

Good day everyone ,

Well we didn't get the storm they were calling for , thats good we got enough snow now , we don't need anymore . But its getting pretty cold out tonight , going down to -20 c .. But one thing for sure that will be to cold to snow .. Hope you all have a great night and a really great tomorrow ..

Good night
Rick

Up and running

Hi to all ,

Just thought I would try doing this again .. I hope to make a posting once a week for starter and see where it goes from there ..
They are calling for another storm tonight and tomorrow , 5 to 10 cm of snow and some freezing rain mixs in with it . Maybe another day off from work and then maybe not ..

Well thats all for now .. more later

Rick