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