GREAT-BRANCH PHOTO HISTORIES...

We recently have re-doubled our efforts a few weeks ago to focus on the histories of our Great-Branches. In my opinion, much of the fun of being involved in genealogy is that it allows us to understand the history of our ancestors. Aside from knowing who they were, it's also alot of fun perhaps more, to learn what they did and when. But it's a thousand-fold better for most of us if we can find some photos of our ancestors. That really puts a face on those 15,000 names that we currently have in our JEHAN TERRIOT ARCHIVE.

So, we have redesigned our BILINGUAL  'Great-Branch Photo Histories' section of our Terriot website so that each branch has a full page of 'real-estate' to present its story and its photographs. We have complete faith in our delegates and their ability to do a little digging and a little research on their respective branches. Many have been very enterprising in contacting other members of their branch to identify family stories, photographs and other documents that shed some light on the history of their branch.

To help the delegates, we have written up a short history of the migration of each branch which is interesting in itself. So, now, we are asking our delegates to 'fill in the blanks' in that history and to at least document what we collectively know about our individual branch histories. I promise you that if and when you succeed in doing so, you will appreciate your Great-Branch so much more but more important, you children, grand-children and great-grand-children will be forever be grateful to you for having taken the time to bring that history to life.

In my opinion, those of you who succeed in documenting your branch history to whatever extent that you can, will have succeeded in bringing that history back to life. Because in many cases, if you had not done so, it probably would not have ever been done and would have thus been lost forever. So, by documenting our Great-Branch histories, we are leaving a legacy for your children that they will forever appreciate over the generations.

So, take a look at our new 'PHOTO HISTORIES' section, I hope that you will like what you see. We make it very easy to switch from the English side (ENGLISH VERSION) of the website to the French side (VERSION FRANÇAISE) throughout the section.

If you are a Great-Branch delegate, let us know if you need help or have any questions. If you are not a delegate, contact your branch delegate and offer your help or better yet, if you have any photo that you think has some historical value, offer to send it to your delegate. From our viewpoint, any material, photo or information about our parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents would be most welcome and would historically be very valuable.

DEPORTATION OF ACADIANS FROM PEI: a new presentation

Just received a note from my friend Ghislain Savoie this morning who was passing the word about a new presentation produced by historian Georges Arsenault on the deportation of the Acadians in Prince Edward Island (Ile St-Jean). The presentation currently is available in French only. It is superbly done and most interesting. I encourage you to go over for a visit at the Acadian Museum of Prince Edward Island and look for the Video Deportation Exhibit under ONLINE RESOURCES.

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FROM PETIT RUISSEAU, NS...

Received an interesting article from Gérard Thériault, our Delegate for the Gustave & Hélène Great-Branch. The article, which is from ''Le Courrier de la Nouvelle Écosse" and written by Damien Douillard, focuses on the recent work of Serge Patrice Thibodeau to translate the Lieutenant Colonel John Winslow personal journal written by Winslow during the Great Eviction from 28 February through 19 December 1755. He was encourage in this work by John Mack Faragher and others. To summarize the point of the article which is written in french, Thibodeau is able to detect certain aspects of Winslow's character based on his precise language and careful writing. As expressed by Thibodeau, Winslow wrote to be read... his sense of history is very apparent. Although Winslow finds his assignment distasteful, it is not sufficient in Thibodeau's judgement that history excuse Winslow. Whenever matters of state take precedence over matters of humanity, we may be guilty of crimes against humanity, Thibodeau says.