NOTE TO OUR GREAT-BRANCH DELEGATES...

As part of the current round of documenting and publishing the genealogy of several new Great-Branches, I worked with Richard H. Theriault, who brought the J.Arthur & Caroline Plante Theriault Great-Branch to us from Holyoke, Massachusetts. I first want to commend Richard on his stellar work of gathering as many primary source records as he could from the local towns, parishes and other vital records repositories. The work requires deligence and Richard has plenty of it. His genealogy is well documented as you will see.

JOSEPH EDMUND THERIAULT, MERCHANT MARINE AND OLD PORT BUSKER

I have been working to roll out the next release of our Jehan Terriot Archive. We have several new Great-Branches coming in which is very happy news. In our process for preparing this new release, I go through our database of delegates to make sure that that we have all the addressing information. And typically, I always find a few missing addresses. Happily, I was able to reconnect with many who became disconnected and it's always a great occasion to talk to them and catch up with their news. This is truly a network of very nice people that we have.

GREAT BRANCHES KEEP COMING IN...

Have you ever approached a very large and very old tree?  ...even one which stands all by itself in the middle of a large meadow.  All you see is the tree. You can't really separate one branch from the other, even if it's the most beautiful branch in the tree. The tree overwhelms everything in sight.

We encountered the same problem when we took on the challenge of integrating and consolidating the Terriot family tree in 1999. How should we approach this overwhelming task?  Do we proceed by area? by lineage? by family? Much of our genealogy exists in the form that is specific to a particular family or a particular area. A best example is Monsieur Fidèle Thériault's genealogies in his "Les Familles de Caraquet" published in 1985 and "Les Descendants de Joseph Thériault and Marie-Joseph Girouard" in 2009. It makes sense to  limit the scope of a work when we organize to research and publish genealogy.

But given the charter of the Terriot Acadian Family organization, there is no such limit. We are in the process of integrating and consolidating the genealogy of all descendants of Jehan and Perrine Terriot, bar none.  So, how do we do this?  Our choice was to approach it one branch at a time. But what is a branch? Is it a lineage that extends to someone living today? If so, we would have hundreds of thousands of branches to list, document and manage. Ultimately, we chose to define a branch  from the viewpoint of our 9th generation. To most of us today, our 9th generation ancestor is our great-grandfather. So, we decided to call our special branch, a Great-Branch.  I remember some things about my great-grandfather Joseph and especially my great-grandmother, Théogenie. I had the great fortune of visiting her in Edmundston, NB a few times. And while I never met my great-grandfather Joseph and neither did my father, a few stories were passed down by my grandfather about Joseph. The stories were mostly about his mill, but stories nevertheless.

So, we can still think and talk about the 9th generation with great interest but as we go beyond to the 8th, the 7th, etc., we begin to 'lose sight of the branch, because of the tree'. Sure, there are many cases of interesting personalities in our family, especially the Terriot family with all of the talent and the characters. And we talk about them as well. But selecting the 9th generation as a basis for organizing our family seemed to be a good way to break-down our family and organize the consolidation and integration of its genealogy.

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.

By the way, the best way to make sure that you stay current with La Jaseuse is to sign up as a 'FOLLOWER'. Scroll down a little and you will see the 'FOLLOWER' section in the left side-bar. Whenever we publish a new posting, you will receive a short e-mail.

GRAND REVEIL ACADIEN... GREAT ACADIAN AWAKENING!



(Courtesy of GRA 2011 website)

Just to give everyone a 'HEADS UP!' about a fun event that is 'revving up' to start on 7 October.  All of southeast Louisiana is preparing to receive everyone, Acadians or not, to this 2 week cultural festival.
"Hosted by Louisianians, the entire region of South Louisiana is opening their doors to welcome family and friends who want to celebrate and help maintain the culture, customs, traditions and history of the Acadians. This celebration will be held October 7th through 16th, 2011 in four Acadian regions. New Orleans, Houma, Lake Charles, and Lafayette will host events and celebrations closing with a huge renewal of pride on the last day at Festivals Acadiens et Créoles at Girard Park in Lafayette."

Visit their website to get the details and let's go join our Cajun cousins!

"GANG MILL" AT CONCESSIONS, NS

We would like to bring your attention to a new posting in our Oral Histories section for Nova Scotia. This was written by Gérard Thériault, our delegate from Nova Scotia and is on the subject of mills, in this case a saw mill at the village of Concessions (44° 16' 51.51"N 66° 4' 22.93" W). Gérard shares with us a most beautiful painting of the mill by Don Dunlop, a Canadian artist from Ottawa.

Please drop in on the "Shores of Nova Scotia" for an interesting visit.

DENIS THÉRIAULT, DECEASED AT AGE 57 YEARS...

It is with deep regret that we announce the death of Denis Thériault, a member of our greater Terriot family, and past President of the "Association des familles Thériault de l'Amérique".

We first met Denis during our preparations for the CMA 2009 in Caraquet, NB. Denis made an appeal to bring together the heads of all Terriot organizations. He was firmly convinced that the family could accomplish more with all organizations working together than by continuing separately. We found him to be dynamic, inclusive in his approach with people and steadfast in his conviction. As a result of his efforts, a coalition was formed between the organizations which has already produced results. We will sorely miss Denis.

On behalf of the entire family, the descendants of Jehan and Perrine Terriot, we convey our most sincere condolences to his loving spouse, his children and his family and to the organization he most loved, the Association des familles Thériault d'Amérique.