A new Terriot is born!

Auriane Grace SimoneThériault

Just received word from Matthieu, our delegate for the Julien and Angelique Thériault Great-Branch from Havre aux Maison, Îles de la Madeleine, that a new Thériault was born a few days ago on 7 May.  It is a little girl whom they have named Auriane Grace Simon, and Matthieu very thoughtfully sent along a photo. 

She is just in time for our new update of our Jehan Terriot Archive which will bring the number of Great-Branches very close to 100, if not 100. 

On reading about MizMo's birthday party on Saturday, Matthieu explained that he would not be able to attend because he's "...Kinda busy right now and a little tired..."  While I understand how Matthieu might be busy, I cannot understand why he might be tired."  But thanks for the thought Matthieu. I know that you don't usually miss a party. :)  Congratulations Matthieu and Manda!

Let the Good Times Roll!

I thought I would let everyone know about a very significant event in Erath, Louisiana this week. Our dear friend Aline Theriot Meaux who we know as "MizMo" and delegate of our Télesphore and Maria Theriot Great Branch will be celebrating the 90th anniversary of her birth in a few days on Saturday, May 26, 2012! Happy Days!

There will be a hot time in town I will tell you. She will be totally surrounded by her family... all of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will be there to celebrate at her daughter, Louise's home in Erath.

Mizmo is a founding member of the Terriot Acadian Family and has made major contributions to our effort at integrating our genealogy and pulling our family together. During our effort to integrate MizMo's Great-Branch in 2000, she worked with Karen Reader and I to untangle the Josephs involved in their two branches:   Joseph dit Le Bonhomme Thériot (1728-1759) and a second Joseph (1732 - before 1796), husband of Madeleine BOURGEOIS.  Joseph THÉRIOT and Madeleine BOURGEOIS is one of the key families in the Terriot Acadian genealogy of Louisiana.  (See Theriot's of Louisiana)

As the author of very significant collection of short histories for "On the Bayou', a section of our family website, she has left us a wonderful legacy that paints a beautiful picture of Acadian life in Louisiana.

Please join with me to wish her a most joyous 90th birthday and to thank her for her dedication and generosity. Post your message to her right here. She will certainly receive it and will respond soon.

Happy Birthday, MizMo! Bonne Fête, chère Aline!

THE TRACKS OF ACADIA IN AMERICA

Just received a note from Guy Thériault of the Association des familles Thériault informing us of a film by André Gladu titled "La piste Acadie en Amérique", or "The Tracks of Acadia in America". The film briefly overviews the history of Acadia but focuses on the aftermath of the 'Great Eviction' in 1755 particularly from  the viewpoint of the Acadians in America today and their contemporary efforts to focus on the acadian culture. The question of whether to liberate the acadian culture or to allow its assimilation to continue is at the forefront of the film. The film is 79 minutes in length which allows significant insight into the thinking and feelings of the acadians on both sides of this question.

ANNOUNCING OUR NEW 'TERRIOT WHO'S WHO'...

The most enjoyable aspect of genealogy is getting to know those in our family who distinguished themselves by doing something special or by being someone special. If you are a member of the Terriot family, here's an invitation:  send us your candidate in your part of the family who you think did something special or was someone special. We are in the process of organizing a Who's Who working group who will review your nominations and will select each to be added to our "Terriot Family Who's Who" list. Send your requests to who@terriau.org

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.