• The Gaudet family

    The Gaudet Family – from Vienne in France to Tignish, Prince Edward Island My genealogical research has given me a very clear progression of the Gaudet family for fourteen generations. The most remote reliable entry I have with dates and places is for Guillaume Francois Louis Gaudet, 1530–1603, who came from the area of Vienne in what is now called the Poitou-Charentes district of France. They left Vienne for North America after 1604 and carried to Canada their customs and social structure. I have never come across a list of the various places in France where the settlers in New France originated. That story is a complicated one, not at…

  • It all began in Acadia

    In my first post of this autobiographical blog, I gave you a brief and superficial overview of the settlement of Lot 1 and parts of Lot 2 first by Acadian refugees in 1799, and a few years later by a group of Irish immigrants who settled in 1812 along the Northumberland Strait where the Norway Road (Route 182) now runs. In only 70 years the Acadian and Irish settlers almost completely filled Lot 1, the Acadians around Tignish Harbour and running north across the lot to Nail Pond, and the Irish, along the North Shore and turning inland. As a result of this the Irish settlements were divided into east…

  • My Story begins with a Secret Acadian Settlement

    Before I talk about myself, I would like you to know something about the world of my maternal Acadian ancestors. I wish to be seen as emerging from this context.   The Acadians and some Frenchmen lived on the Island, which they called Ile St. Jean, from 1720-58. Then they were cruelly got rid of in a major deportation, an act of ethnic cleansing. Because the deportation happened late in the season it was not possible to round up scattered families in the west part of the Island. The British took over and surveyed the complete Island into 67 Lots which were to be owned by English landlords and settled…