Saturday, January 5, 2008

On this day in Our Islands History

In 1794, the first parish assembly was held at the church at the foot of the Demoiselles mountain. The verbal process of this assembly is written in an absolute order is accurately preserved in the parish registers of Amherst Island.


- From the chronicle's of historian Father Frédéric Landry
Événements Historiques Agenda (Septembre 1993 à Septembre 1994)

If anyone has any ideas on the subject, please feel free to make suggestions in the comment section of this posting!

1 comment:

dennis said...

Hi Mr. Currie,

This is Dennis Boudreau, Madelinot genealogy researcher from the United States, and compiler of the Dictionnaire généalogies des familles des Iles-de-la-Madeleine. I very much enjoy your blog on the Islands, and its people and history. Thank you for making it available, as I read it daily.

My grandfather Alphonse (à Nectaire) Boudreau emigrated from Havre-Aubert in 1923 with my grandmother, Vénéda (à Constant) Doucet, and my two uncles (still babies), settling in North Providence Rhode Island (USA), where I presently live.

Just a short comment on this date's blog. The three elected parish officials, Louis Boudrot, syndic, Nicolas COrmier and Joseph Bourgeois, marguilliers (trustees) were all my direct ancestors. So you can see my family participated very closely in the set-up and running of the Havre-Aubert parish from its inception in 1794.

In addition, Fr. Charles-N. Boudreau, the Island's first native pastor there was the brother of my great-great-grandfather, Hyppolite Boudreau. And the late Fr. François Boudreau was my grandfather's godson. I have been back to the Islands on several occasions to visit our relatives and personally I hold a deep reverence for the Magdalens, for its traditions, natural beauty, wealth of history, and people of truly great warmth and hospitality (after all, many of them are my cousins). My other grandparents (maternal side) are Alcide (à Félix) Gaudet from Cap-aux-Meules, and his wife Amanda Vigneau, the first Madelinot couple to settle here in 1908. Their arrival acted as a magnet for at least 30 Islands couples to come to this corner of Rhode Island, among whom were members of the Arseneau, Cyr, Petitpas, Cormier, Lapierre, Vigneau, Renaud, Leslie, Boudreau and Gaudet families. In total, this first generation doubled and by the third generation some 150+ descendants lived here back in the 1950s and 1960s. Since then, many have passed away or moved away, but I remember most of them from my childhood.

As you can see, I am very proud of my Madelinot heritage! Keep up the great work on your blog and again thanks for making it available to the far-flung Madelinot family. It is much appreciated. Happy New Year to you too and hopefully, I'll have more comments for you in the future, while although I don't live there, I am very familiar with the Islands' history and its people from my personal research.

Sincerely, Dennis