American-Canadian Genealogist, Vol. 37, Issue #130, 4th Quarter 2011
Table of Contents |
President’s Letter
Editor’s Page, Pauline Cusson, #2572 .................................................................................. 117
From Other Publications
Laurent Autotte, #3505 ................................................................................................ 118
Pierre Fontaine dit Bienvenue
Joseph Reilly #5535 .................................................................................................... 122
Book Review
Teton County, Montana: A History
Jeanne Boisvert #6394 ............................................................................................... 126
Ancestor Among the French Nobility
Anne Morddel, CG author of The French Genealogy Blog ........................................... 130
The Desclos Family of Photographers in Nashua, NH
Louise E. Desclos #674 ............................................................................................... 132
Biography of Antoine Gérin-Lajoie ............................................................................. 141
J.E.N. Duclos Artist and Photographer – Yukon Territories
Louise E. Desclos #674 ............................................................................................... 146
Pierre Duclaux dit Laneuville Régiment Languedoc
Dictionary of Canadian Biography ................................................................................ 150
Queries and Answers
Mary Anna Paquette, #2378 ........................................................................................ 151
New Members
Bernadette Meunier, #9489 ................................................................................................ 152
Important Notices ......................................................................................................................... 153
Surname Index for Volume 37 .................................................................................... end of Issue
President’s Page
Gerard
Savard, #4972 – acgs@acgs.orgAs a result of our fall elections, we start our new year with a
strong group of Officers and Directors. I would like to personally thank
Pauline
that was left as a result of Pauline Cote's passing.
As we begin to wrap up the year I look back at the setbacks and
accomplishments that have occurred over the past year. It is always with
great sadness that we remember the passing of some of our longtime members, many
of them deeply involved in the activities of our
society. You will always be remembered!
On a positive note, I am encouraged by the fact that some of our
members, who, after getting familiar with the things that we do, are
getting involved in our society's projects by providing time, expertise and new
ideas.
We are embarking upon improved ways of photographing,
transcribing and proofreading church records in order to publish our
repertoires.
Our newest venture will be to give our transcribers the ability to do data entry
on the internet. We are striving to get away from our
DOS based data entry system (Yes, DOS! 1980s!). Thanks to one of our members, we
were introduced to an internet based solution
that requires no technical knowledge to use.
As you can tell, I'm quite excited about this since it will open
up record transcribing to volunteers who previously felt intimidated by
the technical aspects of navigating through the database menus and dealing with
floppy disks, flash storage devices, etc. No more lost
data due to power failures, computer crashes or hitting the wrong button. The
end result is a user friendly system that will significantly
cut down on the use of paper copies, mailing costs and overall frustration.
Since publications are an important resource for the
genealogical community as well as a major source of income to ACGS, I thank
everyone involved for helping us continue this monumental
effort. We now have over 140 repertoires!
My heartfelt thanks to everyone who supports us financially
through their membership and donations. Over the past
year, it has allowed us to continue publishing our excellent journal, the
Genealogist, as well as purchase much need replacement
equipment such as the microfilm scanner/viewer, a new copier for the use of our
patrons and a few new computers. We have
also increased our library holdings significantly, adding many new publications
from other societies.
As in the past, a large amount of our income this past year was
used to maintain our building. Heating and electricity are big
budget items, as well as necessary boiler and roof repairs. Our goal over the
next year is to address some issues that have
arisen with the exterior of our building. The masonry around the windows has
deteriorated to the point where it is wise to
have it repaired. That, along with a general cleaning of the exterior should
assure us many more productive years in our 'home'.
Finally, many of the things that we accomplish would be
impossible without the dedication of our volunteers, officers,
directors, committees and you, our members.
We look forward to everyone's continued involvement. We intend to strive to keep our society ,fresh'. You can help!
Did you hear about something great that another society is
doing? Did you hear a speaker that would be of interest to our
members at our next conference? Do you have an idea that would benefit us? Let
us know.
Happy Holidays to everyone.
Our best wishes for a Healthy, Happy and Prosperous New Year.
Editor’s Page
Pauline
Cusson #2572 - pcusson@acgs.orgOnce again I've learned a great lesson from our authors -
perseverance, perseverance, perseverance! Since genealogy is our passion,
it sometimes gets in the way of seeing the story behind the facts. Conversely,
sometimes the story gets in the way of
seeing the facts. We went on such a trip in this issue.
Anyone who has been around our library on a busy day learns
quickly that this is not your typical library. We chat and discuss
roadblocks that people have encountered and occasionally someone just mentions
an interest in a particular person, and an article
begins to unfold. We were lucky to have captured such a story [actually two
stories].
Some of you may have noticed from the last issue that I was
lured into the stories of the California Gold Rush when I discovered
there were thousands of French who came from France to seek their fortune [or
not]. One Saturday, Louise
came into the library to re-activate her membership from many years ago. She mentioned the Desclos family of photographers
from Nashua that you will see is a story in itself. In a continued discussion, she mentioned this one Duclos photographer,
also from Nashua, who ventured out to the Yukon Territory in 1898 to record for history, the events of the Gold Rush
that were unfolding at the turn of the century. It sparked my interest and from there we collaborated with volunteer
librarian, Rich Guillmette and many of Louise's family members, to chase down what turned out to be two very interesting
stories. Sometimes the facts contradicted what the families believed to be true from newspaper articles but, in the end, we used
our resources and blended the possibilities with a little probability and developed the two articles we hope you will enjoy.
We also have another new author who wanted to give us his
perspective of his French ancestors after having been raised
in an Irish environment. Even with an Irish name like Joseph
in a great article on Pierre Fontaine dit Bienvenue that he had translated for his family. He was gracious enough to get
permission from the original publisher and the translator to print the article in this journal for our members.
Jeanne
Boisvert continues to review books we have in our library. We are missing a lot of good information forthose ancestors who left the normal migrations to New England and ventured out to the Midwest and Northwest in
search of adventure. Her intent is to discover and pass along the stories of those brave people. If you've got one or
two of those moving targets in your line that you've not been able to track, these book reviews may uncover that nugget of
information you've been chasing for years.
Larry
Autotte continues to go through journal after journal that comes into our library in exchange of journals from othersocieties. It's one of those volunteer services that we don't appreciate until we discover the listing of an article on one of
our elusive ancestors leading us to “the rest of the story” as Paul Harvey used to say.
Enjoy this issue and may it spark a future article for us to appreciate.