Search This Blog

Friday, July 22, 2011

An Indian Princess in your Family Tree.

Have you heard stories about having an Indian or Native American Princess among your ancestors? Have you ever heard your parents say you had Indian or Native American Blood? Well don’t say no right away because it just might be true. I have traced my ancestors ,and I still have not traced all of them but I did find an Indian Princess in my line and if you have Acadian Blood perhaps she is in yours too. First of all I would like to talk about the great chief Madockawando. Found the following articles :

The first documentation of Chief Madockawando was in 1669 when he was described as Chief of the Pentagoets (Penobscots). He was said to be living at Bagaduce near modern day Castine, Maine, which is on the eastern shore of the Penobscot Bay near the mouth of the Penobscot River. Madockawando married a Chief’s daughter from the Kennebec River Valley. This marriage produced many children, most wholly unknown to history except for his daughter Pidianiske. This daughter, later baptized as Marie Mathilde, married a French Nobleman, Jean Vincent d’ Abbadie, the Baron of St. Castin. The Baron was sent to Maine in 1670 and moved from Fort Pentagoet to the local Indian village. Madockawando and the Baron became friends and engaged in trade relations. This relationship, as well as the marriage, helped solidify the alliance between the French and Penobscot in the region.
During the time of King Philip’s War, Chief Madockawando sought peace between the Penobscot and the English and attended many peace meetings with Lt. Governor William Phips of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Phips drafted a treaty that called for the Penobscot to live under English rule and to cut all alliances with the French, but Madockawando and other Penobscot leaders could not agree to these terms. Chief Madockawando tried hard to stay out of King Philip's War, but after the death of his sister due to English attacks on Fort Pentagoet, he and other Penobscots joined the conflict.
On January 25, 1692 Chief Madockawando led 150 Penobscot warriors in an attack on village of York, Maine.(source; Penobscot Culture.com )

Madockawando as chief and Shaman was a soothsayer, clairvoyant, necromancer, exorcist and was in a position to act as a middleman between his people and the powers that meddle with life. He is a "wonder-worker", whose magic was derived from the spiritual and animal world. Indeed, the very ending of his name means mysterious, magical, powerful, miraculous, enabling things to be done supernaturally. He could lead them to game; he could drive out the devils of disease and circumvent the magic of enemies. Ordinary men could fight, but only the man with magic could content with the unseen powers and work out destiny. (also found this online)

Now I would like to talk about his son in law Jean Vincent D’Abbadie de Saint Castin married to Pidianiske later baptized under Marie Mathilde. She was the Indian Princess. The following was found in the Society Historique Acadienne Vol 26.

Jean Vincent D’Abbadie de Saint Castin was born around 1652 he was a descendant of the noble house of Foix-Grailly of Bearn in Gascony. Saint Castin was a descendant of warriors,mercenaries and daredevils. He was a second cousin to one of the Three Musqueteers made famous by Alexandre Dumas. He played a most important role with the Acadians and Abenaki development. He was an ensign with the Carignan-Salieres Regiment with whom he came to New France in 1665. He arrived at Pentagouet (Penobscot) July 17 1670 aboard the Saint -Sebastien with commander Hector d’Andigne de Grandfontaine who established a fort there.

Saint Castin under Governor Frontenac’s orders became a leader of men, both of the Abenaki Nation and of Acadie. He helped restore the fort in Jemsec and established relay posts between the Fort of Pentagouet and Quebec, on behalf of King of France. The Abenaki Nation which consisted of at least ten different tribes made him the “Grand Chief”. He had children by Marie Pidiwamiska also spelled Pidi8amisk8a and Pidianske, and then by her sister Melchide sometimes called Mathilde whom he later married. They were daughters of the supreme chief or grand sachem of the Pentagouets, Madockawando. Saint Castin received a seigneury on the Saint John River Oct 14 1689, adjoining the lands of Jemseg, two leagues along the river and two leagues deep. This seigneury was given with the title of Fief,Seigneury and Justice. The enormous monies Saint Castin brought over from France were used to further the cause of both the Abanaki and Acadian people. He land holdings which he inherited after his brother’s death were vast. On his mother’s side of the family, which included a branch of the House of Foix-Grailly, Saint Castin was descended from the Vicomte Bernard de Bearn. The lands of Saint Castin in France became a part of the family estate in 1581 by the marriage of Bernadine de Luger, Dame de Saint Castin to Jean Pierre d’Abbadie .One of their grandsons was Jean Jacques d’Abbadie de Saint Castin born 1620 married Isabeau de Bearn-Bonasse. She died of the plague in 1652. They were the parents of Jean Vincent d’Abbadie de Saint Castin who was born around 1652 married only once but had children with Marie Pidiwamiska and her sister who he married. Their marriage was blessed in 1684. Twelve children of Jean Vincent d’Abbadie have been identified:

1. Claire Pidwamiska married Paul Meunier son of Jean Meunier and Marguerite Housseau.

2. Therese Pidwamiska married Philippe Mius D’Entremont son of Jacques D’Entremont and Anne de St Etienne de La Tour.

3. Demoiselle (name unknown) married Philippe Meunier .

4. Demoiselle (name unknown) married a Chateauneuf. She is the daughter of Saint Castin that Colonel Benjamin Church took as prisoner to Boston during the raid of 1704 on Penboscot.

5.Anastasie D’Abbadie de Saint Castin married Alexandre Le Borgne de Belle Isle. At her marriage as stated in the Port Royal register, she was said to be the daughter of Melchilde. Alexandre apparently lived at Penobscot, while his wife and children lived in Port Royal. He along with his 2 sons, his brother in law and Father Lauverjat signed the Peace Treaty between the Abenake and the English at Casco Bay in 1727.

6. Bernard d’Abbadie entered the Seminary of Quebec he drowned while on a voyage to France in 1704.

7. Bernard-Anselme d’Abbadie married in Port Royal to Marie Charlotte D’Amour de Chauffours. He was very active in Acadian affair. He kept his family in Port Royal while he lived in Penobscot. In 1707 as Captain of the Infantry he led the Abenaki against the English attack on Port Royal forcing the latter to withdraw for a time.

8. Ursule d’Abbadie de Saint Castin, married to a D’Amour.

9. Jean Pierre d’Abbadie went to the Quebec Seminary speaking an Indian Language. He died of smallpox at the age of ten.

10. Joseph d’Abbadie lived with the Abenaki in 1720 he inherited the title of Baron de Saint Castin. He was chosen great chief and waged guerilla warfare against the New Englanders.

11. An unidentified male D’Abbadie. Documents refer to his drunkenness and argumentative behavior which was eventually the cause of his death from two knife wounds by his nephew.

12. Demoiselle name unknown d’Abbadie , she is said to have been a passenger on the cargo ship, Le Chameau in 1720 coming to Quebec from Ile d’Aix.

Keep on reading to see if you branch into any of the following couples.

Children of Anastasie d’Abbadie de Saint Castin and Alexandre LeBorgne

1. Emmanuel-Alexandre LeBorgne married Marie Leblanc

2.Jacques LeBorgne married Marie Anne Vigneau

3.Marie Josephe LeBorgne married Joseph Dupont

4. Marie Belisle married Francois Robichaud

5.Francoise Belisle married Pierre Robichaud.

As you can see there are two Robichaud lines branching into the Indian Princess line, the following is my line.

Marguerite Robichaud married Etienne Leger

Pierre dit Pitre Robichaud married Agnes Cormier

Francois Robichaud married Francoise Cecile Thibodeau

Francois Robichaud married Madeleine Theriot

Francois Robichaud married Marie Belisle

Anastasie D’Abbadie de Saint Castin married Alexandre LeBorgne de Belisle

Marie Mathilde married Jean Vincent d’Abbadie de Saint Castin.

Madockawando the great Indian Chief.

Now see if you connect to any of the above names thus you will be able to say you have an Indian Princess in your family tree. Now I would like to share some of my products which you can find at

http://www.zazzle.com/allicor*

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Klondike Gold,Genealogy and Frank Breau

First let me tell you a little about the Kondike Gold Rush. In August of 1896 a party led by Skookum Jim Mason including his cousin Dawson Charlie and niece Patsy Henderon were looking for Jim's sister and brother in law ,they headed north down the Yukon River  and found them  fishing salmon in the Klondike River.  At that time they ran into a man from Nova Scotia named Robert Henderson who had been mining gold in the Indian River north of the big dike. On August 16 1896 the Skookum party discovered rich placer gold deposits in Rabbit Creek Yukon and they staked their claims. News of their find travelled through all the mining camps and news reached the USA, Canada, UK, Australia and as far as South Africa. Men from all walks of life left their jobs in hopes of getting rich. Some were teachers, doctors,even mayors. The prospectors coming through the Canadian route crossed the Chilkoot Pass and continued by boats to Dawson via the Yukon River. The Chilkoot Pass was the main Canadian route to the Klondike. From 20,000 to 30,000 crossed this path during the Gold Rush of 1897,1898. The North West Mounted Police set up a check point at the top of the pass collecting duties and making sure that each prospector had at least one years supply of provisions before being allowed to go through to the Yukon River.
Dawson City sprang into existence within a year it had a population of 5000, in two years the population grew to 30,000 making it one of the largest cities west of Winnepeg ,larger than Vancouver and even Victoria. Following the prospectors  came the saloon keepers,dance hall girls, movie theatres and hospitals. Now what does this have to do with Frank Breau and genealogy? Well first of all Frank Breau was a career prospector who came from Grande Digue New Brunswick  who wanted to go searching for gold.  He was convinced that his fortune was buried somewhere in the creek beds of the Yukon River. He arrived in Yukon in 1897 and never left. He died on November 16 1912 around the age of 59, still dreaming of finding the mother lode. After a lifetime of prospecting he left his heirs the grand total of $24.15.  I went to the genealogy center looking to find more information about this Frank Breau born in Grande Digue. I found his family and also came across a letter he had written home which I shall share with you.  I shall translate the letter for you; Dated September 1 1897, Letter from FrankBreau to his brother Peter L Breau in Shediac NB from Dawson City.
Dear brother, I am very satified with the country. I work on the buildings in the city. I am not a first class carpenter but we are building houses piece by pieces. There is lots of work outside of the mines. The miners are not doing too much at the moment, we are getting ready for winter. I went to the mines to meet friends as old as the mines. These are folks are weathy with riches unknown this far. Many mine proprietors are making many work part time. Me I am waiting to work full wages all winter at $1.50 an hour, but if I see the miners are making better than me part time I will try to work Part time. The wages here are $10.00 to $15.00  a day.
Four boats filled with provissions  arrived last week, so the prices are lower.  I seen refusing $20.00 for a fresh salmon a few days ago but today we get them for $5.00. I seen some egg cartons selling for 10 dollars a carton, potatoes one dollar  a pound. I was offere 75 cents a pound for my bacon but I didn't want to sell. I have enough for my winter, also sugar, beans, onions and condensed milk, but I am short of flour and butter. I have tea ,coffee and plenty of clothes. There is a lot of activity in Dawson there are a dozen saloons, 6 stores, 4 restaurants but no hotel yet. We pay $1.50 a meal. Moose meat is our only fresh meat, it sells for one dollar a pound, cut wood sells for 140 dollars a mile and the logs 40 dollars. The logs are preferred for building the houses. The climate is very warm, we have  frequent thunderstorms and lightning and the mosquitos are counted as millions. There are a few doctors here and Dr Philippe Leblanc says he does much better here than in the east. He lives a few steps from my place. Our river is beautiful but it demands a lot of work to avoid the rocks and climb the rapids. My associate is at the top of the river getting some logs. I wish you happiness and luck, I remain your affectionate brother Frank Breau. PS My address is Dawson City, Yukon River, Alaska, via Juneau.
Now Franks obituary said he had 3 brothers ,some in New Bedford MA, he had Aime, Wilfred and Theophile, Pierre could have been dead because he wasn't mentioned. So I searched for these men and found they were the sons of Lazarre Breau and Celeste Bourgeois. Lazarre Breau was the son of Joseph Breau and Rosalie Bourque, Joseph Breau was the son of Joseph Breau and Anne Surette. Joseph Breau was the son of Amand Breau and Theotiste Bonnevie. Now this Joseph Breau married to Rosalie Bourque was the brother to my Luc Breau. This is why I was interested in knowing his family line or genealogy. I hope you have enjoyed today's blog. Now I would like to share a few of my products to be found at http://www.zazzle.com/allicor*
 

Sunday, July 10, 2011

The Wooden Pump Story.

Wooden Pumps for taking water from wells were in fairly common use throughout the Atlantic Provinces eighty or more years ago,but it is doubtful that there is even one in use today. They are gone like the wooden ships and may be seen only in museums like the Moncton Acadian Museum and and the New Ross Museum in Nova Scotia. A spirit of enterprise,skill and a great deal of hard physical labor was needed for the job of converting a spruce tree into a useful and dependable water pump.The art of making these pumps must be regarded now ans a lost art, for most of the men who made them and installed them are long gone.
Mister J.L .Curran of  Charlottetown was one of the few men who could say he had seen the wooden pump make and used them. Mister Andre Hebert of Moncton and formerly of Bouctouche who had celebrated his 94 birthday in 1971 gave a very interesting description of the methods which his father and he used in the making of the pumps including the work a boring a hole straight through a log boring from each end and meeting in the middle. During the off season for farming, Mr.Hebert had said in order to obtain a little extra cash (something that was scarce is those days) the father and son would set out on a two or three weeks selling tour,taking along an express wagon ,their special pump tools and also a sufficient number of the hardwood valves,bolts etc for the making of perhaps a half dozen wooden pumps. If business on the trip turned out to be good, the blacksmiths and carriage builders in the communities could be pressed into service to make additional pump parts, once they had been furnished with models from which to work. As they travelled about New Brunswick, many miles from their home near Bouctouche, they found that many of the wells already were equipped with a bucket which was hung on a pulley and most familiar in New Brunswick was the well sweep which consisted of a bucket and a wooden rod attached to one end of a balanced pole, not to different design from the ancient shadoof of Egypt which as a means of raising water from the Nile for irrigation  was in use as early as 1000 BC.
The first problem confronting the pump man was to convince the prospective customer that a wooden pump would provide an easier and faster way of drawing water from his well. If necessary in order to close a difficult sale, the pump man would guarantee that the pump which would make and install would pump a bucket of water with four good strokes. When the hour came to demonstrate the performance of the pump, Mister Hebert said, "I would make sure that those four strokes were really good strokes." So it seems the travelling pump man had to possess the soul of a salesman as well as that of a timberman and a hydraulic engineer.  The contract price for the pump called for so much cash, maybe 15 or 20 dollars and board and lodging for man and beast. A visit was made to a nearby woodlot, where a suitable tall straight tree was picked and brought in ,from which to make the pump. White spruce was preferred, with fir a poor second as fir tended to contain what they called "faulty knots" which would allow the pump to leak. Any knots of this kind had to be bored out clean, and a dry pine plug was driven into the hole.
Only a good healthy live tree could be used to make a pump. The dry hard central part of the log was immediately bored out, and this permitted the outer green part of the wood to shrink inward without developing checks or splits. The art of boring lengthwise through a log to ake water pipes was not new when first it was undertaken in these Provinces. Actually the art  was known in Europe as early as the year 1600 AD but it is interesting to speculate as to just who brought the art of pipe making and particularly the art of pump making to this country. Could it be the Acadians? Could it have been the Irish or Scots, or English? Today no person would would of undertaking to dig an open well by the old pick and shovel and hoist method, in which a hole around six feet square had to be dug down to the full depts, being temporary shored as the digging progressed, after which a permanent stone wall was built up from the solide rock level to the surface. My late husband once told me he remembered his father digging such a well. Among the men who made and intalled the wooden pumps in the south eastern part of New Brunswick were the Worthmans of Boundary Creek, and the Jardines  and Scotts of the Petitcodiac area. Competition from other types of pumping systems eventually came in to bring an end to the day of the wooden pump. Fred Jones of Moncton produced a pump which employed an endless chain fitted with  rubber discs which drew the water up through a pipe when a crank was turned. Then in swift succession came the iron factory made pumps and the windmill pumps, which are a story in themselves, but they are  practically all gone now. When  a well was required later, the proceedure was to get a well drilling crew  to drive a casing pipe down in bed rock level, drilling on down usually with a four  inch diameter hole until hopefully a source of water was found sufficent to supply an electric jet pump. The wooden pump and the dug well both belong to an era which has passed, but in looking back over this part of our history we cannot but be impressed at the energy,skill and perseverence with which those men undertook the job of winning the water from the ground. I found this article in the Societe Historique Acadienne  and wanted to share it with you. I hope you have found it as interesting as I have.
Now I would like to share just a few of my products with you which you can find at http://www.zazzle.com/allicor*

Friday, July 8, 2011

Who is Zazzy Allicor?

Hello everyone, well if you google zazzy allicor or zazzyallicor some of the results will bring you to blogs , to a newspaper, and maybe even some comments. What is so special about zazzy allicor? Well to me it is special because I am zazzy allicor on many sites. Now let me explain a little. First of all as most of you know I have a zazzle store . It is a store I started but never thought I could manage or succeed with it. It is another one of my hobbies as if I don't have enough. grin.  I wanted to start a blog relating to it and I thought of a lot of names but zazzyallicor had a ring to it ,at least I thought it did. So I created a blog on Zblog and used zazzyallicor. I need to find my password and start blogging there again, but right now I am surrounded by boxes, moving boxes. So I will get at my Zblog asap. Now recently as I was on twitter, yes I am on twitter but not as zazzyallicor I am there as alliecor, anyway I got a message that my twits about my products were being seen on a newspaper!  A newspaper? I thought to myself, how can that be possible, well I found out I could create my own newspaper, well of course I created one and named it what else but Zazzy Allicor's Newspaper, now this paper is not about me, I only have my comments but this paper focusses on other news and products.  Now I really got interested in this newspaper what other newspaper could I create? I know I will create something related to Genealogy because as you must know by now I love genealogy, am addicted to genealogy grin so I needed a new name ,could not call the paper zazzyallicor , so the next best thing was Allicor, so Allicor's Newspaper was formed. If you google these papers you will know they were created by me. Maybe there will be something of interest in them .
I am on Facebook but not under either of these names, you can find me through some of my Facebook groups, one is relating to genealogy called Trails of Our Ancestors, one is all about photos of New Brunswick, called Old Photos of New Brunswick Canada group, another one is Williams dit Bristol group, another one is Our Kitchen's Best Cookbook so if you are on Facebook come join me.
Back to genealogy ,I have a website I created quite some time back which I honestly should be adding new things on, it is called Acadian Roots its url is http://www.acadian-roots.com   There you will find lots of genealogy related items such as cemeteries of New Brunswick, a few from PEI, a few from Nova Scotia, some from USA, census, parish records, stories, photos,tragic stories and much more,so I hope you will stop by and check it out
Now my store url is http://www.zazzle.com/allicor*    ,I have lots of stuff there, so if you want to stop even to window shop please do so.
Do you think I am a busy lady? Well you don't know the half of it, I have two groups on yahoo, two genealogy groups, right now it is summertime so the groups are probably out on vacations one group is my main group it is called acadianrootsclub  we have over 500 members listed, not sure if they still stop by but that group is by invite only, I had to do that way because we were having trouble with it in the past so to avoid spam I made it private, and I have another group called petiteacadienne, that group was created as sort of a back door to get into my main group acadianrootsclub , there are quite a few members there also. Then I have a group called Chat n Brag on myfamily.com  which is also by inviite only, and has to be approved by the members that are there already. So am I busy yet? grin. Well now I have joined a lot of groups on Facebook too, Yvon Cyr has a great acadian cajun group, Louisiana has one too, I belong to Lorraine Coulombe's group, to United Kingdom groups, to Leger, Gallant,Richard, Chate groups, and I don't remember them all. Whew! No wonder I am tired. haha. And I am in the process of moving, so in case some of you are asking how come I am not seen too much? "Now you know the rest of the story".
I am sharing a few of my latest thing from my zazzle store hope you like them.
Chow for now
zazzyallicr  aka Allicor aka Aline......

Sunday, July 3, 2011

School Days & Genealogy

Like the song says "school days, school days, good old fashion school days. Reading and writing and Arithmetic" . And the song goes on. I remember when I was little oh so very very long ago. "grin"  I remember how excited and how nervous I was on the first day of school. Mom always made sure I had a new outfit to wear, new shoes, new dress, new coat. She kept on the tradition passed on by her mother. She told me that during her days, every spring and fall my grandmother would order their clothes from the old Eaton's Catalogues, she would order the clothes one size larger so that when the time came for the children to wear the clothes they would fit. In those days everyone wore hats, and Mom told me she remembers one year  grandmother had to go work and Mom waited for the order to arrive, as soon as it did, Mom got all dressed up, new dress, new stocking, new shoes and a new hat and she decided to walk to school thinking she had lots of time to get there. Arriving in school , she went inside and sat at her desk feeling so proud in her new outfit, she had barely sat down with the teacher rang the bell "Class Dismissed". Getting back to when I went to school, as I said the first day  I was nervous because I was having a new teacher and new classmates. I remember we had nuns teaching us, dressed in their black outfits,winter or summer, still in those black outfits. I often wondered if they were warm in those outfits. But it didn't stop them from doing things, I had a nun who used to go out at recess and play baseball with the kids (we used to call it bat the ball) and could this nun ever run. Back then it didn't cost as much as it does today to go to school, we didn't have to pay yearly fees like they do today. I don't know how parents with large families can afford it. And the higher the grades the more expensive it gets.  And we had no school buses to take us to school, and there were no school cancellations back then. I remember walking to school in a snowstorm, I would wear  skipants with my dress over them and Mom would tie a scarf over my mouth,along with mittens and a hat and off to school I went, over snow banks that back then were high and because I was little they seemed huge to me. Walking in the snow and sinking deep into it  but school was not cancelled and it was important to go.Once I got to school had to take off the skipants and the teacher would help with the scarf. I believe having a good education is a must, it is very important for the future. Now what does school have to do with genealogy? I went to the genealogy center a long while back and I found school papers that had my mother and my father listed with all the names of their classmates, age,grade, number of days absent, and the names of the teacher. I also found my first eight grades which I have copied and saved. These are good things to have and these are notes that should be added while doing our genealogy or family trees. I am sharing these stories with you so you will see that it would be nice for our grandchildren or great grandchildren to one day read about us, about our lives, our youth, our dreams ,our likes and dislikes and our favorite memories. Remember when we are gone, so are our memories so now is the time to write them down, and write them down in case someday we lose our memory.
Now as I usually do I would like to share a few products I created in my store at  http://www.zazzle.com/allicor*    Hope you liked todays blog . Until next time
Chow for now.

Friday, July 1, 2011

Views on Adoptions

Today I would like to talk a little about adoptions. I believe it is a great thing for one to adopt a child, give it a home and lots of love. But there is something that I think should be taken into consideration and that is  knowing who the true parents are and to let the child know it. It is fine for the adoption parents to bring up the child as their own, I agree with it. But these days strange things can happen. The child that you adopt grows up and meets someone ,falls in love and marry. What if that child meets a sister or brother and they don't know it and they fall in love? This has happened before. I heard the story today but I had heard about a story a while back that these two teens met and fell in love and come to find out they were sister and brother. Can you imagine the shock it must have been to the both of them?  For the parents who are giving the child away, you don't want them to know who you are? I understand at the time you probably thought you had a good reason for giving the baby away, but you should always say when the child is old enough that he can find out who you are .Now days ,getting pregnant seems like an every day thing, it is not a scandal like the olden days, it is not hush hush.Many young girls get pregnant , many keep their babies but some give them away, you as a parent should let it be known you want the child to know where he comes from. Also another thing, if the adopted child gets sick maybe he or she inherited the sickness from their real parents, so again the real parents should be known. I am into genealogy so I personally think the child has a right to know his true ancestors. Remember ,even if the adopted child finds his birth parents, it doesn't mean he or she will love you less, you have brought the child up as your own, for all those years you were his parent , but that child will wonder and want to know one day where he or she came from. Let your adopted child know  the truth, let him or her decide if they want to go further with the information. There could be siblings out there somewhere wondering what happened to their brother or sister and maybe they would like to meet the child. If you as the real parent gave up the child because of the child's father, not wanting him to know where the child is, let that go, it is the child that is important, that child did not ask to be born but it was given life by you and that child should not be punished  and honestly should know its true parents. My sister adopted a baby girl and she did the right thing, when the baby was old enough she was told she was adopted and who her mother was, and this girl met her true mother and she doesn't love my sister any less for it. It seems to put a closure on unanswered questions.
Changing the subject now. I am still creating products, some of them I am proud of, you can find all of my stuff at http://www.zazzle.com/allicor*   ,
Chow for now Allicor