Silver Lining , livre ebook

Inspiring Voices - Porche Voelker Ollie Ann

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

193 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

This is the story of a real family.After years of unrest and threats of deportation by the English, in 1750 a number of Acadian families flee from their prosperous wheat farms in Acadie (renamed Nova Scotia by the English), to live in French-controlled le Saint-Jean (Prince Edward Island). For nine-year-old Pelagie Benoist, this is the beginning of almost thirty-five years of displacement and searching for a place to call home.After five difficult years in le Saint-Jean, Pelagies family moves to the Fortress of Louisbourg on Ile Royale. They live a very different life in this fortified town, which has a busy port and a thriving fishing industry. Their peaceful existence ends when war is officially declared between France and England in the spring of 1756. The civilians inside the fortress can only wait, knowing the English will attack.Louisbourg is captured by the English in 1758, and all Acadians are deported to France. After twenty-six years of wandering, hardship, and suffering, including the loss of many loved ones, Pelagie finally has a chance to move to Louisiana. Will this be the home shes been searching for? Or will it be one more disappointment? A very moving and compelling piece. Anne Marie Lane Jonah, historian at the Fortress of Louisbourg, Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, Canada.I really enjoyed reading the manuscript and I congratulate you for this wonderful contribution to our common history and heritage. Maurice Basque, scientific advisor, Institut dtudes Acadiennes, Universit de Moncton, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.

Sujets

Historical fiction

Informations

Publié par	Inspiring Voices
Date de parution	16 octobre 2014
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781462410583
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0240€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Copyright © 2014 Ollie Ann Porche Voelker.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Inspiring Voices
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.inspiringvoices.com
1 (866) 697-5313

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4624-1057-6 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4624-1058-3 (e)

Inspiring Voices rev. date: 10/14/2014
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1 English Soldiers
2 Leaving
3 Traveling through Snow
4 The Mountains
5 Crossing the Strait
6 Île Saint-Jean
7 Our New Home
8 Good Times and Bad
9 Hunger
10 Terrible News
11 A Difficult Decision
12 Louisbourg
13 Our New Town
14 A New Friend
15 Learning to Enjoy Life in Louisbourg
16 Bad News
17 Waiting for News
18 Yves
19 Excitement
20 French and English Ships
21 September Storm
22 A Busy Winter
23 Our Wedding
24 Married Life
25 Threat of War
26 Closer and Closer
27 War
28 Surrender
29 Prisoners of War
30 A Letter
31 Leaving Again
32 Sickness
33 France
34 St. Malo
35 Françoise
36 More Bad News
37 Hoping
38 Joy and Sorrow
39 Hope and Sorrow
40 Coping
41 Another Decision
42 Nantes
43 Waiting
44 Saying Goodbye
45 Another Ocean Voyage
46 New Orleans
47 River Voyage
48 Clearing the Land
49 My Cabin
50 Adapting to a Strange, New Land
Epilogue
Afterword
Author’s Notes
Pronunciation Guide and Glossary
Bibliography
Genealogy

Also by Ollie Ann Porche Voelker
Home at Last: An Acadian Journey

In loving memory of my parents
Annie Erick Giroir Porche
who did the initial genealogical research
which provided the spark for me
to embark upon this journey
and
Roland Joseph Porche
who was a descendant of Pelagie Benoist
This is the story of my great-great-great-great-grandmother Pelagie Benoist (Benoit), an Acadian. It is also the story of thousands of Acadians who were deported from Nova Scotia between 1755 and 1759, and settled in Louisiana years later. They were people of strength, faith, courage, and love of family. This story is for their descendants, to help them take pride in their heritage.
Acknowledgements
In the early 1970s my mother, along with one of my paternal aunts, Ola Porche, and a paternal second cousin, Mona LeGrand, spent many hours in libraries pouring through books, researching one branch of my father’s family as far back as Martin Benoist, who sailed from France to Nova Scotia in 1671. Although my parents mentioned a few of the events in the life of my great-great-great-great-grandmother Pelagie Benoist, I didn’t take much notice until I went through my parents’ papers after their deaths. I found family trees, copies of birth, marriage, and death records, and also several letters from Mona in which she mentioned additional genealogical information she had found. She made Pelagie so real that I knew this was a story that needed to be told. For all your time and effort before home computers, thanks Mom, Ola, and Mona.
Special thanks to three people who answered my many questions, and then read my manuscript for historical accuracy: Maurice Basque, scientific advisor at the Institute of Acadian Studies at the University of Moncton in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada; Anne Marie Lane Jonah, historian at the Fortress of Louisbourg in Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, Canada; and Warren Perrin, chairman of the Acadian Museum in Erath, Louisiana and President of CODOFIL. I appreciate their time and input far more than I can say. If there are any mistakes, they are mine.
Thanks to A.J.B. Johnston, Canadian historian and author of five of the books about Louisbourg that I used in my research, who willingly answered my questions about religion in Louisbourg. To Alan Matherne at the LSU AgCenter for information about the flow of bayous, and Chris Bonura at the Port of New Orleans for information about sailing up the Mississippi River. Also, thanks to the staff of Wildlife and Fisheries in Lafourche Parish, and the county agent in St. Charles Parish for answering my questions about wildlife and crops in these two parishes.
Many thanks to my critique partners: Jodie Harris, Carole Ford, Renelle Folse, Judy Creekmore, Carol Ashley, Candy Olsen, and Regina Gautreaux for their friendship, time, support, and helpful suggestions, and also for the smiles and even occasional tears as we read what I wrote about Pelagie’s experiences. They lived with this story for several years. Judy not only became familiar with Pelagie during our regular meetings, but also reread the manuscript after completion to see how it flowed. Again, thanks to all of you for making our meetings enjoyable and something to look forward to—even when we discussed the tragedies of Pelagie’s life.
One of the important reasons for this venture was to give my family a glimpse of their heritage. Hugs to them for their encouragement and support: to my children Kathryn and Steve Walker, Heidi Voelker Davis, Eric Voelker, and Cindy and Stan Bonis; my grandchildren Kaitlin and Ethan Walker; Rhett, Tess, and Brynn Davis; and Annie and Blaine Bonis. To my husband, Bill, for reading my manuscript and putting up with my countless hours of research and writing. Many thanks.
Extra thanks to my daughter Heidi for drawing the picture for the front cover, and to my son-in-law Stan for removing the tourists from the pictures that my husband and I took at the Fortress of Louisbourg.
Thanks to Gerald and Helen Crochet who shared the information they had about Yves Crochet—Gerald’s ancestor and mine. Also to Vic Estelle who sent information about Martin Benoist, and to Diana and Tommy LeBlanc for the use of his books for my research.
And to all of my family and friends who continue to encourage me—merci beaucoup.
Introduction
The majority of Acadians were unable to read and write at the time of the deportation. For this reason, accounts of the daily lives of these people are mainly stories passed down orally through generations until someone put them in writing. Much of the official paperwork during the lives of the Acadians was destroyed or lost, although some was found by historians in France, England, and Quebec.
I obtained my information about my great-great-great-great-grandmother Pelagie Benoist and her family from census records, church records of births, deaths, and marriages, and also ship records and land holdings. From these documents, I traced Pelagie’s travels from Nova Scotia to Prince Edward Island (Île Saint-Jean), to Cape Breton Island (Île Royale), to France, and finally to Louisiana. I found enough information to know this is a story that has to be told. Through countless hours of research, I found general information about the Acadians in each area where Pelagie and her family lived, and used it to write a probable story of Pelagie’s life. All of the dates are accurate except possibly the year of Pelagie’s birth (listed by historians as either 1741 or 1742) and dates of births and deaths of her ancestors (sometimes listed “about …”).
The information presented about Pelagie’s parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, husband, children, and grandchildren was found through similar research.
Some genealogists list Pelagie’s parents as Abraham Benoist and Angélique Vincent, since they had a daughter named Pelagie, who was born in 1742. Initially, I thought this Pelagie was my ancestor, but further research provided different information. • The marriage record of my ancestor Yves Crochet identifies his wife, Pelagie Benoist, as the daughter of Claude Benoist and Elisabeth Terriot. • According to Stephen A. White, famed Acadian genealogist at the Center of Acadian Studies at the University of Moncton in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada, and author of Genealogy Dictionary of Acadian Families, Abraham Benoit, Paul Benoit, their wives, and all their descendants (except for one of Paul’s daughters) suffered the fate which I discuss in this book. • Finally, I contacted Louis Benoit, author of Histoire, Notes et Généalogie sur la Famille Acadienne Benoit, who stated that the ancestor we have in common was Pelagie-Blanche, born in 1741, daughter of Claude Benoist and Elisabeth Terriot. He believes the reason for the confusion about her parents was because the eleven-year-old daughter of Claude and Elisabeth was listed as Lablanche in a 1752 Île Saint-Jean census.
Pelagie and her relatives were people who actually lived at the times and in the places discussed in this book. With the few exceptions listed below and those in the Author’s Notes at the end of the book, their stories are factual, based on genealogical research and the history of the Acadians. Their friends and neighbors are representative of people who might have lived at that time. The priests and nuns were real people, and the events are all part of