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History

1) Early Franco-Americans of Brunswick, Maine

An investigation of the first Franco-Americans of Brunswick based on the U.S. Federal Census, 1840-1900. Includes data on numbers of Franco-Americans, their occupations, average household size, etc. This is a longish article that names names, counts heads and crunches numbers. You have been warned.

2) "French Pride" and the Question of Repression

This article was originally published in Le Forum (University of Maine), and then re-published at the Franco-American Women's Institute site. It was written a couple of years ago and there are parts of it I might write differently now, and a few of the facts have changed, but I've chosen to let it stand as originally written. The article explores whether or not "repression" is an appropriate way to think about the treatment of Franco-Americans in Maine and it includes a detailed account of the (appalling) housing conditions in the worker's tenements where our ancestors lived.

3) Naturalization and Leadership in the Brunswick Franco-American Community

Contrary to most general scholarship on the Franco-Americans, Brunswick's Francos embraced U.S. citizenship. This investigation uses naturalization petitions to trace the early leaders of the Brunswick Franco-American community, who they were, where in Québec they came from, and how the members of the community who became naturalized supported those who were seeking it.

4) Ku Klux Klan Activity in Brunswick

Most Americans think of the Ku Klux Klan as a Southern phenomenon, mainly targeting African-Americans. In the years following the First World War, however, the Ku Klux Klan enjoyed a nationwide revival wielding considerable influence in the North and Midwest, as well as the South. This so-called "Second Klan" aimed its propaganda not only at African-Americans, but also at Catholics, Jews and "foreigners." Brunswick, Maine -- where the vast majority of Catholics and "foreigners" were the relative newcomers from Québec -- had a lively chapter of the KKK in the 1920s. This brief article features press clippings from the period providing a glimpse of a forgotten chapter in Maine history.

5) The Roxton Falls Connection>

L'Islet -- both the village and the county which bear this name -- was the place of origin of the majority of the Brunswick Franco-Americans. However, Roxton Falls, in the Eastern Township region of Québec, was the previous residence of a number of Québécois families who settled in Brunswick, including a couple who were among the earlier French-speaking Brunswick residents to remain in the States. This article explores the Roxton Falls/Brunswick connection.

6) The Wandering Racines and the Rebellion of 1837

My paternal grandparents were second cousins. Their common ancestors were Prudent Racine and his wife Eleonore Combe-dite-Brind'amour. Prudent and Eleonore lived in the Premier Rang or "First Range" of Saint-Charles-sur-Richelieu at the time of the Québec Rebellion of 1837, when the town was destroyed by the British. Not long afterward, the Racine family left Saint-Charles and embarked on a period of wandering (Les Racines Errant?) that would see the next generation scatter far and wide -- from the Eastern Townships of Québec, to Vermont, to Ontario, to Maine, and to Michigan. This article personalizes the long-conjectured connections between the Patriotes Rebellion and the Québec Diaspora of the later 19th Century.

7) Joseph Vermette and His Twenty-Three Children

My great-great grandfather, Joseph Vermette, was the first of our Vermette line to venture beyond the immediate Saint Lawrence Valley area, moving to the outskirts of the Eastern Townships region of Québec. From there, Joseph found his way to Thetford-Mines where he worked in the burgeoning asbestos industry. Along the way, Joseph sired twenty-three children by two wives. This article will discuss Joseph's travels as a catalyst for his children's further moves to Montréal and to the U.S.A. It will also provide a brief account of what became of each of the twenty-three.

8) The Search for Cecile Pilet: Our First Nations Ancestor?>

My paternal grandmother always insisted that she had an "Indian ancestor." Additional evidence, beyond her say-so, confirms that this was a consistently-held belief in her family. However, this is a common -- and in most cases spurious -- claim among many North Americans and so I came to regard the story as quaint legend. However, as my research into our past deepened, and as story after story of Memérè's became substantiated by documentary evidence, I began to give this tale of a Native ancestor more credence. This piece discusses the search for this mysterious First Nations ancestor, traversing a winding trail that leads to Oka, the Algonquin and Iroquois settlement outside of Montréal.

9) Franco-American Cultural Institutions in Brunswick, Maine

Whatever their economic or political challenges, the Franco-Americans of Brunswick appear to have enjoyed a range of arts and entertainments in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. In addition to their religious and mutual aid societies (the Montréal-based Artisans being among the most well-established in the community), Brunswick's Franco-Americans also developed local clubs to pursue the arts. These groups included the Saint John's Band of Brunswick, a long-standing musical institution, and the French-language theater troupe, the Cercle Dramatique Crémazie, named for Octave Crémazie the so-called father of French-Canadian poetry. Brunswick also enjoyed the music of Saint-Pierre's Jazz Band, apparently an all-female, novelty act from the earliest years of the "Jazz Age." This article will also examine a program (on file at the Maine Historical Society) from a musical revue performed by Brunswick Franco-Americans in 1915 as a fund-raiser for the local Catholic parish. A balanced view of this community must include their recreations and cultural expressions, which represented a mix of the traditional patrimoine québecois with such new-fangled Americanisms as Jazz.

Bookmark this page and keep checking back in...after I have filled in all of the articles above, there will be more to come.