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Mary had previously communicated with Lloyd Boucher, a distant cousin from the Tracadie area. Thursday we met Lloyd who was wearing his new "Chez DesLauriers- Pomquet, NS" t-shirt. Still have to get one of these to promote and show off the famous name and historical value. Mary and Lloyd talked a while about certain clarifications. Placide DeLorey’s farm is located south of Petipas farm confirmed through census taken at the time because of the order of names on the census. Beloni DeLorey’s farm is near St. Peter’s Church.
Many of the people who settled at Tracadie came from Chezzetcook, near Halifax. Many of those who settled at Havre Boucher came from Arichat, on Isle Madame, Cape Breton. Generations before the immigration these were all mixed together in France. Many relatives from both areas if the mystery is ever unwound. Genealogy is like a multiple level crossword puzzle to me, with interlocking relationships cropping up all over due to marriages within small communities over many generations.
Lloyd has many requests for information from all provinces, states, territories and Australia. He started researching genealogy in 1968 when he was at university and has been hooked since. He is descended from four of the original five DesLauriers brothers- all except Thomas. We are descended from two of these. Ergo, Lloyd is another cousin.
He has copied church records, part of the value given to local and lifelong residents. There are only a few Mormons in the area, enough to support a temple in Halifax and a church in New Glasgow. Often Mormons provide excellent records of ancient times.
Lloyd is fifty years old and on pension from teaching French, English, History, Geography and Biology in seventh through twelfth grades in Monastery, NS. He has almost fully recovered from a stroke that he had last year. He has a daughter and a son, twenty-two and twenty-one years old. Both have attended St. Francis Xavier in Antigonish. She received undergrad degree in computer math and is going on to NB for teaching.
He took us on a tour of the countryside, first to his family property just past TCH, one-half mile south of old HWY 4. A beautiful view of Havre Boucher. We drove out Linwood Harbour Road north then west along the coast. Stopped and took photos of Delorey Island and panoramic view of where Charles Jacquet dit DesLauriers used to live. The channel was opened in 1867 but is filled in now. The wind is out of the north and blowing strong with gray skies. We went to Lloyd’s home and he showed us Cemetery Point on East Side of Tracadie Harbour. This is where the first church stood and the first cemetery was located. Our photo shows St. Peter’s in the background.
We went by where a Dadeau relation lived behind Duykers Greenhouse and up the hill to where Lloyd believes our ancestor Placide DeLorey’s original farm stood. This is about one mile west of Boyle Road. We took two panoramic photos, the one with milepost 102 shows white pine forest and fields where Placide used to live, the other to the southwest from the same location. Next we went north on Mayette Road to Delorey Island. Beautiful vistas in all directions. We spotted a blue heron while crossing the causeway. Again took photos with St. Peter’s in the background. Setting foot on ancestral land is a thrill. We bid farewell after noon. Thank you Lloyd for your knowledge and time and for caring for us.
Lunch is in Pizza Delight in Antigonish where I realized it is Mary’s forty-third birthday, another treat for all of us. We exchange USA dollars for Canadian at the Scotia Bank for $1.4720 CA for $1.00 USA. We went to the Antigonish Museum where we spent an hour and Mary and I each bought a book. I bought volume one of " A History of the Catholic Church in Eastern Nova Scotia" by A. A. Johnston. Mary bought volume two; she already has volume one.
After lunch we went to find Chez DesLauriers which is a cultural center being developed in Pomquet, NS. Mary went into Broussards Store to get directions after we realized that we were lost again. "Take the paved road to the end and take a right." We did this and found the place, on a beautiful peninsula sitting seventy-five feet above the Atlantic Ocean. It was void of trees on three sides allowing a great vies of Cape George to the northwest and St. Croix Church to the south across Pomquet Harbour. Three buildings that used to be a home, barn and granary of Joseph DesLauriers are now used to promote history of the Acadian ancestors that settled the land. The home is in the process of being upgraded with a new deck and bright yellow paint on the original cedar shakes. The barn and granary are weathered cedar shakes. Pictures were taken with my first attempt of timed photo cutting me off at the chin. Others came out fine. The elusive Chez DesLauriers t-shirts was not for sale there! In fact, there was not a sole in sight except for us four fellow travelers. Must go to the small shop just back towards St. Croix Church, if it is still open, so off we go.
Voila, it is, or so we thought. Actually, there was a young volunteer there but the shirts were locked up in the office of the director. A phone call is made but she was not home. Later Mary lands the prize through her persistence. I picked up a few brochures for Karen- she would like to be here and would enjoy all aspects of the trip. I wonder if her friends Jimmy and Nessie White were originally from here, but doubt if they were originally LeBlancs. But could have been from New Glasgow or other areas of Scottish influence in NS. Later, Karen tells me she doesn’t know where they lived in Canada. French names on street signs, church and mostly French surnames in Pomquet, one of three original French settlements in Tracadie County- Havre Boucher and Tracadie are others. The schoolhouse is Ecole Pomquet instead of Pomquet School. A strong attempt is made here to keep the French heritage, which is why there is much support for Chez DesLauriers.
Note from Mary: If you would like more information about Chez DesLauriers and the Pomquet community, go to: http://sencen.ednet.ns.ca./communities/pomquet/Jespom4.htm
In our trip we have seen many apple trees, goldenrod, Queen Anne’s Lace and beautiful wildflowers. We picked blueberries and possible cranberries at the Pomquet Beach Park where we were the only visitors on this cool and cloudy afternoon. There are many poplar, pine and spruce trees throughout the region and most of Nova Scotia, I think.
We go to Hawksburg for dinner, just east of the Canso Causeway, enjoying a brief stop for a fifty-foot or so yacht to pass through the bridge, which is a center pivot design. Then we return to the Harbour View for a few games of cribbage and a good night. Interestingly, we were always close to matching in score with neither of us able to get more than two games apart.
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