Acadians – "It was on September 10, 1755, as we said, that the crime of transportation was committed against the honest and brave Acadians. Some were transported to France, others to Massachusetts, many made their way to Louisiana to find France and freedom there. Those who came to Louisiana through unknown forests, on floating rafts, exposed to dangers of all kinds, pursued by the English, admirable heroes of an inglorious epic, colonized the current parishes of Saint-Jacques, Ascension, Lafayette and Saint-Landry.

Who, unless you are English and proscriber [someone who condemns another to a legal punishment, including death], would dare to deny the Acadians courage, honor, patriotism and faith?

We cannot better prove these virtues of our ancestors than by publishing the following letter, -- a letter consigned to the Archives and of an admirable simplicity. We find there the natural and true expression of all the feelings that honor humanity and make the executioners blush. As for the adventurers who allow themselves to settle without knowing, to despise without being worthy of esteem, to know the airs of masters when they are only valets, we ask them to read carefully.

July 1756 (Archives) “We bless divine Providence, who in the midst of our afflictions has deigned to let us know of your dear news through the intervention of R.P. de la Brosse, Jesuit father, who lived some time with us at the Saint-Jean River, and who…. You know, sir, that after having received your last general absolution in the church, we left thirty deputies of Port-Royal for Chibouctou, and after several interrogations by the Governor and other authorities, on our position on the State and religion, and seeing that we were all resolved rather to die than to renounce our religion and France, our true fatherland, we were relegated to an island for nine weeks, giving us only two ounces of bread a day. and an ounce of meat, thereby starving us to into changing our feelings. But uselessly, thank God. Desperate to make us change, they had soldiers take us to Port-Royal, like criminals, set fire to our houses and made the inhabitants who had not fled into the woods embark. (900 people were saved from transportation this way.)

The rest of the inhabitants embarked in six ships; on December 4 five of these ships sailed for the coasts of Boston and Carolina. The people of the Cape, the Boudrots, Charles Dugas and the Guilbauds, two families of Granges, who were in one of these ships revolted, and without any resistance from the English made themselves masters of the ship and happily arrived at the Saint John River, from where we have the honor to write to you. We found a favorable reception there in the person of Mr. de Boishébert…..

We learned from other Acadians who fled from Carolina that the disease got into two ships, which killed many of our people; moreover, the LeBlancs, Gosme, Louis Prudent and a few others, are in Boston and the surrounding area……We are about to leave for Canada, because provisions are very scarce here….”

Signed “Denis Saint-Seine, Charles Dugas, Joseph Guilbaud, Pierre Gourdeau, Denis Saint-Seine fils; on behalf of all the other inhabitants."

Clippings and Translations:

• Le Louisianais (Convent, Louisiana) · Sat, Nov 16, 1867 · Page 1.
• Link to: https://www.newspapers.com/image/320950429/ Published with the permission of Newspapers.com
  
• Approximate English translations of the clippings are published courtesy, Joanne Doucette.

Read the following excerpt from The Pennsylvania Gazette. (1746, November 6). Sunday Edition. Page 3.  (Click the image below to view the entire page).

Reference: The following newspaper clipping has been re-printed on the Association des Acadiens-Metis Souriquois blog site with permission from Newspapers.com: https://www.newspapers.com/image/39548275/

The following is an intriguing slice of Clare's history, and the Acadian settlements there, along with stories about some of the "key players" of the time, as documented by historian Placide Gaudet in his article "Unknown Yet Prominent, Some of the Acadian Pioneers of Historical and Picturesque Clare, Digby County," which he wrote in 1897 (Click on the thumbnails below to view the article in its entirety):

The following newspaper clippings have been re-printed on the Association des Acadiens-Metis Souriquois blog site with permission from Newspapers.com:
Link to: https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/774461336/

From Page 1 of the Halifax Herald, November 10, 1897 Edition (click on each image to enlarge and read left-to-right):

From Page 5 of the Halifax Herald, November 10, 1897 Edition (click on each image to enlarge and read left-to-right):

From the article: "Past President of the Acadian Memorial, Marty Guidry, related some sad news about our late, Acadian cousin Paul Lewis LeBlanc whose last home was in Ascension Parish, Louisiana:

"Unfortunately, today I learned that Paul LeBlanc passed away on August 24, 2022.  He had been in a full-care nursing home for over a year and died from complications of several health issues that he had during the past year."

Paul Lewis LeBlanc, as many may recall, was keenly interested in the use of DNA to verify genealogical lines and, ever since I've known him (which was from about 2006 on), Paul was always happy to share his knowledge and research."

Read the rest of the tribute to the life of Paul Lewis Leblanc (1946 - 2022) by clicking here: https://dna-genealogy-history.com/travel-by-ancestry/noted-acadian-genealogist-and-historian-paul-lewis-leblanc-of-baton-rouge-louisiana-passed-away-on-august-24-2022

Link to: Covart, L. (2019, April 2). "Episode 232: Christopher Hodson, the Acadian Diaspora. Ben Franklin's World" (Books, Colonial America, Podcast). https://benfranklinsworld.com/episode-232-christopher-hodson-the-acadian-diaspora/