Trippin’ Around North America

On a personal note, in Port Royale, Nova Scotia

When Fellette and I started on this trip we mainly wanted to see the Fall Colours, meet up with some friends and see some relatives. It has turned into something a little different. By fluke, we became aware that the birthplace of my mother's father; [Grampa Deagle], was on our route on the Cabot Trail. He was born in the Margaree area in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia in 1881.

In the past few days we have found out that my Grampa Deagle is an Acadain! His lineage is able to be traced to the birthplace of his first Canadian ancestor's birth in Aigre, France in 1643, and died in Port Royale, Acadia, in 1686. [Port Royale is now Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, where I am writing this.] This discovery may not mean much to most of you reading this, but it means a lot to me and, whether they realise it or not, my children and their children.

Who knows what an Acadian is....I will try to bumble through, forgive any errors. First, Acadia is an early geographical name given to an area in what is now the Maritimes. French settlers who came there were known as Acadians. The same as the French who went to Quebec were called Quebeckers. Acadians were the original French settlers who came to Port Royale, [now Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia], around 1605. They had a very tough time and were eventually, years later, "deported" back to France and other places because their new homeland was taken over by the British. Actually they were deported twice. Some came back to "Canada." They settled down, mainly in the Maritimes, New England and many other areas throughout the world.

The Acadians were never really accepted by the British or the French-Canadians, nor are they really acknowledged by the present day Canadian Government to the extent they could be. The French, in Europe, gave up on them some few hundred years ago and now France seems to back the Quebecers, not the Acadians, the first real Canadians. The Acadians were the first European settlers living in North America, other than the Indians. Many of them had their farms taken from them and given to "The Loyalists" who fled America at the time of the Revolutionary War, [1776] and came to "British" Canada.

In the past few days I have been wrestling with this revelation. I thought I was of English, Scottish and German origin. I have always had a bit of a problem with the French, whether they be French-Canadian or just plain French. My problems have mainly been in my head, any French-Canadians or French that we have talked to are great people. Some of the rhetoric attributed to them can sometimes be very annoying though. The Acadians are of French origin, 400 years ago, but now almost consider themselves a separate entity. There are not really many Acadian communities, many Acadians, like my Grandfather, left the settlements and became a bit anonymous blending into the fabric of Canadian Society. For some reason, the name was changed from Daigle to Deagle around 1900, I believe it was a spelling error on somebody's part. My grandfather left home when young and in those days you didn't carry a card with your ID.

I now seem to have a bit of a problem with the British who gave away my Great Grandfather's [to the ninth place] farm near present day Bridgetown, Nova Scotia, to English flleeing the War of Independence in the US. We visited the site today, using a map taken from the census of 1707. [See picture of farm land and rolling hills now occupied by English!]

Anyhow, I have acquired an Acadian Flag, am taking French lessons and forbid English to be spoken in the house on even numbered days. We also brush our teeth in French wine and have given up whole wheat bread for baguettes. I am taking a correspondence course in French kissing and am looking for a mistress.

Other than that, nothing has changed in my life.

Pictures: Acadian Flag and Fellette in graveyard in Port Royal, [Annapolis Royal to you English], looking for relatives after Thanksgiving Dinner, Parks Canada Plaque with Daigle in census of 1771, and farmland occupied by ancestors.

posted by Doug and Fellette @ 10:52 AM