December 2, 2006 Gathering
for
Election
of Officers and Honoring our Iraq Veterans
At our recent Board Meeting
it was decided that Famille Trahan will hold election of officers, including a
replacement for Ray Trahan, our current President. Ray has been selected to
assist the Louisiana Delegation in preparation of Congres Mondial 2009 in New
Brunswick, Canada, and that plus his work with the Acadian Memorial leaves
little time to devote to Famille Trahan.
We request those
individuals who would like to serve in any position, to send their name and the
position they are applying for to Ray, Loubert, or Mitch at the e-mail addresses
listed at end of Newsletter.
In addition to holding our
elections, Famille Trahan has invited the Boudreaux and Comeaux Families to join
our gathering, and will take the opportunity of the Gathering to honor the men
and women of Boudreaux, Comeaux, and Trahan Families who have served in Iraq
(either Iraq War).
These individuals, their
wives (or husbands) and children will be our guests for a fried turkey and
dressing dinner. It is our desire to get more involved with our cousins, and
this was a good way to get more of them involved.
We will require an RSVP for
this occasion,
that we insure sufficient food is available for all attending. The cost for all
attendees, except our Iraq Veterans and their families, will remain $5 per
person for those over age of 12; those under age 12 eat free.
We will again ask those
members who can do so, to bring a desert.
Planning for Congres
Mondial 2009
As
president of Louisiane-Acadie, I had the pleasure of traveling to Canada in
July and August to attend the SNA annual meeting in Memramcook as an associate
member representing the Cajuns from Louisiana. SNA stands for Society National
Acadie. It is the
Canadian organization responsible for
choosing the sight of the next Congress Mondial Acadian. We had a very
successful meeting and we stressed the importance of communicating both in
French and English so that all the Acadians can understand and take a part in
what is going on.
From there we went to the
Acadian Peninsula where the 2009 Congress will be held. We met with all the
mayors of the Peninsula and Mr. Carol Broussard, the mayor of Delcambre La.
twined his town with the town of Caraquet, Ca. During the school year, some
students from
each schools will be chosen to
communicate by e-mail and at the end of the school year we will do some student
exchanges.
I also delivered a letter of intent
from mayor Mark Pizza of Abbeville to twin at some future date with the town of
Tracadie-Sheila Ca. I brought back a letter of intent from the mayor of
Shipagan Ca. to twin at some future date with a town in the Acadian Community of
south Louisiana.
While in the area, we met with the
president and directors of the 2009 CMA and they are eager to work with us to
help make out visit there in 2009 as pleasant as it can
be.
We were extremely well
received in the Acadian Peninsula and everyone there is looking forward to
receiving us at the 2009 Congress Mondial Acadian. Again, we stressed the
importance of communicating in both French and English and they agreed to do
so.
We were 15 from this area on the trip
and everyone was extremely impressed with the area and cannot wait to go back
and see more. I would strongly encourage all of you who are thinking of making
the trip in 2009, to start planning now. Most of the people there were
not deported. They fled from the
British and ended up in the Acadian Peninsula. They all speak French and
English and look and act just like us. They have a lot of the same last names
as we have here in Louisiana. I would encourage all of you who are capable of
making the trip in 2009, to do so. It will be an experience you will never
forget.
Brenda will be working on a Louisiana
day there during the 2009 CMA and as soon as the date and place is chosen, I
will inform all of you.
http://www.acadian-home.org/CMA-2009.html
http://maisoui.typepad.com/maisoui/congrs_mondial_des_acadiens_2004/index.html
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congr%C3%A8s_mondial_acadien
http://travel.canoe.ca/Travel/Canada/AtlanticCanada/2006/08/13/1753970-sun.html
I would also like mention
that we have suffered the passing of several of our family members, as noted
below:
As many of you are aware,
the family has lost one of our greatest supporters, Anna Claire Camel Trahan,
beloved wife of Loubert, and a sister to all of us.
The passing of Anna Claire
on September 3rd followed a series of illnesses she endured the past
few months.
The family has also lost
David LaBorde, son of Melba Trahan Laborde. David and his brother Bennet Phillip
III were in a tragic auto accident; Bennett Phillip is still hospitalized in
serious condition.
The passing of
Earline Trahan Hebert, beloved wife of Percy Hebert.
The
passing of Willie Trahan of Maurice, who died on September 9th at age
94 years.
Lastly, the passing of Ophelias Trahan of Crowley.
I
would add, that we have also had a couple of new arrivals, Natalie Evangeline
Trahan, daughter of Timmy Trahan and wife Angela Nepveaux; and Alex Trahan, son
of Robby Trahan and wife Jennifer Dreggers. Congratulations to the proud
parents, and prouder grandparents, Charles and Mona Trahan.
by: Ray Trahan, President
Bits and pieces
By
Loubert Trahan
Due to the lateness of getting the Newsletter
to you, we have combined our information, and this issue will serve as both the
Summer and the Fall Editions. To insure that each of you are kept updated
relative to the upcoming Gathering on December 2, 2006 at the Woodmen of World
Hall in Maurice, Louisiana, 1/4 miles west of the signal light at the
intersection of La. 92 W (Indian Bayou Rd) and US 167. I will mail
each of you a reminder of this event not later than November 27, 2006.
Contacts for Election and
for RSVPs:
Ray Trahan:
beaufile@bellsouth.net or phone 337-856-1620
Loubert Trahan:
lgtrahan@cox.net or phone 337-893-0824\
Mitch Conover:
whiskey6@cox.net or phone 337-989-0319
Lastly, we would like to
solicit help in obtaining new/ updated addresses for the following members:
Marlene and Steve Sharon
of Port Allen, La. Old address: 4066 Emiliy Drive, Port Allen, La
70767
John W & Doris T Reel
of Call, Texas Old address: Rt 1 box 12E, Call, Tx 75933
Harold Trahan of
Houston, Tx. Old address: 15211 Pebble Bend Drive,
Houston, TX 77068-1837
Bits &
Pieces: ( reprint):
Yours truly was privileged to
attend and hear Dr. John M. Faragher, Yale University, about his newly published
book "A GREAT AND NOBLE SCHEME." This book is recommended reading to all who
have Acadian Roots, plus it would make a wonderful text book for any school.
For the first time one of the prime reasons for our forefathers deportation, by
ethnic cleansing, many years before Bosnia or West Bank, is partially blamed on
the inhabitants of New England Colonies, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and
Connecticut, who wanted more fertile land of their own. Here follows Dr.
Faragher's own words from the jacket of his book:
ON SEPTEMBER, 1755, THE
Pennsylvania Gazette printed a dispatch from the maritime province of Nova
Scotia: "We are now upon a great and noble Scheme of sending the neutral French
out of this Province, who have always been secret Enemies, and have encouraged
our Savages to cut our Throats. If we effect their Expulsion, it will be one of
the greatest Things that ever the English did in America; for by all Accounts,
that Part of the Country they possess, is as good Land as any in the World: In
case therefore we could get some good English Farmers in their Room, this
Province would abound with all Kinds of Provisions."
At the time these words
were published, New England troops acting under the authority of the colonial
governors of Nova Scotia and Massachusetts were systematically rounding up more
than seven thousand Acadians, the French speaking, Catholic inhabitants who
lived in communities along the shores of the Bay of Fundy. Men, women, and
children alike were crowded into transport vessels and deported in small groups
to other British colonies across the continent of North America. Many families
were separated, wives from husbands, daughters from mothers, some never to meet
again. Another ten thousand or more fled into the forests and spent years living
as homeless refugees. Thousands of them were captured and deported to France,
while others took up arms in guerrilla resistance. Meanwhile, their property was
plundered, their communities were torched, their lands were seized. The
campaign to "extirpate" the Acadian people lasted until the end of the Seven
Years War in 1763 and cost thousands of lives. In its aftermath, hundreds of
surviving Acadians returned to the places they had come to call home over the
previous 150 years, but not to their old homes on the Bay of Fundy, which in the
meantime had been settled by Yankee families from Massachusetts, Rhode Island,
and Connecticut. Other Acadians migrated to French Louisiana and became the
ancestors of today's Cajuns.
Piecing together the scattered
remnants of Acadian civilization in documents and sources buried deep in
archives, historian John Mack Faragher provides the first comprehensive,
thoroughly researched, and historically accurate account of the expulsion from
both British and Acadian points of view. It is a story filled with fascinating
historical characters-native Mikmaq who enjoyed a friendly relationship of
cultural exchange and accommodation with the Acadian settlers, French and
British governors and military officers isolated in lonely outposts, Yankee
merchants and ministers motivated by enterprise and ideology, and ordinary
Acadian men and women who insisted on their right to live their own lives, in
their own independent ways, on the margins of contesting empires. It is a story
of ethnic cleansing in early America, a story with a special poignancy in our
own time."
"A Great and Noble Scheme" is available at Barnes & Noble - $28.95 + tax.