For a follow-up act to Projectkin’s Stories250 series, I realized that Migration Stories was the perfect fit. I was delighted to have Lisa Maguire of Ancestory to join me to develop the idea.
This foray into migration brought to memory a cab ride to the Paris airport with my brother John. He'd brought me to the City of Lights through points he'd accumulated on credit cards. I'd spent a day on my own wandering the streets and churches some of the ancestors called home. My question was "Why did they leave?" His answer was "For adventure and a better life." My follow-up was "They couldn't find adventure or a better life somewhere in France outside of Paris?" What I wanted to know was "why that, why then, why there (Quebec and Acadie)" and I suspected the answer was personally particular to a person's station in life, age, socioeconomic status, and individual personality and experience. Sure, historical events they didn't realize were historical events at the time might have set them in motion, but what was in the heart of anyone who uprooted across the sea?
The question was too big to answer, the documents too scarce to confirm suspicions. Lisa's article about microhistory helped me to start looking slant, between the lines, into the silences.
Where this is taking me is from family history into family historical fiction, with the nexus being the attempted ethnic cleansing of Acadians from Nova Scotia. Told through the eyes of one child-to-woman in one clan (Vigneau-Cyr-Poirier-Bourgeois). In the process, my ideas about Acadians evolves, and I'm surprised about where different clans reconstituted.
A distant cousin recently sent me a typed copy of a 1980 keynote given to a now-defunct history and genealogy society by a now-deceased keynote speaker. I'm looking into how to ensure no copyright violation because this is an article worth posting -- about how you can find your people's story through clan analysis. Kin to what Lisa talked about with the Maguires of Montreal.
I think any ant-line for seventeenth century French to the New World would be challenging but not impossible to trace. They came in such a narrow time window and from such specific places that I am sure it can be done. And so much of it tied to official programs whether coerced or though a commercial venture.
French migration to other places in North America is such a rich history, from the Grand Derangement to the Grande Hémorragie. I have learned so much from@Savanna King about French migration and kinship patterns along the less well-known paths.
The metaphor of an ant trail is so perfect because, in many ways, it follows the same model. For ants, of course, it's about scent, but for our forebearers, we simply have different kinds of push/pull factors. I love the way this winds through so many of our shared stories!
Oh, my… this is fascinating on so many levels, @Ann G. Forcier! And YES, I wholeheartedly agree that @Lisa Maguire’s discussion of micro history creates an intriguing way to look at the facts with fresh eyes.
Boo, I was hoping to be there live for this chat, but I didn't set an alarm for it! Writing migration is so fascinating and I'm really excited to write something for this project. Also, you said here that a timeline might not make sense, but I think a timeline would be really interesting in this context. I know, in Welsh research, that there are very different forms of migration in the 17th vs. 18th vs. 19th Centuries. The timeline would be a cool way to visualise that and be like, oh, look how many migration stories happened at X time, I wonder what that's about. Oh, they're all talking about X event at the time. I think that'd be neat. This project may also force me to work on my migration-themed blog I was thinking about last year. More work! haha
Wait, here’s an idea. What if I invite individuals to sign up and take responsibility for migration paths… I’d coach/help/support them to support the series with a shared timeline, perhaps Storymap and other tools that might help to aggregate these stories.
I know I can’t do all of these on my own, but I’d be more than happy to to show others how to do it… and to showcase that work on a dedicated web page or something. After Stories250, I’ve got it down to a science.
I anticipate complementing this series with occasional talks or how-to workshops on specific skills, regional histories, that sort of thing. 🤔
Care to discuss? Grab some time on my Projectkin.org/calendar and let’s talk it through. Now’s the time to discuss!
This foray into migration brought to memory a cab ride to the Paris airport with my brother John. He'd brought me to the City of Lights through points he'd accumulated on credit cards. I'd spent a day on my own wandering the streets and churches some of the ancestors called home. My question was "Why did they leave?" His answer was "For adventure and a better life." My follow-up was "They couldn't find adventure or a better life somewhere in France outside of Paris?" What I wanted to know was "why that, why then, why there (Quebec and Acadie)" and I suspected the answer was personally particular to a person's station in life, age, socioeconomic status, and individual personality and experience. Sure, historical events they didn't realize were historical events at the time might have set them in motion, but what was in the heart of anyone who uprooted across the sea?
The question was too big to answer, the documents too scarce to confirm suspicions. Lisa's article about microhistory helped me to start looking slant, between the lines, into the silences.
Where this is taking me is from family history into family historical fiction, with the nexus being the attempted ethnic cleansing of Acadians from Nova Scotia. Told through the eyes of one child-to-woman in one clan (Vigneau-Cyr-Poirier-Bourgeois). In the process, my ideas about Acadians evolves, and I'm surprised about where different clans reconstituted.
A distant cousin recently sent me a typed copy of a 1980 keynote given to a now-defunct history and genealogy society by a now-deceased keynote speaker. I'm looking into how to ensure no copyright violation because this is an article worth posting -- about how you can find your people's story through clan analysis. Kin to what Lisa talked about with the Maguires of Montreal.
I think any ant-line for seventeenth century French to the New World would be challenging but not impossible to trace. They came in such a narrow time window and from such specific places that I am sure it can be done. And so much of it tied to official programs whether coerced or though a commercial venture.
French migration to other places in North America is such a rich history, from the Grand Derangement to the Grande Hémorragie. I have learned so much from@Savanna King about French migration and kinship patterns along the less well-known paths.
I don't know the Grande Hémorragie. Was that the migration to the mills of New England?
Yes. A million French people left Quebec over just a few decades.
No wonder we had so many Little Canadas or why the border here feels artificial.
The metaphor of an ant trail is so perfect because, in many ways, it follows the same model. For ants, of course, it's about scent, but for our forebearers, we simply have different kinds of push/pull factors. I love the way this winds through so many of our shared stories!
Oh, my… this is fascinating on so many levels, @Ann G. Forcier! And YES, I wholeheartedly agree that @Lisa Maguire’s discussion of micro history creates an intriguing way to look at the facts with fresh eyes.
Boo, I was hoping to be there live for this chat, but I didn't set an alarm for it! Writing migration is so fascinating and I'm really excited to write something for this project. Also, you said here that a timeline might not make sense, but I think a timeline would be really interesting in this context. I know, in Welsh research, that there are very different forms of migration in the 17th vs. 18th vs. 19th Centuries. The timeline would be a cool way to visualise that and be like, oh, look how many migration stories happened at X time, I wonder what that's about. Oh, they're all talking about X event at the time. I think that'd be neat. This project may also force me to work on my migration-themed blog I was thinking about last year. More work! haha
I think nominating diaspora leads and regional leads could be a way to do it
Oh… I love that.
Wait, here’s an idea. What if I invite individuals to sign up and take responsibility for migration paths… I’d coach/help/support them to support the series with a shared timeline, perhaps Storymap and other tools that might help to aggregate these stories.
I know I can’t do all of these on my own, but I’d be more than happy to to show others how to do it… and to showcase that work on a dedicated web page or something. After Stories250, I’ve got it down to a science.
I anticipate complementing this series with occasional talks or how-to workshops on specific skills, regional histories, that sort of thing. 🤔
Care to discuss? Grab some time on my Projectkin.org/calendar and let’s talk it through. Now’s the time to discuss!