Threads in the Acadian Fabric Nine Generations of an Acadian Family

Description

Threads in the Acadian Fabric tells the story of the author’s paternal family, her line of ancestors that stretches back nine generations to the first Poirier who arrived from France and settled in Port Royal in the 1640s.

Poirier-Bures follows her nine father-grandfathers from Port Royal to Beaubassin to Port Toulouse, through their fugitive years during the Deportation, then to Isle Madame, and finally to Halifax, where her generation, the tenth, was born.

In creating more than a family history, Poirier-Bures places the lives of each ancestor and his family in the context of the political and historical events of the time. She provides insight into the collective Acadian experience and explores how critical historical events affected individual families.

The first part of the book focuses on the four generations who lived, suffered and thrived in old Acadie until 1755, when the Deportation began. The second section focuses on the next five generations who all lived on Isle Madame, Cape Breton. Two ancestors became sea captains who travelled to Brazil, Ghana, Portugal and the West Indies during the golden age of sail. The last section narrates the life of Arthur Poirier (1890-1964), a veteran of WW I, who participated in the Antigonish Movement and lived through a time of great transition in the Acadian community. Part history, part biography and part memoir, the book is a fascinating, moving, and informative read.

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