Community members are invited to participate in a series of workshops to explore the use of archival collections in the preparation of books of various genres, on various topics. This initiative is a project of Université Sainte-Anne’s Observatoire Nord/Sud and the Société acadienne de Clare, with the support of the Nova Scotia Health Authority.

The first discussion and workshop will be held on Friday, May 21, at 1:30 p.m. AST (12:30 EST/11:30 CST) and will feature David Vermette, author of A Distinct Alien Race: The Untold Story of Franco-Americans – Industrialization, Immigration, Religious Strife (Baraka Books, 2018). The activity will follow the following format: open discussion with Mr. Vermette about his research followed by a workshop on « Family Stories and Documentary Research. »

The public may access the meeting on Zoom through this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88048258080?pwd=U2dGN29CMjBSVkFtc1k5dlk2ME5OZz09

Lauded by readers and critics, Mr. Vermette’s book recounts the saga of the million French-Canadians who immigrated to the northeastern United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Historian Patrick Lacroix offers these comments in a review published in the prestigious Revue d’histoire de l’Amérique française:

« Vermette also offers a convincing nuance to some works that make religious and linguistic survival the fundamental fact of the Franco-American saga. While acknowledging the sincere desire of expatriates to live their traditional culture on American soil, the author turns away from a slim elite of priests and newspaper editors whose power has perhaps been overestimated. He seeks to capture the painful daily life of a people transplanted to foreign soil – soil that may have seemed foreign even to native-born Franco-Americans. If there is one subject that connects the four themes of the work, it is the challenge faced by several generations of Francos to navigate economic structures and civic institutions in their subaltern position. »

The topic of the workshop will be a great interest to community-based researchers who wish to learn more about resources for local and family history in a transnational perspective. Please join us!

This activity will also contribute to our research on Acadian migrations to the United States through the project Trois siècles de migrations francophones en Amérique du Nord, 1640-1940.