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Archiver > CHANNEL-ISLANDS > 1997-08 > 0870967258


From: "Jarnet,Ann [NCR]" <>
Subject: RE: Gaspesian Channel Island Society
Date: Thu, 7 Aug 1997 11:20:58 -0400


Thanks, Frank, for this valuable info.

I feel that the history of the Channel Islands offers one of the most
interesting manifestations of the notion of "diaspora". I wonder if
anyone has examined the ideas of island people and diaspora -- it would
be interesting to do a search in periodical literature in history,
sociology, psychology, cultural studies, and perhaps some other
disciplines. I found my father's stories interesting when he talked to
us about his early life in Jersey but I always knew we were getting
about 60% of the story, that there was something else there waiting to
be discovered. He was interested in identifying names of people on
Quebec's North Shore whose origins had been in the C.I., but never in
discussing the whys and wherefores of having come to Canada. He did not
keep in touch with people he had known during his early years in Canada
(except for Christmas cards). He never talked about how he felt about
being indentured, and this is the part that fascinates me most. One
year, the local newspaper in Sept-Iles Québec (where he lived) ran a
feature on him and I found that the journalist had been most perceptive
-- he referred to my father as "insular". The context was not unkind.
At one point I will translate that article as I feel it contains
information not about people but about customs, and some folks here
might be interested in seeing one person's perception of custom at the
beginning of the 20th century.

In the later years of his life, my father used to slip into a "patois"
he had spoken as a child. My sister was good at copying down some of
this stuff phonetically, but who on earth knows what it meant!!!!

Sorry to have babbled on. I find everyone's quest so interesting on
this list, and I think an exchange of stories would be quite enriching.

Cheers.
Ann Jarnet

>----------
>From: [SMTP:]
>Sent: Aug. 7, 1997 10:03 AM
>To: Jarnet,Ann [NCR];
>Subject: Gaspesian Channel Island Society
>
>Hello Ann,
>Shigawake, QC is a small township on the north shore of Chaleur Bay between
>New Richmond and Port-Daniel (nearer Port-Daniel).
>
>The Gaspesian Channel Island Society -- Aims and Objectives:
>to research and record the history of Channel Island settlement on the Gaspe'
>Coast;
>to collect and preserve relevant artifacts, documentation, photographs and
>genealogies;
>to assist members in genealogical research;
>to foster links with the Channel Islands
>
>Up comming events:
>Saturday, 23 August -- Jersey Exhibition followed by Social evening.
>Sunday, 24 August -- The Annual General Meeting (Guest speaker: Betty Le
>Maistre, "Charles Robin on the Gaspe' Coast."
>
>For more information call: Diane Sawyer: 418 392-6183 or Claudette Garnier at
>418 534-3821/2926; or write to Mrs. Irene Dallain, P.O. Box 696, New
>Carlisle, QC G0C 1Z0
>
>Regards, Frank Vautier
>Woodbridge, Virginia USA
>

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