Quebec B C, i.e.  Before Columbus!

Guest speaker: Gérard Leduc Ph D

When: Thursday, January 16, 2014, from 19:30 to 21:00

Where: Centennial Hall,

             288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4

Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period.

The long accepted dogma that Christopher Columbus was the first European to settle in America is being challenged by Gérard Leduc through twenty-five years of research in the Eastern Townships and elsewhere in Quebec, Ontario and New England.

There is ample evidence of an ancient presence of Phoenicians, Celts and Vikings in our immediate environment. Numerous artefacts, mostly in stone, can be seen in undisturbed landscapes.

These foreign mariners took advantage of ocean currents to go back and forth from Europe and the Middle East to settle here. They likely arrived here on purpose, with sea-sailing ships and adequate navigation skill. They left thousands of cairns or stone mounds, petroglyphs or writings inscribed on stone. To regulate their calendar, they created stone alignments on important solar events such as the solstices and the equinoxes.

A number of radiocarbon dates on cairns confirm the presence of these stone builders as far back as 2000 and 600 years ago. In Vale Perkins, in the Township of Potton, a water mill was built around the year 1560, or about 300 years before the first settler arrived there. 

The people who built the sites described here were from an advanced culture. They mastered writing, astronomy, geometry, surveying, masonry and possessed metal tools. Very ancient copper mining is also documented. They were important populations who were permanent settlers. What happened to them? Lets pursue the research with open minds.

Pointe-Claire au temps de la Nouvelle-France

(Pointe-Claire during Nouvelle-France Era)

Guest speaker: Claude Arsenault

When: Thursday, November 21, 2013, from 19:30 to 21:00

Where: Centennial Hall,

             288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4

Lecture in French followed by a bilingual question period.

The Société pour la Sauvegarde du Patrimoine de Pointe-Claire prepared a book to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the Parish of Pointe-Claire (1731-2013).
Claude Arsenault, President of this society, will introduce the part of the book on the Nouvelle-France period, from the establishment of the first inhabitants to the conquest by England.

Oral tradition in Nouvelle-France:

Innovative or Conservative? or Both?

Guest speaker: Philip Deering

When: Thursday, October 17, 2013, from 19:30 to 21:00

Where: Centennial Hall,

             288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4

Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period

Philip Deering is back again this time to introduce us to certain myths on Nouvelle-France transmitted through oral history.

Filles du Roy

Guest speaker: René Forget

When: Thursday, September 19, 2013, from 19:30 to 21:00

Where: Centennial Hall,

             288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4

Lecture in French followed by a bilingual question period.

Before this lecture will take place the presentation of a donation from the Société historique Beaurepaire-Beaconsfield Historical Society to the Heroes Committee represented by Maj. Richard Gratton, Chair, and Lt.-Col. (Retired) Terrence Montague, Vice-Chair.

René Forget will tell the odyssey of the Filles du Roy to help us better understand the importance of our feminine ancestors in the establishment of the colony in the 17th century, role that History has a tendency to forget. These women should be honoured as “mothers of the nation” as they were essential in our history.

The lecture includes:
-Their social and cultural origins
-Their trip across the Atlantic
-Their hasty wedding
-Their fertility and their morality
-Their contribution to the new country

Very much interested in Québec history and genealogy, the psychologist Forget explored the fascinating era of the Filles du Roy. He wrote an historic saga inspired by one of these women. Eugénie, fille du roy describes the historic odyssey of French youths, mostly from Normandy, who came to Nouvelle-France.

The author created the character of Eugénie and imagined her influence as well as of the other filles du Roy during this era ruled by politic and religious authorities. The saga followed up with Cassandre, daughter of Eugénie, who will go to study in Paris. Also of Étiennette, spouse of the village blacksmith, the best friend of Cassandre.

Thanks to the accurate behaviour analysis of his different characters and his historical descriptions, René Forget made us re-live through these passionate early days of our country.

Céramique du Québec, une passion!

(Collecting Quebec Ceramics, a Passion!)

Guest speaker: Jacqueline Beaudry Dion

When: Thursday, May 16, 2013, from 19:30 to 21:00

Where: Media room of the Beaconsfield Library,

             303 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A7

PowerPoint Lecture in French followed by a bilingual question period

Jacqueline Beaudry Dion is the President of the Association des collectionneurs de céramique du Québec and will introduce us to the history of Quebec 19^th and 20^th century pottery.

Jacqueline Beaudry Dion, B. A., B. Ped. acted as director for a South Shore Contemporary Art Gallery for nearly twenty years, holding twelve Art exhibitions each year. With her husband, Jean -Pierre Dion, Ph. D., and for the last forty years, she developed a fond interest in Canadian Heritage, mainly in Quebec Ceramics but also in Canadian Glass and Mycology : as such, she was involved in research, collection, guest speaker, author and curator of exhibitions. For the last fifteen years, she developed her photography skill, first with macro photography of mushrooms then with Ceramic.
Sharing a joint passion, the couple wrote numerous articles on 19th and 20th century Ceramic in Quebec and the United States. They published La Poterie des Dion (1984) and Céramistes du Québec 1940-1970 (2010, with a revised and enlarged second edition in 2011). As curators, they are authors of two exhibition catalogs : Maîtres céramistes formés à l’École du meuble de Montréal (Musée des maîtres et artisans du Québec, 2011) and Gilles Derome potier et humaniste (Musée du Haut-Richelieu, 2012). Again, for Spring /Summer 2013, they are guest curators for an exhibition on Wanda Rozynska and Stanley Rozynski, within the hearth of Eastern Township Ceramic at Musée du Haut-Richelieu.
Jacqueline Beaudry Dion is also the author and photographer of the first Repertory of Quebec Ceramic Marks : 580 marques de céramistes du Québec, edited in June 2011 by the Association of Ceramic Collector of Quebec (ACCQ) for which she is President.

L'esclavage en Nouvelle-France et le Procès d'Angélique

(Slavery in Nouvelle-France and the Trial of Angélique)

Guest speaker: Denyse Beaugrand-Champagne

When: Thursday, April 18, 2013, from 19:30 to 21:00

Where: Beaconsfield Library, Media room

             303 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A7

PowerPoint Lecture in French followed by a bilingual question period

This lecture will discuss the presence of Amerindian slaves and black slaves in Nouvelle-France via archive documents and will uncover the trial of a slave accused through public rumours to have caused a terrible fire in Montréal. Angélique will be tortured and executed publicly on June 21, 1734.

  Denyse Beaugrand Champagne is the author of the book Le procès de Marie-Josèphe-Angélique.

Michel Chartier de Lotbinière, King's Engineer

Guest speaker: Jean-Pierre Raymond

When: Thursday, March 21, 2013, from 19:30 to 21:00

Where: Centennial Hall,

             288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4

Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period

Jean-Pierre Raymond, Engineer and history enthusiast, resident of Dorval, will impersonate the first Canadian born engineer in his 1758 King Engineer’s outfit. He will describe the career and political thought of Michel Chartier de Lotbinière who participated in the War of Austrian Succession, the 7-year War, the American Independence War and the French Revolution. In 1763, he owned 7 seigneuries, 5 in the new Province of Québec including the seigneuries of Lotbinière, of Vaudreuil and of Rigaud and two in New York State. He was involved in London, England, in the debate concerning the Quebec Act convincing the House of Commons to adopt the French Laws (Coutume de Paris), the French language and the Catholic religion, which gave the Province de Québec its difference in status.

The Montreal Region Forts from Nouvelle-France Era

Guest speaker: René Chartrand

When: Thursday, February 21, 2013, from 19:30 to 21:00

Where: Centennial Hall,

             288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4

PowerPoint Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period

René Chartrand was born in Montreal and educated in Canada, the United States and the Bahamas. A senior curator with Parks Canada's National Historic Sites Branch for nearly three decades, he is now a free-lance writer and historical consultant. He has authored some 40 books and hundreds of articles published in England, France, the United States and Canada. He lives in Gatineau (Quebec).

Nouvelle-France, un « rêve d'empire » français

( Nouvelle-France, A French « Empire Dream »)

Guest speaker: Gilles Laberge

When: Thursday, January 17, 2013, from 19:30 to 21:00

Where: Centennial Hall,

             288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A7

PowerPoint Lecture in French followed by a bilingual question period

In March 2009, Gilles Laberge spoke to us about the St. Lawrence Iroquoians. This time, he will make a very well illustrated introduction to our new theme for 2013, Nouvelle-France :

A French « Empire Dream » in the 17th and 18th centuries in the young America

As much as this young colony would gradually reach colossal growth on this new continent, the drawbacks were its small population and its weak economy. In this large stretch of wilderness, covered with seemingly endless forest, the three main economic leaders were the fur trade as a very well exploited natural resource, and later in the 18th century, the military constructions’ network and the agricultural surplus. To bring back plenty of fur, harmonious relations were developed with the different First Nations tribes while colonial goal was relegated to second place.

This lecture will take you through the crucial era of the pioneers and the setting up of the current Canadian socio-economic thread. This presentation will supply a brief overview, with plenty of pictures, of the different aspects of the socio-economic life in the colonial era: geography, population, politic, economic, military, religious, on top of the physical world aspects: architecture, food and clothing. In short, a good introduction to the subject.