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Early Violette land grants, St John River

Figure 1

Figure 1: Original map of part of the original Soucy Concession map. Shows Tract 3 on the left with the lots pioneered by Francois and his son Augustin.

Let’s go back in time a bit – well actually back to around 1791 – and see where François and his family pioneered when they moved to the Upper St John Valley. They had felt forced out from the lands along the Hammond River where they had been settled for about 20 years, and with several other families sought land far away from the growing British influence in southern New Brunswick. Several families were granted land under what was called the Soucy Concession. Other families had recently been granted land under the Mazzerole Concession in the area where Madawaska ME is now located. Continue reading

Updates and additions

Thanks to the dozens of people who have contacted Rod Violette (VFA #12), our Genealogist, in the last week or so with corrections, additions, and updates to our genealogical database! The database now has 80,971 people in 32,238 families.

And thanks to the dozens of VFA members who responded to Dave Violette’s (VFA #621) emails asking for updates on member emails. Dave is working on updates to the Association member database in preparation for an added feature at our web site – VioletteFamily.org.

For those who have not checked out our new Family Tree function, go to the website and hover over Genealogy and click the Family Tree tab. This will take you to the area where you can search out your own information or any other in the database. Continue reading

Search your family

Charles search

Search home screen for Charles Violet, Francois’ son

Finally, the ability to search your family tree is available at our web site – VioletteFamily.org. No login is required. Go to the web site and select Genealogy, then click on Family Tree. That brings you to the search home page. From there, enter a last and first name, and click the Search button, and you will get a list of all those in the database meeting those criteria. Scroll through the list to find the one you are looking for. If you pause and hover over any name a popup will provide a little more information about that person so you can see if that is the one you are looking for. When you find the correct one, click on it to bring up a Personal Information form giving more info. Continue reading

Have you read A Violette History book?

A Violette History

A Violette History, published by the Violette Family Association

It has been over three years since A Violette History was published – have you ordered your copy yet? It is available on Amazon. Just search for the book title.  Book sales proceeds go to the Association. This was a major work authored by David A. Violette (VFA #621), Rod Violette (VFA #12), and Guy Dubay (VFA #892). The book traces the history of François Violet/Violette (1744-1824), acknowledged as the progenitor of our Violette family in North America. It covers the period from his grandparents in France through his own life in France, Fortress Louisbourg, New Brunswick, and Maine. Continue reading

No Reunion 2017

We are sorry to report that there will be no Violette Family Association Reunion 2017. Planning for potential sites started too late and lagged too much to be able to provide members with enough time to plan their vacations to take in the Reunion.

Can we postpone the Reunion to 2018? Possibly.

But Reunion event planners need to have things finalized by THIS SUMMER (summer 2017) in order to hold the Reunion in 2018.

We encourage anyone who would like to hold a Reunion in MA, CT, or NH to contact the Association right away so we can help you move forward with planning.