The theme of the September Canadian Carnival of Genealogy is Home Sweet Home, so I thought this would be the perfect occasion to share a black and white photograph of my mother’s childhood home near Bathurst, New Brunswick.

My maternal grandparents Adelard Lagace and Eveline Melvine Luce had 14 children in that house:  7 boys (Cleophas Clifford, Patrice Alderic,  V.J.L., D.L., R.L., A.L. and Adelard “Sonny” Lagace) and 7 girls (my mother G.L., Bertha,, .L., M.L., B.L., L.L. and Lorraine). After my grandfather’s death in 1959, my grandmother headed to Montreal with her threee youngest children.

Eveline Luce was following in the footsteps of her older children and many other New Brunswickers who had formed a large Acadian community in the heart of Verdun, Quebec. The Lagaces are actually of Quebec French Canadian stock but those who settled in the Bathurst area intermarried over many generations with Acadians and many of their descendants identify with the Acadian community.

Nowadays, the Duggars are featured on their own television show for having 14 children! What a change in attitude in only 2 generations from big families as the norm to big families as objects of fascination!

Related Posts:

Mignier dit Lagaces – French Canadians of Quebec

Vintage Postcard: Verdun, Quebec – Church Avenue (rue de l’Eglise)

Canadian Carnival of Genealogy at LOOKING4ANCESTORS