Book Description

In the spring of 1644, Robert Cormier, a master ship carpenter, his wife, Marie Péraud, and their two young sons, Thomas and Jean, sailed on the Le Petit Saint-Pierre from La Rochelle, France, to Cape Breton (Nova Scotia). Robert was among the tradesmen hired to work at Fort St-Pierre (today, St. Peters). His three-year contract was the longest among the men and his salary of 120 livres a year was the second highest. He was also the only one to take his family with him. In the 1670s, Thomas Cormier, his wife, Marie-Madeleine Girouard, and their young family were among the pioneers who founded the colony of Beaubassin, Acadia. They settled in the village of Ouescoque (Amherst Point, Nova Scotia), a place the Cormier family called home for 80 years. In 1755, the forced deportation of the Acadian people tore families apart. While some Cormiers were deported and held prisoner in South Carolina and Georgia, others escaped into the woods only to experience the horrors of refugee camps. Cormier Genealogy: Generations 1 - 7 tells the story of these remarkable and resilient people from their first arrival in Acadia to their post-deportation resettlement in New Brunswick, Québec, Cape Breton, Louisiana, St-Pierre et Miquelon, and St-Domingue (Haiti). This well-documented, 643-page paperback includes a 5,900-person index, complete endnotes, and a full bibliography.