Dans un Petit Village

Etienne Parent was born at a time when the educational system in Upper and Lower Canada was in a state of flux. The French government no longer subsidized education in Canada after the conquest and for the British authorities public education was not initially a priority. (1)  Soon after the conquest the British authorities saw the French - Canadian majority as a threat to their authority. They proposed to establish public schools as a way to Anglicize and convert French Canadians to Protestantism. (2) In 1801, the first Canadian school law was implemented; the law of the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Science. (3) The Catholic bishop and clergy saw the Royal Institution law for what it was, an attack on their authority over the French - Canadian population. They refused to support the law and it failed. (4) The clergy and the educated class established their own schools that were held in private homes and French Canadian businesses, such as newspapers. The teachers cover...

I  saw the Maison Laurent dit Lortie as we were driving int Beauport on the Friday evening that we drove from Montreal. I recognised the house immediately from the pictures that I had seen on the internet. It was late afternoon and the late afternoon shadows gave the house an dramatic look that impressed on me just old the house is. Unfortunately, we could not stop to look. we had been on the road for over three hours and we were anxious to get to our destination, the Ambassador Hotel and get something to eat. The Maison Laurent dit Lortie would have to wait for the next day. The maison Laurent dit Lortie would be the last house that we would look at on chemin Royal that day, it was located at 3200 chemin Royal. There was one more house and two cemeteries to visit before lunch! We had been impressed by our passing impression of the maison Laurent Lortie when we had driven past the evening before. Now in the mid-morning light the house had the appearance of being filled with light...

I barely know where to begin. Last week, my wife and I had the opportunity to spend a weekend in Beauport , Quebec. We arrived Friday evening and had time to settle into our hotel room for the evening. We purposely chose a hotel near the historic area of Beauport. It was not a great hotel but the location was perfect for our purposes. Our goal was to visit all of the sites related to the Parent family and visit the graveyard that was most closely associated with the Parent family. On Saturday morning we had a quick breakfast of coffee from McDonalds and pastries purchased from Premiere Moisson in Montreal before we drove to Beauport the day before. Fortunately, Saturday was a perfect day for a historical/genealogical walking tour of Beauport; it was sunny and warm. There were many sites and buildings that we visited last Saturday, June 1st. I will write about only one or two of them in each post to keep the post reasonably short. We also visited the two oldest cemeteries in Beaupo...