Shirley Burton

Homage Shirley Burton

A ten generation saga, from France to New France - of courage and survival, and of French, Native and British Cultures. These chronicles follow the migration and settlement of the Pasquiers from Dissay, France, a real family, with locations and dates based on research in France and Canada. Lives of the explorers and habitants are presented in these stories as fiction, representative of many that sailed from France to life in North America. Following the footsteps of the Pasquiers of Brie, our characters depart from the ancient harbor of La Rochelle for the Atlantic journey, on a quest for free land and opportunity. Over many years, the author has researched to understand the struggles and joys endured. War, birth, death and marriage are not the only milestones of these generations, but are enhanced by what we glean from their experiences -adventure, vision, survival, love and faith. Through research for this book, I never came across an expression more poignant than that of Father Paul LeJeune, Jesuit Father to the missions around Tadoussac during the time of Champlain. Let your heart read these words, and become part of this journey of the stalwart habitant. "To leave one's parents and friends, to abandon one's acquaintances, to leave one's sweet homeland and its traditions, to cross the seas, to defy the ocean and its storms, to sacrifice one's life to suffering, to leave behind all present belongings, in order to throw oneself blindly forward for the sake of distant hopes, to convert the traffic of the earth into that of the heavens, to want to die in Barbary, is a language that is not spoken in the school of nature; and yet, these are the actions and language of a thousand people of merit, who deal with the affairs of New France with as much courage, if not more, as they would with the affairs of the Old France." This narrative commences in the 15th century in the midst of the Hundred Years' War battlegrounds of England and France as kings were looking beyond their borders to expand their wealth, and with intent to take control of trade. This collection ventures to understand Québecois patriotism from its French foundation to the 21st century, with emotions from cultural changes, expectations of wars, laughter and tears from family celebrations, from births to passings. In some degree, all immigrants share the history and experiences depicted in this journal.