03 March 1999

Hello everyone.

Well, for the few of you who may have seen the original site, here is the new look that I came up with. Hope you all like it. I think it will be fairly straightfoward to use and navigate through. Let me know if it isn't. I'm not sure just how often I will be updating things. I guess I would like to eventually be able to put something up every couple of weeks. Not quite sure how many of you are actually going to be looking here on a regular basis. Send me your ideas and thoughts about it.

My ideas for the Gallery include photos, archives, events or calendar to keep track of everyone's birthday or anniversary and e-mail addresses. The Links section will include links to sites or things I find interesting during my frequent "surf" sessions.

Just to keep everyone informed, I am still planning on diving head-first into planning a reunion for the descendants of Arthur and Leocadie, probably in August and in Nashua. We sort of had a mini reunion a few weeks ago with the families of Camille and Doris Berthiaume. Much to my surprise, almost everyone was there. Rita Paradise, Estelle Berthiaume, Claire Berthiaume and yours truly made the trip out to Newmarket where Doris lives. First prize for the persons(s) living the furthest go to Jen (Berthiaume) Quimby and her son Tom. Jen was visiting from Virginia for a couple weeks.

Well, that should just about do it for now. Until next time...

Hello everyone.

The bulk of this update is simply the enabling and addition of the Archive link in the Gallery. I still need to do some work in many sections and will try to get things done as soon as I can. I've cleaned up a few things here and there. I hope to begin work on the Calendar real soon. I will be looking for feedback on the ease of use and overall layout of the site. Please oblige me!.

For some reason, a few of the graphics do not appear to be coming in that well when accessing the site using AOL. If that happens to you, just try launching your normal browser, i.e. Netscape or Explorer and accessing the site that way.

Because not many people got to see the original message, particular those who it involved the most, I have retained the following excerpt for this message.

Just to keep everyone informed, I am still planning on diving head-first into planning a reunion for the descendants of Arthur and Leocadie, probably in August and in Nashua. We sort of had a mini reunion a few weeks ago with the families of Camille and Doris Berthiaume. Much to my surprise, almost everyone was there. Rita Paradise, Estelle Berthiaume, Claire Berthiaume and yours truly made the trip out to Newmarket where Doris lives. First prize for the persons(s) living the furthest go to Jen (Berthiaume) Quimby and her son Tom. Jen was visiting from Virginia for a couple weeks.

Well, that should just about do it for now. Until next time...

Hello everyone.

And welcome to Peter, Melynda and Samuel Berthiaume from New Bedford, MA. I had sent a letter this week telling them about the family reunion that many would like to try and organize for this year. They are anxious to come up if we do have one. Peter is the grandson of Emile Berthiaume and Leontine Masse. Emile is a cousin to Arthur and Leontine is Leocadie's sister. Perhaps we can get Peter, Melynda and Samuel up here before the reunion. Samuel is 3 and would no doubt have lots of fun with all of his other cousins.

Well, there have been more changes to the site. Unfortunately, (and in a nutshell) because of the way my software works, to create files I can use on the web, I had to do away with having photographs within the family pages which had been accessed using the Surname Index. However, not wanting to do away with this "feature", I have included a "Family Photo Page" as a link from the Descendancy Charts. It may not be the best solution, but I think it'll work for now. Give it a try and let me know what you think. I really hope many of you allow me to include photo's I have, or send me others to include. As you can see by my family photo page, it does add a nice dimension to the site.

It seems I am continually finding little errors here and there. My apologies to those they impact and please bear with me while I straighten them out. There are other issues which I am still trying to figure out and will explain as we move along.

Well, that should just about do it for now. Until next time...

Hello everyone.

In my last message, I only welcomed Peter and his family when I actually should have welcomed his family and all of our family members who may be centered around New Bedford. No doubt they have been spreading the word and perhaps, others in New Bedford have or will see our page. So, may I restate my previous message as "Welcome to everyone in our New Bedford family".

You know, I mentioned to Peter and Melynda how I remember my dad and his sisters talking about "Uncle Emil" and his photo studio. It sounds as though they really enjoyed getting together, and apparently, horsing around taking different pictures, etc. I can recall, when I was younger, how we used to make "the circuit" on Sundays, and visit Aunt Rita's house or Aunt Estelle's house (which I call the original Berthiaume Homestead). It has been years since we stopped doing "the circuit". I don't really know when it stopped, since we had moved around, lived in Somersworth NH and in Opa-Locka FL for a few years, moving back to Nashua in 1972.

Anyway, my point here is it's nice for family to get together. Despite my joking around with my brothers and sisters last Christmas about how I always see them week after week, driving down the street, etc. It is nice to see everyone together and all the cousins playing. Where as I used to get together with my cousins on the weekend, my children are doing the same. So the tradition does continue. And, wouldn't it be nice if this generation could rekindle the New Bedford-Nashua connection.

I am very excited about getting this reunion together. When I was talking with my cousin Bill a few weeks back, I asked him when the last time was that he saw some of his other cousins in Nashua. He said, maybe 40 YEARS for some of them. Going our own way in life is fine, but somehow I don't think it was meant to be without staying in touch with your roots. Time passes too quickly, without regard for how often all of us can or do get together. But, like anything else, an effort must be made and I think an annual reunion is just the thing we need.

Hey, I've rambled on and haven't yet told you of the updates I have made to our site. I have reformated the presentation of the featured photographs in the Gallery and I have added the Calendar section.

Well, that should just about do it for now. Until next time...

Hello everyone.

I attended a 50th birthday party this weekend for Normand Paradise, son of Maurice Paradise and Rita Berthiaume. Actually he turned 50 last year so the belated party tactic appeared to have worked well. Numerous stories were told, by family and friends, about things he had done over the years. There was music, good food and plenty of laughs. The highlight, of course, was the guest appearance by the Fire Department. I guess there must be a law or something that allows them to come to any party when the...ah...fire alarm goes off. Most of us think Normand himself tripped the alarm so he could bypass a cycle of his favorite tune which was being played every 15 minutes or so. Happy Birthday cousin! Hopefully you're able to open your present. And, to the party organizers, Normand's son Jason and his wife Kristen, and all of the others - job well done!

Parties are fun. And speaking of parties, I have been toying around with August 7th or 8th for a reunion here in Nashua. Let me first start off by acknowledging that I am not going to be able to please everyone. But, I would like some feedback as to whether a Saturday would be better than a Sunday. If this thing is going to happen, I need to get the wheels in motion soon. August is far enough away for people to mark their calendars for this momentous event!

Well, more and more family members are finding out about the page. Greetings to all new visitors. Hope everyone likes it and visits often. Dropping me a line to let me know you've been by would also be nice. I want to try and get a feel for who is actually visiting the page. Many have been asking me when I'm going to put new pictures up. Well, to tell you the truth, I don't have that many of the Berthiaume ancestors, i.e. Arthur and Leocadie and their siblings. I still need to work on getting some for the site. As far as other photos for the Family Photo Pages, I am still waiting for some of you to send them in or allow me to scan in ones I may have already. If any of you out there need my address to send in your photos, drop me and email and I'll get it to you.

As far as updates to the site itself, I think the only thing I have done is correct the spelling of some names. I am in the process of compiling more "lines" to the tree. Currently, what is displayed in the Berthiaume Descendants Chart is maybe only 25% of the names I now have. I will probably do an update in a couple weeks since I may need that time to organize the files and get them ready for the web.