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     LA PETITE SO 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
         
     
    
   
   
    
     James 
     
     PERRY 
     
    
   
   
    
     ‘FËÊ 
     
    
   
   
    
     One thing 
     
     that was 
     
     a direct influence 
     
     was that 
     
     I was born from 
     
     a. French-Acadian 
     
     family, 
     
     but nobody 
     
    
   
   
    
     could 
     
    
   
   
    
     speak French. 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     Reflech'on on our Acadian identiry (1) 
     
    
   
   
    
     The Acadian lames Perry is an 
     
     industrial electrician at Cavendish 
     
     Farms, a frozen French fry manu- 
     
     facturer in New Annan, Prince 
     
     Edward Island. In his spare time, 
     
     he is an amateur historian and 
     
     genealogist. He has previously 
     
     written articles for The Ancestral 
     
     Home Newsletter (wwwacadian- 
     
     home.org) and The Louisiana 
     
     Genealogical Register. He lives 
     
     in Summerside with his wife, 
     
     Dianne, daughters Melanie and 
     
     Carolyn and son Christopher. He 
     
     can be reached at jperry@pei. 
     
     sympatico.ca. 
     
    
   
   
    
     It is hard to put one’s finger on 
     
     just when or where I became inte- 
     
     rested about my Acadian history and 
     
     heritage. Some of those feelings go 
     
     back to when I was a young boy. 
     
     Most of the feelings I have are of a 
     
     personal nature, a sense of where I 
     
     belong, who I am, why I do things 
     
     the way I do. I know I am not uni- 
     
     que in this interest, many people the 
     
     world over search out their ancestors 
     
     for many different reasons. Someone 
     
     told me once that genealogy is the 
     
     world’s second most popular hobby, 
     
     next to stamp collecting and ahead 
     
     of coin collecting. I personally like 
     
     the Latter-Day Saints’ wording; they 
     
     call it «Famin History Research», 
     
     for without the history, all we have 
     
     are names, dates and places. There is 
     
    
   
   
    
     so so much more to the story. 
     
    
   
   
    
     One thing that was a direct in— 
     
     fluence was that l was from a French- 
     
     Acadian family, but nobody could 
     
     speak French. My family would visit 
     
     my grandparents in Summerside 
     
     where French was spoken; we 
     
     would visit my mom’s Uncle 
     
     Georges in Mont—Carmel, bringing 
     
     my grandmother along. They all 
     
     spoke French there. My father’s 
     
     parents also spoke French. In fact, 
     
     my paternal grandfather John B., as 
     
     he was called, spoke and wrote both 
     
     English and French fluently despite 
     
     only finishing Grade 2 or 3. My 
     
     materna] grandfather only learned 
     
     English in the late 1930'5 and early 
     
     1940s His young daughters would 
     
     read to him from their schoolbooks. 
     
     I did not find this lack of French 
     
     language skills unique or strange. 
     
     We were «French» but spoke En- 
     
     glish. We were like the relatives 
     
    
   
   
    
     whom Georges Arsenault spoke 
     
     about «we were French but did 
     
     not speak the language». Where 
     
    
   
   
    
     we lived at the time of my youth, 
     
     it would have been better to speak 
     
     Ukrainian or Inuit. There was no 
     
     French language training in the 
     
     schools I went to. There was no 
     
     opportunity to learn even the basics 
     
     of grammar and pronunciation. There 
     
     was no one with whom to practise 
     
     conversational French. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Our famin were Acadian Islan- 
     
     ders, and my parents somehow 
     
     sought out other misplaced Islanders 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     1 Talk delivered at the second «Forum on Acadiai 
     
    
   
   
    
     History and I-Ieritagen 
     
    
   
   
    
     held at the Acadian Museum in Miscouche on y ovember 4th, 2000 and 
     
     sponsored by the Comité historique Soeur-Antoinuttc-DesRoc/zes. 
     
    
   
   
    
     La rédaction : 
     
     à la nationalité acadiennes : 
     
    
   
   
    
     cet article est le 2“ sous la rubrique touchant à l’identité et 
     
     voir Gordon Lavoie, Réflexion sur notre identitc 
     
    
   
   
    
     acadienne, La Petite Souvenance, no l7, p. 37.) 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
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