Girls and soldier looking at sheep

(This is the final part of a three-part series about Fortress Louisbourg. The content was published as Appendix 5-A in Chapter 5 of A Violette History, available at Amazon.. Other chapter references here also refer to that same book.) 

I took the opportunity during our travels following the Violette Family Reunion 2011 to visit the Louisbourg area to learn more about where my ancestors had lived. I wanted to walk the streets and get the feel for the place where Charles, Marie David, and François had lived during the period 1749-1758. My visit was during late August so the place was open for visits and there were a moderate number of visitors during my visits. The National Park also has a few dozen people dressed in period costumes that engage in programmed activities to illustrate aspects of life in Louisbourg in 1745. The portrayed time frame is just before the British and New Englanders laid siege to Louisbourg in 1745, as described in this chapter, and at the peak of a long phase of French development of the port and city that had started around 1713. The French community in Louisbourg was well developed and to society and community there had had many years to mature. Continue reading →

Commercial buildings along Rue Le Quay, facing waterfront

Life in the 1748-1758 era in Fortress Louisbourg must have been exciting. While the town of Louisbourg had been first settled in the early 1600s by the French, its importance grew during the late 1600s and early 1700s as the British and French competed for control of the region. For the British it was probably a desire to expand their influence and holdings spreading from New England. For the French it was the lucrative fishery resources and protection of their trade and communication routes between France, Quebec, and the West Indies. The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 gave the British control over the peninsular Acadia while the French retained control over adjacent Ile Royale (Cape Breton Island). Continue reading →