Author Archives: President

The Descendants of Francois Violet republished

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Rita’s book republished. Click on image to go to Amazon listing

Good news for Violettes – Rita Violette Lippe’s book, The Descendants of Francois Violet, has been republished in a softcover version, as the 2nd Edition. It is available for $18 from Amazon using this link. A Kindle version is also available, for $10, using this link.

The hardcover version of this book was published in 1984 and was out of print by 2008.

This book contains the genealogy of about 9,600 Violette descendants and was the result of years of hard work by Rita and others in doing family research. That work took her (and others) to northern Maine, to Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, and to France as they sought the roots of this Violette family. The book has become a cherished family heirloom, passed on from one generation to another. But after 2008 no more copies were available for an ever-expanding family.

Late in 2019 Violette Family Association President Dave Violette became aware of services whereby out-of-print books could be scanned to create images from which the book could be republished. He already had experience with print-on-demand publishing through Amazon, having published along with co-authors Guy Dubay and Rod Violette A Violette History, also available from Amazon in both softcover and electronic versions.

He then spent some time doing cleanup on the scanned files and generated a new cover for the book. While the original book was 6×9 inches in size, the new softcover version is 7×10 inches in size to better handle the scanned pages.

This 2nd edition of The Descendants of Francois Violet does not extend any of the genealogy of the original edition. However, a vastly expanded genealogy is available online at VioletteRegistry.com/FamilyTree, thanks to work by Rod Violette with support of many others.

Dave made a few changes in the 2nd edition to correct some information and has set up a process whereby more corrections can be made. As corrections are reported he will update the version at the publisher so that new orders will have those accumulated corrections. An errata page has been added at the rear of the 2nd edition and those corrections will be recorded there. Those corrections will also be reported to the Violette family via the irregular newsletter as well as at VioletteRegistry.com/books.

In the new year

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Happy New Year to all Violettes and their families!

Do you want to have a Violette Family Reunion in 2020? It is time in the regular cycle of things for us to have one. The last was in 2014; we did not have one in 2017. We just need someone or a group to act as hosts, and we can provide them with a lot of help in organizing and carrying it out. A New England location would work best for the majority of members. See VioletteRegistry.com/Reunions/reunion-guidelines for info on holding a Reunion.

2020 will be the year for our Triennial Meeting, whether it is held at a Reunion or virtually. That means it is also time for elections of officers. Our current officers were elected in 2014 and would like for someone else to take over. Four offices are up for election: President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. Please think about it and suggest potential nominees to an officer. Contact info is at VioletteRegistry.com/VioletteRegistry.com/organization/officers/.

Voting results

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Voting on changes to our Constitution and By-Laws closed on September 30, 2019. The changes adopted by the Board in August have been approved by the Association membership. The votes were 102 Yes, 4 No. Of those 106 votes, 92 votes cast electronically, 14 by mail. We thank all members who took the time to study this issue and cast their vote.

As a result of the changes, we will now have a Triennial Meeting every three years with the next meeting to be held in August 2020. At that Triennial Meeting we will have elections for officers along with any other business to be brought before the membership. That meeting may be held in a physical location or may be held virtually.

One order of business at the upcoming and every Triennial Meeting will be election of officers, who serve for the three-year term between Triennial Meetings. Those offices include President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. Nominations will take place well in advance of the Triennial Meeting. Notices of the meeting must be given at least 60 days before the meeting.

Lets keep in touch. Are you missing?

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2018 Aug contents

Table of Contents for Aug 2018 newsletter. Click on image to download the newsletter.

You know how it is with families – when cousins only see each other for weddings and funerals it is easy to not be close. And when your children and theirs start having children the distance seems to get greater. We have so much going on in our own lives.

Well, the Violette Family Association may not have been the best “cousin” for staying in touch. Our interactions with you have been sporadic over the last years – usually when we have something to say about Reunions.  Continue reading →

The Violette Family Book, by Peter R Violette

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Cover of Violette Family Book, available for purchase at Amazon. Click the image to go there.

Another book about the Violette Family was written by Peter R. Violette (VFA #1793) and published in December 2015. It is available from Amazon using this link. This book starts with the known history of our family starting with Francois’ grandparents, Louis and Marie, and continues on to tell the story how the family came to move from France to Louisbourg. He traces the history at Louisbourg with excellent details and insights,and continues with the family history in southern New Brunswick and the later move to the Upper St John River, where Francois and his family pioneered.  Continue reading →

A pioneer family grows and grows

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Francois Violette Descendants

Descendant chart for Francois Violette, three generations

When Francois and Marie-Luce Violet moved their family around 1789 from lands they had lived on and farmed along the Hammond River in lower New Brunswick, there were twelve children ranging in age from infancy to 19 years old. Three more children would be born to this family after arriving in the Upper St John River Valley bringing the total to 15. But Marie-Luce died about 1800, at 50 years of age – not uncommon in those days when life was not easy. The community around the Hammond River could count on established commercial enterprises to provide supplies of all kinds – the things they could not raise on their farm. Pioneering in the Upper St John meant there was none of those “conveniences” available and they probably had to do without or make their own substitutes for many things.

Such was the age range of this large family that their first grandchild was born before their fifteenth child was born in 1792! Son Augustin married Elizabeth Cyr 11 years after moving to his new land (he was one of those who was granted land under the Soucy Concession) and their first child was born in 1799. Continue reading →

How to join VFA

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How to join VFA

Our last post explained how you can determine if you are a member already. So what if you checked and found you are not? Joining is easy, and here we’ll explain how.

You are eligible to join the Violette Family Association if you are a descendant of Francois Violet/Violette. You can show you are a descendant by giving your RIN (genealogical Record Identification Number) which can be found (if you don’t know it) by doing a lookup at VioletteRegistry.com/FamilyTree. If you aren’t in the Violette Registry and think you should be, contact our Genealogist, Rod Violette (VFA#12) and provide your family information so he can add you to the Family Tree. His contact info is in the footer of this and every page. Continue reading →

Violette Registry is here!

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The Violette Family Association has started a new service called Violette Registry. The entire 81,500-name genealogical database is now accessible from the web site at VioletteRegistry.com. And you don’t have to sign in to see it.

You can easily review your Family Tree and trace ancestors or descendants. At the web site go to Genealogy then click Family Tree or go directly to VioletteRegistry.com/FamilyTree. While you won’t be able to make changes yourself to the information there, you can easily contact Rod Violette (VFA #12), Genealogist, to ask questions or provide family information updates. Click the Contact Us link in the Family Tree area to send Rod an email with your questions or info.

We encourage you to extend your Family Tree. Let Rod know if you have children, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren that are not shown there. Also, let him know about missing siblings, parents, aunts, uncles, and so on. We want this Family Tree to be as complete as possible not only for you but as a resource for future generations!

We’ll tell you more about the Violette Family Tree and the Violette Registry web site in future articles.