Minutes: 5 June 2009

June 5, 2009

Bonjour à vous tous,

I hope everyone is enjoying the latest issue of "Generations" (Spring 2009) edited by Allie Guidry of Virginia. Our news journal continues to be one of the best among all genealogical societies. Allie does a tremendous job selecting material, laying out the material in an eye-appealing way and using superb colors and illustrations throughout the journal. Thanks, Allie, for producing a superb journal for us all.

WE NEED YOUR HELP

Our Guédry-Labine & Petitpas Reunion is fast approaching and we have now completed preparations. We have an excellent program with an excellent mix of Cajun and Acadian music, informative talks on the local Acadian region, on our family history and on the Cajun and Acadian cultures, superb table displays and lots of time to meet and enjoy your cousins. Unfortunately, pre-registrations have come in very slow. If we had the Reunion right now, our Canadian cousins would outnumber our American cousins almost three to one. I strongly encourage everyone to register now so we can better prepare for the Reunion. A lot of our preparations is based on our best guess of the number of attendees. We need your help to firm up this number.

And please let your family, relatives and friends that are interested in the Guidry, Guedry, Gaidry, Guildry, Geddry, Jeddry, Gedry, Jedry, Labine, LaBean, Petitpas, Pitts and Perro families (and other variations of our name) know about our Reunion. I only have email addresses for a small percentage of our total family. We need your help in reaching everyone and giving them the opportunity to meet and join our Family. A Registration Form is on our Guédry-Labine Family Website at:

2009 Reunion Registration

As an incentive to register early, we will give each family (or individual) registrant that registers on or before 15 July 2009 a set of two CD's containing music performed by approximately 50 musicians of our Guédry family. The music ranges from Cajun to Acadian, swamp pop to rock-n-roll, west coast swing, blues and gospel to religious, heavy metal, electronic and rap. We have a broad range of musical talent in our family and this is your chance to sample it all. I believe you'll be impressed with the selections.

FAMILY AND REUNION SOUVENIRS

Cindy Herdt, our Sales Committee Chairperson, has been very active this year designing and ordering momentos of our family and of our Reunion experience for folks to purchase. Some will only be sold at the Reunion; however, we are offering some items early so folks can purchase them and bring them (wear them) to the Reunion or leave them at home due to travel limits. Not all items are specific to the Reunion; some are general to our family. The quality of these items is well above what you envision as a souvenir. You can order some of the items on the Merchandise Page of our website at:

Merchandise

We are working to add PayPal to the website. Please bear with us on this. In the meantime you can order the items from Cindy using the old-fashioned system - mail and a check.

RECENT NEWS

If you plan to attend other events associated with the Congrès Mondial such as the concerts, you can purchase your tickets online at this weblink:

http://www.billetterieacces.ca/

For those in Louisiana wishing to travel with a group to the Congrès Mondial, History Break Tours of Carencro, LA is having a fully catered tour by bus . The bus will depart from Lafayette, LA on 6 August 2009 and return to Lafayette on 28 August 2009. You do have the option to fly to Bangor and join the bus there on 9 August. There is flexibility in the bus schedule so you can attend your family reunions and other activities that you would like to do. The package includes 22 days of motorcoach transportation, 21 nights of accomodations, 21 breakfasts, 3 lunches, 4 dinners and luggage handling for one suitcase and lot of fun. Call one of these telephone numbers soon to reserve your spot: 337-288-2681, 337-394-2258 or 337-298-8965.

Our Guédry-Labine & Petitpas Reunion is only two months away. With the tremendous help of Jason Guidry and Lorn Guidry of Bathurst, New Brunswick, Jeanette Guidry Leger of Rayne, Louisiana, Elaine Clement of Lafayette, Louisiana and several other cousins, preparations are now complete.

Cindy Herdt of Entiat, Washington, Chairperson of our Sales Committee, has designed and selected several momentos for the Reunion. We will have these for sale at the Reunion. They include pens, key chains, T-shirts, lapel pins, notepads, totebags and other items. I have seen several of these and they are quite nice - definitely a grade above the 'normal' items you see at Reunions. We also may have a couple of books about our families for sale. Some of the items will have the Reunion logo on them and others will have only the "Les Guédry d'Asteur" wording on them so that they will not 'age' with the end of the Reunion. Some of the items currently can be purchased on our Guédry-Labine Family Website at:

Merchandise

Additional items will be added shortly.

So much for all of the formal planning. So what can you do:

One - attend the Reunion and meet your cousins - talk with them, share your experiences and
     family, view the displays, get excited about our family.

Two - share something with all of us - a big part of our Reunion is the display area: some
    displays are rather formal; others are very informal; all are informative and interesting.
    Why not bring a display to the Reunion? It can be as formal as you like - a complete
    display board with some aspect of your family presented or it can be very informal as
    copies of some interesting photographs or family documents, an interesting object
    associated with our family as a hand-crafted instrument, an old map showing family land
    grants, a copy of an old diary, a sportscard collection of family athletes, family
    correspondence from the war years, etc. Bring it along and let others enjoy seeing it.

The Acadian Peninsula of New Brunswick is a truly French region where Acadian French is the predominant language. In that tradition we are planning a bilingual reunion with both French and English segments. Don't worry if you are not bilingual as we are designing it so you will be able to follow and understand. Areas that will be predominantly French include the French Rosary, the French Mass, the Cajun and Acadian music and the presentation by Sister Corinne LaPlante. (An English outline of Sister LaPlante's presentation will be available.)  Areas that will be predominantly English will include the remaining presentations and the Master of Ceremony comments.

For Louisianians interested in a Bus Excursion to New Brunswick -
The Acadian Memorial and CAFA (Confederation of Acadian Families Association) are teaming together to sponsor a bus trip to the 2009 Congrès Mondial Acadian to be held on August 7 thru August 23rd in the Acadian Peninsula of New Brunswick. For those who are interested in joining the trip, call (337) 298-8965, (337) 288-2681 or (337) 394-2258.

GUEDRY-LABINE & PETITPAS REUNION - BATHURST, NEW BRUNSWICK - 16 AUG 2009

The Guédry-Labine & Petitpas Reunion will be on Sunday, August 16, 2009 in the Conference Centre at Danny's Inn in Bathurst, New Brunswick. Registration information is available on our Guédry-Labine Family website. To obtain a Reunion Registration form just click on the red '2009 Reunion Registration' button at the bottom of the page. To reach this website page, click on this link:

2009 Reunion

(You may need to copy the entire link and paste it into the URL location at the top of your browser window - for example, Google, Yahoo, etc.)

The website for Danny's Inn is :

http://www.dannysinn.com/site/AboutUs.aspx

Major events planned during the 2009 CMA include :

* August 7 - Opening Ceremony - Acadian March (Lameque, Shippagan & Miscou)
* August 15 - Acadian Natinal Holiday - Grand Tintamarre (Caraquet)
* August 16-20 - Space 2009 - Acadie Invents (Pokemouche)
    Note: August 18th - Louisiana will be highlighted at Pokemouche
* August 23 - Closing Ceremony - Acadie Gathers (Tracadie-Sheila-Neguac Area
* Conferences including the Great Youth Gathering, Women's Summit, Business
    Event and Acadie Welcomes
* Artistic and Cultural Treasure Series including Invincible Roots, Maritime
    Short Plays, Sound and Light, Acadian Popular Theater, Grand Peninsula
    Concert, Voir L'Acadie, Weaving the Acadian Thread and much more
* Family Reunions throughout the festival period


We will have an all-day Reunion beginning at 8:30 am and lasting until 5:00 pm with an excellent full buffet dinner at Danny's Inn about noon. Activities will include talks, music, displays, etc as well as time to mingle and get to know your cousins.

The agenda for our Guédry-Labine & Petitpas Reunion includes:

* 8:30 am - Opening Mass at Holy Family (Sainte Famille) Catholic  Church
                    (430 St. Peter Avenue; Bathurst, NB)
-  French Rosary led by Pierrette Guidry of Colorado
-  Opening Procession honoring our ancestors
-  French Mass celebrated by Father Benoit Drapeau of Arizona
-  Closing Procession

* 9:45 am - Reunion Registration at Danny's Inn Conference Center
                   [1223 Route 134 (Rue Principale) just north of Bathurst, NB]

* 10:00 am - Larry Miller and his Cajun Band
                     (Including Cajun two-step & waltz demonstrations)

* 10:45 am - Break (View displays, meet cousins, sales table, etc.)

* 11:00 am - Presentation (Larry Miller of Louisiana) -
                     Cultures of Louisiana Cajuns and Maritime Acadians
                     including an actual Courir de Mardi Gras (Cajun Mardi Gras Run)

* 11:45 am - Break (View displays, meet cousins, sales table, etc.)

* 12:00 noon - Dinner Buffet

* 1:00 pm - Presentation (Sister Corinne LaPlant of New Brunswick) -
                    History of the Acadians of the Baie-des-Chaleurs Region

* 1:45 pm - Break (View displays, meet cousins, sales table, etc.)

* 2:00 pm - Presentation (Eileen Avery [Petitpas] of California) -
                    Petitpas Genealogy - Recent Discoveries Using DNA Techniques

* 2:45 pm - Break (View displays, meet cousins, sales table, etc.)

* 3:00 pm - New Brunswick Acadian Band

* 3:45 pm - Break (View displays, meet cousins, sales table, etc.)

* 4:00 pm - Presentation (Elaine Clement of Louisiana) -
                    Louisiana Cajun French and Acadian French of Canada -
                    How Similar Are They

* 4:30 pm - Break

* 4:45 pm - Closing Ceremony

Throughout the day we may have a special magician mingling among us. In addition, we'll have family history displays in the back of the room and a sales booth where you can purchase items related to our family and our reunion. We will have several breaks during the day so that everyone can meet each other and can visit the displays and sales booth.

Here's a couple of websites on Larry Miller:

http://members.cox.net/jireaux/larry.htm

http://www.accordions.com/bonteecajun/

We'll have a superb buffet lunch about noon at the Conference Center. It'll be a Hot & Cold Dinner Buffet that includes roast beef smothered in peppercorn gravy, sweet & sour meatballs, lasagna, chicken wings, potato casserole, coleslaw, tossed green salad, carrot salad, rolls, carrot cake, cherry cheesecake, fresh fruit salad, coffee and tea. The cost of the buffet will be approximately $23.00 per person.

It is not too early to secure lodging . Remember, unlike airline reservations, you can easily cancel hotel/motel and rental car reservations within a few days of arrival with no penalty. So don't procrastinate in making hotel/motel reservations and/or rental car reservations. Lodging space and rental cars will be very limited in the Acadian Peninsula of New Brunswick, but they are still available in the Bathurst area - especially bed and breakfasts and cabins. The website below contains a number of motels, hotels and bed & breakfasts in the Bathurst area.

http://www.bathurst.ca/english/home/index.cfm?id=195

I look forward to seeing everyone at Bathurst and enjoying a wonderful Reunion together.

Marty


Martin Guidry
6139 North Shore Drive
Baton Rouge, LA 70817
225-571-9726
guidryrmartin@gmail.com
Les Guédry et Petitpas d'Asteur, Inc.
https://guedryfamily.guedry.org/
https://guedry.guedry.org/