Conference Speaker Change

Due to a scheduling conflict, Bob Chenard will be unavailable to lead our French-Canadian breakout session at the 2009 Annual Conference.

We are very pleased to announce that Dennis Prue has agreed to step in and share his knowledge in this area.

Dennis Prue is a News Analyst by profession. Raised in a military family (aka Air Force brat). He has been an avid genealogist for the past 41 years, and has done research from Virginia to Quebec, working both sides of his family: McConnells from Virginia and Ireland to Prues / Proulx / Proust from Maine, New Brunswick, Quebec and France. Dennis is the past-president of Aroostook County Genealogy Society, and currently serves as vice-president. He is a volunteer at the local Family History Center (only non-LDS staff member). He is co-editor of Ashland, Maine: The Early Years History. He has written many articles for the A.C.G.S. newsletter.

Dennis's personal genealogy reflects the different styles of record keeping. His father's ancestors of French-Canadian origins have nearly no missing persons due to the wonderful records found in Catholic parish records. His mother's side of the family tree has more missing branches due to the very bare bones English style records. The records of his father's family has enabled him to go five more generations back in France itself. This took nearly three years of research; learning to read Latin as well as convoluted French-Latin used during the switch from Latin in church records to the to the vernacular French and old French itself. One unexpected discovery arising from his research is he found that his handwriting is the same as that of the early 1600s in France.

We look forward to having Dennis return as a speaker!

If you haven't registered yet, please visit the official conference website at www.maineroots.org.