Norman Collette, and Jean Nicolet
My cousin, Norman Collette of Winnipeg, passed away recently, and his funeral Mass is on January 24, 2025. Here is more information.
Norman and I share a root family at Oakwood-Grafton ND; going back to Minnesota, and Quebec. His grandfather, Arcidas Collette (aka Alcidas) and my Grandmother Josephine (Collette) Bernard were two of the children of Octave and Clotilde Blondeau of Oakwood. Norman grew up in the area of Ste. Elisabeth and Morris MB. He and I have met in person more than once, but distance and being in different countries made more collaboration impractical.
Norman and I shared an interest in family history, and while Norman has now passed on, I think it is an appropriate time to pass along a new revelation about his and my first French-Canadian root, Jean Nicolet, who arrived in what is now Quebec in 1618. The story is in outline and text form here: Jean Nicolet. The information was provided by another cousin, Remi Roy, whose great-grandfather, Philippe, was our Octave’s younger brother; and whose grandmother and grandfather, Lottie Collette and Joseph Roy, married in 1913 at Ste. Elisabeth MB, the same community where Norman grew up. The basic genealogy information is in outline form, but I think makes sense. Remi also includes some narrative about Nicolet and LeBlanc (our connection),
An additional article about Nicolet from the Door County WI Historical Society is here.
The setting for the story:
The Collette family history is available on-line here, click on library, click books and scroll down to Bernard-Collette and Roy-Collette for the histories.
An earlier post, directly related, about Francois Collet, is here. This post was updated Jan. 24, to include some information not previously shared.
The Collette’s in St. Anthony (later Minneapolis) MN is here.
Norman and I were from the same generation – I’m about a year older. I’ve observed for a number of years that when our generation is gone, so will be most of the memories of the old days. If you are reading this, and haven’t got around to recording memories for the future, now is a good time to start. Years from now somebody will want to know what was life like back then.
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