AUCLAIR/O'CLAIRS CELEBRATE FAMILY

It's always a good time to celebrate family. Every five years since the 1990's the Auclair/O'Clair family has been gathering at a Maine campground for family reunions. Since then they've shared their history of being descended from a French widow and her two boys who made the perilous sea journey of nearly three month's duration to immigrate to a strange new land in 1666. They've learned that they are among an estimated 300,000 member group of people in North America descended from this woman, Suzanne Aubineau Auclair. The've learned that they have the distinction of being able to visit an ancestor's original home near Quebec City, a fieldstone structure with the additional distinction of being one of the oldest continuously occupied residences in Canada.

The family took to heart the command “Be fruitful, and multiply” as the most recent generations have numbered up to sixteen children in each family. The attendees at the reunions have been the descendants of Francois Clament Auclair and his wife Anastasie Beaulieu who raised twelve children in the Northern Maine town of Saint Agatha in the late 1800's. Descendants of four of these individuals have been identified and attendance at reunions have numbered up to nearly three hundred people from many states and provinces. Genealogies have been created and updated with a fourth edition being prepared for the 2015 reunion, as is a third collection of family stories, history and recipes.

The family has progressed into the 21st Century and nearly abandoned information exchange through the mail system, fraught with the difficulties of address changes. In preparation of this reunion a site has been established on face book. Initially intended as a place to post plans and announcements, it has been expanded as a site to post photographs of past reunions as well as old and new family photos which number in the hundreds. Family members can now visit and stay acquainted without leaving home, but, hopefully, be inspired to do just that on the 17th to the 19th July 2015 and gather for a few days at the Katahdin Shadows Campground in Medway, Maine.