Genealogy

This is for “Jim”.

Last week, in another example of the paranoid xenophobia that both fuelled the Danny Williams era and is part of its legacy, commenter “Jim” observed, in the comments section of a since-deleted VOCM news story:

With a name like Dumaresque, it makes you wonder. Sounds like a Quebec name to me.

As it would sound. To a prejudiced, paranoid, xenophobe.

In fact, Dumaresque is a Channel Islands name, the heritage of the long, and much under-appreciated, historical Channel Islands connection to the fisheries and trade of Newfoundland, Labrador, and regions around the Gulf of St. Lawrence such as Cape Breton, Gaspé, and the North Shore.

Other common Channel Islands names in Newfoundland and Labrador include some or all of the Fequet, Letemplier, Roberts, Gushue, Puddister, Legrow, Fillier, Hawco, Nichol, Piccott, Furey, Norman, Noel, Ledrew, Grouchy, Murrin, Payne, Tessier, Grandy, Ayre, St. Croix, Cabot, Renouf, Bonnell, Sacrey, Chevalier, Corbin, Carey, Leriche, Thomey, Tibbo, and Goudie family lines.