March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

UMFK archives to receive works on Acadian culture

FORT KENT — The University of Maine at Fort Kent Acadian Archives will be the repository of 20 years of research on the St. John Valley by an Ontario doctor.

Dr. Beatrice Craig, a native of France and now a resident of Ottawa, has presented the archives with her publications and working documents on the demographic, economic, social structure and kinship records of the early St. John Valley settlements through 1870.

Her work, widely published, represents a treasure trove of historical and social information on the Canadian and American sides of the St. John River valley, said archives Director Lisa Ornstein.

Ornstein contacted Craig about her work a year ago. Last summer Craig delivered boxes of her notes, forms and statistical analysis to the archives. This week, she delivered more copies of her work.

Part of her work reconstructs the history of families in the valley to 1850. Her work found that the St. John Valley had the lowest recorded infant mortality rate in the country between 1803 and 1838.

Craig, a teacher of history at the University of Ottawa, first came to the St. John Valley in the 1970 when she heard of the valley and its Acadians.

She found that information was scattered because of the division of the area into two countries by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842. She had to travel to Fredericton, New Brunswick and Augusta to get records for her research.

Once catalogued by the archives, Craig’s works will be available to the public.

Her husband, Terry, is a native of Mars Hill.


Have feedback? Want to know more? Send us ideas for follow-up stories.

comments for this post are closed

You may also like