Le Forum, published by Le Centre Franco-Americain at the University of Maine, has switched its format from newspaper to magazine-style – and I like it very much.

The winter 2005 issue contains articles from several states. I particularly enjoyed “Growing Up French and Not Knowing It (1960-1970),” by Kent Beaulne dit Bone, who grew up in DeSoto, Mo.

“The husband’s first name was often tacked onto the wife’s first name,” he wrote. “If Donna Emily married Gary Robart, she would have been called Donna Gary. With the single girls, their father’s first name was tacked on in the same manner. In this way, Catherine, daughter of Edmond Boyer, would be known as Catherine Edmond.”

This is similar to what I’ve observed during 30-plus years of visits to the St. John Valley here in Maine, where the expression might be Catherine a Edmond, or Catherine de Edmond.

Another interesting piece was “Examples of Family Names and Dit Names in 1701-1710 Detroit,” by Gail Moreau-DesHarnais, member of the French-Canadian Heritage Society of Michigan.

As one of many examples, she lists Etienne Amiot dit Lincourt (Etienne Amiot called Lincourt), and points out that of the families who still live in the Detroit River region, some use the original names and some the “dit” names.

I also was fascinated by “Under Cover as a Franco,” by Richard Gay of Blue Hill, born in Bar Harbor. His portion of Franco-American ancestry is small, but a class trip years ago took him to Quebec City, where he eventually went to Laval University. He has taught foreign languages in Maine colleges and was a member of the CIA. Gay also is the co-author of “They Came to Destroy America,” a book on World War II espionage in Maine, which I now plan to read.

The spring 2005 issue of Le Forum features “The Acadians Have Landed,” by Reinhard Zollitsch, who teaches German at the University of Maine. The focus is the French settlement of St. Croix Island in 1604.

Also included are two articles reprinted from the Bangor Daily News, both by reporter Abigail Curtis – one on a ceremony at the marker in Bangor’s Norumbega Park crediting Samuel de Champlain for landing in the area during his trip up the Penobscot River in 1604; the other on the donation of 12,000 books in French from schools, businesses and individuals in Quebec to Franco-American lending libraries in New England.

Another piece in the latest Le Forum states that “Explanatory Maps of Saint Croix & Acadia” are on-line at www.umaine.edu/canam/hamatlas.htm

Also, the Rev. Youville Labonte, who has compiled books of marriage records for several Catholic churches – books you can find at the Maine State Library, made an important gift to the Father Leo E. Begin Library in Auburn before retiring to Florida.

The gift was the 40-volume Drouin Collection of men and women, along with Hard to Find Marriages on microfilm.

The library is at the Maine Franco-American Genealogical Society, in the Great Falls School building at the corner of High and Academy streets in Auburn. The library is open 1-8:30 p.m. Wednesdays and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays. For information, call 786-3327.

You’ll also find in this issue of Le Forum a list of Web sites for Franco-American research, and Bob Chenard’s “The French Connection,” on two Paquette lines in Quebec.

Several articles in Le Forum are in English, and a few are in French. Subscriptions for four issues a year are $20 in the United States, $25 if mailed outside the U.S., and $40 for libraries. Send checks to Le Centre Franco-Americain (The Franco-American Center), University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469-5719.

In addition to its historical and genealogical value, Le Forum is important for its value to Franco-American culture, from the language to the stories that are handed down to factors that are far better-defined by Franco-Americans than by me.

Le Forum’s offerings include the thought-provoking, such as Norbert Michaud’s “1858 Voting Fraud Among the French in Northern Aroostook,” in the winter issue.

Along Maine’s northern boundary, decided only 16 years earlier, politicians in both countries sought to take advantage of French-speaking people and influence elections.

James Pike, who investigated the matter for Maine’s Governor Morrill, found much to praise in the French, but also described them, condescendingly, as “ours by the accident of jurisdiction only. They have by treaty stipulation, come into the sudden inheritance of citizenship in a country to which they are aliens by birth, language and association, and of those institutions, history, custom and manners they are totally ignorant.”

Nearly 150 years later, many Franco-Americans can tell you stories of continuing prejudice. And yet, Pike’s description also would have applied to the English-speaking Pilgrims and Puritans at one time.

The Carmel Historical Society Museum is open 1-3 p.m. Tuesdays and Saturdays, June through September. It is also open by appointment – call 848-5399 or 848-3331.

The Clifton Historical Society will hold an open house 1-4 p.m. Saturday, June 18, on Route 180, offering tours of the Harold Allen Schoolhouse and Town Hall Museum.

Send genealogy queries to Family Ties, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor, ME 04402; or send e-mail, familyti@bangordailynews.net.