John DeRoche

Ancestors

Problems/Questions Profile manager: John DeRoche [send private message]

Quick identity markers first: Old white man, 66 (born Oct 1947). Retired June 2010 as a sociologist on faculty of Dept. of Anthropology & Sociology of Cape Breton University (Sydney, Nova Scotia). So did beloved wife (we "eloped" in grad school in 1970), ditto (but she's a cultural anthropologist). Moved from Cape Breton to a comfy house in a rural suburb of Halifax (provincial capital). We're finding retirement is something of a utopia! What else... Born, raised, & live(d) in Nova Scotia, descended on both sides from many generations of Atlantic Canadians. Mom's side is exclusively Lunenburg (NS) "Foreign Protestants" (in her case, German & German Swiss), from the colonization of the early 1750s. Dad's side is diverse: his maternal line traces to Italy (Sardinia & Naples), England, Scotland, Ireland, and Newfoundland); his paternal line is Acadian French, Quebecois, & English/Irish (Fortescue).

Here's a link to a pile of my online photo albums: [1]

Networking with far-flung kin can entertain me for days on end. Data-entry for the family banyan tree is a massive challenge. Both my French and German lines have been heavily researched and much-copied. One consequence is that such accounts become like old folk ballads, showing up in many variations. I often hesitate to "merge" profiles online because of discrepancies between "my" data and what others have provided. Tracing divergent accounts back to their respective sources is more than my remaining years can accommodate. Yet I'm doing my best to sort out & clean up what I'm adding to the gene(alogical) pool....

I grew up in remote rural settlements in Nova Scotia. Dad worked for the Dept. of Transport. I well remember the Hail Marys by which we hoped to make it through the next mud hole, when driving the 25 unpaved miles to "town" (Antigonish), from Goshen, Guysborough County. Our one-room schoolhouse had one teacher with all grades, no indoor plumbing, and a potbellied stove incapable of compensating for the uninsulated walls, in the 1950s. But this is way too much detail, so I won't get into the pre-school interval at Capstick (Cape Breton), which was basically an "outport" in that period around 1949-50. Here's the bare bones for the rest.

Goshen School through Grade 6, St. Mary's Rural High for 7-8, Moser River (Halifax Co.) for 9-10, St. Andrew's Rural High (Antigonish) for 11. Summer program 1964 by Natl. Science Foundation at Clarkson in Potsdam, NY. St. Francis Xavier U. 1964-68, Honours Psych & Soc. MA & "ABD" in sociology, Washington U at St. Louis (Missouri) in the heady years of 1968-1972. Hired (with spouse) to teach sociology & anthropology at Xavier Junior College in Sydney Cape Breton (satellite of St.FXU), which evolved into the Cape Breton University from which we retired in 2010.