Bilingual Franco-American Web Site To Be Unveiled

According to the 1990 census, 336,000 Mainers over the age of 5 were of French, French Canadian or Acadian origin. Of that number, some 80,000 used the French language on a daily basis.

Now those people and others with an interest in Franco-American issues have a forum for sharing information on their culture through a bilingual Web site designed to explore and celebrate Maine’s French past and present.

The Web site, “Maine’s French Communities/Le Fait Francais au Maine,” will be unveiled at a ceremony scheduled from 3 to 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, October 17, at USM’s Lewiston-Auburn College, Westminster St., Lewiston. The event is free and open to the public. Anyone interested in attending should call 753-6500.

The site is divided into three sections: “Today’s Population,” “Historic Roadways,”and “Recent Unpublished Research.”

The first section, “Today’s Population,” will allow users to select a region of the state and create a map to highlight the number of people who speak French at home, the number of people who are of French, French Canadian or Acadian origin, or the ratio of the first to the second. For the time being, detailed maps are available only for Aroostook and Androscoggin Counties, and for the cities of Lewiston and Auburn.

But Barry Rodrigue, a professor of arts and humanities at Lewiston-Auburn College and a creator of the site, notes with his colleagues that when completed, this section will offer the most detailed geographical breakdown available of “Franco ethnicity and linguistic vitality.” Yvon Labbe, director of the Franco-American Centre at the University of Maine, and Dean Louder, professor of geography at Université Laval in Quebec City, joined Rodrigue on the project.

The second section, “Historic Roadways,” focuses on the major routes used during the large French-Canadian and Acadian migrations between Maine, Quebec, and New Brunswick in the 1800s. Some nine roadways are profiled, including the well-known Airline Road between Bangor and Calais, and the Canada Road, which ran from Augusta to Quebec City in the early 1800s. Rodrigue and colleagues have located archeological sites and other artifacts along the Canada Road, and have advocated for preserving the corridor as a historical park.

The final section of the Web site, “Recent Unpublished Research,” lists unpublished studies of Maine's French communities. “Our intent is to make these and other relevant undergraduate or graduate theses rapidly available to as many interested parties as possible,” notes Rodrigue and his colleagues. Work currently available includes graduate or undergraduate work from the Université Laval in Quebec City, the University of Ottawa, and Colby College.

The site is a collaborative effort among scholars at the University of Maine’s Franco-American Center, the Université Laval’s Department of Geography, USM’s Lewiston-Auburn College, and the Conseil de la Vie Francaise en Amerique. Additional support was provided by the Maine Legislature, the Chancellor’s Office of the University of Maine System, Bangor Savings Bank and the Quebec Ministry of International Relations.
Following the unveiling on Tuesday, October 17, Louder and Labbe will deliver guest lectures in Rodrigue’s class on French North America. The class will be held from 7 to 9:30 p.m. that evening at Lewiston-Auburn College, and is open to the public.
For more information, contact Rodrigue at 753-6574, or at rodrigue@usm.maine.edu.

EDITOR’S NOTE: For an early glimpse of the site, check it out at www.ggr.ulaval.ca/Franco_Maine/index.htm