Whew! What a month!

Hi Friends and Family,
Well it's been awhile since I last blogged. So what is new? Well for starters, I am back in Edmonton. Yep, back here, after being in Regina for about 5 months during the Christmas season. But it's good to be back. It's kinda like a home to me, I guess. Well I have my brother and 3 sisters, and mother living here in this gracious city. I like using that word...gracious....it just sounds like a nifty word. I could say Regina is a gracious city but I don't think Regina and gracious go together. Regina is....well Regina. But it's a nice city, albeit too small for me to fully appreciate maybe. I like a city with a bit more hustle and bustle I guess...like Edmonton.

So I left Regina on Monday afternoon to head to Portage La Praire, Manitoba. My cousins Cathie and Tanya and many others live there. Many cousins I have never met. As my late birth mother Florence had 8 other HALF siblings(James Catcheway, Alphonse Catcheway, George Catcheway, Flora Catcheway, Olive Catcheway, Martha Catcheway, Kerry Catchway and Melvin Catcheway) and they all have many, many kids, all my first HALF cousins. In addition my mother had another 4 siblings, with about 29 first cousins of mine, and with the other HALF siblings, I have about 25 first cousins there, and that's just a minimum. There are several HALF siblings of my Mom's that I have not met, so not sure how many kids there actually are.

Anyways, we had a good visit with my cousin Cathie, Tanya and even Linda showed up. Then I went to bed, tired as I was. Oh the neat thing that happened, before I forget to say, is that I got to see my mother's Gospel songbook. She wrote her favorite Gospel songs in it. It was neat to see her name written on it Florence Parenteau, and the date, which was 1986. It has been almost 20 years since she passed away at age 33. On Feb 24, 2007, she would have been 53. Our family still misses her tremendously, and I always feel a loss, when with my birth family. So they were delighted when I gave them photos of Florence for them to have. Thank the Good Lord for Shopper's Drug Mart photo dept. Everything is so affordable and inexpensive to get photos made, and retouched and resized etc.

The next day, I went to this office with Uncle James Catcheway, and he signed papers stating that he knew that Florence Mary Chartrand-Parenteau was indeed the daughter of his father Johnny Catcheway. So that was exciting. And we did it in the prescence of a witness who had taken an oath. So hopefully I will get my Treaty Status soon. I just have another to do.

Afterwards, I went over to visit him and his wife Theresa. We had a good visit, looking over various family trees of Nepinak, Nahwahkeekapow, Napakisit, Ferland, Bone, Katchiwe(Catcheway). We talked and shared and just had a good visit.

Then afterwards I bade my farewells and headed to the Greyhound bus to Winnipeg. I stayed with my cousin(4th once removed)Naomi Pranteau. Her great grandfather Ishmael Parenteau is the brother to my great great grandfather Joshua Parenteau. So it was neat to connect about 2 years ago, and we are planning our huge family reunion possibly Summer 2008. It will be a big undertaking, no doubt. So we need lots of time to plan.

The next morning, I headed to the T.A.R.R centre, which is the Treaty Aboriginal Rights Research Centre, in the heart of downtown, right on Lombard Avenue. I went looking thru the 1876-1900 Treaty Annuity Payment lists from my family's reserve at Waterhen, Manitoba. It took me a day and a half to write down all the information, as no photocopying was allowed. But it was wonderful to do, so I could figure out who the families were, as there is some confusion as to who was related to who and how.

I also got to see my Great Auntie Olga, my Dad Clifford and my Grandma Maggie Parenteau. I visited all three of them in a space of about 5 1/2 hours going all across the city to see them. Then afterwards I caught my bus back to Edmonton, and here I am.

If I were to get an award for Travelling it would probably be WORLD SEASONED TRAVELLER.

Not much else new,
Cameron