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Were invited to the Second General Assembly of the Besner Families' Association, 180 member families as well as another 140 related families, in St-Clet, Qc, on Sunday September 30th 2001.
140 adults and about 15 children were gathered in the friendly confines of Marc Besner's sugar camp, one of ours. No one seemed bored. For many of us, it meant a pleasant get together, whereas for others, it was an excellent occasion to discover the widespread ramifications of our big family. We had company from Michigan, John Nickodemus and spouse: his great-grandmother was Rose Besner of the Pascal descent, established in Saginaw, Michigan. Ronald Bisnaire and his wife from Windsor Ontario were just as far away from home.
The precious genealogical kiosks were again set up and as always, attracted many inquisitive minds, thus favoring corrections and additions to the Besner Repertory. Many had brought old photo albums and shared them with all the interested parties: the idea of producing a CDRom containing visual archives is looming. There's a new phenomenon in the making as well: there seems to be a mounting interest in genealogical descendants by the women (cognation) as opposed to that by men only (agnation). Actually, our repertory numbers approximately 3000 Besner descendants of Jacques-II having inherited his family name. Now the latter had eight sisters who all married and all seem to have been as fecund as himselfÉ. This means that the 3000 known agnates could very well have at the least 10000 cognatesÉ.
We were fortunate enough to have a very good sound system at our disposal, thus Donald Besner and his fellow musician had no problem in entertaining and accompanying the audience in their folklore songs all afternoon long. Dancing was less popular than the last time at the 2001 Alexandria Rally.
Despite all the noise generated especially by the chatter, we managed to hold a regular, serious and respectful meeting, thanks to the ability of the moderator, Laurent Besner. 61 members were eligible to vote. Without too much difficulty, we elected four new members who will sit on the Administration Council, replacing those whose turn it was to step down. The following, René Bisnaire, Eric Besner, Carole Farmer-Besner and Thérèse Besner, whom we thank for the two years they spent on the committee, will be replaced by the newly elected members who are, Nicole Besner, Diane Grandmaison-Besner, André Besner and Bernard Besner. The assembly deliberated freely on some of the upcoming projects.
Thanks to all of those who pitched in to make for a successful meeting.
See you next time.
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