Among Our Ancestors

This website is the culmination of many years of research and my desire to share the stories of our ancestors with family and others who have an interest.

On this site, you will be viewing the family research of Michelle (Laviolette) Dumas. Genealogy has been my passion for many years and my research is a labor of love. I am so excited to have a forum to share all the many fascinating stories of our ancestors!

To put this information together, I have traveled all over North America and Europe, I have collected documents, photographs, newspaper articles, interviews, and information shared by other genealogists and family historians. I have spent many hours digging through online databases on the trail of some elusive piece of information that keeps me wide awake until 2 am (too many times!). I have spent long days happily pouring through books and microfilm in libraries; have wandered historical graveyards all over New England, Eastern Canada, England, and Scotland; have personally looked through brittle, yellowing, original historical documents in the archives of courthouses and town halls; and have met with distant cousins that DNA testing have identified, to share information.

While I admit to enjoying gathering the data to prove our lineage, it is the stories I have found that keep me motivated to continue with my research. But when I uncover these stories, many of them forgotten for hundreds of years, I feel compelled to share them as a way to remember and honor our ancestors.

Our ancestors were real people, many who lived through amazing historical times and they lived, worked, and loved just like we do, but within the context of those times.  Some lived heroic lives. Some lived tragic lives. Some lived ordinary lives. But every one of them has a story to tell. Why do it? In the end, family history tells us not only where we came from and how we got here, but why we are who we are. I hope you all enjoy the stories as much as I have.