The Société Promotion Grand-Pré is pleased to announce that the parish records of the original Acadian church of Saint-Charles-des-Mines will be unveiled at Grand-Pré National Historic Site at 7 pm on Thursday, July 28, 2005. They will be displayed in the Visitor Centre until September 5, 2005.

The parish of Saint-Charles-des-Mines was established in 1687, a few years after the first Acadian families settled in Grand-Pré. According to oral tradition, the memorial church at Grand-Pré National Historic Site was erected near the foundations of Saint-Charles-des-Mines church. Since 418 Acadian men and boys were held prisoner in that church in September 1755, one can assume that the original structure was much larger than the present-day memorial church. Eleven large sailing ships were used to transport 1,998 Acadians from the Grand-Pré area to the colonies of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and Massachusetts. Among the possessions that the Acadians were able to take with them were the church registers documenting all the births, marriages and deaths in their parish which included Grand-Pré and the surrounding villages. It is not known who carried these precious registers, nor how many there were. But three of them survived in the safekeeping of a number of Acadian families from Grand-Pré who migrated from Maryland in the late 1760s to the parish of St. Gabriel in Louisiana. The three registers, covering the period 1707 to 1748, are now housed in the Archives of the Catholic Life Centre in the Diocese of Baton Rouge.

In 1895, a handwritten copy of the surviving registers was made by the well-known Acadian genealogist and historian, Placide Gaudet, for the National Archives of Canada. A type-written transcription was published by the Diocese of Baton Rouge in 1978 and another printed version in 1999. Unfortunately, the registers are now in a very fragile condition. For that reason, visitors to Grand-Pré National Historic Site this summer will see a high-quality digitalized reproduction of the registers in their original leather covers. Ms. Emilie Leumas, chief archivist for the Diocese of Baton Rouge, will be present at the unveiling ceremony on July 28th. She will also be giving a 15-minute presentation on the history of the registers at 11 am and 1 pm on Friday, July 29th, and at 1 pm on Saturday, July 30th.

The Société Promotion Grand-Pré is a non-profit organization representing the Acadian community that collaborates with Parks Canada to ensure the development and integrity of Grand-Pré National Historic Site.