On a Sunday afternoon, Landie (Mrs. Roberto Lawrence Kato, of New Orleans, Louisiana) decided to do some reading. She smiled at her choice.

Going to a closet, she pulled out a few of her late husband’s old journals detailing his family’s history. From these she picked three of the oldest. They were fragile and had been kept in the dark and dry closet with the hope that the information on the delicate pages could be preserved for the grandchildren.

When Roberto brought the journals home after his father’s death, he had stacked several of them on the dining room table. Landie remembered her young husband had then brewed up a pot of coffee and called her to his side. He then proceeded to tell her some of his family’s history.

The older journals had been written in French, Roberto told her, because a line of his family’s ancestors had come from the north of France near Normandy. Details in the journals named villages and gave details of everyday life in the late 1500 and 1600’s, both in Europe and Nova Scotia. As he explained this, Landie had immediately turned to Roberto and announced she was going to learn French so she could translate the journals. She had been true to her word and now carefully opened one of the thin books and started to read.