The Société généalogique du Nord-Ouest in Edmonton, Alberta will host a free virtual presentation in English about Napoléon Sureau dit Blondin and his family who lived in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan at the beginning of the last century.
The presentation, called Strangers in the House, A Prairie Story of Bigotry and Belonging, will be delivered by Candace Savage on Wednesday, October 30 at 7:00 p.m. Mountain time (9:00 p.m. Eastern time). Ms. Savage is the author of the non-fiction book that has the same title as her presentation.
When researching the first occupant of her Saskatoon, Saskatchewan home, Candace Savage discovered a family more fascinating and heartbreaking than she expected
Napoléon Sureau dit Blondin built the house in the 1920s, an era when French-speakers like him were deemed “undesirable” by the political and social elite, who sought to populate the Canadian prairies with WASPs only. In an atmosphere poisoned first by the Orange Order and then by the Ku Klux Klan, Napoléon and his young family adopted anglicized names and did their best to disguise their “foreignness.”
In Strangers in the House, Ms. Savage scours public records and historical accounts and interviews several of Napoléon’s descendants, including his youngest son, to reveal a family story marked by challenge and resilience. In the process, she examines a troubling episode in Canadian history, one with surprising relevance today. Register to watch online.
Strangers in the House was published in partnership with the David Suzuki Institute. It is available to purchase from Indigo, as well as from Amazon in Canada and the United States.
The Société généalogique du Nord-Ouest was founded in 1990. Although most of their resources are in French, their volunteers are bilingual. The society’s website is available in English and French.
