Description of Historic Place

The Founding Families Monument is a granite monument located in front of the St-Jean-Baptiste and St-Joseph Church in Tracadie-Sheila. It pays tribute to the region’s pioneer families.

Heritage Value

The Founding Families Monument is designated a Local Historic Place for its association with the first families that came to settle in the Tracadie area.

The Founding Families Monument was erected in 1984 on the grounds of the the St-Jean-Baptiste and St-Joseph Church in Tracadie-Sheila as a local New Brunswick Bicentennial project. The families listed on the monument are the ones that settled in the area prior to 1800. They include the first settlers, whose family names were Bastarache dit Basque, Robert dit LeBreton, and Saulnier. It is noteworthy that a number of the families are of Scottish, Irish, Acadian, French, and Canadian descent. The town was therefore characterized by linguistic duality and cultural plurality serving as a good example of co-existence between peoples of different language and religion. Many families of Anglophone origin, such as Ferguson, Young, and McLaughlin, continue to be found there today.

Source : Town of Tracadie-Sheila, Historic Places File # 23

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements that describe the Founding Families Monument include:
- granite monument;
- the names of twenty pioneer families from different regions and of different languages listed on the monument;
- proximity of the church.