Foreword Heron Island's Last Human Birth The Legend Of The Phantom Ship Of The Baie Des Chaleurs Some LaPointe Ancestry The Mercier Connection Beginning A New Life The Island The Children Some Strange Occurances The Day To Day Realities Unforgettable Christmases The Five Dresses The Family Grows Larger More Sons The LeBlanc Fortune The Last Son The War Ends It All Heron Island Today - a footnote Last Word - The Legacy Another Update On The Island and Some Photos

The LeBlanc Fortune The year that Stanley was born, George received a letter from a lawyer in Montreal telling him that he had inherited a great deal of money from the estate of a relative. The relative's first name was Charles. He had died in Philadelphia, and had left no will. All of his relatives would share in the three to seven million dollars that he had left. A large sum of money in 1934. The letter merely told George that he must gather all of the birth records that would prove his relationship to the deceased. He immediately started on this and collected all the necessary papers. He was issued copies of the baptism certificates that he requested on 23 June, 1934. It seems that the original money had been made by the deceased's father, who had been a carpenter and cabinet builder. He'd bought a lot of real estate in Philadelphia and West Virginia. He had built a mansion in Philadelphia. When the relative died in or around 1934, ( at this time, I'm not sure of the exact date) he had managed to hang on to his money, although most others had lost their fortunes in the depression. The relationship to George is traced back to the LeBlancs. These LeBlancs are apparently mutual ancestors of George and the deceased bachelor uncle, Charles. I have not been able to find the exact lines of ancestry here, but I am still looking, whenever time permits. However, I strongly suspect that great-great-grandmother, Tharzile LeBlanc, had a sister who married and gave birth to the uncle in question, and, as mentioned, he never married. This whole inheritance thing is perhaps a story in and by itself. It has been a great source of curiosity to me and probably to the others in the family for years. Someday, I will have it all figured out. I promise that anyone in the family that is curious will be told exactly what happened, although it is ancient history and has no bearing on our life today. Before George could send off the papers that he had gathered up, to be filed with the courts to be considered as an heir, he received a second letter, this time from another lawyer from Montreal. This was a letter telling him not to bother submitting his papers, as the estate had already been settled. Later, he would receive a letter from another Montreal lawyer, telling him that he had, in fact, been entitled to a share of the money. This lawyer wanted to be retained to fight the case, but George felt that, because he had no money to spend, he could not do anything but adopt a wait-and-see attitude. He felt that it would straighten itself out and that eventually, his share of the money would come to him. This was the fair thing, and, trusting in Providence, the fair thing always happened. The mysterious inheritance that never came would thereafter be referred to in our family as "The LeBlanc Fortune". All of us children would hear the phrase "wait until we get the LeBlanc Fortune" many times as we were growing up. Every time we asked for some luxury which the family could not afford, like a bike, or some such thing, this is what we were told. So George and Stella really felt, for many years, that they would actually get their share of the inheritance that George had been told was his. The waiting drove me wild as I was growing up, and, I suspect, some of the others in the family may have felt the same way. Those reading this must bear in mind that I'm just reporting what I have heard from other members of the family, and have no real proof except that I do have a copy of the birth records. These do not, however, confirm the relationship of anyone but George to the LeBlancs. I hope to have the opportunity to go to the proper archives either in Louisbourg or in Montreal to obtain the rest of the story. Perhaps the relative in question is a totally different person, but George, on the only occasion that I asked him about it, said "It was Blackjack Bouvier that got the money". This was a few months before he passed away. Go To The Art Of Georgette Backs Main Go To The Gallery     A Moment In a Lifetime © 1998-2006, Georgette Backs - All Rights Reserved