Friends,
 
Having just recovered from the Salt Lake City meetings, which were very well
organized (kudos to Mike Polk), am already looking forward to the Quebec venue
...
 
It seems obvious to me that the Quebec meetings would be an ideal venue to
explore French or French-Canadian settlement issues in areas outside of Quebec
proper.  To date, most of what I've seen relating to such topics has to do
with the fur-trade, and the role of French-Canadians in that system.
 
The area that seems to be largely avoided is the role of French and French-
Canadian habitants in more basic agrarian settlement patterns, such as the
French the Detroit region in both the 18th and 19th centuries, the descendant
French or meti community in the Red River district and Canada's far west, or
the French-Canadian settlement of the Mississippi Valley.  Areas of interest
would clearly include, but would not be limited to anything ethnically
distinctive, e.g., retention of architectural forms, farmstead layout,
material culture, acculturation, etc.
 
My own paper would deal with 18th century residential and farmstead structure
in the Detroit region, as evidenced by documents and structures that survived
into the British and American periods.
 
If anyone would be interested in corresponding with me in regards developing
such a session, or something similar, please reply to me off list.
 
Thanks.
 
Mark C. Branstner
Great Lakes Research Associates, Inc.