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VMC Remembering Family Stories Rose Marie Kilbride Stanley Transcript.

Interior shot. Close up of document held in hand. The document is dated “Cap des Rosiers 27th, April 1947”. It is handwritten. The document reads: “One hundred years have gone by since the arrival of the first Kavanagh in this land. Love God and your neighbour and go on your way. Follow your path. Arthur Kavanagh. Mayor”. Camera pans up to reveal same message written in French. Document is lowered and a woman’s face is revealed. She has short curly grey hair and is wearing a dark top, glasses and silver earrings. A book shelf is visible behind her.

Hi, I am Rose Marie Kilbride Stanley living in Mississauga, Ontario.

I would like to share with you how important my Irish ancestors are to me. This autograph that you saw was one given to me by my aunt, and written to her on the anniversary of his [Arthur Kavanagh’s] grandparents arriving on the Gaspé coast.

Arthur, the author of this [autograph], was really proud of also having Irish ancestors.

His grandparents arrived – Sarah and Patrick Kaveney/Kavanagh – in 1847. They were shipwrecked on [board the Carricks on] the Gaspé coast.

They had six children: five daughters, and a son. Their son, the oldest, survived, and the five daughters drowned in that tragedy on 28th April, 1847.

She holds up a black and white picture to camera. There are four people in the picture, an elderly balding man with a moustache in a dark suit and a young female child dressed in white sitting in the foreground, and a woman wearing a dress with short dark hair and middle aged man with a moustache wearing a suit standing behind them. A grazing horse can be seen in the background right. Rose Marie Kilbride Stanley points to her relatives as she speaks about them.

I have the picture here of four generations. Sitting in the chair is Dominick, Sarah and Patrick’s second son born in Canada. Standing behind him is his son Arthur, the author of that autograph. The woman standing here to her father’s right is my grandmother, Malvina Rifou, and my Godmother, aunt Rolande.

Camera pans back to Rose Marie Kilbride Stanley speaking to it.

This four generations of Kavanaghs and the Kavanagh name is very important to the entire family. I have written a play and have been trying to piece together all of the facts and bits and pieces of my ancestors’ story.

Eight years after arriving and having the tragedy of losing their five daughters, Patrick, on his way to a village across the bay, froze to death on Saint Patrick’s Day.

Sarah was left alone with three young boys under the age of six; one baby girl, eight months old; and Martin, the oldest and the survivor of the Carricks, was by then nineteen.

This story is one that really can tell you the strength and the courage that our ancestors lived.

Final image of water with onscreen Ireland Park Foundation logo. Celtic style music playing.