The Island sung by Aselin Debison

One of my cousins, Maria, from Vancouver sent me a video slide presentation on Cape Breton with the great song ‘Home of My Heart Cape Breton’ in the background.

We are all cousins these days in our family. Since the big reunion of the Pottie’s in Halifax mid-90’s we decided to call each other cousin. Forget about the third cousin twice removed. Too complicated.

All of our family comes from Cape Breton around L’Ardoise and Isle Madame. Directions: cross the Canso Causeway, take a right and when you get to St. Peters you are home.

One of my ancestral grandmothers was Claire Langlois, originally from Port Royal. My ancestral grandfather was Jean Pâté which got changed to Pottie which is very common in NS and just Pate.

When I was young we fished and camped all over the Highlands National Park without giving a thought to our heritage. A little older now, the strains of the Highlands are hard to ignore.

The singer in the video appears to be Aselin Debison but it’s not confirmed. The song was written by Kenzie MacNeil.

Updated Jan 3, 2010 to add video removed by YouTube.