DIT NAMES
by Pauline C. Hoyt

    Begun in France in the 1500's, the use of "dit" names was still in practice when Canada was being settled.  These names were an addition to the surname., not an alias. Some families were so large, in France, sometimes up to sixteen children, that they had to fine a way to distinguish between them and other families.
Some of these dit names were taken from a locality or a characteristic of the person.  Some from a heroic deed, military identification., physical description or place of origin.
Some people carry two last names today, separated by a hyphen.  Some dropped their original name and now have just the dit name.  It's possible to trace these, however, because most genealogical research books list dit names somewhere.
Editor's note:  Pauline is one of our "distant cousins" who lives in N.H.. She has been of great help over the years to me. Thanks to PCH.

I am proud to announce the marriage of my son, Alexis J. Caisse IV to Wendy Champaux.  The wedding took place in Sebago Lake, Maine at the Migis Lodge.  The weather, on Sunday, May 16
was at its best. Welcome to the Caisse family to Wendy and Morgan my new step grand daughter.
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The American public has become more in tune to recent developments in natural remedies for good health in recent years.  The other day, I stumbled across an interesting magazine called HERBS FOR HEALTH.  Paging through the magazine, I was taken by surprise to see an advertisement for ESSIAC.  Now for those of you who have never heard of ESSIAC, try spelling it backwards.  Surprise!!!  The specific issue is the May/June, 1999.  You can read about ESSIAC,  by going to the internet and simply typing in the key word essiac.  This will bring you a 19 to 20 page document detailing the story of Rene Caisse and how she developed ESSIAC, from a natural recipe of herbs. 
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