17. Jean (John) Arsenault 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     The ninth child of the family, John was born on 14 March 1915. Among all his 
     
     brothers and sisters, he is the one who travelled the furthest on the Island to find a wife and the 
     
     one who had the biggest family. As a young man, he sailed to Miminegash in the western part 
     
     of the Island to fish cod. It is on the wharf of this small fishing community that he met Aldine 
     
     Perry (Poirier), daughter of Léon Perry and Frangoise Maillet of St. Edwards. They were 
     
     married on 9 November 1938. During the first three years of their married life, they lived in 
     
     Maximeville with John's family where the two eldest children were born. In 1941, they moved 
     
     to Abram's Village where they rented a house until they bought their own home in 1944. 
     
    
   
   
    
     John attended the local school until he was about 13 years old and then, like his father 
     
     and brothers, started fishing. He learned the trade working with his father and then bought his 
     
     own boat and gear to catch herring, mackerel and lobster and eventually cod in the waters of 
     
     Miminegash. It is because of his contacts with the fishermen in that part of the Island that in 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     The John and Aldine Family in 1971. Back row, left to right: Frances, Leona, Ronald, Leo, 
     
     Georges, John Jr., Louise, Loretta. Front row: Donna, Aldine, Blair, John, Noélla. 
     
    
   
   
    
     -66-