AUBURN — The Maine Franco-American Genealogical Society will hold their fall general meeting at 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 19, at the Auburn Public Library, 49 Spring St. The meeting will be held in their Conference Room near the café.

There will be a short meeting to elect the new board of directors for the coming year followed by a presentation given by the guest speaker, Donald Levesque of Madawaska. The public is invited.

Levesque is a genuine St. John Valley boy. He was born in Grand-Isle and went to school in Van Buren and the University of Maine at Fort Kent and worked in Madawaska.

He is a former publisher and editor of the St. John Valley Times in Madawaska and wrote a bilingual weekly newspaper column for more than 20 years called “Mon Cinq Cents,” which dealt mainly with Acadian and Franco culture and language.

He served as president of the Levesque Family Reunion in 1996 in Madawaska that drew more than 1,100 Levesque family members from Canada, the U.S. and England. The Levesque Association, Inc. was founded following this reunion and currently has about 500 members. He has served on the board of directors and as president of the Levesque Association.

He is also president of the Maine Regional Coordinating Committee of the 2014 Congrès Mondial Acadien.

Levesque is a singer-songwriter with the group Les Chanteurs Acadiens which, along with performing traditional Acadian and Québecois songs, mainly performs original songs about Franco-American/Acadian culture. Levesque was one of the first three inductees into the Maine Franco-American Hall of Fame in 2004 and was inducted into the Maine Press Association Journalism Hall of Fame in 2011.

The topic of this conference will be the Acadians, their history and the upcoming Acadian Congress, which will take place in the spring of 2014.

Levesque will begin his presentation immediately following the conclusion of the business meeting, which is expected to conclude around 10:30.

The MFGS Research Library is on the second floor at Fortin Group Funeral Home, 217 Turner St. The library will be open after the meeting until 4 p.m. Visit the webpage at www.simplesite.com/MFGSWebsite.

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