THE FIRST REUNION
After several meetings, the preparations for this party were well under way: designing the crest and the motto of the Association; contacting other family associations (which led to the creation of the Quebec Federation of Founding Families by Michel, our genealogist); requesting financial assistance from the Ministry of Cultural Affairs to erect a monument to Noël Langlois and Françoise Garnier; sending some 5,000 invitations to the Langlois in the Province of Quebec; developing the program and the logistics for the festival; ordering a special Langlois vintage; etc.
Then, finally, it was party time! Registrations took place on Friday July 27, 1985, followed by a reception at the Monseigneur-de-Laval Centre in Beauport. Over two hundred Langlois registered. On Saturday the 28th, a solemn mass was celebrated in the church of Our-Lady- of- the-Nativity, at Beauport, by two Langlois priests: Father Jacques Langlois, parish priest of Saint-Isidore-de- Dorchester, and Father Gabriel Langlois, of Sainte-Luce- sur-Mer. Also celebrated was the baptism of Pierre-Marc, descendant from Noël at the thirteenth generation, the son of Christian Langlois and Lucie Blouin, from Saint-Louis- de-Pintendre, and the grandson of Claude-Raymond Langlois.
After lunch, several events took place: the unvealing of the monument to the ancestor (across from the offices of Les Constructions du Saint-Laurent, at Beauport); a conference by Michel Langlois on the various Langlois ancestors; a banquet in the Beauport Arena (over 750 attendees); and a lively evening of entertainment, featuring the choir “La Turlute”.
THE ADMINISTRATORS
Throughout the years, more than fifty volunteer administrators gave their time, ideas and efforts to ensure the survival of the Association under the presidencies of Michel (1983-1986), Normand (1986-1996), Fabien (1996-2010), Jacques (2010-11), De Sève (2012-14) and Guy Langlois 2015. Normand Langlois took over the presidency at the end of 2016.
The current Board of Directors is composed of eleven members and meets four times a year. The Executive Committee is composed of five members: the President, the Vice-President, the Treasurer, the Secretary and the Editor of our publications.
Michel Langlois was working as a specialist in genealogy at the Quebec Public Archives in the Ministry of Cultural Affairs (MCA) since 1976 when he took the initiative to found the Association “Les Langlois d’Amérique”. His objective was to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the marriage of Noël Langlois and Françoise Garnier in 1634 at Beauport. Noël Langlois, as the fourth Frenchman to settle in New France and the second to be married there, ensured since then a continuous presence of the Langlois in North America.