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    There is indeed evidence from oral and family tradition supporting the little available written documentation. Let us recall, first of all, the state of the French Shore fishery in the nineteenth century. St. Pierre merchants had been allocated certain harbours between Cape Ray and Cape Norman from which they fished, the best known of which were at Codroy, Bay St. George, Port-au-Port and Red Island. At the same time, a condition had been imposed on the merchants that they use St. Pierre-based manpower. This manpower included not only St. Pierre-born fishermen, but also a considerable number of fisherman or graviers (shoreworkers, working on the grave or shore), who came directly from France to work, or seek work, with companies based in St. Pierre.

    During the nineteenth century most of these transient fishermen were from Brittany. The reason for this is simple: prior to this period, agricultural technology in the hinterlands of the French fishing ports most active in the Newfoundland shore fishery was poor: Granville in Normandy, St. Malo and St. Brieuc in Brittany, St. Jean-de-Luz in the Basque Country. After 1815, better technology enabled Norman peasants to achieve a more satisfactory agricultural production, diverting them from the sea. For other reasons, Basque fishermen also neglected the Newfoundland fishery. On the other hand, Brittany had not yet benefited from improved agricultural technology and, in consequence, merchants were obliged to recruit more and more Bretons for shore work. Throughout the nineteenth century , young Bretons not only set out from Brittany, but also from Norman ports, especially Granville.