About Joanne​

I write to capture resilience and history, hoping to take you on a journey through time and emotion.

My Story​

Joanne Courneya Fralick is a novelist, genealogist and local history enthusiast. She is the author of five books in different genres: Genealogy – Cournoyer: A North American Odyssey; Local history – Camp Picton: A storied 70 Years; Children’s – Camp Picton Boys in the RCAF; and the first two in a Western trilogy – Rustlers, Renegades and Rogues and Requiem for a Rustler. She has also written numerous articles over her 40-plus year career as a print journalist.

Born in Tweed, Ontario, she now lives in Picton, Ontario where she is an editor for the online construction magazine Construction Source Magazine Australia.

Captivating Moments

In late June 2023, my husband and I travelled to South Dakota. The trip was threefold – vacation, research, and first and foremost the chance to meet a branch of my family formerly unknown to me.
The experience was enlightening and uplifting. We experienced the majestic beauty of the prairies and the incredible kindness and acceptance of this white French Canadian into our Yankton Lakota family. We stopped in several locations familiar to the Cournoyer Brothers – the Yankton Reservation, Burke, Colombe, Pierre, Murdo, Bonesteel, Gregory, the Rosebud Reservation, Pine Ridge Reservation, Chamberlain, Sturgis, Sioux Falls, Deadwood, and more.
Wet terrain prevented us from visiting the homestead and family graveyard of the Cournoyer Brothers family. Bill Beckers of Burke, SD kindly took time to visit the site the summer before and provided photos for us. We hope to travel back to South Dakota for another research project.
I hope you enjoy these photos taken by Bill Beckers and myself.
Joanne Courneya Fralick