Késsinnimek - Roots - RacinesMon Petit Coin by Norm Léveillée
My Acadian Ancestors
L'Acadie de la Nouvelle France - Acadia of New France
I remember having to complete an English assignment in High School in which I was not really interested. It was to read Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Epic poem Evangeline. I wondered why the author had chosen to use the poetic medium to tell us the story of this young girl who was separated from her lover by the British who persecuted and killed Acadians, loyal to the French government in New France (Canada), or deported them to France, or England or various locations in the United States, during the Great Deportation of 1755. It seemed to me that it was a wonderful story but could have been more interesting to a high school student and more easily read if Longfellow had used prose.
Some fifty years later, my interest in this poem grew as a result of several factors. In the June 2003 issue of Késsinimex, Juliana L'Heureux wrote about Grand Pré. I purchased Stephen A. White's Dictionnaire généalogique des familles acadiennes. Using this three volume work, I updated the data on all my Acadian ancestors found in my ancestral website. I attended a conference sponsored by the American Canadian Genealogical Society, during which several of the presenters gave us information on Acadia and its orginal inhabitants. So, I purchased a copy of Evangeline. I reread this poem and was able to identify with it because there are several Acadians in my ancestral lineage, and some from Grand Pré, the setting for Longfellow's poem. In a recent Friends-L@MaineWriter.com, Juliana wrote about a Longfellow reads Longfellow.
My article for this month, therefore, will list these Acadians whose data can be found on my website at www.leveillee.net/ancestry in an Index of Acadians/Acadiens:
AUCOIN, BENOIT, BERNARD, BLANCHARD, BOISSEL, BOUDROT, BOULÉ - BOULET, BOURG, BOURGAUD, BRAULT, CHÉBRAT, CHENAY, CHIASSON, COCHON, CORMIER, DAVID, DOIRON, DOUCET-LAVERDURE, DUGAS, DUPUIS, GAUDET, GAUTREAU, GAUTROT, GAUVIN, GIROUARD, GUERIN, GUILBAUT, HACHÉ, HÉBERT, JAROUSEL, LAMBERT, LANDRY, LEBORGNE, LEJEUNE, MARTIN, MASSÉ, MELANÇON/MELANSON, MEUNIER, MIGNOT, MORIN, RICHARD, ROBICHAUD, SAVOIE, THÉRIOT, THIBODEAU.
This file can be accessed by clicking on the names above or at
I'm wondering how many of my Acadian ancestors were deported by the British in 1755 to lands mysterious to these deportees! The Acadians who were deported to Virginia were then deported to England because the Governor of Virginia refused to allow them to remain there. In fact they never got further than the shore when he finally allowed them to disembark at all. When these Acadians left England, it was after the Paris Treaty of 1763 when these Acadians were repatriated to France. Many died at sea during a shipwreck. Others were sent to New England, settling temporarily in Massachusetts, only to be ridiculed because they were not British subjects and could not speak the King's English. Most often, whatever colony the Acadians were deported to is where they remained throughout the years of exile from 1755 to 1763.
Some Acadians went from Halifax to Louisiana with Beauséjour when released from prison in Halifax. However, the bulk of Acadians who went to Louisiana were those who were in France. They had heard from their relatives and friends who had gone to Louisiana and when the Spanish Government who was now in control of Louisiana offered to send ships so they could have people settle the lands, that is when the bulk of Acadians sailed for Louisiana in 1785. These Acadians became the Cajun population.
Did you ever wonder how the name "Cajun" was born? The French pronunciation of "Acadien" during the 17th & 18th centuries was "Acadjien" - the non-speaking French probably only heard "cadjien", thereby repeating it as "cajun".
Juliana L'Heureux, one of our authors, sent this article for an online mailing list Friends-L Digest, Vol 20, Issue 1: Apology for Acadian Deportation.
I often wondered if the descendants of those ancestors who were insulted, persecuted, maimed, or killed our acestors should make amends somehow. Stephen A. White, noted genealogist on Acadie, would like to see December 13 set aside as a Day of Rememberance
I know that the descendants of the First Americans, the Indians who were destroyed by the whites during the sixteenth and seventeeth centuries have been receiving compensation. Therefore, what about us, the French Canadians, who were deprived of our rights both in Acadia with the Deportation of 1755 and in Québec? Is a royal apology forthcoming? The Métis, people of mixed heritage, French-Canadian and Native American, have finally been recognized by the Canadian Supreme Court. Please refer to my other article in this issue.
Below is a listing of several links to Acadian history, culture or genealogy.
A complete list of early Acadian parishes/churches, by location, where Acadian registry records were/are found, can be viewed at... www.acadian.org/parishes.html
Lucie LeBlanc's Home page at www.acadian-home.org
Places where Acadians settled in Québec after 1755
Acadian names at the Deportation of 1755
The Journey of an Exiled Family
Université de Moncton - Centre d'Études Acadiennes in French.
400 ans de présence française au Canada, 1604-2004 in French
An Acadian Parish Remembered Acadie Toujours
Who are these Franco-Americans and Acadians? by Juliana L'HEUREUX
Celebration of the Order of Good Times
Histoire du Canada et de l'Acadie in French. Un lien excellent.
Il était une fois l'Acadie in French.
Maps: Acadie in 1742 & Port-Royal around 1700 places and names of families who lived there.
Acadian Historic Atlas - Nova Scotia
War again sends British troops into Acadian lands
Welcome to the official Acadie 2003-2005 web site! New France - New Horizons in English & en français
Lucie posted this on the Acadian-Cajun-L@rootsweb.com list:
Research correspondence from Stephen A. White and articles about Acadians by well known Prince Edward Island personality, historian, folklorist and just retired Radio-Canada morning program host, Georges Arsenault. George’s articles focus on pioneers and accomplishments of Acadians on the Island and of course, Stephen White’s research information is usually full of details and sources to satisfy all researchers. Some of his research deals with difficult to find Ancestors. All posts to my Web site are with the permission of the authors.
The Registers of St. Jean-Baptiste, Annapolis Royal, 1702-1755
The following articles are contained in this site:
My first visit to Acadie, July 2003.
Je cherche l'Acadie. The story behind this page.
The Acadian Soul. Catholic faith and Acadian heritage.
Acadia in New England. (See also below)
Genealogy. My LeBlanc roots in New Brunswick (updated)
Bienvenue au site officiel d'Acadie 2003-2005! in English and in French.
