I’ve concentrated most of my family research efforts on my black ancestors, but I actually have about 25% European ancestry that I should explore. Seeing Sweden and Italy in my list of ancestral lands was surprising, but it has been common knowledge in my southwest Louisiana family that we have French roots. What I’m beginning to learn is that our connections to France are a bit more complicated than I thought. As a child growing up in Louisiana, I watched KLFY-10 television programming. A jingle that I heard and that I still catch myself singing randomly is, “… Makes no difference where I go, it’s still the best home that I know. Hello Acadiana, hello Acadiana, TV-10 loves you…” Although I lived and spent time in Louisiana, I didn’t really understand the origin of the term Acadiana and how it related to me, but that is changing now.
For those of you who don’t know, Acadiana is the land of the Acadians or Cajuns, a group of people who are descended from or whose ancestors assimilated with 18th century Louisiana immigrants from what is now known as the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. I learned a long time ago that my great-grandmother’s maternal grandfather was a descendant of a well known Acadian family in the Lafayette Parish area. What I haven’t known is his family’s actual trajectory and experiences.
I purchased a book that provides some history, but it was pretty overwhelming at the time. Recently, I picked up a book at the library that offers a gentler slope into my learning curve – Acadian-Cajun Genealogy: Tracing Your Ancestry Back to Acadia and the Old World by Timothy Hebert. I’m also re-visiting a book I started a couple of years ago, The Acadian Diaspora: An Eighteenth-Century History by Christopher Hudson, and a website developed by Steven Cormier, Acadians in Gray. What I intend to do in a series of posts is give a historical overview of Louisiana and the Acadians, review (at least) Hudson’s book, and share what I learn about my direct Acadian ancestors, which include males with the surnames Guidry, Guilbeau, and Richard.
Photo by: Genealogy Griot, Acadian Cultural Center Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve
The Genealogy Griot 