Assumption Parish
Ascension Parish
East Baton Rouge Parish
Iberville Parish
Lafourche Parish
St. James Parish
St. Martin Parish
If you are doing genealogical research on Acadian or 'Cajun families from any of these Louisiana Parishes, this website is for you.
This website focuses on the history and genealogy
of the Acadian families who settled the "Acadian Coast," the Bayou
Lafourche, and the Bayou Manchac areas of South Louisiana. All this is an outgrowth
of my research on my own family who, in the 18th and 19th century , settled
principally in Assumption Parish and this special region. In the course of my research, I was amazed at how close-knit
the communities were as evidenced not only by the frequency of involving
neighbors and relations in the well documented Roman Catholic rituals of
death and the celebrations of baptism and marriage. Yet
even as many Assumption Parish residents chose to marry among their neighbors,
distinct patterns of intermarriage with families from neighboring communities
and parishes whose chief connection was their proximity to the regions'
great link--the Bayou Lafourche.
While many of the settlers in this area were descended
from the same Acadian pioneers as those who settled along Bayou Teche and
in the western Attakapas prairie parishes of Louisiana, Lafourche
Basin region and its families are distinct from their westerly cousins.
The Lafourche Basin was settled first--many small, yet sustainable communities
grew quickly around the church centers--and the basis of the economy came
to be sugar cane cultivation. The more rural prairies of Attakapas
were ideal for cattle grazing and livestock became the mainstay of the
western parishes. Bayou Lafourche itself served as a conduit linking
the area with the Mississippi River at Donaldsonville.
Until the 1920s and 1930s, Lafourche Acadians tended to marry others from
Assumption, Ascension, and St. James Parishes thus linking area families
into a distinct group. The Acadian descendents intermarried not only
among themselves, but also with the area's descendents of the Canary Islanders
(Islenos) who had been brought to the region by the Spanish in 1778-1779.
The main colony of the upper Lafourche, Valenzuela, is today populated
with many descendents of these Spanish-speaking pioneers.
THE ACADIAN COAST
Who were these Acadians?
The Acadians were Roman Catholic Frenchmen who had
settled what is now Nova Scotia in Canada beginning in the 1630s. Just
like in the English colonies, in Acadia, the French government recruited
farmers, skilled laborers, soldiers, and other workers to colonize the
Canadian wilderness. Many of the names often associated with southern Louisiana
such as LeBlanc, Blanchard, Melançon, and Hebert belonged to these pioneering
Acadian families. During the 18th century, Canada was traded back and forth
between France and England several times as part of the decades of warfare
waged between the two countries. Finally in the 1750s, England took permanent
possession of Canada and told the Acadian settlers, who had by then been
in Canada for over 120 years, that they either had to swear allegiance
to the British crown or else leave the colony. Most Acadians were forcibly loaded onto ships and sent into exile. Despite their continued loyalty to the French Crown, many of the families were unable to return to their ancestors' homeland and thus remained
in exile in various places around the world including Virginia, Massachusetts,
England, France, and South America for some twenty years. Longfellow's
poem "Evangeline" recounts the tragic separation of families and loved
ones onto the ships that sailed on rough oceans. Many Acadians died on
those voyages--smallpox was rampant on more than one ship--and then they had to endure several decades of near poverty
while in exile. Then in the 1760s, many of these far-flung families began
migrating to the Spanish but soon to be French colony of Louisiana.
MORE
INFORMATION (including names & genealogical charts of major
Acadian family founders)
Using church documents for genealogical research:
The 15+ volume compilation
of church records from what is now the Diocese of Baton Rouge is by far
the most useful genealogical resource for people researching Acadian ancestors
in Assumption Parish, Ascension Parish, St. James Parish, and Iberville Parish. The Diocese of Baton Rouge was only recently created
in the 1960s or 1970s. At one time, in the 18th-19th century, South Louisiana
was part of the Diocese of Havana, Cuba. I'm not sure when Louisiana's
Roman Catholic Church formed the diocese strictly within the US borders,
but when the Diocese of Baton Rouge began a couple of decades ago, the
bishop wanted to centralize and begin to publish a compilation of all the
church records. Nothing in the civil record can come compare because
the church records not only give the full dates of births, baptisms, marriages,
and deaths, but they almost always list the names of an individuals' parents--including
the mother's maiden name.
Church records also have a
remakable consistency in terms of the spelling of names (this is likely
the rsult of careful editing). Before education became widespread,
people often spelled their names as best they could and often in a strictly
phonetic manner. Our Lafourche area ancestors probably had minimal educations
and were also Francophones in a region whose government was run first by
Spanish speaking priests and officials and later by English speaking leaders.
Given names often switched between French and Spanish speaking versions:
Pierre and Pedro, Joseph and Joaquin, Charles and Charles. Isabelle, Isabela,
Elisabeth, and Elizabeth were used interchangably even without shifts in
language as were Josephe, Josefa, and Josephine. Many women were baptized
some combination of Maria or Marie with another name and then when they
married or died, might use simply "Marie," "Marie-Josephine," "Josephine,"
or even one of their other baptismal names such as Marie-Josephine "Claire."
This, coupled with the fact that several daughters in a family may be named
"Marie-something" caused some problems initially.
Genealogical researchers may
find the best results if they work backward (from a person's death,
marriage, then birth) to prevent too much confusion. As to changes in surnames,
you will see that sometimes every generation these spellings changed (note
Marroy). Because almost every record I used to create this genealogy was
written by a third (usually official) party, that priest or census taker's
lack of understanding of local vernacular combined with the fact that often
our ancestors could not read or write, causes many interesting name variations.
Boudreaux was often spelled Boudrot, Gaudet appears as Godin, and Bourg
as Bourque. Other changes had to do with the evolution of Canadian and
Louisiana French. The name "Foret" was originally "Forest" and "Forestas."
The "^" over the letter "e" - indicated that some 300 years ago,
the letter "s" appeared after the "e" and the ê is a "shorthand"
indication of that change. By the way, Foret was not a French name, the
originaly Forêt was from Flanders (now Belgium) and had Dutch parentage.
Through the Nineteenth century and even into the Twentieth, the often English-only
speaking census takers mangled the French given names as well. In some
instances, such as Eloise-Monique Landry Marrois, variations found
included Ella, Elodie, Eloisha, Heloise, Eloie, Elise, Lise, Lize, and
Helen. Sarrasin was spelled as Larroqen, Adeota was Odeotat
or Adeola, even Clebert was listed as Khleber, Claibert, or Cleaburn.
Anyone wanting to research
an Acadian family in Assumption using the civil record should be warned:
there are many mispelling and misinterpretations of both given and surnames.
Soundex indices are useful, but be aware that many French names have letters
on the end that are not pronounced; this can have far-reaching results
when using Soundex tools.
MORE
INFORMATION about Church Records
My database at Rootsweb World Connect Project is currently under revision.
Webpages
I've put together that you may find helpful in the research of Acadians
in the Lafourche Bayou Basin and the surrounding area:
Jen's Assumption Parish Louisiana Genealogy Web PageHistory and Genealogy of the Acadians with mini-bios & genealogical tables of the original Acadian settlers
Tips for Genealogical Research on Assumption Parish, French Louisiana, Acadia, Canada, and France
An Annotated Bibliography of Print Resources for Acadian Genealogical Research
Louisiana,
Acadia, & French Family Names researched. Click on
name below to get an outline family tree. Note: these are individuals from whom I directly descend. In many cases they only document the siblings of my ancestors, but not nieces or nephews. These charts are merely guides and are not meant to contain the names of everyone who migrated to Acadia or Louisiana.
ACADIAN ANCESTORS
AUCOIN, BABIN, BENOIS/BENOIT, BERNARD, BLANCHARD , BOUDROT/BOUDREAUX, BOURG, BOURGEOIS, BREAUX, BRUN, COMEAU/COMEAUX, DAIGLE, DOUCET, DUGAS, DUPUIS, FORET, GAUDET, GAUDIN/GODIN, GAUTROT, GIROUARD/GIROR, GRANGER, HEBERT, LANDRY, LEBLANC, MARTIN, MELANCON, MIUS, THIBODEAUX, THIERROT/TERIOT, TRAHAN
NON-ACADIAN QUEBECOIS
BADEAU, BAYARD, CHALIFOU, JOLIVET, L'HEREAUX/LEHEREAUX, MARROY/MARROI/MARROIS/MARROIST, VALADE
Online
Resources for Ascension/Assumption/Lafourche Area, Louisiana, & Acadian
Genealogy can be found at:
An
Annotated Bibliography of Print Resources for Acadian Genealogical
Research
 Visit GenRing! |
GenRing Linking the World of Amateur Genealogists This GenRing site is maintained by the Webmaster of History & Genealogy of Acadians on the Bayou Lafourche Basin "Acadian Coast" of Louisiana.
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