Acadian Remembrance Day

 

Yesterday was Acadian Remembrance Day (December 13), and I have been reading these books, to really drill down into the history of the Acadians and their expulsion and diaspora. It is such a complicated and tragic story (and I've posted about this history in an earlier post about writing my family history). I only recently realized that I have Acadian roots, but that perhaps explains why I have always been fascinated by it and by the "Cajun" culture of Louisiana... it's one of the many diaspora communities of Acadians. Many tried to and did return to the Maritime provinces of Canada which were/are the Acadian homeland (for those who don't know, that's New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and even a bit of southwestern Newfoundland). Just thinking about the lost history, the planned forgetting and the more recent attempt to recover the history and genealogy of the Acadian people. One great website is Acadiann, another is acadian.org. I recommend diving into these if you are interested. If you have a French sounding last name in your family tree, it is possible that you have Acadian roots. It's not the same culture as "French Canadian" or Quebecois, but a separate history and culture that developed on the maritime edge of northeastern North America in the 1600s and 1700s. Happy reading! Vive les Acadiens!