The following excerpt is from an excellent article by Roxanne Moore Saucier on doing Acadian research. The article is written for readers of the Bangor (Maine) Daily News, and refers to resources available in that area, as well as online resources.
If you have Acadian forebears, you will want to know the name Stephen A. White, widely respected for his two-volume “Dictionnaire Genealogique des Familles Acadiennes,” published in 1999 as a project of the University of Moncton’s Centre d’Etudes Acadienne, or Center for Acadian Studies. The resource covers 1636-1714.
My husband’s Theriault ancestors are outlined in a 22-page section on the family of Jean Theriot and wife Perrine Rau. White carries the family through the children and grandchildren of the emigrant ancestors, including excellent source information and historical notes. The books are in French, but I found that I could follow a good bit of the genealogy with my high school French from the late 1960s. In addition, the setup of the genealogies makes it clear who the parents and the children are.
When it comes to White’s notes about various family members, I did consult my husband, a lifelong French speaker, when it came to phrases I didn’t recognize.
(You may have the surname White stored in your head with those of the Pilgrims who came over on the Mayflower. Right you are, but there also are numerous White descendants whose ancestors were originally Leblanc, French for White.)
Read the full article in the March 10, 2013 edition of the Bangor Daily News.
