Beginning Your Acadian & French Research

Beginning Your Québec Research

For many of us in the United States, our French or Québec ancestry may be a distant, even unknown, fact. Part of the "psychology" of immigration to the U.S. is often the attempt to "just fit in..." which often means name changes, loss of an original spoken language (in this case French), and denial of our ancestry. To have a name that others cannot pronounce well, to speak a language or have an accent that may allow others to discriminate against us, to dress or act differently - these are the characteristics that often caused our ancestors to change aspects of their lives, often to such an extent that descendants are unaware of the true lineage of the family.

Because of these aspects of the immigrant experience, many North Americans (Canadians as well as U.S. citizens) do not know of their proud, courageous FRENCH ancestors, so we have some hard work to do to find them.

NAME CHANGES

Changing a surname from a French name, often mispronounced or illegibly spelled, to an "anglicized" or more English sounding name was common for our ancestors. Some easy names that illustrate this follow:
BISHOP.......was once LEVESQUE
WHITE .........was once LeBLANC
GREENWOOD......was once BOISVERT

If you suspect that this is what might have happened with your family surname, here are some things to watch for:

IMMIGRATION PATTERNS

If you or your ancestors lived in an area on the border between Canada and the U.S., they MAY be of French-Canadian ancestry. The regions of New England, the Great Lakes states, and the Dakotas are full of descendants of early French settlers. Louisiana has MANY French people, primarily the Cajuns, but consider that most of them are probably of ACADIAN ancestry (see above). But, for instance, if you are a descendant of the DUBORD family and living in North Dakota, then you are here on the right page!! If your family were miners in the upper peninsula copper mines of Michigan and your surname is VILLENEUVE, then you will find help here! Or if your family is one of the thousands of second or third generation descendants of textile mill workers in New England, and your surname is LEVESQUE, then welcome!

I'm working on a web page, about our French ancestors immigration patterns, so check here to see if I can be of help!
French Immigrant Patterns

As this page is still under construction, your comments, suggestions and web links are welcome: