I think the basis of settlement to confederation time period is too broad for a project.
Just for a bit of history, after the conquest and ceding of the territory to the English in 1763, the clergy had to compose with the protestant bias of the English, and in order to retain the religion, had to swear fealty, in return of which they were allowed to continue to practice their religion as well as their parishioners. The English thought there would be assimilation. To counter that, the priests preached 'be fruitful and multiply', which resulted in what is known as ''la revanche des berceaux'' (the revenge of the cradles). There was a fair-sized population explosion as a result, families with 10 or more kids were frequent. So we are talking about a huge population to cover under this project as outlined.
As far as the name of the project goes, Canadiens again is not totally accurate, since Canada as a French colony consisted of the St-Lawrence valley colony. It spread out from there, the Gaspé area for example is part of the province but only part of it is in the St-Lawrence basin, the other part being next to the Atlantic ocean etc. Canadiens also has political and pejorative connotations in some minds as well. I agree we should stay away from such, not conducive to good agreement.
So, I think the project should be split up, Canada Nouvelle-France being one part, post-conquest to Confederation being the other. What to call that part is a puzzle though.
And of course the other parts of Nouvelle-France would need their own project. For example, Pays-d'en-Haut consists of the colony that grew around the great lakes. Some parts are now in the USA, some in Ontario, some in Québec. A mish-mash as far as that goes.