When does an Acadian become a Non-Acadian?

Question

after the deportations and exile to Connecticut and Massachusetts, my Acadian ancestors went to St Jacques de L'Achigan in Quebec - a village created for Acadian exiles. These were Robichaud, Mireault, Lord, Dupuis and more. Over several generations, females  married Quebecers and the Acadian names were lost.  St Jacques was unique and kept the Acadian culture going in the parish (probably to this day).  Are they still Acadians? Do they keep the label as long as they keep the name?  If you have an Acadian name but lived 2-3 generation in the USA are you Acadian? Male lines may keep the name but the female lines keep the culture.  When do we remove the Acadian label?  Thanks/Merci. Mary Beth M

Comments

This is a very interesting question to me.

My grandmother's family was one of those who moved/relocated from Quebec to New Bedford, MA. She considered those relatives who spoke the language Acadian, but she didn't consider herself to be Acadian. I consider my Acadian ancestors French-Canadian.

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The Acadian project leaders/members would have to speak to the criteria for inclusion in the Wikitree Acadian project itself.

On a more "philosophical"/academic level, I think the problem is that the answer to your question entirely depends on the individuals involved and how they see themselves. Do they carry on the language (as Judi mentioned) and traditions of their parents? Do they (try to) pass those traditions to their children?

For example, my friend and I are both Canadian born and both of our fathers were born in the Netherlands. He spoke Dutch at home - I never learned the language; his family observed Sinterklaas day and other Dutch traditions - mine did not. I would have no hesitation labelling him Dutch-Canadian - but I would hesitate to put that same label on myself.

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Rob Ton

Thanks for your comments. It has helped me to crystallize my question! See below.

Francoamerican gravy

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I agree with Rob that it depends. I'm not sure that a hard rule is needed for this. Maybe we can leave it at the discretion of the profile managers as they may have better insight on that particular profile?

Let's see if we can gain enough opinions in response to this question to see if a clear guideline can emerge.

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I commented once before but I guess I never really sat down and though about it. If Acadians were blue, people would say, those people are blue so they are Acadian and it wouldn’t matter where in the world they were. I guess, if a person wanted to be technical, Acadians originated from France so we could be French. Our forefathers settled in Canada, so we could be called Canadians. Some were taken from their homes forcefully and shipped to Louisiana and other states, so they would be Americans. Finally, those in Northern Maine that were on the south side of the St. John River became Americans once the border was finalized.  It is quite a mess. Ironically, nobody wanted them around except the Indians, and when the English arrived, they went to war along side the Indians. Now, we seem to be everywhere in North America.

I’ve met some that don’t care about their heritage. I think that our forefathers showed us what survival really means. I am reminded of a line in one of the “Lord of the Rings” movies where Sam is talking about the stories that the Hobbits repeat and he says, “Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going, because they were holding on to something.” We are living in a different time and you may have a difficult time figuring out what people were holding on to. Acadians were holding on to their Faith, their families, and their survival. They were survivors. There was no turning back for the Acadians. I find it amazing that there exists so many records for a small group of people that came to the New World so many years ago.

I guess the bottom line is as my brother recently told me. It has to do with what you feel  in your heart. If you treasure your Acadian heritage, then call yourself an Acadian. If you don’t care, then leave the Acadian label off. For those that have already died, let them be labeled Acadians because of the blood that once flowed through their veins. DNA can show that, through generations,  it originated from a small group of people called Acadians.

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Well said Galen!

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Agreed! Perhaps we could say that being Acadian is a state of mind not just a "state of birth". The Acadians in Louisiana never stopped being Acadians- they just say "Cajuns" now, instead- and they remember...

Just one quick note though....While the "Blue People" I know of were descendants of a Frenchman, they were not Acadians

http://www.indiana.edu/~oso/lessons/Blues/TheBlues.htm

I know- you weren't event thinking about the Fugates, but just a coincidence...  :) Cheers!

Answer 1

As a new member of the Acadian Project, I thought this was a great question which we project members need to answer in order to assign the "Acadian" tag to profiles. Here's my answer.

There are two issues involved in the question. One is objective and definitive, and the other subjective and arbitrary. The objective issue is easy to resolve. An "Acadian" is someone born in the old province of Acadia. I would extend that tag to the children of an Acadian family born elsewhere during the Grand Derangement before the family arrived in its new permanent home. Later children born in the new location would not be tagged as "Acadian".

The subjective use of the label "Acadian," in my opinion, is a question of ethnic identity and is not an issue of concern to the Acadian Project. For example, most of my late grandmother's LeBlanc and Gauthreaux kinsmen in Louisiana considered themselves to be "Acadian" (or "Cajun") even though they were several generations removed from the original immigrants. I have not used the "Acadian" tag on their profiles because they were not born in Acadia nor were they born en route to Louisiana. I would never question their Acadian ethnicity since they are descended from true Acadians and profess Acadian heritage. But the Project tag is designed to flag original Acadian ancestors, not their Acadian-American descendants.

If my fellow Project members have different ideas about the use of the Acadian tag, please raise them so that we can all use the same standard when flagging profiles.

Morris

Answer 2

Very good question.

A possible answer might be did the person identify as an Acadian? Of course, that may be hard to determine now how they identified themselves back then. Also, how they presented themselves publicly may be different than how they felt, depending on where they lived.

Realistically, I don't think we can come up with a easy "rule" for this.

Comments

Roland

My question is really 2 questions

1) when do the coordinators f fthe Acadian project consider the individual has assimilated into the greater Quebec culture or American culture that the individual is  no longer identiified as Acadian and the ACADIAN badge in the biography section can be dispensed - this requires a rule or guideline.

2) when , if ever, does an individual consider herself a part of the greater cultural milieu and ceases to self identify. Some of the individuals are no longer with us and we cannot ask them...for example my great grandmother was a Mireault from St Jacques, she married a French Canadian in 1867. Although both her parents were grandchildren of ACADIANS who lived through the deportation, she eventually came to upstate New York with her French Canadian husband.  In the small town of Cohoes, NY ther were St Jean Baptiste Societies but no Acadian social club that I am aware.  I suspect her Acadian culture faded and due to circumstances her grandchildren in the US lost the ACADIAN identity completely.  

As Roland commented this is VERY individualized.  After I returned to New York from the 2014 Acadian Congress, I realized so many in Maine, New Brunswick, PEI have keep the identify intact but many many many other assimilated.

For now, I would be satified with a bit of a guideline for  WikItree.  Any more help?

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I had suggested, for simplicity's sake, that any children of Acadians born in their new land could drop the Acadian tag. This would not include Acadians that were in new lands due to exile, but rather once the family "settled" someplace other than Acadia. Obviously there are plenty of Acadians still in Canada today, but those who settled in New England or Louisiana, for example, would/should be allowed to drop the Acadian tag. IMHO, of course.

Answer 3

My childhood was on Waldo Street, Rumford, Maine, an Acadian enclave. A block and a half down the street was the center of Acadian activity, Le Paresseux Snowshoe Club:

[https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rumford-Snowshoe-Club/176402655737490]

 

Although the neighborhood tenements are no longer occupied primarily by Acadians, the club remains the center of Acadian and Quebecois activity. It is the place in town to go to find direct Acadian descendants and those living the culture by virtue of marriage or friendship.

 

To learn more about the founding and history of the many Snowshoe Clubs in the United States, go to: Maine History Online --- Les Raquetteurs, the first Snowshoe Club in the United States:

[http://www.mainememory.net/sitebuilder/site/1135/slideshow/531/display?format=list&prev_object_id=1631&prev_object=page&slide_num=1

 

There are other long established social clubs in town, such as The Sons of Italy.

 

Virtually every adult in town knows each others' heritage by their religious and social participation. If asked, they all will tell you I and my children are Acadian.

Comments

Very interesting! Rumford is just "up the road" (a few hours) from me so I should go check it out some day...

Answer 4

This is probably a difficult discussion because everyone has an opinion and all have good points. I grew up in Northern Maine in a French/English speaking community. We all considered ourselves to be Acadian. My U.S. born grandmother spoke only French. Was she Acadian? I have some indian ancestors. Did the children at that time stop being Acadian or did they start becoming indian? Is my daughter not Acadian because she doesn't speak French? Is it what you do or don't do that makes a person an Acadian?

I started working on my family tree for my children and grandchildren so they could see the heritage. I wanted them to know that they are special because of the people that came before them. They worked hard to survive! If the direction/plan of Wikitree is to try and minimize our heritage, than you probably won't get a lot of input from a people that helped to shape both Canada and the U.S.

I will always consider myself Acadian and I'm not so concerned with badges. I'm just concern that once people start feeling like they are being mislabeled, they won't contribute.

Answer 5

My answer may be overly simplistic, but there's some logic to it.  I think that people who are not born in Acadia are not Acadians, though their parents may have been.  They are simply descendants of Acadians.