Looking for my mom's Native heritage

Question

My family comes from Acadie, NS and Portugal.  Other branches are from Three Rivers and Komouraska and L'Islet.  I am trying to find where my mom's Indian heritage comes from.  I know that Some Mikmaqs (Micmacs) were from Acadie.    Some Maléchites were from Komouraska and L'Islet.  Some Abénakis were from Three Rivers.  Any suggestions on where to go from here?

My best guess is Micmacs from Acadia, since the family was French speaking, from Acadia, with ancestors from Portugal.

Comments

Added acadia tag in order to get attention of Acadia project here; had to remove a tag to do so. Removed bourgeois because I don't think it will help you attract the attention you need.

Answer 1

Build your tree back until you reach a person who lived in a place and at a time when those tribes were present, and then look for records for that person.  The Catholic church kept extensive records and, at least in the early days, noted when a person who was baptized and/or married in the Church was Native American.

Comments

Any records of the time are in French and I don't read French.  Are names listed anywhere?  At least if I can find names that are in my tree, maybe I can connect them.

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You can tag your question with French or French language. You should be able to find translation help right here.

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There's an entire wikitree project that focuses on Acadia; they can help you.

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On the Acadian project we can help read french records and know a number of people who can do it well.  Save images to send us.  Also after you read a lot of them, you will get used to the structure and most words, names are somewhat easy to find.  But that old french writing and then some priests who must have been in a big hurry or had a bad pen are the bane of my existence!  We can also help find sources when you have names.

Did you know you can search WikiTree for names you already have?  It sounds like you might know some of that older family.  Put the first name and then the last name in the search box at the top of each page on WikiTree.  Then all the possible people already in the tree will show up.  I usually sort by birthdate to then look for the one I want.  Oftentimes the spellings vary or aren't what you expect.

Here are some good sources to use for Acadians as well often with English translations:  https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Acadians_Project_Reliable_Sources

Answer 2

Melissa, yes Mi'kmaq's and French from Acadie intermarried, so it's possible, and a number of such marriages are already known in WikiTree.  If it's your Mom's side, build up from her.  If you get to the 1700's, let me know and I can help more specifically.  If your Mom's ancestors go to Quebec (the other locations you mentioned), there are pretty good parish records available and we can probably find those relatives too starting even more recently).

It's a lot harder to take the current known natives and go toward you because there are so many branches and I can't know which one would lead to you.

I'm not aware of any Acadians who came from Portugal, though.

Answer 3

I found an Acadian from Portugal!  Take a look at this profile

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Rodrigue-194

Answer 4

I found another from Portugal

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Mirande-3

Comments

YES!!  This is my ancestor!!  Thank you!

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So happy to get you connected!  If you need any further help with the Acadian era relationships, just let me know.