The Acadian Deportation: Tips for tracing ancestors forcibly removed from New France

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic poem “Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie” tells the tragic story of young lovers ripped apart following the Acadian deportation. Although the characters, Evangeline and Gabriel, are fictional, the events that frame their drama occurred and mark an unfortunate period in New France’s history. The event, known as “Le Grand Dérangement,” involved the forced removal of between 10,000-12,000 Acadians from their land at gunpoint between 1755-1763 by British soldiers.

Who were the Acadians?

French immigration to New France began in the early 1600s, resulting in two distinct cultures. The Quebecois, also known today as French Canadians, settled in the Saint Lawrence Valley, a region built around the booming fur trade. The Acadians, who hailed primarily from west-central France, settled along the Atlantic coast south of the Notre Dame Mountains. Although there were no specified borders, they lived in the general area of present-day Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and eastern Maine.

In addition to harvesting fish and raising cattle, the Acadians traded and intermarried with the local indigenous Mi’kmaq communities. Moses Delesdernier, a Swiss land trader, visited Acadia in 1750 and described the Acadians as a simple people who, like many farming societies, worked hard during planting and harvest so that the off–season could be spent enjoying life with family and friends.

In 1737, the Treaty of Utrecht transferred Acadie from French to English control. Incredibly proud of their culture and heritage, the Acadians refused to swear allegiance to the crown unless they were guaranteed religious freedom. They could remain neutral amid ongoing military conflicts between the English and French. When compelled to sign an oath of allegiance against the enemies of Britain by Governor Charles Lawrence in 1755, their refusal was the event that ultimately precipitated their expulsion.

Where Were the Acadians Forced to Relocate?

Removal by the British as part of their war with France over New World settlements resulted in most Acadians being forced onto ships headed for various locations across the Atlantic Ocean. Some were relocated to the English colonies, where they suffered disease and starvation; others were sent back to France or shipped to England and held as prisoners of war. A few escaped into the woods, where they were either captured or fortunate enough to be cared for by their indigenous friends until they could make their way to the Saint Lawrence Valley and join the Quebecois. Often, the exiles were moved multiple times, making it difficult to trace the genealogy of an individual family line back to the original emigrant ancestor from France.

Where Did They Relocate After the Acadian Deportation and The Conflict Was Over?

After the war, deportees who attempted to return to their land found their towns destroyed and land taken over by English loyalists and American settlers. The only option for the returning Acadian remnant was to establish new communities. As a result of the occupation of their former home, most of the Acadian families elected to relocate to New England, Quebec, the French Caribbean, or Louisiana Territory.

Today, the most prolific settlement of Acadians (Cajuns) resides in a portion of Louisiana known as Acadiana. However, groups of Acadian descendants can be found across North America due to subsequent intermarriage and migrations during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. For example, many Acadian families intermarried with the Quebecois and joined subsequent French-Canadian migrations into Vermont, New York, New England, and the Midwest between 1840 and 1930.

How Do I know If My Ancestors With a French Surname Were Acadians?

Acadian census records existed before removal and can be found online at many websites, including the Library and Archives of Canada (https://library-archives.canada.ca). Early census records are a good starting point to find out if your French ancestors were part of the Acadie settlement. The following list identifies the surnames of early Acadian settlers included in the 1671 census:

Aucoin, Babin, Belliveau, Belou, Bertrand, Blanchard, Boudrot, Bour, Bourc, Bourg, Bourgeois, Brot, Brun, Commeax, Cormié, Corporon, Courpon, Daigre, de Forest, Doucet, Dugast, Dupont, Dupuis, Gaudet, Gautier, Gautrot, Girouard, Gougeon, Granger, Guérin, Guillebaut, Hébert, Joffriau, Kreissy, Labatte, Lambert, Landry, Lanoue, LeBlanc, LeGrand, LeJeune, Martin, Melanson, Morin, Pelerin, Petitpas, Pitre, Poirier, Rau, Richard, Rimbault, Robichaud, Scavois, Sire, Terriau, Thibaudeau, Trahan, Vincent

Most Acadian families descend from a few founding families. Still, a more comprehensive list of surnames and their original settlement sites can be found on the Acadian Memorial Archive website. The Acadian.org site also offers additional information about Acadian families and their history.

Tips For Tracing Your Ancestors Through The Acadian Deportation

FOCUS ON FAMILIES

When pursuing migration research, tracing families rather than individuals is best to avoid conflating people with the same name. This is especially important in Acadian research as many records, including censuses such as the 1714 Beaubassin census (shown below), provide family grouping but do not include ages or birth years.

1714 Census of Beaubassin in Acadia” Courtesy of the Library and Archives of Canada

DISCOVER DEPORTATION DOCUMENTS

The Nova Scotia Archives is one of several websites that maintains online databases of documents related to the Acadian deportation. Documents containing valuable genealogy information include censuses, ship manifests, family lists, and governmental correspondence.

RESEARCH FROM BOTH ENDS

If you run into a brick wall while tracing your line back to a presumed Acadian family, research census records for families with your surname before the deportation in hopes of making a connection.

Considerations for Acadian DNA Research

Y-DNA RESEARCH

Y-DNA is passed from father to son and can be an excellent resource for researching male ancestry. Only males inherit Y-DNA, so the tester must descend from the ancestor of interest through a male-only descendant line.

We recommend testing at FamilyTreeDNA beginning at the 37-marker level to see if you have enough matches to further your research. For a deeper dive into Y-DNA research, FamilyTreeDNA offers group projects focused on shared surnames, geographical locations, or haplogroups. The Acadian Heritage, Acadian Amerindian Ancestry, and French Heritage DNA projects are examples of groups that may interest Acadian researchers. Upgrading to the Big–Y testing level will help you to get the most out of participation in a group project.

AUTOSOMAL DNA RESEARCH

Autosomal DNA is inherited from both parents and is helpful for genealogical research for approximately six generations on all ancestral lines. Because each generation only inherits half of their parent’s DNA, we recommend testing your eldest living generation of relatives. Autosomal DNA tests are available at AncestryDNA, 23andMe, MyHeritage DNA, and FamilyTreeDNA. Autosomal group DNA projects are also offered at FamilyTreeDNA.

Like their French-Canadian counterparts, Acadians lived in isolation until the end of the nineteenth century, resulting in intermarriage among the descendants of a relatively small number of founding families. This intermarriage spread across generations, known as endogamy, can complicate DNA research. A tester with Acadian/Cajun ancestry likely shares multiple ancestors with their genetic cousins or may descend multiple times from the same ancestor. As a result, the amount of DNA shared between genetic cousins is often higher than expected, given their closest genealogical relationship. To limit endogamy's impact on your research, focus on researching matches whose ancestors have married outside of the Acadian and Cajun communities.

For more information about DNA testing, see our blog post on DNA Testing for Genealogical Research.

We hope these tips help you embrace your Acadian roots and discover the often-difficult paths your ancestors forged.

Legacy Tree Genealogists is happy to offer DNA research services to assist with your Acadian genealogical research. However, we are not a DNA testing company and are not affiliated with AncestryDNA, 23andMe, MyHeritage DNA, or FamilyTreeDNA.

Tracing Cherokee Ancestors with DNA, Tribal Citizenship, and Cherokee Rolls

As genealogists, we’re often asked to research the likelihood and details of a client’s Native American heritage. Legacy Tree Genealogists' researcher Michelle Carroll digs deeper into her journey and successful strategies when tracing her Cherokee ancestors.

If you believe that you may have Cherokee ancestors and have always wanted to know more, let me encourage you to leap into discovering your Native American heritage. Learning about my own Cherokee family has been one of the most rewarding parts of my genealogical journey. Although there are unique challenges associated with Cherokee research, finding a family connection is an achievable goal when armed with a good research plan and an understanding of available records. To begin, I suggest reading our previous post on the basics of researching Cherokee Ancestry. Then read on to learn more about how to approach your research project, the limitations of DNA in Native American research, tribal citizenship, and the use of Cherokee rolls.

My grandparents were born in Oklahoma, and my family told me that my grandfather was part Cherokee. Tribal rolls, which listed the names, ages, and other information of individual members of the tribe, confirmed the family stories and provided the evidence I needed to apply for Cherokee Nation citizenship. The key to tracing your connection to the tribes is understanding where your family lived in proximity to the Cherokee throughout history.

Before the disputed 1835 Treaty of New Echota, which resulted in the Cherokees' forced removal from their homeland (known as the Trail of Tears), they were primarily spread across portions of Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. The exception was those who left their native homeland under the treaty of 1817 to claim property around modern-day Arkansas and were eventually removed to Indian Territory [present-day Oklahoma], referred to as «Old Settlers.» By 1850 multiple migrations led many tribal members to settle in the Indian Territory. However, a small group avoided the forced relocation. It remained in the Eastern U.S. Knowing when and where your family lived within these states will help determine which records to consult during your research.

DNA Testing Limitations

As a genetic genealogist for Legacy Tree, I rely on DNA to solve genealogical puzzles and break down brick walls; however, it is essential to understand DNA's limitations in Native American research. While a DNA test may provide evidence of Indigenous American ethnicity, connect you with relatives, and encourage further research, it does not establish a connection to a specific tribe. It is not accepted as proof when applying for Cherokee citizenship. There are 574 federally recognized American Indian and Alaskan Native tribes and villages in the United States. If your DNA results reveal Native American ethnicity, finding your connection should begin by tracing each generation of your family back in time until you find a tribe that lived near your ancestors.

Cherokee Rolls, Blood Quantum, and Tribal Citizenship

Today there are three federally recognized Cherokee tribes. Each tribe has slightly different requirements for citizenship. To claim tribal affiliation and apply for citizenship with any tribes, you must prove descendency from someone on a specified Cherokee roll. Two of the tribes also require a minimum degree of blood quantum for citizenship. Identifying your blood quantum does not require a blood test but is calculated from the blood quantum recorded on your ancestor's roll entry. The three Cherokee tribes are:

Cherokee Nation: Comprised primarily of the descendants of Cherokees and Cherokee Freemen who were removed via the Trail of Tears to Indian Territory in northeast Oklahoma, citizenship requires a direct ancestor listed on the 1900 Dawes Rolls. The Cherokee Nation does not have a minimum blood quantum requirement.

United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians: They comprise the «Old Settlers» who voluntarily relocated to Arkansas before the Trail of Tears. The government then removed to Indian Territory in northeast Oklahoma; citizenship requires a direct ancestor listed on the 1949 Base Roll and a minimum 1/4 degree blood quantum.

Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians: This group comprises the descendants of a small group of Cherokees who remained in the eastern U.S. after the Trail of Tears; citizenship requires a direct ancestor listed on the 1924 Baker Roll and a minimum 1/16 degree blood quantum.

(Ah-Tsi) Arch Sequichie 1874-1921

My tribal citizenship came through descendency from my second great-grandfather, Arch Sequichie (Cherokee name Ah-Tsi), recorded on the 1900 Dawes index card with 3/4 degree blood quantum. His eldest three children were also named, including my then one-year-old great-grandmother, Nina. One of the most important pieces of genealogical information on Arch's index card would be easy to overlook if you didn't know its importance. Under the column titled «Tribal Enrollment» is his reference number in the 1880 Indian Census and the name of the district his family lived in at the time. This reference number made locating his birth family in the 1880 census very easy and resulted in another generation of Sequichie names added to my family tree. The Dawes index card also contains handwritten notes referencing other family records, which illustrates two of the most crucial research strategies for tracing your Cherokee ancestors, which are to:

Work your way backward chronologically through records

Take note of the clues the recordkeepers left in every number and notation because they will lead you to other records

I found significantly more information in the family's full Dawes application, including Arch's wedding date to his wife Esther and an affidavit by midwife Harriet E. Brown confirming my great-grandmother, Nina Sequichie's birth. Further research would reveal that Harriet E. Brown was Nina's maternal grandmother.

Tracing Your Cherokee Ancestors Beyond the Trail of Tears

One of the primary reasons working your way backward chronologically through records is important for successful Cherokee research is to trace the name changes that were prevalent during the removal and relocation. As I worked my way back through rolls for my own family, I found notes in Arch Sequichie's Eastern Cherokee Claims Application explaining name changes for his mother, Ah-yau-sti, as she traveled the Trail of Tears. When she arrived in Indian Territory, Ah-yau-sti received the English name, Martha Powell. These notes also reference the family's group number in the 1851 Drennen Roll. Using this step-by-step research strategy helped me to successfully identify my family in the Henderson Roll taken before the Trail of Tears and find the location of their original land near the North Carolina-Georgia border.

Although researching your Cherokee roots can be time-consuming, the connections you make with relatives and stories you learn about your family make it is a goal worth pursuing. If digging into these records on your own seems daunting, our expert researchers would be honored to help you through the process. Contact us today to let us know how we can help you learn more about your heritage.