The Lucky 37

Many who are researching their Acadian lines are familiar with Centre d'études acadiennes genealogist Stephen A. White, especially his two volume set Dictionnaire généalogique des familles acadiennes (DGFA). It is, by far, the most thorough and fully documented research about the early pioneer ancestors of Acadian families. The difficulty most face is 'getting back' to before 1714, the date Mr. White chose as a cut-off for the Dictionnaire.

Dictionnaire généalogique des familles acadiennes

There is a lesser-known research article named "La généalogie des trente-sept familles hôtesses des Retrouvailles 94" also written by Stephen White. It appeared in volume 25, numbers 2+3 of Les Cahiers, the periodical of La Société Historique Acadienne. The 1994 Congrès mondial acadien/Acadian world congress was held in nine localities; Bouctouche, Cap-Pelé, Dieppe, Richibouctou, Rogersville, Shédiac, Saint-Antoine, Saint-Joseph, Saint-Louis de Kent and Saint-Thomas. If you are lucky enough, like me, to have Acadian relatives who settled in southeastern New Brunswick, this can be a valuable resource for connecting back to your early ancestors.

The 37 host families:

Allain

Arsenault

Babin

Babineau

Bastarache dit Basque

Belliveau

Bordages  (Bourdage)

Boucher

Boudreau

Bourgeois

Bourque

Caissie

Collet

Cormier

Daigle

Devarennes  (Gaultier de Varennes)

Doiron

Gaudet

Gautreau

Girouard

Goguen  (Guéguen)

Gosselin

Haché dit Gallant

Landry

LeBlanc

Léger

Maillet

Martin

Melanson

Petitpas

Poirier

Richard

Robichaud

Savoie

Surette

Thibodeau

Vautour

This article can be hard to find in print, but is widely available on the internet. It is in the Acadian collection of the American-French Genealogical Society (afgs.org) - call number ACA 123. What an easy number to remember, eh?

s'amuser,
Rob