Nova Scotia Acadians

Nova Scotia Archives

 * Acadians, Nova Scotia Archives

Online Records

 * Généalogie Acadienne Database--Search Engine The biggest Acadian genealogy database. More than 800,000 individuals are available.
 * GenealogyQuebec.com, the Drouin Instiute’s genealogical research website, offers two research tools dedicated to Acadian genealogy. ($)
 * 1673-1784 The Drouin Collection Database, a collection of parish registers (baptisms, marriages and burials) from Quebec, Acadia, as well as parts of Ontario, New Brunswick and the United States. The collection also contains Acadian censuses from 1673 to 1784. ($)
 * 1621-1849 The Acadia Families Tool This tool contains family files based on the Acadian parish records mentioned above. In total, the tool contains 96,000 family files from 1621 to 1849 and is equipped with a search engine which allows searches by last name, first name, date and parish. In addition, the original records are attached to the family files, allowing the information contained in them to be viewed and verified.($)


 * Acadian Family Names of the 18th Century
 * This list of approximately 300 family names was drawn from parish records, census records and other documents from Acadia/Nova Scotia in the first half of the 18th century. All Acadian civilian families known to have lived in the colony at any time between 1700 and 1755 are included. This list does not include the families of the French garrison which served in Acadia.


 * Who's who in Acadian/Cajun genealogical research
 * 1671-1809 Acadian Censuses at WikiTree 1671-1809
 * 1671-1752 Acadian Censuses at Acadian-Cajun Genealogy and History, 1671-1752
 * 1732-1955 Acadian church records : 1732-1955
 * Acadian church records index : with annotations
 * 1757-1946 Acadia, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1757-1946], index & images ($). List of Acadian parish registers in the Drouin collection
 * Acadian census and church records
 * Headstones of mostly Acadian New Brunswick and Nova Scotia cemeteries

Online Surname List (with Genealogical Details)
This data was collected from administrative registers (parish registers and census) before the deportation of 1755-1763 (archived website, may be incomplete, unavailable or slow to respond).
 * Surnames of people in the Port-Royal region
 * Surnames of people in the Cobequid region, Acadia (Today Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada)
 * Surnames of people in the Beaubassin region, Acadia (Today Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada)
 * Surnames of people in the Pisiquit region, Acadia (Today Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada)
 * Surnames of people in the Grand-Pré region
 * Surnames of people in the Louisbourg region, Acadia (Today in Nova Scotia, Canada)
 * Surnames of people in the Pubnico region, Acadia (Today in Nova Scotia, Canada)

Reading French Records

 * French Genealogical Word List
 * Latin Genealogical Word List
 * Script Tutorial for French - Reading French Handwritten Records

History
Acadia was located in what is now Eastern Canada's Maritime provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island), as well as parts of Quebec, and present-day Maine to the Kennebec River, Acadia was a distinctly separate colony of New France. The settlers whose descendants became Acadians primarily came from the southwestern region of France, such as the rural areas of Poitou-Charentes and Aquitaine (Gascony).

During the French and Indian War (the North American theater of the Seven Years' War), British colonial officers suspected that Acadians were aligned with France, after finding some Acadians fighting alongside French troops at Fort Beauséjour. Though most Acadians remained neutral during the war, the British, together with New England legislators and militia, carried out the Great Expulsion (Le Grand Dérangement) of the Acadians between 1755 and 1764. They forcefully deported approximately 11,500 Acadians from the maritime region. Approximately one-third perished from disease and drowning. The result was described as an ethnic cleansing of the Acadians from Maritime Canada.

In time, some Acadians returned to the Maritime provinces of Canada, mainly to New Brunswick.The British prohibited them from resettling their lands and villages in what became Nova Scotia. Before the American Revolutionary War, the Crown settled Protestant European immigrants and New England Planters in former Acadian communities and farmland.