Acadian History

Acadians are descendants of French settlers who came from all over France, but most came from Île-de-France, Normandy, Brittany, Poitou, and Aquitaine. The Gautreau family originated in Poitou and Aunis while the Cormier family originated in Normandy. Our Gautreau ancestors migrated from France to what is now the Canadian Maritime Provinces (northeastern region of North America).

Francois Gautreau, the first of our ancestors to migrate to Canada, landed at La Hève (Nova Scotia) on September 8, 1632, with Isaac de Razilly and 300 other elite men. Razilly, at the request of his cousin, Cardinal Duke of Richelieu of France, recruited workmen, craftsmen, Capuchins, noblemen, as well as 15 families to sail to Canada and colonize Acadia. They sailed from Port Auray in Brittany on July 23, 1632, and arrived in Nova Scotia on September 8, 1632. The Acadians established a prosperous society over the next 150 years.

When the British captured Port Royal in 1710 and obtained what is now mainland Nova Scotia in 1713, the Acadians adopted a strategy of neutrality, which helped them thrive at the time. However, in 1754, war broke out between England and France. British officials were convinced Acadians were providing their enemies food and information. Britain wanted the Acadians to sign an oath of allegiance to Britain, which would make them loyal to the crown, but the Acadians refused. As a result, the British Lieutenant Governor, Charles Lawrence, as well as the Nova Scotia Council on July 28, 1755, made the decision to deport the Acadians. Over 11,000 Acadians were forcibly removed from their homes during “Le Grand Dérangement.”

Video: Acadian Le Grand Dérangement

Many Acadians were deported to British colonies along the Atlantic coast while thousands died of hunger and disease. Countless families were separated and never reunited. (Almost one-hundred years later, an epic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was published depicting a tragic, but fictional tale of an Acadian girl, Evangeline, and her search for her lost love Gabriel, set during the time of the Expulsion of the Acadians) Read full poem @poets.org

Our direct ancestor, Paul Gautreau, was imprisoned by the British. However, he escaped the Acadian deportation on Ile Saint Jean (today, Prince Edward island) in 1755.

Cecile Cormier, nee Thibodeau, and her son, Amand Cormier (5 years old in 1755) - our direct Cormier ancestor - and some of her other children, sought refuge along the St. John River and, it is believed in 1758, also at Kamouraska, Quebec Province, Canada.

In 1764, after several years of exile, the British permitted the Acadians to return to the Canadian Maritime Provinces. Many found their old farmland taken over by English Loyalist settlers, while others re-established Acadian areas in Eastern Canada and New England.

Acadians, who returned to the Provinces, resettled on the western coasts of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island, the northern and eastern coasts of New Brunswick, and western Prince Edward Island. Of the thousands of Acadian families living in Acadia, only about 160 Acadian families remained by the time the deportations ended – Our Gautreau and Cormier ancestors were among those families.

For many years to follow, the Acadians were banned from voting or holding office due to anti-French and anti-Catholic sentiment among the Anglo population. It was only later, in 1789, that Acadians gained the right to vote. After 1830, Acadians could sit in the legislatures following the enactment of the Roman Catholic Relief Act.

In 1881, Acadians founded the Société Nationale de l'Acadie whose purpose was to promote Acadian culture. National symbols were chosen: a flag (the French tricolour with a yellow star in the blue stripe), a national holiday (the Feast of the Assumption, celebrated on 15 August), a slogan "L'union fait la force" (“Strength through Unity”), and a national anthem (Ave Maris Stella).

Today, Acadians thrive as a distinct and important culture within the Canadian Maritimes and many other regions.