Documents & Research Resources
Mike Girouard assembled scanned copies of original Girouard family church records from Canadian parishes — some of the earliest surviving documents bearing the family name. That collection, along with his genealogy data, Acadian history writing, and family resources, remains his work and is hosted at girouard.org/documents. The resources below are additions and updates to what he built, reflecting archives and databases that have come online since the 1990s.
Online Archives and Databases
FamilySearch
familysearch.org — Free access to millions of digitized records including Quebec Catholic parish registers from 1621 onward (the Drouin Institute collection), Nova Scotia vital records, New Brunswick records, and a community-built family tree with strong Acadian coverage. This is the primary source for the genealogy data on this site.
Library and Archives Canada
bac-lac.gc.ca — Census records, land grants, passenger lists, and military records relating to Acadia from the French and British colonial periods. The 1671 and 1686 Acadian censuses — which name François Girouard and Jeanne Aucoin — are held here.
Nova Scotia Archives
archives.novascotia.ca — Parish records, land records, and Deportation-era documents including Colonel Winslow’s journal from Grand-Pré. Key resource for pre-Deportation Acadian families.
New Brunswick Provincial Archives
Provincial Archives of New Brunswick — Church registers, land petitions, and vital records for the post-Deportation Acadian communities of New Brunswick.
PRDH — Université de Montréal
prdh-igd.com — The Programme de recherche en démographie historique maintains a subscription database of Quebec vital records from 1621 to 1916, covering virtually every Catholic baptism, marriage, and burial in the province. Essential for tracing Quebec branches of Acadian families.
Généalogie Québec
genealogiequebec.com — Drouin Institute records with an improved search interface. Subscription-based but less expensive than PRDH; covers similar territory.
Centre d’études acadiennes Anselme-Chiasson
umoncton.ca — The Acadian Studies Centre at Université de Moncton holds the most significant collection of Acadian archival material in the world, including manuscripts, photographs, genealogical records, and oral history recordings.
Societies and Organizations
Société nationale de l’Acadie
acadie.net — The national Acadian organization, based in Moncton, New Brunswick. Coordinates the World Acadian Congress and represents Acadian communities internationally.
Acadian Cultural Society
acadiansociety.com — Based in the United States, with resources for Americans of Acadian and Cajun descent.
Fédération des associations de familles acadiennes
A federation of Acadian family associations, each focused on a single founding surname. Records, reunions, and newsletters for specific family lines including descendants of the Deportation-era families.
Key Books
A Great and Noble Scheme: The Tragic Story of the Expulsion of the French Acadians from Their American Homeland by John Mack Faragher (2005) — the definitive modern scholarly account of the Deportation, winner of the Francis Parkman Prize.
The Acadians of Nova Scotia: Past and Present by Sally Ross and J. Alphonse Deveau (1992) — a comprehensive survey of Acadian history and culture with particular attention to Nova Scotia.
Histoire et généalogie des Acadiens by Bona Arsenault (1988, 6 volumes) — the foundational Acadian genealogical reference, tracing the families of the Deportation generation. In French.
Dictionnaire généalogique des familles acadiennes by Stephen White (1999) — produced by the Centre d’études acadiennes, covering families from 1636 to 1714. The most authoritative early-period Acadian genealogy. In French.
Acadian Genealogy and Records by Edmond Richard (1905) — an early compilation, now in the public domain and widely available online.
DNA and Modern Tools
DNA testing has transformed Acadian genealogy research. Because the founding population was small and the community endured centuries of endogamy, Acadian descendants share distinctive DNA signatures. Test results on Ancestry, MyHeritage, and FamilySearch frequently reveal Acadian cousins who never suspected a connection. The Acadian DNA project at FTDNA has documented surname clusters across the diaspora.