Genealogy Today (www.genealogytoday.com) is pleased to announce the first online release of The Acadian-Cajun Family, a database of more than 1.2 million records developed by Yvon Cyr over the past ten years.
Compiled from various sources, The Acadian-Cajun Family will allow subscribers to effortlessly navigate through hundreds of interconnected family trees, viewing birth, marriage and death data along with citations documenting the references used.
"Back in 1991, one of my few remaining ACADIAN uncles (who is now searching his roots in the great beyond) planted the seed for this project by providing me with genealogical information that he had accumulated over many years," explained Yvon, creator of the Acadian.org web site. "With the help of the Internet, over 300 individuals (from around the world) have since contributed information – most dating from the early 1600's to the present day."
"Many years ago, I learned an important lesson from my wonderful father! He told me, 'Yvon, the more you GIVE in life, the more you will RECEIVE!' I derive a tremendous amount of enjoyment from this great hobby; through the SHARING of information. That why, when contacted by my good friend Illya D'Addezio, owner of Genealogy Today, with the proposal to make my research available online, I agreed without reservation."
Although a large majority of Acadians (a group of Francophones originating from France) were exiled from Nova Scotia between 1755 and 1759, many escaped to New Brunswick and remained in the more remote areas of that part of Acadia. Some returned to France, or settled in Quebec. In 1785, many Acadians immigrated to Louisiana where they became known as Cajuns.
It should be noted that some of the families in the database are French-Canadian, not Acadian. These families are included because there were/are numerous inter-marriages between French-Canadians and Acadians. Generally speaking, the ancestors of French-Canadians did NOT come to Quebec (or other locations) by way of Acadia.
"I've had the pleasure to work with Yvon for several years," commented Illya. "He's a remarkable person who after enduring a lifetime of incredible challenges, remains committed to his heritage and helping others trace their Acadian ancestors. Being able to collaborate on an online offering of this information was a wonderful opportunity, and I'm pleased that the new database will help Yvon's work reach an even broader audience."
Previously available as a series of GEDcom data published on CD-ROM, The Acadian-Cajun Family is now fully searchable online (no additional software required), and will be updated on an ongoing basis. Annual subscriptions are available for $79.95.
"Now that the Internet has become the dominant force for global genealogy research, it seemed logical to make this priceless Acadian-Cajun data available to everyone," added Yvon. "However, recognizing that many researchers are still interested in specific family lines, we will continue to make available the separate family trees on CD-ROM."
For more details, visit http://www.acadiansurnames.com/ or http://www.genealogytoday.com/info/database/acadian-cajun.html
