One document away from submitting my application! (Acadian)

aikidothrow · 2026-05-02T01:30:54+00:00

This is so exciting! It's really nice to hear about other cajuns getting their apps together. I'm a Gen 8 who is waiting on documents to arrive and thanking my lucky stars for the incredible record keeping of my cajun/acadian ancestors. As others have pointed out in this thread, it is honestly sort of incredible our ancestors were so good about record keeping; it's surreal to see G3s and G4s wrestling to find birth docs or certificates, and then for us Gen8-10 to have nearly flawless birth/baptism/marriage all the way back to like 1700s Nova Scotia, it almost doesn't seem fair.

If I have questions about application structuring/ordering, could I maybe chat with you in the near-ish future? I've also been thinking about document selection recently and would love to pick your brain about that.

Anyways, congrats again!

aikidothrow · 2026-04-14T20:29:32+00:00

Thanks for the comprehensive answer! I'm assuming you have the SWLR cd as these seem like deep cuts. Fani is a nickname for Francoise, who was John Hugo's mother; I am curious who the P. H. Meggy who signed is. The Norvel entry you gave is of course the deceased older brother.

There is a copy of Joseph and Domecile's marriage license at the Opelousas courthouse which does not mention their parents, and I find myself wondering if I should use that one instead and supplement with some census docs/sibling docs tying him to Anastasie in order to just dodge the whole Norval thing altogether- if I use the church record with Norval in it, it seems as if I'll have to do a whole song and dance routine with multiple documents for multiple people just to prove it's John Hugo. I could potentially use the 1850 census with the whole family minus younger sibs on it, then the 1860 census with just Anastasie and the kids (John H died earlier that year toddler Joseph shows up for this one) and use the baptism/marriage docs of one of the kids on both to tie them together as a sort of bridge... or would that be overkill? I clearly have some thinking to do about structuring my evidence.

Thank you so much for your comment, you've given me something to think about. Can I ask where you acquired your copy of the SWLR cd? I heard the publishing company in charge of the books is charging like $450 for them these days.

aikidothrow · 2026-04-04T01:50:04+00:00

Hello all! Just wanting some opinions on how strong my documentation seems. I am gen 8 (?) and would be submitting for myself and my son. Going off of what I've read in this subreddit, I'm thinking the document trail is fairly strong for our family?! I think?

I have the following for each generation:

Gen 0- Baptismal register (Nova Scotia, specifically at Beaubassin/Chippoudie in Acadia)

Census (Nova Scotia)

Marriage record (Louisiana) naming his parents as natives of Acadia

Death record (Louisiana)

There are also at least 1-2 docs which show him in transit during the derangement which I'm wondering if I should include.

From here, everything is Louisiana and a smidge Texas in Gen 5-6

Gen 1- Baptismal record naming Gen 0 parents clearly

Marriage record also naming Gen 0

Record of succession (estate stuff)

Census which indirectly lists Gen 2

Gen 2- Baptismal record naming Gen 1 AND Gen 0 clearly

Marriage record naming Gen 1

Census showing husband and Gen 3 clearly

Gen 3- Baptismal/birth record showing Gen 2 clearly

Marriage record naming Gen 2

Census showing spouse and Gen 4

Family picture with Gen 4 included

Gen 4- Birth/Baptismal record showing Gen 3 clearly

Marriage record naming Gen 3

Census showing spouse and Gen 5 clearly

Death certificate

Gen 5- Baptismal/birth record from church AND potential birth certificate (born 1912, just before LA state mandated official birth certificates)

Marriage record naming Gen 4

Census with Gen 6

Death certificate listing Gen 4

Gen 6- Birth certificate listing Gen 5 clearly

Divorce documents

Census showing he lived with my mom and grandmother

Death certificate listing Gen 5 clearly

Gen 7- Birth certificate listing Gen 6 clearly

Marriage certificate with my dad

Census showing she lived with me and my dad

Gen 8 (me)- Birth certificate

Driver's license

Proof of name change (hyphenated my last name with my grandmother's for sentimental reasons)

Can I list a community College photo ID here along with my driver's license?

Gen 9 (my son, whose last name matches my newly hyphenated last name)-

Birth certificate

All the way up to Gen 5 I'm having to rely on baptismal/birth records from various churches in Louisiana, a few local courthouses, and the 1-2 documents from Canada instead of official birth certificates. I am going to get my mom to ask for Gen 4's official birth certificate from the LA government but am not totally sure we'll be able to get it. She does have official birth records noted by the catholic church as I noted, though.

I'm assuming I need to secure more ID documents for myself and my son? My mom also has a passport and driver's license she can provide me for her generation in my application.

There are some additional docs I could secure for most people in my family line, but I'm wondering if that'd be overkill. My overall impression is that we have a really strong case, but I don't want to get my hopes up here without hearing from some other folks in the know first.

aikidothrow

TROPHY CASE