To any family researcher who shouts, or has ever shouted, "I JUST FOUND [fill in the blank ancestor]" just when you thought you would NEVER FIND [fill in the blank ancestor] by reading through EVERY PAGE of a civil or parish register, I dedicate the following post:

I had the occasion to recommend a couple of reliable sources on Wikitree, which I cited while adding family profiles to that system.  Happily, the feedback received in response to my recommendations, appeared to be very positive.

As there is no reason why I should not share these same sources with everyone, I am publishing my recommendations along with the links to Wikitree Reliable Sources lists where they have been posted.

The sources I've recommended in this post have original scanned and digitized records, and they add to the numerous scanned and digitized census reports, civil and church registers, and other records inventories made available to us so graciously by the Canadian and Nova Scotia archives, the State of Louisiana, the Diocese of Baton Rouge, and other State organizations. 

I can't tell you how very helpful these sources are in researching and verifying the marriage, births, and deaths of our French and Acadian ancestors and how exciting it is when the name of a beloved ancestor, or two, or three, born hundreds of years ago, "pop out" (and they do have a way of "popping out") while reading through the records, in their original form. 

The birth notice for ancestor Charles Gaschet de Lisle, and one for the marriage of his parents, did "pop out" (finally!) in the Les Archives nationales d'outre-mer after paging through hundreds of records.  I felt elated, like I struck gold, when I found their names, and all of the details of their birth and marriage events as recorded in French, in the pages of antique civil registers.   That "aha" feeling was every bit worth the time it took to read through every page!

Family records appear, as recorded in the original French language, in the civil registers of Saint-Pierre, Martinique as cited below (as an aside, I find I have autosomal DNA matches in My Heritage whose families are also from Saint-Pierre, Martinique -- but to find out how we relate, exactly, is research for another day):

• Recommend: Les Archives nationales d'outre-mer http://www.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/anom/en/index.html and particularly the IREL Digitised Registry of Births, Marriages and Deaths. The scope of the database is as follows: "Territories which were at one time or another part of the French colonial empires from the XVIIth Century" may be searched by year and community. See: http://www.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/anom/en/Recherches/IREL.html You may use this system to search for the year of an event (such as a birth, a marriage, death or other civil action), and the territory where the event occurred, and then read through resulting scanned images of records as originally written in the French language (these are not transcribed). My experience was that it was surprisingly easy to search for, locate, read through the scanned image records and verify with high confidence several family genealogies using the search and reading tools provided by this system. I plan to reference it again.
• Léa Haupaix, a manager of the Wikitree France Project Reliable Sources page, wrote in a public response to my recommendation, "Thank you M, they are listed under the "archives départementales" for parish records and they are the very first source we recommend!"  So, good news all around, and use that source with confidence!  Here's where you may find the listing for the "archives départementales" and other sources :  https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:France_Project_Reliable_Sources

Moving on to the Acadians.  I have added my mtDNA-proven matrilineal line, and other related ancestors, starting with me (Wikitree profile M. Asselia Rundquist) and tracing all the way back, from mother to mother, to ancestor Anne Marie Mi'kmaq in Wikitree, and have of course, included my ancestors who were exiled to the State of Maryland.  While editing a profile of Angelique David, one of my direct ancestors in my matrilineal line, I referenced the AcadiansWereHere.org website where we have a county map and scanned images of the 1763 census taken in Colonial Maryland.

• Recommend: the Acadians Were Here website (https://acadianswerehere.org) and most specifically a map on the Home Page that shows where Acadian exiles were enumerated in census lists taken in Colonial Maryland in 1763 (which are also on the site).  I happily received the following response from a Wikitree Acadians Project manager after giving the site as a reference:
  
• Gisèle Cormier an Acadian Project leader on Wikitree, replied in a public comment, "Thank you for your edits and for the link to the excellent "Acadians Were Here" website. It has been added to the Acadians Reliable Sources page."  That was great news, and I am very pleased that the site was added to this page!

I invite you to research both of these recommended sources with confidence, enjoy using the reliable sources pages referenced in the post, and have a great time researching ancestry!

... by Marie Rundquist with Deadra Doucet Bourke, Contributor
February 22, 2023

Introduction
The discovery of the C-P39 Native Y chromosome DNA signature for genetic male descendants of Germain Doucet b. 1641, in 2008, had great significance for genealogists because the Native Y DNA signature attained for this line (1.) disproved a European ancestry for Germain Doucet b. 1641, (2.) disproved a father-son relationship between Germain Doucet b. 1641 and Germain Doucet Sr. of France and (3.) disproved that Pierre Doucet (b. ca 1621) and Germain Doucet (b. 1641) were blood brothers having descended from the same father.

Through exhaustive Y Chromosome DNA testing of numerous male, paternal line Doucet / Doucete descendants of Germain Doucet b. 1641, who was from Port Royal, Nova Scotia, Canada, our Acadian-Amerindian and C-P39 Y DNA projects have uncovered, validated, and then verified a Native American Y Chromosome DNA haplogroup signature (originally referred to as haplogroup C3b and now referred to as haplogroup C-P39) for his descendants through sons Charles, Claude and Laurent.

In 2019, the C-Z30754 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), or genetic marker, a subclade of the C-P39 Y DNA haplogroup, was identified as unique to genetic male, patrilineal (father to father) descendants of Germain Doucet b. 1641 through advanced Big Y 700 DNA testing. Y chromosome DNA is inherited through patrilineal line of descent and is passed, from one generation to the next, virtually unchanged, from father to father. Y chromosome DNA tests are separate test from mitochondrial and autosomal DNA tests and are for genetic males only.

The C-Z30754 marker also identified a new subclade of the C-P39 Y DNA haplogroup to which male descendants of Germain Doucet b. 1641 belong. Genetic male descendants of Germain Doucet b. 1641 who have had advanced Big Y 700 DNA test show a positive result for this marker (C-Z30754+) and the C-P39 marker (C-P39+) in Big Y 700 DNA test results.

Since the original identification of the C-Z30754 subclade as unique to the Germain Doucet b. 1641 surname lineage, new and unexpected branches, or subclades, of the C-Z30754 haplogroup have emerged among the Big Y 700 DNA test results of genetic male descendants of Germain Doucet b. 1641.

Further study of these new branches, and the SNPs (or genetic markers) that identify them, reveal that each new branch aligns, one-for-one, with a known surname lineage through a specific patrilineal line – traced from father to father - within the Germain Doucet b. 1641 family tree. The purpose of this update is to show how all of this works – and introduce some fascinating new Big Y 700 DNA tools and capabilities we may all use for our own genetic genealogy research at the same time!

Note:  Click here to read the rest of the report -- and find out about some surprising new discoveries about Doucet DNA we came upon in our research!

Université Sainte-Anne Centre acadien is a truly excellent genealogy / family history resource for those researching Acadian roots in Nova Scotia, Canada.  So glad to see it's back!

Pointe-de-l'Église (N.-É.), December 21, 2022. "Matthias Duc, new director of the Center acadien." (Note:  To enable auto-translation from French to English, please copy paste the link to the article above into your Chrome browser and use the translate to English button provided.)

From the news release: "Université Sainte-Anne is pleased to announce that Matthias Duc, archivist, librarian and information science specialist, will assume the full-time role of director of the Center acadien as of January 1 , 2023. Mr. Duc holds two graduate degrees, a master's degree in communication sciences and a master's degree in information sciences, both from the University of Montreal."

Link to: https://www.usainteanne.ca/index.php?option=com_acym&ctrl=archive&task=view&id=823

Past President of the Acadian Memorial, Marty Guidry, related some sad news about our late, Acadian cousin Paul Lewis LeBlanc whose last home was in Ascension Parish, Louisiana:

"Unfortunately, today I learned that Paul LeBlanc passed away on August 24, 2022.  He had been in a full-care nursing home for over a year and died from complications of several health issues that he had during the past year."

Paul Lewis LeBlanc, as many may recall, was keenly interested in the use of DNA to verify genealogical lines and, ever since I've known him (which was from about 2006 on), Paul was always happy to share his knowledge and research.

Paul participated in and led a number of popular mail-lists and groups about genealogical subjects as well and I had the opportunity to meet him, face-to-face, when he attended one of my presentations in Louisiana.

With Paul's permission, I had published an article about his surname line, which he had traced, and documented, from himself, to his father, and then to his father, and his father -- all the way back to Daniel LeBlanc of Acadia (b. ca 1626). He did this in conjunction with his Big Y DNA test results he had received in October of 2020.  

He was pleased to discover that he could prove his line genealogically and also through his Y DNA test results, which matched those of other men who shared his same patrilineal ancestor, Daniel LeBlanc, b. ca1626.

Needless to say, I was very delighted (and somewhat relieved) to report that Paul LeBlanc's Y chromosome DNA matched with the Y chromosome DNA results, and the Y DNA haplogroup, established for other LeBlanc men who descended from Daniel LeBlanc.  When you are dealing with a genealogist whose Y chromosome DNA is so tightly intertwined with his esteemed Acadian surname lineage, and so, his very soul, as was Paul's, waiting for a Y DNA test result to come in can be an anxious affair!

Sometimes, we have a brief opportunity to hear a story and we have to take it down, and publish it, while it's there in front of us. This is precisely what happened with Paul.  

Paul gave me one shot to send his Y chromosome DNA sample off to Family Tree DNA for the Advanced Big Y 700 DNA test (done!) and then one more, very brief opportunity to publish some notes about his family history (and we did that too!).

As we called for contributions from the Acadian genealogy community so that we could fund Paul's Big Y 700 DNA test, and later worked together to document his line, I felt like I was led by a guiding hand -- and Paul's insistent urging.  Looking back, I believe Paul knew that time was of the essence.

And so, we have the following article that resulted from these efforts (You are welcome to share the article as I had permission from Paul to do the same):

https://dna-genealogy-history.com/travel-by-ancestry/travel-by-ancestry-to-the-big-y-dna-signature-r-ft55255-for-the-lineage-of-acadian-ancestor-daniel-leblanc-b-ca-1626

Since the article was published, we have gained over 2050 members in the Acadian Amerindian Ancestry DNA project (the image in the article is old), and we have extensive updates to the Y DNA "tree." While the work continues with more Big Y 700 DNA kits ordered for our project members just this week, the genealogy that comprises Paul LeBlanc's story, as written, remains constant, and this post is going to be one of the places where Paul Lewis LeBlanc is honored and remembered, and I do so tonight.

May you rest in peace, Paul Lewis LeBlanc, b. 1946, d. 2022.

From your cousin in Acadian Genealogy,

--Marie Asse'lia Rundquist