More Standard Acadian Last Names for Approval

Question

The Acadian project long ago standardized the name spelling using what noted historian Stephen A. White of the University of Moncton used in his enormous work "Dictionnaire Généalogique des Familles Acadiennes".  We recognize that there are problems with that but we believe it to be the best policy considering the wide interest in Acadians and the many, many duplicates we find using all sorts of spellings (these alternative spellings are captured in Other Last Names).  The Acadians were generally uneducated and illiterate and the priests would often spell a name differently even in the same document. The censuses were done by English-speaking officials and thus have even more variety.

The original Names list was approved many years ago as part of the project development on WikiTree.  We have since uncovered an updated list from Stephen White.  There are about 90 more names that can be added to our standard spelling list.  These are listed in this free space page.  There are also some changes to existing standard spellings with spaces and diacritics (added or removed).  The standard list will be updated with those as well, but do not require another approval.  Please review these names for validity, spelling, if they are another version of a name we already have, or any questions.  Answer with any questions or observations about these names, and if you indicate approval.

Answer 1

hi Cindy,

Obviously there is a divergence of opinion on names getting standardized or not between Acadian and Québécois projects.  This side of the equation doesn't standardize, since this is actually how names evolve over time.  That said, looking at the list of names on the page you linked, a few comments.

Chesnay dit Lagarenne?  Sounds like it comes from this side.  Same for Grandmaison, Landron, several others.

Sauvage, you have a note there which is making it appear that this is just a moniker for natives.  It isn't, the name Sauvage exists in French before any of them came here.

Comments

Hi Danielle,

Men from Canada, Nouvelle-France named Chesnay dit Lagarenne and Grandmaison married Acadian women and had children in Acadie. Examples of their offspring: Jean Baptiste Chenet dit La Garenne, Charles Grandmaison.

There was also a Landron family in a list of Acadians deported to Philadelphia. 

I understand and respect the Québécois Project’s reasons for not standardizing names. However in Acadie with short-lived parishes and communities, displaced populations, lost registers, and the other reasons mentioned by Cindy, standard names are necessary for consistency and in order to avoid duplicates.

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Thank you for the note on Sauvage, I will clarify it on the final version of names.

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Merci Gisèle, I see from that list that some of my own ancestors wound up there most probably.  Most of my Acadian ancestors are deportees who came back north to this area after they got permission to do so.  Exception made of the Denys line.

Answer 2

Thanks, Cindy,

I think we should go slow on this one. Perhaps use the list as a guide when doing merges at first until we have more experience with it. I didn't study the list very well, but these names seem to me  to be from later people who came to Acadie. I'm not sure but I do think the original intent of the Acadian project was to document the pioneers so we may not encounter these names except in passing. I would not merge these new names into the list we already have but would be in favor of adding them at the end with a note. As to SAW, he isn't 100% consistent. For example, in the DGFA, he uses "Bourg" but on his list of 37 families, he went with "Bourque". As to using the French spelling, so many of our pioneers' birth or marriage docs haven't yet been located in France.