Louisiana's Colonial French/Acadian History

I wrote this pour Alexandria’s gazette et I believe I can post it on my blog. I’ll take it off if I hear otherwise. The temps was mauvais last soir. Man, I thought my char would go off the road coming back from Alex. The lightning lit up the sky and it helped me see the road a little bit. I had to crank up my radio to drown out the sounds of rain and 18 wheelers speeding and splashing by.

Louisiana's Colonial French/Acadian History

I’ve read three very good books about central Louisiana’s Colonial French/Acadian history. Two of them have been published for some time but a new one was published in March of 2005. They are of particular interest for Evangeline and Avoyelles Parish.

An Atlas of Louisiana Surnames of French and Spanish Origin, by Robert C. West, has information on several surnames that are frequently found in Evangeline, Avoyelles, and surrounding central Louisiana. The book begins with a historical overview of Louisiana and a pronunciation guide for the names.

The names are then listed alphabetically with historical background and maps of where certain families settled. Winston DeVille says in his foreword: “an elegant blending of the disciplines of geography and history with genealogy.” Some of the names covered are the French: Bordelon, Brignac, Ducote, Fontenot, Fuselier, Gauthier, LaFleur, Rabalais, and the Acadians: Guidry, Trahan, Broussard, Prejean, Comeaux, Hébert, Landry, and Cormier. Avoyelles and Evangeline were primarily settled by the non-Acadian French families.

The Fontenot’s, Brignac’s, Guillory’s, and LaFleur’s came to Louisiana from Fort Toulouse or Mobile in Alabama. They were Colonial Marines sent by France to deter the English from migrating more to the west. Fort Toulouse was one of many in a chain of forts. France obtained permission from the Alabamas Indians to build there, and they had a trading relationship with each other.

The French Marines and their families, other French settlers, and several of the Alabamas left when France ceded the area to England in 1763. They sailed from Mobile to New Orleans and many, such as the Fontenots, came to settle present day Evangeline parish to start a new life as ranchers and farmers. Fort Toulouse: the French Outpost at the Alabamas on the Coosa, by Daniel H. Thomas, is a great book on the history of the area.


French, Cajun, Creole, Houma: a Primer on Francophone Louisiana, by Carl A. Brasseaux, was recently published, and is a great book for an overview of the Louisiana’s French speaking population. It covers history, but also cultural issues such as the Cajunization of “Creole parishes” like Evangeline and Avoyelles. The Creoles and Cadien did not at first have a good relationship with each other.


Over time, however, through intermarriage and shared economic hardships, they merged and are continuing this process now. Many Creole descendants in Evangeline have no knowledge of their ancestry and believe that the majority of their ancestors came from Acadie. Dr. Brasseaux gives a good explanation for the cultural and historical aspects of the area.

I’m learning more now and some people in Evangeline have more Acadian ancestry than French. But historically, Evangeline was predominately Colonial French – aka prairie Creole – aka Cajun.