What did the Germans contribute to Evangeline Parish culture? I have several German ancestors and I think many people in the parish have them too. Shuff is a German surname and I have a Shuff in my genealogy. That's one name. I'll have to ask Dad where our German ancestors came from. I read some sites, will show links at bottom, but I don't think ours are the same.
I wonder what influences the Germans gave to the majority French people in the area: Music (accordion), rice farming techniques, sausage making skills. I don't know. Were they completely absorbed by the French majority? Nobody speaks German here, like they do in parts of Acadia Parish. Maybe they didn't have much of an influence here like they did in other parts of Louisiana. It's something to look into and think about, when there's nothing else to do.Websites:
CCET article on Germans
Louisiana Folk life center
Germans from Maryland
Books:
From Geilenkirchen to Acadia Parish : a history of the Germans of Roberts Cove, 1880-1987 / by Reinhart Kondert.
Germans of Louisiana / by Ellen C. Merrill.
Gretna, LA : Pelican, 2005
The settlement of the German coast of Louisiana and the Creoles of German descent / by J.Hanno Deiler.
Philadelphia, [PA] : Americana Germanica, c1909
Article:
Sexton, Rocky L., “Rice Country Revisited: The Socioeconomic Transformation of a French Louisiana Subregion,” Louisiana History, 47 (Summer 2006), 309–32.