Culture and Family Background

Brief Cajun Background

Cajuns are the descendants of exiles from the French colony of Acadia(present day Nova Scotia) who were forced to leave in 1755 because they refused to pledge allegiance to the British crown. They found refuge in southern Louisiana ten years later. By 1790 about 4,000 Acadians occupied Louisian's wetlands along Bayou Lafourch and Bayou Tech; later spreading to the prairies of Louisiana.
The French speaking, Roman Catholic Cajuns, today estimated at about 500,000. Many ccupational traditions and culture of our ancestore have been kept. The speech is a form of French, into which are incorporated words taken from English, German, Spanish, and various Indian languages.

Detail History of the Cajuns
This story reflect the beginning of the cruel deportation by the British of our Acadian ancestors on September 5, 1775 when John Winslow, One of the King's funkies, read them the orders of the Crown at the church in Grand Pre' Nova Scotia. This was the start of what the Acadians called the heartless exile - LE GRAND DERANGEMENT. Our descendants, French people who became known as Acadians, colonized the area known as Acadia, what is now Nova Scotia, beginning in 1604. During the time they were in Acadia, they were harassed by the English colonists of North America. In 1713 the French government sold them out (Treaty of Utrecht) to the British. Form that time on the British harassed and persecuted them in numerous ways, and finally in 1755, after forcing the Acadians to take an oath to the British Crown, they tried to force them to renounce their Catholic religion and become Protestants and agree to bear arms against France, which the Acadians staunchly refused to do, they took their land and everything else they had worked so hard for and loaded them like cattle on ships in a cruel systematic deportation. Of course, Winslow's promise to tbe Acadians on that gloomy, forlorn Friday 242 years ago (September 5, 1775) that families would not be separated was not kept. To the contrary all efforts were made by the British to break up families, separate loved ones, and neighbors from friends. One of the King's worthies had said that "this obnoxious race of people " had to be exterminated somehow, he even suggested issuing typhoid-infected blankets to the deportees. This flunky who despised the Acadians so was named Amherst (a city and college in Mass. is named for him). Between six and 7,000 of our Acadian ancestors were disem- barked from ships in several of the original thirteen British Colonies, who at that time had proscriptive laws, outlawing Catholic (they were called 'papists" within their borders). As many as one-quarter of the deportees may have died on the way, either by starvation or epidemic or from shipwreck. Our unfortunate Acadian ancestors, penniless, illclad and being both French and Catholic, were scorned and hated by the English colonists One American historian (Stevens) describes their situation something like this: "These several thousand condemned people were scattered like leaves in gusts of an autumn wind, in the midst of a people who hated their religion, detested their country (France), made fun at their customs, laughed at their Ianguage. Cast-off on foreign shores, these people who had customs, laughed at their language. Cast-off on foreign shores, these people who had known abundance and well-being suddenly became out-casts, vagabonds, and beggars, with no one to heal their broken hearts or alleviate their sufferings." After serving their indenture, (indenture is just a notch above slavery: it is a contract binding a person to work for another) to the British colonists some of them made their way back to Acadia and other parts of Canada., while others found refuge in the French islands of Martinique, St. Domingue and Guadaloupe. Many of the Acadians who had escaped capture by the English found refuge in the forests with the friendly Micmacs and other sympathetic Indians of the north. A considerable number of the Acadians deported by the British were brought to England as prisoners- most of these found their way into France. Right after the expulsion a few of the Acadians had made their way to Lonisiana, which was under French rule at that time, and by word of mouth the above groups had heard that this was a good place to reassemble, so most of them began arriving to the Territory of Louisiana in the region known a, Orleans in the mid-1760s. Disembarking vessels in the port of New Orleans, they made their way to the region of Louisiana which is now known as Acadiana. Free at last, they who had experienced a hell on earth, those hardy Acadians who had refused to abandon their language and customs and renounce their religion settled in the swamps, on the bayous, and on the prairies of southwest Louisiana, those survivors had to begin a totally different kind of life in a strange land. They became fishermen, trappers, farmers and cattlemen on the great prairies of southwestern Louisiana. For someone who had always lived by the sea in cold northern climates, living in the vast prairies and along the bayous in semi-tropical Louisiana must have been a confusing experience to our Acadian ancestors. During the 1940s, Harnett T Kane, former New Orleans newspaperman, who had published the book "Louisiana Hayride" in 1941 went on the bayous and the prairies and lived with the Cajuns, attending fais-dodos, boucheries, weddings, prayer meetings and other functions of our people. In the ealy 1950s he published the book "Thee Bayous of Louisiana" and described the Cajuns: They had suffered their families torn apart by hostile forces. That must never happen again. Always at the back of their thoughts has been this resolution, that here, in Louisiana, their small part of the world shaIl remain a citadel. Theyy found themselves in a locale remote from other parts of the colony, and they reoiced. They had, and still have twin gifts of simplicity and humor, and they set to work to recreate everything as it was with them before--their small farms, their fields, holdings of cattle, their meeting place for talk and song. The bayou became their place, their ways fitting to it and changing with it through the years. The product is a culture without parallel in the United States - a curious, untypically American design that is warm and rich in values, fitting no mold but its own." Little did the outside world know of the Acadians, their prairies and coves. The Acadian developed his own habits, his own economy and his likes and dislikes. Behind his protective barrier of bayous and distance he acquired not possessions but the peace and tranquility he wanted. The hardy Acadian drew from nature the things she had ready for him. He hunted, fished, trapped, picked moss, learned what was good to eat in the woods, did everything that was necessary for him and his family to survive. He learned what plants that had medicinal values. Harnett T. Kane wrote about the Acadian's transformation in sub-tropical Louisiana: "the Acadian has gradually fitted his habits to his neces- sity and has become another man in many respects. What developed through the years is not standard French, nor was it Canadian, nor even the French the Creoles of the city knew. And let none say to him today that his is not an American, and a good one. He has been on his soil since the Revolution, and he means to stay here. As a matter of fact, he fought in the Revolution, on the American side - under a Spanish commander who led Louisiana Frenchmen against the British to help the colonists. Some of the Acadians are officially Sons of the American Revolution. Kane also made this observation about the Cajuns: "Me, I don't know anybody quite like the Acadian, and I wouldn't be willing to change one accent's worth, or one free chuckle, in the interest of all the dull conformity in the world....,,

Click Here For More Cajun History and click on back to return. This site by Grace at Mom and Pop Soileau's Page
Orgin of Creole A Brief article about Creole. It may help distinguish the difference between Cajun and Creole.

Family Background

Todd Spears and Gretchell Soileau

Todd's family background

Spears(German)
Mcoy(Irish)
Duplichain(French)
Sonnier(French and American Indian)

Gretchell's family background

Soileau(French) Click here for detail history on the Soileau Family. This site belongs to Grace of Mom and Pop Soileau's page. Click on Back to return.
Fontenot(French and American Indian)
Guillory(Cajun descendent from Acadia)
Saucier(French)

A Few Cajun and French Phrases

Bayou (By you): A sluggish stream, bigger than a creek and smaller than a river.
Ca c'est bon (Sa say bohn):That's good!
C'est la vie (Say la vee):That's life.
C'est magnifique (Say mag ni feek):That's great
Cher (Sha):Dear(a term of endearment).
Mon cher or ma cher:My dear.
Joie de la vie: Joy of life.
Lache pas la patate:(from a popular french song)Don't let go of the potato.
Arc en ciel:A rainbow.
Une 'title pule grasse:A little fat hen.
Que le bon Dieu vous benit:May the good GOD bless you.
Fais-do-do (Fay doe doe):A dance( Literally means "go to sleep")This was told to children so the parents could go out and dance.
Lagniappe (Lahn yop):A little something extra.
Laisser les bons temps rouler (Less lay bohn tohn roo lay):Let the good times roll!
Merci (Mare see): Thank you.
Roux (Roo):Flour browned in fat and used for thickening gravies, gumbo, stew, etc.(the basis for most Cajun cooking).
C'est tout (Say too):That's all, finished.
Coeur Des Cajuns: Heart of Cajuns
Bonjour Mes Amis: Good day my friends.
Au Revior Mes Amis:Good bye my friends.
Bonnes Nouvelles: Good news
Tante:Aunt
Merci Beaucoup:Thank you very much.
La Tasse d' cafe: The cup of coffee
Poules:Chicken
Tasso:Smoked strips of meat, usually pork. It is used to add flavor to certain foods such as gumbo, other meats and used in cooking dried blackeyes. It is also excellent cooked by itself in a gravey served with rice.
Boudin Highly seasoned ground pork mixed with rice packed in hog cassings, and boiled(I believe artificial cassings are used today).

Any comment my e-mail spearsville@centurytel.net

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