"A Surprise mtDNA Match Uncovers a Lost Acadian Ancestry Line to Antoinette Landry" … by Marie Rundquist with Deborah Cotorceanu and Marie-Louise Braud Gerac February 2020 (aka, as Marie-Louise put it, "Bona grabbed the wrong Marie Thibodeau.") Photos courtesy Deborah Cotorceanu and Marie-Louise Braud Gerac.

"Due to upcoming changes to the Rootsweb website, we have determined that the best way to keep our research groups viable is to create two new public Google Groups that will consolidate 77 Acadian and Cajun, 10 uniquely Louisiana, many French surname, and 30 Louisiana Parish sites. For more background on why this change is necessary, and to obtain instructions on how to "join" our new Groups, please see our full announcement at either https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/ouracadianroots or https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/ourlouisianaroots."

-- Paul L. LeBlanc

About Our Acadian Amerindian Ancestry DNA Project

DNA testing is adding substantially to the body of research available for all Acadian families, and because of the efforts of individual testers, we are now able to trace Acadian lineages, successfully and confidently, back to their earliest roots -- in the 17th and 18th centuries! Our Acadian AmerIndian Ancestry DNA project at Family Tree DNA includes Y chromosome DNA (Y DNA) results for male Acadian ancestors and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) results for female Acadian ancestors. The project welcomes all Acadian descendants, and descendants of allied families who married into Acadian lines, as well as AmerIndian descendants associated with the eastern Canadian First Nations people.

All descendants of Acadian and related allied and First Nations family lines are welcome to join our Acadian Amerindian Ancestry DNA project including those who have taken the Family Finder test at Family Tree DNA or transferred their autosomal test resuts to Family Tree DNA from other testing companies. We encourage any male who carries an Acadian surname and descends from an Acadian family, or allied family who married into an Acadian line, to take the Y DNA test, in addition to the Family Finder autosomal DNA test, and all people who descend directly matrilineally (from your mother to her mother to her mother on up the tree) to an Acadian or a First Nations ancestor who married into an Acadian family to have an mtDNA test and join the project. 
 
One of the greatest tragedies of the Acadian expulsion that began in 1755 is the irrevocable loss of family. We, as family researchers, have problems in finding legitimate records for that period as in many instances our family records were destroyed. One of the greatest benefits of Y and mtDNA DNA testing with our Acadian Amerindian Ancestry DNA project is that we are able to "see through" the gaps in our family lines tracing back to the time of the Acadian expulsion, and find lost links that connect us back to our earliest ancestors.  By having the Y DNA and mtDNA test results of Acadian descendants in-hand, along with available genealogy information,  we are able to trace our most precious lineages from father to father, mother to mother, all the way back to the first Acadian settlement in Port Royal, Nova Scotia. Through advanced Y DNA testing, we've been able to pinpoint specific genetic markers that differentiate descendants of specific Acadian surname lines from all others.

That our genes did not "forget" who we are and where we came from is perhaps one of the most significant research findings of our Acadian Amerindian Ancestry DNA project, and with our Y, mtDNA, and autosomal DNA test results, we are re-connecting and finding our way "home" in the truest sense of the word. Our astounding abilities to reconnect, by way of matching DNA test results, may be the best "just desserts" ever to be served upon those whose grand scheme was to split us asunder and thereby cause us to fail.  Our genetic, cultural, historical, and genealogical "staying power"  is why we have people from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Gaspe, Montreal, Ontario, Quebec and westward, Louisiana, Maine, New York, New Hampshire, Michigan, Maryland, Virginia, Texas, California, France, and everywhere else participating in "our" Acadian Amerindian Ancestry DNA project.

The "Acadian Amerindian Ancestry DNA project" is therefore open to all of our "legacy" cousins, who carry our celebrated Acadian and Amerindian project surnames and lines, our "allied families,"  (including Romeros, Oubres, Smiths, and all others) who married into Acadian families and have become a part of the greater Acadian / Cajun family tree, the "collateral cousins," who are related to Acadians and are still trying to figure out how, and those special cousins who, as Cousin Paul has stated so eloquently, "were raised at an Acadian / Cajun hearth" -- by the fireplace or in the kitchen of a loving (and very wise!) Acadian / Cajun mother or grandmother who never used the words "biological," "half," "step," "foster," or "adopted" when she talked about all of her children and grandchildren.

You can view the Acadian Amerindian Ancestry DNA project information here: https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/acadian-amerindian/about/background

You can see the Acadian Amerindian Ancestry DNA project's Y DNA participants here to determine if your male ancestral line is represented: https://www.familytreedna.com/public/AcadianAmerIndian?iframe=yresults

You can see the Acadian Amerindian Ancestry DNA project's mitochondrial participants here to determine if our female ancestral line is represented: https://www.familytreedna.com/public/AcadianAmerIndian?iframe=mtresults

For questions about joining the Acadian Amerindian Ancestry DNA project, contact the project administrators:

• Deadra Doucet Bourke at micmaclagniappe@gmail.com
• Marie Rundquist at marierundquist@gmail.com
  
• Roberta Estes at robertajestes@att.net

The following August 18, 2019 press release, shared by Warren Perrin, gives a wonderful picture of the Mi'kmaq - Acadian gathering at the Congres Mondial Acadien, Cormier Village, New Brunswick, and the exciting happenings at the Louisiana Pavilion.  Please click here to download or anywhere on the image below.

See also the following link: Rassemblement mi’kmaq et acadien: «Il est temps de se retrouver» ... par Simon Delattre, Acadie Nouvelle ( lundi 19 août 2019) sent by Chris Boudreau.