Acadians

The Acadians (Acadiens) are the descendants of the seventeenth-century French colonists who settled in Acadia (located in the Canadian Maritime provinces — Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and in the US state of Maine). Although today most of the Acadians and Québécois are francophone Canadians, Acadia was founded in a region geographically and administratively separate from Quebec ("Canada" at this time), which led to their developing two rather distinct histories and cultures. The settlers whose descendants became Acadians did not all come from the same region in France. Acadian family names have come from many areas in France, from the Maillets of Paris to the LeBlancs of Normandy. As additional examples, the popular Acadian surname 'Melanson' had its roots in Brittany, and those with the surname 'Bastarache', 'Basque', had their origin in the Basque Country.