Genealogy by Peggy

Much can be said about My sixth great grandfather Joseph dit Beausoliel Broussard. This is an artist's depiction of him.  It is not his real photo. Many articles and books have been written about him.  He was a true fighter for the Acadian people in every sense of the word. There is a video on YouTube about the Acadian people and why they were expelled from Nova Scotia.  It's very good and since it involves my genealogy, I will post it here for you to watch. This is about the expulsion of the Acadian people. My people. When he landed in New Orleans, he was sent, along with his people, to live among the Atakapa Indians in St Martinsville, Louisiana.  The Atakapa were cannibals.  Little did the governor know, Beausoliel and his family knew about living among the Indians.  They didn't hunt the wild game that the Indians used for food.  They raised their own cattle and planted crops.  They knew to make friends with the Indians and learn f...

This has been something I have worked on for a couple of years.  I have a cousin who shares 328 centimorgans with me.  That's a pretty close cousin.  I believe she is my first cousin once removed. This method of colorizing a spreadsheet is called the Leeds method.  It was invented by Dana Leeds.  I followed her directions which are on the internet to figure out this part.  The column that is pink is everyone I am matched with on my DNA.  The grey column represents my Crochet cousins.  This is the group of people who match me (and others) with DNA.  The green line is the list of those who match with me who are my Landry side.  The dark blue column is my Aucoin side.  The light blue is my Coupel cousins. There you can see my great grandparents.  And above him, are his parents, my great great grands.   These are my great grandmother's parents, my great great grands.   If you look at the color ...

It helps to know who your momma and daddy are.  If you are adopted then that might be an issue.  My suggestion there is to do your DNA testing with either Ancestry or with 23andMe.  Your choice, they both give you good information.  Different, but both good.  Ancestry tells you more of who your family line is and will actually help you locate family tree members using the little green leaf.   See the little green leaf there on the block that is labeled Harold Knight?  That is how ancestry helps you find out information pertaining to that person.  Just so happens Harold was my daddy's brother.  They never knew each other.  Harold died in 1950 of a gun accident.  Daddy, had been given up for adoption in 1919 to his aunt.  So they never had the chance to meet.  I digress!!   23andMe is different.  It will tell you who your relatives are, but doesn't have a family tree theme at all.  It will tell you ho...

Have you ever hit that big brick wall.  I have hit it several times.  How do you get past it?   I hit that wall with my paternal grandmother, Ada Parish Scripture Knight.  I had pictures of her that my daddy's aunt saved for him.  But that was all I had.   When Daddy died in 1997, I got my first computer and began to put together my family tree.  I knew my immediate family and I knew many of my mother's relatives, but once I put my father in, and I knew his father and his paternal side, I was totally stumped as far as his mother's side.  And I knew her name.  I can only imagine if I hadn't known her name.   I blogged about this on another page, but...I hope this will encourage other genealogy researchers.  I searched almost nightly for seven years for my grandmother.  I know.  People say I'm like a bulldog.  Once I get hold of something I just don't let go and I don't give up.  It must work for me,...

Momma and the man in the white pants Momma and the same guy, same day, same location Momma's sister, Joyce, with the man in the white pants  The top two pictures were in our box of pictures the whole time I was growing up.  I thought it was sort of odd that Momma kept a picture of her with a man who wasn't my daddy.  Then later, I found out that my aunt, Joyce, had a picture of her with the same man taken the same day at the same place.  Then there is another picture of a different couple taken the same day, same place. What in the world made this picture so important after laying around in a box of pictures since the 1940s?  It's a long story. I had to have eye surgery a couple of years ago and my sister, Phyllis, took me to Lafayette to have the surgery done.  This is 2019, so that was in 2017.  On the way there one morning, she half way turns to me and says, "By the way, you do know you have a brother, right?" We were raise...

1006 Cherry Street Orange, Texas Oh the stories this house could tell. If it could only talk.  I spent my childhood visiting my grandmother here.  I got to know all of my many cousins here.  We spent most holidays in this house celebrating with Mamaw.   I even lived here for a number of years after I was grown.   This house was actually a duplex with a large hall down the middle inside that door you can see.  That hall in the middle was, at one time, called a "dog trot." Here is the definition of a dog trot style home by Southern Living Magazine.  "Dog Trot Homes are characterized by the large, open breezeway that runs through the middle of the house, with two separate living areas on either side, all under one roof." You could open the front door and the back door which was a straight hallway and the breeze would flow through.  My grandmother loved her home.  We all loved her home too.  It was a place to meet! A place to...