Email: cajungenealogist@gmail.com
Hello and welcome to my blog!
My name is Jeanelle Guidroz Guilbeaux. I was born and raised in Lafayette, Louisiana in the heart of Cajun Country in an area of south Louisiana often referred to as Acadiana. It is here that many of the French speaking people who were expelled by the British from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island in the mid 1700s began a new life. That culture and the French language are still very much alive and celebrated in this part of the country. However, I do not speak French.
I began building my family tree around 1976 when one of my dad's cousins brought us a copy of her research. It included her mother's side of the family which was also my paternal grandfather's side - the Guidroz family. She had over 100 people in the tree. Looking at her work got me thinking about just how many people it took to create me. I had three more families to research .... Guidry, Sessum, and Mitchell. And then I realized the number of branches grew exponentially the further back I went. So I had to research the Joubert, Prejean, Story, and Courtney families to get to the next generation.
While I am not a professional genealogist, I have discovered many ways to find the people who belong in my family tree. On my blog I will talk about my family, my experiences, how I found my ancestors, some of the resources I use, how I've helped others, and why I do this. I will share photos of many of my ancestors, some of them Cajun, but not all.
I have done an Ancestry DNA test and connected with lots of relatives that I otherwise would not have known about. I have uploaded my DNA to Gedmatch.com and my kit number is A051711. Let me know if we match!
If you have any questions or comments please contact me.
Wishing you lots of success in finding your roots.....
Enjoy!
