52 Ancestors, Cajun Style #1

Please forgive – This is a HUGE learning curve for me.  But I REALLY loved the idea that Amy from 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks put out there (still finding her blog so I can attach it for anyone else to see).  

This is my Cajun and English/Irish/Scottish version.  Each week as I come across research from one or the other, I will talk about it and hopefully as I go it will start to make sense.  

So, to start, the reason WHY I’m doing this blog – basically, why not?  Life is about trying new things – and I really loved Amy’s challenge to “get our research out of the filing cabinet and to our friends and family who could also enjoy the info we find.”  

Also, I finally joined Ancestry.  There are a lot of opportunities to find research out there, and I just happened to choose that one.  I joined while I was on vacation over Christmas and found some pretty neat things (to be posted later).  The amount of info from the newspapers, to the “phone books,” to census and vital records, and so on is too much to keep to oneself, right?

The main reason was to continue what my mother, Eleanor Sutherland Wight started.  She started her research back in the 1970’s (possibly) and 1980’s before the internet, before email, before all the ways we are familiar with!  Can you imagine, driving to all the places, taking photos of cemeteries (pre-Find-A-Grave?!!), interlibrary loan for the microfiche needed and only keeping it for a month, and so on??!!  So, after she passed, I was given a HUGE gift in starting where she left off.  (yes, documenting the sources will be another challenge).  I can’t wait to see where it leads… and who it leads to!  (People ask me if I want to find out if tracing the Sutherland branch will hopefully lead to the famous actors Donald and Keifer.  Well, it would be nice, sure, but there are so many other Ancestors with stories to tell that are just as important, and more so if they lead directly to me being here!)

So, wish me luck, follow along this journey with me, and share with me if you get excited about something you learn on here.  

(the photos below I took while visiting Louisiana for their 250th (a Sestercentennial!) anniversary of the Acadians in 2015.  More history to come!  We took a canoe trip in the bayou and we were only allowed to speak French.  This place is one of my favorite places to visit!  If you look closely, that is me and my daughters Emma and Zoe in the middle!)