Spanning two centuries, from the early 1600s to the mid 1700s, the book, Revisiting Anne Marie, engages the reader in the history of a family cut from European and Amerindian (Mi'kmaq) cloth, from the family's brave beginnings in Nova Scotia to its exile in Snow Hill, Maryland, following the Grand Deportation of 1755. 

The story of Anne Marie's family comes to life with art, source citations and references, first-hand observations and photographs, as the author interweaves the inter-relationships that comprise Anne Marie's extended family in l'Acadie with the history and politics of the time. 

Through an overlay of new genetic information, the author challenges traditional perceptions as she brings forth, generation by generation, the diverse society that becomes the foundation of our "American" heritage.  The early history of l'Acadie and its peoples, when coupled with Marie Rundquist's landmark DNA finding and documented maternal-line ancestry, assumes a new dimension -- one that includes a diversity of culture and family lines.

Revisiting Anne Marie takes place in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and mid-eighteenth centuries (until the expulsion of Acadians from Nova Scotia in 1755), sets the stage for the start of Anne Marie and Rene Rimbault's family in the village of Port Royal, North America.  Historic locations include Mi'kma'ki, L'Acadie, Nova Scotia, La Have, Port Royal, Annapolis Royal, Grand Pre, Isle St. Jean (Prince Edward Island (PEI)), Cape Breton, Parishes of St. Jean-Baptiste and St. Charles Aux Mines, Isle Royale, and the Fortress of Louisbourg. Other: National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) and Cultural Resources Center (CRC) (Suitland, Maryland).

Readers of the book, Cajun By Any Other Name, live the experience of Rundquist's Acadian ancestors whose lives were shattered by a forced expulsion from Nova Scotia in 1755 -- from their exile in Maryland and re-emergence in the Louisiana parishes  - and join Rundquist's search for an identity nearly destroyed by re-tooled surnames, assumed pedigrees, ambition, courthouse filings, and the Civil War. 

In conclusion, Rundquist exposes how DNA testing, genealogy and history research restore vital connections for others of Native American and European ancestry, makes a case for self-identification that rises above cultural labels and strengthens the soul. 

Cajun By Any Other Name continues the epic story of Acadians on Maryland's Lower Eastern Shore and in Louisiana from the year 1755 until the present. Historic locations include Grand Pre, Nova Scotia, Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland: Princess Anne, Snow Hill, Wicomico, Somerset Counties, Oxford; Louisiana: New Orleans, German Coast, Acadian Coast, Parishes of Pointe Coupee, St. Gabriel, St. Charles, St. James, St. John, St. Tammany; Covington, Lea's Landing, Tangipahoa, St. Martinville, Kaplan, Other: France, Martinique, South Carolina, Michigan, Washington, DC., Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History and Culture, Acadian Museum, (at the Acadian Memorial), St. Martinville, Louisiana.

Marie Rundquist researches her Amerindian family lines in the article, "Finding Anne Marie: The Hidden History of Our Acadian Ancestors", published originally on the French Heritage DNA Project website, and later in three historical society journals. The French-translation of "Finding Anne Marie," "À la recherche d’Anne-Marie," is available here as well.

Armed with her Grandmother Asselia S. Lichliter’s prior investigation of her maternal line, brought to light for the first time in this article, and a set of her own mitochondrial DNA test results, Ms. Rundquist travels back through four centuries of North American history, and lands in Port Royal Nova Scotia of the early 1600s, in her quest for her Native American maternal ancestor. During the course of the story, twelve generations of families are explored, whose surnames are shared with others having Louisiana and Acadian family histories: Gaschet d'Lisle, Gosselin, Denelle, Ouvre (Oubre), David, Hebert, Gauterot (Gautrot), Rimbault, and Anne Marie (?).

In the article, "More than Genealogy: Searching the Tree for Lost Family," (About Families, May 2012) author Marie Rundquist describes how during research of a family history, a connection formed between Rundquist and her new-found ancestors -- linking her with their life stories so she could view, first hand, how they adapted to survive crippling circumstances - transforming the study of family genealogy.

A recently-published companion article, "Confirmed C3b Y DNA Results Test the Heritage of Cajun Cousin Keith Doucet," details an Amerindian Ancestry out of Acadia Family Tree DNA project participant's experience with Y DNA testing, with an outcome that leads him, and others to re-assess the origins of his established Acadian surname, as related to his paternal ancestor, Germain Doucet, born 1641.

Results of a follow-on C3b Y Chromosome DNA study, in which DNA results of Doucet descendants are compared are published here.

Emile Broome shares his experience researching his ancestry as he couples hands-on genealogy research techniques with mtDNA testing  in the article, "Travel, Teamwork, and an mtDNA Test add up to Emile Broome's Amerindian Acadian Ancestry."

While mitochondrial (mtDNA) and Y-chromosome DNA test results have proven infinitely valuable to Amerindian Ancestry out of Acadia project participants interested in discovering the earliest origins of ancestors from Nova Scotia, Gaspe, Quebec, and the Maritime regions and have given our members new avenues for research of ancestors' earliest histories, the Family Tree DNA Family Finder test digs deep into participant autosomal DNA, discovers matching DNA segments that occur within participant information, and correlates these with second, third, fourth, and fifth-cousin relationships -- that would be difficult, if nearly impossible for most to identify using traditional paper-based genealogy research methods. Read the whole story!  Click: Cajun Cousins Bernie David and Steve Simon Discover Shared Heritage, DNA, in the Amerindian Ancestry out of Acadia Family Finder Project.

Mackinac Island on Lake Huron is central to the histories of North America's fur-trading industry in the the 18th and 19th centuries and the Wachter, Fraser, Fisher, and Farlinger (also known as Farling and McFarland) families of northern Michigan.  On Mackinac Island, a 3.8 square mile spit of land located at the “tip of the mitten,” mid-way between Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas, the North American fur-trading industry found its nexus, and a culture, comprised of Canadian fur-traders and their Native American wives, had its beginnings.  Click to read the rest of the article, "Mackinac Island Fur Trader-Native American Roots Twice Verified by Daughter's DNA."

Autosomal test results, when analyzed against referenced population data, (and cross-referencing other tools, databases, and methods), contribute to trends building among Native American DNA results received from multiple tests and multiple testing companies.   Click here for details.

Nova Scotia's warming up! (Elsewhere too!)...and the festival season is beginning.  Click here to learn how to begin your travel-by-ancestry adventure!

The French Heritage DNA Project
Projet ADN d'Héritage Français 
Amerindian Ancestry out of Acadia Project
Association des Acadiens-Métis Souriquois (AAMS) of Nova Scotia
Metis Eastern Tribal Indian Society of Maine (Metis of Maine)
MBGRRA Website
American Indian College Fund
American French Genealogical Society (Woonsocket, Rhode Island)
The Acadian Museum in Erath,  Louisiana
International Society of Genetic Genealogists (ISOGG)
Kerchner's DNA Testing & Genetic Genealogy Info and Resources Page
Kerchner's DNA Tribes (Autosomal)Test Log 
Cyber Home of Michele Doucette
The Mi'kmaq Resource Centre -  Suggested Further Reading List - Cape Breton University
SFOHG
The French-Canadian Heritage Society of Michigan
The Southern California Genealogical Society
Leveillee-Belanger-Ancestry-Index-Updated-2010