Baton Rouge (LA) Advocate, December 23, 1996

Cajuns on the Web

South Louisiana Culture alive and well on the internet

by Nancy Regent, Advocate Online news editor

Mais cher, if you want to know more about Cajuns, the Internet can help.

For Boggy Bayou Boudin Balls, Cajun Phrases, or a sample of fiddlin' music, hop on the web.

Cajun and Creole online (the official stamp of authentic Cajun web sites) allow surfers to sneak a peek into the lives of the Fontenots, Guidroz, and Bernards, to name a few.

Members' home pages include stories of Cajun families, recipes, facts about Acadiana, and even festivals.

"My grandmother never blackened anything in her life. If it was, we called it BURNT! and threw it out," says former Lafayette resident Marcus Fontenot on a homepage he created to set others straight about the Cajuns (http://www.webcom.com/dpcajun/index.shtml).

Fontenot calls himself a "displaced Cajun" having moved from Lafayette to Austin, Texas to work in the computer industry.

"Some web sites are calling the area of New Orleans Cajun country and that's stretching it," Fontenot said in a phone interview from Austin. "New Orleans is the heart of the Creole culture. I wanted to let people know about Acadiana."

After moving to Texas, Fontenot began ending electronic mail to his friends in Louisiana.

"Although I am far away from home I can always feel close to my roots as long as I can maintain my links," he writes on his homepage.

Fontenot rates the best Cajun sites, giving four crawfish to Allons! magazine of Lafayette (http://www.allons.com/page1.htm)

Ranking high on the crawfish scale is "Jambalaya Pages" created by Don Menard of Grand Lake in Cameron Parish (http://user.maas.net/~mosketer/).

Perhaps the most entertaining is Menard's biographic sketch.

"Although born and raised in the heart of Cajun Country (Lawtell) I've been living in this area for 23 years. I work at Cameron Parish Mosquito Control. I spend most of my time trying to keep mosquito populations to liveable levels."

The Cajun and Creole Online site (http ://www.webcom.com/dpcajun/cajun-creole.html) calls itself a "loose confederation of homepage authors...who dedicate themselves to the accurate representation of the Cajun culture on the Internet."

One member of Cajun and Creole Online, Mark Boudoin (http://www.lava.net/~markb/), provides a link on his homepage to helping Cajuns learn about their genealogy.

Through the New Brunswick Genealogical Service, (http://degaulle.hil.unb.ca/genealogy/acadian.html) Cajuns can research their heritage through about 150 articles that appeared in the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal.

The files are easily indexed, and by clicking on the surname for which you want information, you can learn quickly about Acadian genealogy.

Another genealogy site has been developed by Canadian Yvon L. Cyr (http://tdg.res.uoguelph.ca/-ycyr/genealogy/) and includes an extensive list of Canadian, Acadian and French genealogies.

His page includes dozens of valuable links for searching ancestry, including a link to the genealogical research library in Toronto, Canada (http://www.grl.com).

Shane Bernard and Herman Fuselier have developed the "Cajun and Creole Pages" website. Bernard, a Texas A&M student from Lafayette, is the son of swamp pop artist Rod Bernard.

Fuselier is a writer at the Opelousas Daily World and hosts Bayou Boogie, a radio show promoting south Louisiana music.

"As far as I know, our site is the only one operated by a Cajun and a Black Creole," Bernard said in an email interview.

"In order to clear up confusion about Cajuns and Creoles, we contributed essays about our respective ethnic groups, in which we discuss what it means to be a Cajun or a black Creole," he writes. The site (http://tamu.edu:8000/-skb8721/), provides a link to organizations promoting the French culture, including Action Cadienne of Lafayette, a non-profit organization dedicated to keeping the French language and culture intact (http://www.rbmulti.nb.ca/cadienne/cadienne.htm).

Acadiana food, music and festivals are included in Louisiana native Chuck Taggart's "The Gumbo Pages, " (http://www.webcom.com/gumbo/cajun-home.html).

His page includes a link to Festivals International de Louisiane (http://fil.net-connect.net/), which has updated its site with information on next year's April festival.

In developing a homepage with potential visitors from all over the world, Taggart gives one bit of advice when visiting Acadiana: "Remember that in Louisiana, alcohol, butter, cream and big piles of fried seafood are still good for you."

This article is copyrighted © by the Baton Rouge (LA) Advocate and is used with permission.  This web site was originated through a grant awarded to Carencro High School (Joel Hilbun/Bobbi Marino, Grant Administrators) by the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education from the Louisiana Quality Education Support Fund - 8(g).