quote:
From what I've heard the reason the "x" is there is from when ancestors made the trip from Nova Scotia to south Louisiana they couldn't spell their last name so they signed an "x". Don't know if there is any truth to that but that is the myth I heard.

Yeah, that's bullshite.

It's as simple as the difference between "Smith" and "Smiths". To make a plural form of '-eau', you just add an 'x'.

Mr. Boudreau is one of the Boudreaux.

Notice other Acadian names don't have that issue, only ones ending in '-eau'. Hebert, Bernard, Babin, Bourgeois, Broussard, etc... don't have Xs.

Luckily my Acadian family name ends in '-ouard', so we don't have that problem.

As far as Acadians being illiterate, that's disproven by the fact that the way they established themselves in Louisiana was through extensive letter writing. After the Expulsion, they were dispersed all over the place. Joseph Broussard (dit Beausoleil) landed in Dominica first, then came to Louisiana. Once they moved from the Vacherie area over to the St. Martinville/Attakapas area, they started a letter writing campaign to get the other Acadians to join them.

We not as dumb as people tink.