My genealogy (acadian) on my mom's side has 3 wife names missing .?

Question:

My genealogy (acadian) on my mom's side has 3 wife names missing .?

My father suspects that the wives were Micmac . That would mean the catholic religion or canadian government hid ancestrial information?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: The Catholic Church didn't hide the names of natives when they married Euros. Instead, they gave them the surname "Savage" or "Sauvage" in the sacramental registers.

What's more likely, though, is that they weren't married in a traditional sense. Anyone traveling away from civilization would have needed to find a missionary or notary (French equiv. of a justice of the peace) to marry. They didn't always have that luxury. So they in effect "shacked up" until they found someone. If they were married by a missionary, the records likely don't exist.

The government had no vested interest in hiding the names of native women. And it would have been the French government that would have hidden things...and the French didn't have a problem in the world with a Frenchman marrying a native. They knew they had a lack of women to keep these men "entertained", which is why the Filles du Roi program was created. Being Acadian, there were many censuses and other ways of tracking them that make tracking them reasonably easy.

You don't give the names of the husbands, nor any dates/possible locations, so it's hard to help you. There are several resources that may help you, such as Drouin, White, PRDH and the Centre for Acadian Studies at the Universite de Moncton. If you want some help searching, send me the info you have through the link on my profile. I've been doing Acadian research for the last 28 years and know the resources very well. If the names exist, we can find them.