Author Ollie Porche Voelker of Destrehan will discuss researching and writing “Home at Last: An Acadian Journey,” at the next meeting of the German-Acadian Historical and Genealogical Society at 7 p.m., on Tuesday, May 28, at St. John Library, 2920 U.S. Highway 51 in LaPlace. The program is free and open to the public.
In the summer of 1755 English soldiers rushed into the Martin cabin in Nova Scotia, with guns drawn. It was the beginning of an 11-year ordeal that took the family from Canada, to the American colonies, to the Acadian Coast of Louisiana. 
Voelker, whose family names include Benoist, Thibodeaux and Giroir, became intrigued by genealogical information compiled by her mother and her father’s sister. She decided to write a fictional account of Le Grand Derangement—the deportation of French Canadians from Nova Scotia.
Voelker called on her rich supply of family history and research to show the Martin family’s journey as they go from an idyllic life farming in Canada to one of poverty in Maryland. This, and their struggle to reach the untamed land of what is now St. John and St. James parishes, is chronicled by oldest son, Pierre, who is 11 years old when their troubles begin.
The GACGHS was organized in July 1979 with goals to preserve, compile, and publish records of genealogical or historical nature. Emphasis is given to the records of St. James, St. Charles and St. John parishes.
Annual membership dues include a subscription to the Society’s quarterly publication, Les Voyageurs. For more information visit www.gachgs.com.