LAPLACE — As Louisiana became Spanish and later American, learn how the

language and cultural identity of South Louisiana morphed into what makes
Louisiana unique today.

That’s the promise for those who attend the German-Acadian Coast Historical Genealogical Society meeting at 7 p.m. Jan. 26 at the St. John the Baptist Parish Library in LaPlace, 2920 U.S. 51.

Everyone is welcome to attend the meeting and bring a friend, Society leaders said.

The speaker is Joseph Dunn, and his topic is the “Evolution of Francophile to Anglophile Identity in Louisiana.”

Joseph has worked for Laura Plantation, the state Office of Tourism, Louisiana Travel Promotion Association and the French Consulate
Office in New Orleans.

During that time he has delivered lectures in Canada, France and in many locations in the U.S.
Dunn’s lecture will take attendees on a linguistic journey of the earliest habitants of the Louisiana colony, the native Americans with their Mobilian-Choctaw pidgin, early French and Canadian colonists and West African slaves.

Their unique settlement yielded a dialect found only in Louisiana.
Some of the questions he plans to answer are, “What’s the difference between Creole vs. Cajun?” and “Is Louisiana French broken?” Organizers ask the public to come out to the meeting so many of the myths many have been led to believe can be debunked.

The German-Acadian Coast Historical Genealogical Society was organized in 1979 with goals to preserve and compile public records of genealogical or historical nature.

Emphasis is given to the records of St. James, St. Charles and St. John Parishes.