(WAFB) - The small village of Loreauville has become ground zero for the beginning of Acadiana, the area of southwest Louisiana where exiled French Acadians settled and held onto their French ...

The Cajuns of south Louisiana trace their ancestors to the French Acadians exiled from Nova Scotia around 1755. By the 1800s, thousands of Acadians had settled in the rural areas west of New Orleans.

Researchers believe they are finally closing in on the location of the first Acadian settlement in the area of southwestern Louisiana known as Acadiana.