I have been doing family history research, focused on Acadia, the first French colony in the Americas and the people descendant from those settlers. I am looking to expand my knowledge of the history and politics of the time to better understand the migration of people of the period.
I have a particular interest in finding details about the first few voyages between France and the new world, and which individuals stayed behind and why.
Can anyone suggest books on the subject ?
Hi u/Fascinating_Frog. A good start would be Leslie Choquette, Frenchmen into peasants: Modernity and Tradition in the Peopling of French Canada, Harvard University Press, 1997.
If you can read French, you can look into books and articles by Marcel Trudel. I also recommend that you read about the beginnings of l'Acadie from the horse's mouth in the works of Samuel de Champlain and Marc Lescarbot.