Welcome to Cajun Fiddles. We are a small shop dedicated to preserving the attempts of Cajun craftsmen to bring the joy of music to a people who had lost their lands, their livelihoods, and in several cases, their families, due to the confiscation and expulsion from Nova Scotia by the British in the mid 1700s.
In 1927 the Atchafalaya and Mississippi Rivers overran their banks and caused the great floods which drove hundreds of our relatives to seek refuge here in Lafayette. The above photograph was taken at a tent city which was located at what is now the Lafayette Municipal Golf Course.
In the photograph, the gentleman on the left playing the violin is my great-great grandfather, Julien "Bookta" Guidry. The other violin player is my great grandfather, Overne LeBlanc. The violin he is playing is still in our family possession. The young lady dancing is my second cousin, Nita Hebert Whitmore, and the young boy at the left clapping his hands is her younger brother Percy.
Not pictured is my grandfather, Thomas O. LeBlanc, who also played the violin and was a cabinet maker. "Pop" took his violin playing a step further, he taught himself how to make violins. Sadly all we have left of his efforts is the neck of the last violin he started. I have the neck and have incorporated his design into my own efforts to continue the long tradition of music in our family.
Marc Taylor