If
you are new to French-Canadian genealogy, you may be surprised by the
number of famous relatives you have. My own ancestry is 50%
French-Canadian (thanks, Mom!) but I researched my father’s Yankee
ancestry first. Sometime later I started on my mother’s side of the
family and was soon amazed by the number of interconnected families. I
also found French-Canadian family trees to be rather easy to research
when visiting a major library dedicated to French-Canadian genealogy.
Attention French-Canadian Descendants: You Are Undoubtedly Related to Almost All Other French-Canadians
I have often jested, “I never met a French-Canadian that I am not
related to.” That’s a bit of a joke, but it also seems to be true!
Almost all French-Canadian descendants can find family relations to
Madonna, Justin Bieber, Justin Trudeau, Hillary Clinton, Ryan Gosling,
Angelina Jolie, Camilla Parker-Bowles, and about half the players and
coaches in the National Hockey League!
The French-Canadians lived for many years in small communities,
somewhat shut off from the outside world by the politics of the time.
They all intermarried. The result is somewhat twisted family trees with
lots of cousins, certain ancestors appearing multiple times in a family
tree, and more than a few inherited medical conditions.
Here is but one example:
The Perche-Quebec.com web site has explored the ancestry and cousins
of Madonna. Like me, her mother was French-Canadian. In her case,
however, her father was of Italian descent.
Quoting from the web site at
http://www.perche-quebec.com/files/madonna/individus/madonna-en.htm:
“Willard and Elsie Fortin, the maternal
grandparents of Madonna, are direct descendants of Julien Fortin dit
Bellefontaine, the first Fortin who settled in New France in 1650. He
was from the parish Notre-Dame-de-Vair, today part of the village
Saint-Cosme-en-Vairais (Sarthe, France). 90% of the American Fortin
descend from Julien Fortin. The Fortins are today the ninth largest
family in Quebec.”
However, the story doesn’t stop there. The web site displays ALL of
Madonna’s maternal ancestors for five generations. That only goes back
to the late 1700s/early 1800s in Quebec. If the web page could display a
wider pedigree chart, I am sure the researchers could have traced most
of those families back to France in the late 1500s/early 1600s!
Now for the fun statistics. According to thePerche-Quebec.com web site, Madonna is related to:
- Justin Bieber via 345 different connections
- Celine Dion via 309 different connections
- Xavier Dolan via 268 different connections
- Jack Kerouac via 188 different connections
- Angelina Jolie via 153 different connections
- Ryan Gosling via 144 different connections
- Justin Trudeau via 76 different connections
- Hillary Clinton via 45 different connections
- Camilla Parker-Bowles via 32 different connections
- Alanis Morissette via 20 different connections
And that’s not unusual! In fact, almost all French-Canadian
descendants can find multiple connections to most all–probably all–of
the above famous people. Your challenge is to prove your own
connections!
I would suggest you plan a visit to one of the following excellent genealogy libraries in the U.S.
American-Canadian Genealogical Society and Library (I have spent many wonderful hours in this library!)
https://acgs.org/
7 Elm St
Manchester, NH 03103
American-French Genealogical Society
https://afgs.org
78 Earle Street
Woonsocket, RI 02895-3108
French-Canadian Genealogical Society of Connecticut, Inc.
https://www.fcgsc.org
P.O. Box 928
Tolland, CT 06084
Vermont French-Canadian Genealogical Society and the Vermont Genealogy Library
http://www.vt-fcgs.org/
Physical address: 377 Hegeman Ave. (Across from the State Police)
Fort Ethan Allen
Colchester, Vermont
Mail address: P.O. Box 65128
Burlington, VT 05406
La Maison de la Généalogie
http://sgcf.com
3440, rue Davidson
Montréal, QC, H1W 2Z5
Also, the
Le Comité des Archives de la Louisiane, Inc.
is a non-profit genealogical support group for the Louisiana State
Archives. While this organization does not maintain a large library of
its own, it has published numerous articles of original genealogical and
historical articles dealing with topics from around Louisiana. This
society can be a big help, especially with information about
French-speaking Louisiana residents. For more information, go to:
http://www.lecomite.org/.
NOTE: The Quebec Family
History Society Library in Pointe-Claire, Québec, also has an extensive
genealogy library but specializes in genealogy research for the
Non-Catholic, English-speaking population of Quebec throughout the
centuries. This is not the best library for French-speaking Canadian
ancestors, but it is an excellent resource for English-speaking Canadian
ancestry research. Details may be found at:
https://qfhs.ca/.
These
are laws that strongly affect genealogists. Many states are locking up
public domain birth, marriage, and death records under the bogus claim
of “preventing identity theft.” What’s the odds that an identity thief
wants to use the personal information of my grandmother who died more
than 60 years ago? Does anyone believe a thief can obtain a loan or a
credit card in her name?
Privacy
advocates and many others have since questioned the legality of using
the information for law enforcement purposes. Admittedly, the
information is publicly available for all to see. The genealogists who
contributed the information did so willingly and presumably gave
permission for the family DNA to be available to all. However, the
relatives of the uploading genealogists may or may not have given
permission for THEIR personal DNA information to be
made available to the public. After all, it isn’t the DNA of any one
individual; it is indeed the family’s DNA information. Not all family
members have agreed to having that information made available to
genealogists, law enforcement personnel, insurance companies, and
worldwide hackers alike.
Ok help me here. How could this be done? Even theoretically?