Seniors

It is an easy subject area as the FC record keeping was impeccable, you just have to be able to read the French documents.

But it is a pain as it was standard for the families to have 20 children each. So there is a great deal of work to fill out the tree. The French king gave a stipend for each child, a big one at 10 children in a family, and then a very nice one at 20 children.

My grandfather was one of 22 children. He was sent to work in the lumber camps at age 10.

If you get your DNA tested at Ancestry, you will have more matches than anyone else! Those of us with FC heritage are well known as having a gazillion matches due to the endogamy (intermarriage). For example my grandfather's parents were cousins. And all of his grandparents were cousins several times over. People married cousins for 400 years in a small area, so everyone is related to each other.

Yes the founding group was small as the French king did not want to de-populate France to send men to Canada.
There was a shortage of French women in Quebec, so the king combed French orphanages and sent the girls to Quebec.
You will have female ancestors who are these boat girls as they were called.

For a while there were no European women in Quebec and the Native American women were very beautiful. The French priests were quite angry at how beautiful they were and accused them of enticing the men. I was shocked when my DNA tests came back showing Native American DNA. All four of my grandparents were immigrants to the US and I could not imagine where the NA DNA came from. After doing some research I realized it was from my FC grandpa. One of his grandmothers did have family who lived on the Indian reservations. This was all kept hush hush of course. But I am proud of my NA DNA.

Yes if you visit Quebec City and Montreal many of the statues and memorials are about our ancestors. It is really neat. And the churches they attended.

C’est bon de te rencontrer cousin !