2023-05-29 14:50:50
A study combining genetics and birth registers makes it possible to decipher the astonishing history of the settlement of the region.
260 years ago, New France extended from Louisiana to the north of present-day Quebec. The Treaty of Paris (February 10, 1763), which sealed the Seven Years’ War, ceded all of this territory to the British (with the exception of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon). In Quebec, the descendants of the first French settlers have retained a strong identity by continuing to speak French and maintaining their Catholic faith. A study published in review Science and led by a team from McGill University in Quebec, combines genetic and civil status data to trace the genealogical tree of the current population. The vast majority of Quebecers today trace their ancestry to approximately 8,500 of the 10,000 settlers who emigrated from France in the 17e and 18e centuries to settle in this region. Even more impressive, two-thirds of the French-Canadian genetic heritage is inherited from only 2,600 settlers.
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#Twothirds #Quebecers #descendants #French #settlers