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I received an invitation
to join an mtDNA Project and I accepted. I sent
the information on my maternal lineage
to Lucie LeBlanc
Consentino who sent it to Stephen White for
verification. After fewer corrections than I
expected,
I can now lay claim to
being a 16th generation descendent from a daughter
of Acadia – Jeanne Motin de Reux. I am
fortunate to descend from
such a distinguished line, because at sixteen
generations it gives me the longest female-line
lineage to date. For the
complete story of Jeanne Motin de Reux:
At
least eight participants have discovered
that their maternal
ancestor was of Amerindian origin. This is due to
their mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) test results
that placed them in
haplogroup A, B, C, or D. Several others have
results indicating possible Amerindian heritage.
They have haplogroup X or
U in the case of mtDNA test results and haplogroup
Q or Q3 in the case of Y-DNA test
results.
Contrary to all the information given
in her genealogy, Marie
Rundquist discovered through the results of mtDNA
testing that her haplogroup was a type
"A", typically
Amerindian; her ancestral or matrilineal mother
was therefore an Amerindian. That discovery
prompted her to revisit
her genealogy and she subsequently discovered
documents confirming that one of her first
Acadian ancestors married
an American Indian.
"I have been
tested in the National Geographic Genographic
project; my results have
been transferred to Family Tree DNA. I am a member
of Haplogroup A. My lineage is French/Cajun
(through my mother's
line); my Ancestral/Native routes are found in
Nova Scotia, where a French settler, Rene
Rimbault,
married an Amerindian
woman, known only as Anne Marie. It is through
this union, that occurred in the mid-1600s,
that my Native American
and French lineage can be originally traced. I had
no knowledge of my Amerindian lineage
before participating in
the Genographic project; I was totally knocked out
of my chair when I read the results
on line.
Mind you, I NEVER knew
anything about the female line of my family until
my mtDNA results came in as "Native
American". This
revelation caused my dad (and others) to get their
DNA tested. I've learned alot about my
background since; and
thankfully have met others who have helped me
solve all these mysteries in my own family's
background."
(Contributed by Marie Rundquist - 26 Jan
2006). For the complete
story: cf
Many European Americans whose names were
modified or whose great
grandparents had taken new family names at the
time of their immigration to the USA, are
rediscovering their
original family names by comparing their DNA
signature to that of distant cousins who remained
in Acadia, Quebec, or
France/Belgium/Switzerland. This is the case of
Stone (Lapierre), Nugent (Bernier), Beno
(Benoit) Caple (Caplette),
Sherbondy (Charpentier) and many others whose
names had been Americanized
Others discovered that they were not the
biological descendant of
the ancestor which their genealogy indicated.
There are many possible explanations:
- An incorrect
genealogy. The genealogies put together by amatuer
genealogists
are most
unfortunately not always done with great care and
accuracy. Many errors are made including clerical
errors
and they are taken
up by other amateur genealogists happy to profit
from the work of others. Therefore you must
always verify and
document your work.
- An ancestor
could have been mistaken for someone else or
simply have
been forgotten.
For example, the Daigles of North America,
according to the "official" genealogies,
all
descend from
Olivier D'Aigre, born in France (Aigre region,
Charente-Poitou) about 1643 who settled in Acadia.
His descendants
were dispersed, some to Quebec, some to Louisiana
(Cajun), and others to Belle-Isle in France.
But, there were
other "Daigle"s who immigrated to Quebec
later (3 brothers of St. Malo apparently the
sons of Olivier
and M. Blanche Robichaud who had returned to that
country), as well as the Dedge/Degme's (aka
Lallemand
from Vienna, Lower
Germany-Austria) who all have the name Daigle
today. At least two of those Daigle lines have
different Y DNA
signatures and belong to different haplogroups (I
and R1b). Genetic Genealogy will be able to tell
us if any of the
other Daigles have different origins.
- A non-parental
event as an adoption, a quiet assimilation, a
change
of name or
identity.
Participant Alice Fairhurst after years
of researching had reached
a roadblock in her pursuit of her maternal Raymond
lineage. She could not identify which
of the Raymond lines her
ancestor belonged to. We already had a Raymond
with YDNA results in our project who could
document his ancestry back
200 years to France and so Alice convinced her
Raymond cousin to DNA test. Guess what?
The results show that her
Raymond cousin was an exact match to the other so
now she can be sure that her line traces
back to 1640 Angouleme,
France. Her Raymond relatives were ecstatic!
Boucher is a surname that has various
origins: French, English,
German. Prior to the start of our French Heritage
project there was an "English"
Boucher project. A
participant in that project was a J. Boucher whose
DNA signature did not match any of the other
Bouchers. One of the first
members of our French Heritage DNA project was
Marc Boucher, a documented descendant
of Marin Boucher and Julie
Baril. The "English" Boucher project
administrator discover that her J. Boucher's
DNA signature matched Marc
Boucher's exactly and so through YDNA testing, J.
Boucher has found the home of his
paternal ancestor. He is
now proudly of "French" origin!
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