Généalogie et histoire du Québec

When one is interested in one’s ancestry and reconstructs a lineage through genealogical research, one also sees the history of the transmission of family name(s). This may seem insignificant to us, because for a long time this history was obvious: the question of the transmission of the family name did not really arise, since the family name of the father was systematically given to the children. There was no need to think about it. 

But in 1981, the reform of the civil code, and more precisely of family law, allowed Quebec women to give their family name to their children. Suddenly, the choice of which family name to pass on became an issue: one could give a family name, that of the father or the mother, or choose to pass on both. In this context, it becomes particularly interesting to observe the ways in which surnames are passed from one generation to the next. Forty years later, what has been the impact of the 1981 reform? What relationship do Quebec women have with their family name, and why do they choose (or not) to pass it on?

Marie-Hélène Frenette-Assad decided to explore these questions by producing the podcast Le nom de ma mère (Frenette-Assad, 2020) available for free on Radio-Canada’s Ohdio platform.¹

Marie-Hélène Frenette-Assad is a podcast producer, musician, consultant and trainer in digital audio. She also has, as you may have noticed, two last names, her father’s and her mother’s. However, she finds that her friends, the women of her generation, don’t often pass on their names to their children, nor is it a topic of discussion they often bring up. And this is not just an anecdotal observation – statistics also indicate a decrease in the transmission of the double family name in Quebec (Frenette-Assad, 2020: episode 5).

In Le nom de ma mère (The name of my mother), Marie-Hélène discusses with her own mother why she gave her a double surname and explores, throughout the podcast, her relationship to her surname. But she also brings in women who participated in the 1981 reform, experts who study the issue, and a variety of women from her generation who have a different relationship to their surnames and who decide to give it to their children, or not, for different reasons. Often, these are women who themselves have a double surname, and who should potentially split it to give only one to their children.

Because yes, a generation after the 1981 reform, situations arise where both members of a couple have two surnames.. It would obviously become quickly unmanageable if both parents transmitted their two surnames and we ended up with quadruple surnames, then octuple, and so on! If a couple both have a double surname and want to pass it on to their child, they will have to make a choice. In the podcast, we learn that the instigators of the reform had originally thought that mothers could pass on their mother’s surname, and fathers, their father’s surname. The idea is similar to the proposal of Pierre-Yves Dionne (2004), which I have discussed in previous articles² – he suggested that future generations of women should be given the name of a common ancestor (the uterine pioneer), so that women’s surnames would no longer always come from a man.

However, in practice, this is not always the case. There are many factors other than gender that come into play when making a decision about passing on a name. Some women, for example, choose to pass on the name associated with the extended family to which they feel closest, regardless of the gender of the parent. Some also consider the presence or absence, in their family, of other people with the same name who have passed it on or could pass it on to their children. For example, they mention wanting to pass on one of their names that would otherwise go extinct. 

Other women do not see themselves choosing between their two names, either because they see their name as indivisible, or because they do not want to hurt the parent whose name would be “rejected”. Since this is not an option for them, they prefer not to give their name at all!

Others are thinking about the effect that the name will have on their children’s lives: sometimes the double name is experienced as an obstacle, whether in certain professional environments where self-branding is important, or in everyday life because we become annoyed that people forget our full name or because one of the names is difficult to pronounce. But the double name is also sometimes perceived as a strength, something that allows one to stand out and whose uniqueness makes it beautiful, even poetic (as is the case for columnist Rose-Aimée Automne T. Morin).

However, despite all this reasoning that moves away from gender concerns, the issue remains clearly political and feminist. Some women claim that they “have given themselves the chance to exist in their children’s names”³ (Frenette-Assad, 2020: episodes 2 and 3). They see it as a way of recognizing the role of women in filiation and the passing on of the heritage. Others mention the importance of honoring past feminist struggles by exercising their right to pass on their names to their children. For my part, as I listened to the podcast and repeatedly heard women question whether their names are “too long,” I couldn’t help but think of the many ways in which women are constantly asked to make themselves smaller. In particular, many feminist researchers and theorists have documented how various social norms (and the attitudes of some men) push women to wear restrictive clothing (from corsets to high heels), not to speak too loudly or too long, not to take up too much space with their bodies, etc. (Young, 2005; Yaguello, 2002). In particular, manspreading has made a lot of noise in recent years (Morin, 2017). Could we add having a “not too long” last name to the list?

It is very interesting to note that the issue also has an intersectional component: it is indeed posed differently, for example, for adopted people, who often have a different relationship with their surname because it does not reflect their genetic heritage; or for people with an immigrant background, whose surname is sometimes a bearer of prejudice, but also represents an important link with the country of origin. On a more personal note, I grew up with a single mother who gave me her family name – and only her family name. I wear it proudly: it represents for me the strength of women who find themselves, by spite or by choice, to be the only parental figure.

The reality of homosexual couples, and in particular lesbian couples, is also particular and occupies an entire episode of the podcast (Frenette-Assad, 2020: episode 4). Indeed, in their case, the passing on of the family name cannot be “taken for granted”: when both parents are women, one cannot avoid a real reflection by invoking tradition since there is no male parent who could pass on his name “by default”. Of course, most of the issues we have already discussed apply in the case of lesbian couples as well, but since very often the child carries the genetic baggage of only one of their two mothers, a concern is added: that of a symbolic transmission of a legacy that is not biological, through the transmission of the name.

If you are interested in the issue of double surnames, I highly recommend listening to the podcast Le nom de ma mère, available free of charge on the Ohdio platform of Radio-Canada.

Audrey Pepin

¹ A special thanks to documentarian Fanny Germain who, during a discussion on matrilineality, introduced me to this very interesting podcast!

² See the series of articles ” The omission of women in family trees “.

³ Quote freely translated by the author of this article

Bibliography :

Frenette-Assad, Marie-Hélène (2020). Le nom de ma mère. Podcast available online: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/ohdio/balados/7434/nom-famille-mere-femme-enfant  

Dionne, Pierre-Yves (2004). De mère en fille : comment faire ressortir la lignée maternelle de votre arbre généalogique. Sainte-Foy: Éditions MultiMondes; Montréal: Éditions du Remue-Ménage, 79 p.

Morin, Violaine (2017). “Comment le ‘’manspreading’’ est devenu un objet de lutte féministe” Le Monde [Online]:

https://www.lemonde.fr/big-browser/article/2017/07/06/comment-le-manspreading-est-devenu-un-objet-de-lutte-feministe_5156949_4832693.html

Yaguello, Marina (2002 [1978]). Les mots et les femmes. Paris : Éditions Payot. 257 p.

Young, Iris Marion (2005). On Female Body Experience: “Throwing Like a Girl” and Other Essays. Oxford University Press: 192 p.

Let’s face it: DNA testing has redefined genealogy!

For more than two decades, DNA tests have demonstrated their importance in the realm of family history and genealogy. From FamilyTreeDNA (2000), a pioneer in the field, to subsequent companies such as 23andMe (2006), AncestryDNA (2012) and MyHeritage (2016), over 40 million DNA test kits have been sold to date. But are all these tests equivalent and interchangeable?

In this article, we’ll answer that question and explore in more detail the different types of DNA tests available on the market.

Types of DNA tests available on the market

There are two types of commercial DNA tests on the market: those for Autosomal DNA, and those for “deep” DNA (Y-DNA and mtDNA).

Autosomal DNA

Autosomal DNA reaches up to 7 generations, accounting for 128 potential ancestors. However, with each successive generation, some of this ancestral DNA is inevitably lost. Therefore, starting from the 8th generation onward, the last traces of certain ancestors are completely lost, making it impossible to establish a genetic connection with them.

Tests in this category (autosomal) account for the largest share of the genetic genealogy market. This category includes FamilyTreeDNA‘s “FamilyFinder” test, as well as all DNA tests from 23andMe, Ancestry and MyHeritage. These DNA tests focus on close relatives, recognizing degrees of relationship with great precision.

Y-DNA and mtDNA (Deep DNA)

Y-DNA and mtDNA is DNA which is transmitted only through the father’s and mother’s lineages; Y-chromosome DNA transmitted from father to son, and mitochondrial DNA transmitted by the mother.
It is with this DNA that we are able to identify the pioneers of New France.
For example, all male descendants of the patriarch Jean Côté should, in principle, carry the same DNA – that of the Y chromosome passed down from father to son. This deep DNA identifies lineages, not individuals, unlike autosome tests. A man bearing the name Côté can therefore verify, with the help of FamilyTreeDNA‘s Y-37 test, that he does indeed possess the ancestral DNA signature of the Côté family patriarch, Jean Côté. Among the major DNA testing companies, only FamilyTreeDNA offers specific Y chromosome analyses.

Female pioneers are not to be outdone, as matrilineages also carry DNA signatures that go back centuries. FamilyTreeDNA‘s mtFullSequence test (also known as FMS) analyzes the DNA signature transmitted from mother to children via mitochondria. If your matrilineal matriarch is, for example, Marie Rollet, the courageous wife of Louis Hébert, you should carry her genetic signature, and the mtFullSequence test can confirm this. Your test results will take you back to the origins of New France.

Deep DNA, Autosomal DNA, or both?

Autosome tests such as those offered by 23andMe, MyHeritage and Ancestry serve many purposes, whether it’s to verify close relatives, reveal unsuspected filiations, or enable adoptees to trace their parentage.

However, these objectives are not the same as those of genealogy enthusiasts interested in older times. Deep DNA reaches the patriarchs and matriarchs of the first generations who founded the country and from whom our surnames originate. The DNA signatures of New France’s ancestors live on through the lineages that link us to them: deep DNA testing aims to discover the heritage they passed on to us.

Among the major companies, only the tests offered by FamilyTreeDNA lead to the discovery of historical DNA signatures invaluable to the study of early Canada. If you’re interested in the origins of New France, and in confirming your genealogical research over several generations, Y-DNA and mtDNA tests are the ones to go for.

The right DNA test for YOU!

Autosome tests are very accurate for determining relationships spanning several generations. They are not, however, accurate for ethnic percentages, which are not genealogical in nature. As accurate as the kinship calculations of autosome tests are, their ethnic estimates are uncertain. These two aspects of the results must be contrasted. These tests are therefore very different from deep DNA patrilineage and matrilineage tests, which aim to identify distant ancestors.

Patrilineage and matrilineage deep DNA tests enable individuals to discover or verify that they are descended from one genetic lineage and not another. In genealogy, these tests are often used to establish, beyond any doubt, the validity of documentary research, and thus confirm that the individual tested is indeed descended from the lineages identified by the archives.

What’s more, the genetic identity of the test subject cannot be deduced from the results, only the origin of his or her lineage. As a result, privacy can be protected, and the use of a pseudonym is commonplace. Those who wish to remain anonymous can limit themselves to deep DNA testing.

Getting your DNA test

Deep DNA (Y-DNA and mtDNA)
If you’d like to learn more about your origins and confirm your parentage to a pioneer.

• FamilyTreeDNA Y-DNA tests  (We recommend starting with the Y-37 test)
• FamilyTreeDNA mtDNA test

With the help of our team, you can verify that your DNA signature matches that of the ancestors at the origins of your lineage. This match provides scientific proof of your documentary research and genetic assurance that you are indeed descended from the ancestor in question. To find out more, visit our DNA section!

Autosomal DNA
If you’re more interested in discovering close relatives, from more recent times, FamilyTreeDNA‘s FamilyFinder test and tests from Ancestry, Myheritage and 23andMe will put you in touch with hundreds of people who share DNA segments inherited from common ancestors.

• FamilyTreeDNA Family Finder
• Ancestry
• 23andMe
• MyHeritage

If you have any questions about DNA and its use in genealogy, don’t hesitate to contact the Genealogy Quebec DNA project team at adn@institutdrouin.com.

What’s more, if you already have DNA results from Ancestry, 23andMe or MyHeritage, you can transfer them free of charge to FamilyTreeDNA and combine them with deep DNA tests, which will be consolidated in a single account. You’ll then be able to attach all your results to the Genealogy Quebec DNA project, where our team will be happy to answer any questions you may have about your DNA.

The family tree is an essential tool for any genealogy enthusiast, as it allows you to trace and visualize your family history over several generations. If you want to grow your family tree with accurate and complete information, you will inevitably have to refer to various types of historical documents.

In this article, we will explore the most common types of historical records used in genealogy, explaining how they can help you build a complete and detailed family tree.

Civil and religious records

If you had to limit yourself to one type of document for your genealogical research, it would undoubtedly be church and civil records. These records contain the vital events of a population, namely births (or baptisms), marriages, and deaths (or burials).

How church and civil records help you grow your family tree

Church and civil records contain a lot of interesting information pertaining to their subject; their name, date of birth, marriage or death, place of birth, residence or death, and often the names of their parents and/or spouse.

Not only can you plug this information in your family tree, you can also use it to go back one generation in the line you are researching.

More specifically, the marriage record is the key to your genealogical research, as in most cases, it will contain the names of the parents of the spouses.

The names of the parents of the spouses are indicated in the marriage on the left. Searching for them allows you to find their marriages, in which you will find the names of their respective parents. By repeating this process, you can go back through the generations and easily complete your family tree.

The best sources of Quebec church and civil records

Quebec birth records and baptisms – The best free and paid sources

Quebec marriage records – The best free and paid sources

Quebec death records and burials – The best online sources

Obituaries and Headstones

Obituary notices and tombstones are among the most commonly used documents in genealogy, as they contain a wealth of information about the individuals and cover periods that are not available through other types of documents.

How obituaries and headstones help you grow your family tree

Although civil and religious records are essential to your research, they are rarely available for the modern period. Indeed, for privacy reasons, it can be very difficult or even impossible to find recent records, which complicates the task of filling in the contemporary part of your family tree.

This problem does not exist for headstones and obituaries. In the case of headstones, they can be visited and catalogued in local cemeteries. As for obituaries, they are published daily in newspapers and on the Internet. Therefore, many collections covering the contemporary period are available to genealogists.

It should also be noted that obituaries and headstones often mention family members of the deceased, which is crucial to allow you to bridge the generations in your family tree.

The best sources of obituaries and headstones in Quebec

The Obituary section on Généalogie Québec contains nearly 5 million obituaries, memorial cards and headstones from Quebec and Ontario.

There are also many sites dedicated to the publication of obituaries online. These sites are indexed by search engines such as Google and Bing, which makes finding an obituary on the Internet very simple.

Generally, all you have to do is enter the name of the deceased into your favorite search engine and browse the first few results. However, if the name is very common, it may be necessary to add terms such as “obituary” or “death notice” to your search. If an obituary is present on one of these sites, you will find it among the first results of your search.

Censuses

Censuses are important sources for genealogy because they provide information about a family’s members and where they lived at a specific time.

How censuses help you grow your family tree

Censuses can help you identify a person’s family members, including children, spouses and parents. By comparing censuses from different years, you can also track changes in family composition.

In addition, they allow you to confirm information found in other sources, such as religious or civil records. For example, you can confirm dates of birth, places of residence, occupations and names of family members.

Finally, census records can provide you with details about the daily lives of the family members you are researching, such as their occupations or education levels. This information can help to reconstruct the lives of your ancestors beyond names and dates and to flesh out your family tree.

The best sources of censuses in Quebec

On Genealogy Quebec, you will find the Quebec censuses for the years 1881 and 1901, and the Ontario census for the year 1881. These contain more than 5 million individuals.

The Library and Archives Canada site allows you to browse through many censuses of Quebec and Canada.

A couple of weeks ago, as I was going through Genealogy Quebec’s databases, I found a folder in the Raymond-Gingras fund named ”Cercle de Fermières” (Women Farmers’ Circle).

Inside, I found a series of photographs of a short text produced by a Women Farmers’ Circle, which tells the story of Saint-Antoine-de-Tilly, a small municipality located in Chaudière-Appalaches. I was curious. Women Farmers’ Circles… I remembered seeing this name somewhere. I knew it was a women’s association who did crafts. Not much more. Intrigued, I did more research.

What are Quebec Women Farmers’ Circles ?

In fact, Women Farmers’ Circles are not only a women’s association, but the first women’s association in Quebec ! They were founded in 1915 (a bit ironically) by a man, Alphonse Désilets, an agronomist who defended “the principle of rural associations to resolve the crisis of the modern world”¹ (Cohen, 1990 : 28). The members of the association were, as its name indicates, farmers, and they came together in the Circles mainly to help each other in their various tasks and to better meet the needs of their families. They ran cooperative gardens, helped each other make clothes for the family, all sorts of things which helped improve their quality of life. The groups were then under the direction of the Ministry of Agriculture, in concert with the Church.

From 1940, the Circles progressively gained autonomy, until they no longer depended on the Church or the State. As Quebec urbanized, there were fewer and fewer farmers among the members, but the group chose to keep its name. Despite the evolution of society, we can observe a certain continuity in the activities of the Circles : members are still doing crafts, knitting, weaving and cooking. They consider themselves guardians of the craft and culinary heritage (Beaudoin et Joncas, 2021 : 46) and transmit their knowledge to younger members or the larger community. The Circles are also an important space of sociability for the women who participate and they help break isolation, among retired women for example. Women Farmers’ Circles finally have a political function, helping their members stay informed as citizens, trying to influence government policies, but also by maintaining links with various organizations (such as the Associated Country Women of the World, the Coalition for Gun Control, Canadian Breast Cancer Network, etc.) (Lagarde, 2015 : 5).

Women Farmers’ Circles and feminism

Even though they are a women’s association, now run by and for women, Quebec Women Farmers’ Circles do not impose themselves, at first glance, as feminist groups. Indeed, the Circles have spoken out against women’s right to vote and against the right to abortion. Their positions evolved over time, but the Circles are still promoting the roles traditionally attributed to women, such as caring for the family and domestic work. This posture further distances them from feminist demands, which often link emancipation and the possibility for women to break out of stereotypes and gender roles if they wish to do so.

Nevertheless, in my opinion, it would be disproportionate to completely exclude them from the history of feminism in Quebec. Indeed, the Circles worked hard to improve the living conditions of women and have been a driving force for promoting the activities typically practiced by women, in particular by promoting the culinary and artisanal achievements of their members. They are also a space in which the ethics of care² can be lived and practiced. Indeed, the Women Farmers’ Circles were created at first to to promote mutual aid between members, but beyond this mission, the Circles also take care of their wider communities, for example through the organization of community meals, volunteering and partnerships with charities or their influence on public policy³. Above all, although the Circles promote the traditional roles that women occupy in the private sphere, they were, and in some respects may still be today, a public space that women can fully inhabit, where they can express themselves, do organizational work, and even do politics⁴, in short, where they can learn typical male work but do it in their own way.

Women Farmers’ Circles therefore occupy a very particular position in our history and are victims of a double erasing : we don’t talk about them much when we do the history of Quebec, because we don’t talk much about women in general; but we also speak little about them when we construct a history of women from a feminist perspective, since their positions deviated (and still deviate, in certain respects) from those taken by the feminist movement. It’s nevertheless impossible to deny the role the Circles played, both globally in the history of Quebec society and more specifically in the history of women in Quebec. They were one of the first drivers of women’s empowerment and affirmation, encouraging them to leave the private and family sphere (Cohen, 1990: 263). The Circles also participated fully in the development of the national project. Indeed, through their requests made to the State and their rejection of the influence of the clergy on their organization, they participated in the establishment of two central pillars to the development of Quebec: the development of a modern and protective State and the deconfessionalization of society (Cohen, 1990: 263).

Like any organization, it is of course best not to idealize the Women Farmers’ Circles and to underline their limits, particularly in terms of feminist positioning. However, it also seems essential to make their contribution to the history of women and Quebec society visible.

To learn more about Quebec Women Farmers’ Circles, I invite you to read Yolande Cohen’s book Femmes de Parole : l’histoire des Cercles de Fermières du Québec (1990) (although as far as I know, it’s only available in French) or to watch the documentary All That We Make, directed by Annie Saint-Pierre (2013).

¹  This quote was translated from French by the author of this article.

²  Ethics of care are based in the maintenance of human relationships as well as in the interdependence of individuals. Care aims to ‘’maintain, continue, and repair our ‘world’ so that we can live in it as well as possible. That world includes our bodies, our selves, and our environment, all of which we seek to interweave in a complex, life-sustaining web’’ (Fisher and Tronto, 1990 : 40). For more details, you can read my article about genealogy and care here. It’s also important to note that these ethics can be linked to the christian values of the organization. 

³  They are notably at the origin of programs for the distribution of milk cartons in schools (Radio-Canada, 2015).

⁴ I’m thinking in particular of the women who are involved in the organization of the Circles and who are democratically elected as presidents, whether at regional or national level.

Bibliography

Beaudoin, Christiane and Joncas, Gisèle. « Le Cercle de Fermières de Gaspé : 50 ans par et pour les femmes ». Magazine Gaspésie, vol.57, no.3 (199), p.46-48.

Cohen, Yolande (1990). Femmes de parole : l’histoire des Cercles de Fermières du Québec 1915-1990. Montréal : Le Jour Éditeur, 315 pages.

Lagarde, Louise (2015). « Les Cercles de Fermières du Québec : 100 ans de savoir à partager ». Histoire Québec, vol.20, no.3, p.5-9.

Radio-Canada (2015). « Les Cercles de Fermières », segment of the show L’épicerie, 13:37 – 18:10. Consulted February 13th 2023 : https://curio.ca/fr/catalog/533431a2-2c93-4945-b476-f87009fc0158

Saint-Pierre, Annie (2013). All That We Make, documentary.

Fisher, Berenice and Tronto, Joan. (1990). ”Towards a Feminist Theory of Care”. In Circles of care, Abel, E. and Nelson, M. (ed.). New York : State University of New York Press, p.36-54.