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(This is a 3 part article. Click to read: Part 2<\/a>, Part 3<\/a>)<\/span><\/p>\n When starting this articles project about feminism and genealogy, I first asked myself what I could have to say about it. I had developed a certain expertise in feminist theory through my studies and activism, but I only knew genealogy from afar. Therefore, I started by doing some research in the library of my university, the Universit\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec \u00e0 Montr\u00e9al (UQ\u00c0M), and on the internet. I tried different keyword combinations with \u201cgenealogy\u201d, both in English and in French: \u201cwomen\u201d, \u201cfeminism\u201d, \u201cpatriarchy\u201d, \u201csexism\u201d \u2026<\/p>\n The first thing I noticed was that women, in genealogical research as in many other fields, were often left aside.<\/p>\n Several specialists confirmed that Quebec wasn\u2019t an exception: according to Francine Cousteau Serdongs, who was a lecturer at UQ\u00c0M in social work and a genealogy graduate and practitioner, very few genealogists know the name of their uterine pioneer (the woman at the origin of a women lineage, traced from mother to daughter) (Cousteau Serdongs, 2008: 131). She also stressed that the terms that are used in genealogical research seem to forget about women: for example, an ancestry is rarely called patrilineal because it is considered so by default. Another example would be the French word \u201cfratrie\u201d, which means a group of siblings and is directly derived from \u201cfr\u00e8re\u201d which means brother.<\/p>\n Quebec historian Mathieu Drouin pointed out that patrilineal genealogy is the \u201cmost known \u2013 and generally the easiest way \u2013 to rebuild one\u2019s ancestry\u201d[1]<\/a> (Drouin, 2015) and that matrilineal genealogy is rather \u201ccounterintuitive\u201d. Quebec historian, demographer and genealogist Ren\u00e9 Jett\u00e9 made the same observation in his Trait\u00e9 de g\u00e9n\u00e9alogie <\/em>(Genealogy Treatise) in asserting that patrilineal genealogy is the \u201cmost ancient and most popular form\u201d (Jett\u00e9, 1991: 110).<\/p>\n Finally, Pierre-Yves Dionne, genealogist and author of De m\u00e8re en fille. Comment faire ressortir la lign\u00e9e maternelle de votre arbre g\u00e9n\u00e9alogique <\/em>(From Mother to Daughter: How to bring out the maternal line of your family tree) (2004), insists on the fact that in Quebec as in most Western societies, women\u2019s last names almost always come from a man (their husband or their father). He therefore uses genealogy to develop the basis of an eventual transmission of the name of a common female ancestor to subsequent generations of girls. That is exactly what Francine Cousteau Serdongs did: Cousteau is the last name of her uterine pioneer, the first woman in her matrilineage to set foot in New France (Cousteau Serdongs, 2008: 145).<\/p>\n Although the role played by women in history are increasingly emphasized (for example, see Yves Landry\u2019s book on the King\u2019s Daughters, 1992) and some concrete efforts are made to facilitate genealogical research about women (for example, the Drouin Genealogical Institute includes in its Great Collections<\/a> the F\u00e9minine (or Women series), an alphabetical directory of marriages sorted by the bride\u2019s name), I will show in this article that we are not done working on the women\u2019s place in genealogy. Genealogy, like the rest of our society, is based on a patriarchal foundation that we can only deconstruct on the long term. With this first series of articles, I will look into the situation of women in genealogical research in Quebec. I will first explain why women are less present than men in genealogical research. I will then show, in the next articles, what are the consequences of this absence and what possible solutions we can put forward.<\/p>\n As mentioned earlier, our society, genealogical practices included, is a patriarchal society. As underlined by Genevi\u00e8ve Pag\u00e9, professor of political science at UQ\u00c0M, \u201cpatriarchy doesn\u2019t mean that all women are submitted to all men, but that the men\u2019s group, in general, is dominating the women\u2019s group. Therefore, it is not because one woman has had a lot of power [\u2026] that we are no longer living in a patriarchal society\u201d (Pag\u00e9, 2017: 354). Even though a lot of progress was made by women and feminists in history, in genealogy and in the rest of society, we are still living in a patriarchal system. In genealogy, the marginality of matrilineal lineages that many experts have put forward confirms it. In the rest of our society, it is well shown by the wage inequality, the underrepresentation of women in places of power (such as political institutions) and their overrepresentation in statistics of domestic violence and sexual assault (Pag\u00e9, 2017: 353-354).<\/p>\n Patriarchy has forged, through history, a sexist heritage that we didn\u2019t actively construct but that we need to deal with. This heritage partially explains why women\u2019s lineages are invisible in our research. Researchers can indeed have a hard time because of the way last names are passed on. First of all, the fact that women\u2019s last names change every generation, while men pass on their last name to their progeny, makes matrilineal lineages less obvious.<\/p>\n Second, marriage sometimes muddies the waters when it comes to researching women. In Catholic records, women would keep their maiden name in any event that concerned them directly (marriage(s) and death) and even in records that concerned their spouse (remarriage and death) or their children (births, marriages and deaths), but in Protestant registers and historical Canadian censuses until the beginning of the 20th<\/sup> century, women were generally only referred to by the last name of their husband as long as he was alive, and even after (Jett\u00e9, 1991 : 436).<\/p>\n Judy Russell, an American genealogist and law graduate, specifies that, in her country, other factors may make it difficult to retrace women in a genealogical research. The fact that they rarely received any inheritance, that they couldn\u2019t take legal action in their name, own land or even open a bank account erased their names from many registers (Clyde, 2017). Those are additional sources: in general, we use marriages, deaths and births records to construct a family tree. Fortunately, Quebec archives are pretty exhaustive in that matter (Jett\u00e9, 1991 : 432), but there are always a couple of forgotten individuals and when those are women, they are more difficult to retrace.<\/p>\n Although we didn\u2019t actively construct this patriarchal heritage, I believe it is the responsibility of each and every one of us to work toward a world where we are all equals. After all, these practices that put forward men\u2019s lineages, we reproduce them day after day and we have the power to change them. Thus, Francine Cousteau Serdongs questions the way genealogy is organised as a science as well as how individuals themselves perpetuate these ideas in their own practice of genealogy\u00a0<\/span>(2008:\u00a0132). In the next two articles, I will detail the consequences of this erasure on the lives of women and I will explore some potential solutions.<\/p>\n Audrey Pepin<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Quotes which were originally in French have been translated by the author of this article<\/span><\/p>\n Bibliography<\/strong><\/p>\n Clyde, Linda. (2017a, 26 avril). Ever Wonder Why It\u2019s So Hard to Trace Your Female Ancestry? <\/span>Family Search <\/span><\/em>[Blog].\u00a0 https:\/\/www.familysearch.org\/en\/blog\/ever-wonder-why-its-so-hard-to-trace-your-female-ancestry<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Cousteau Serdongs, Francine. (2008). Le Qu\u00e9bec, paradis de la g\u00e9n\u00e9alogie et \u00ab re-p\u00e8re \u00bb du patriarcat : o\u00f9 sont les f\u00e9ministes? De l\u2019importance d\u2019aborder la g\u00e9n\u00e9alogie avec les outils de la r\u00e9flexion f\u00e9ministe. Recherches f\u00e9ministes <\/em>vol. 21, no. 1, p.131-147. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.7202\/018313ar<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Dionne, Pierre-Yves. (2004). De m\u00e8re en fille : comment faire ressortir la lign\u00e9e maternelle de votre arbre g\u00e9n\u00e9alogique. <\/em>Sainte-Foy : MultiMondes Editions ; Montreal : Remue-M\u00e9nage Editions, 79\u00a0p.<\/span><\/p>\n Drouin, Mathieu. (2015). Patrilin\u00e9aire, mitochondriale et agnatique\u00a0: trois fa\u00e7ons de faire votre g\u00e9n\u00e9alogie! Histoire Canada<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n https:\/\/www.histoirecanada.ca\/consulter\/genealogie\/patrilineaire,-mitochondriale-et-agnatique-trois-facons-de-faire-votre-genealogie<\/a>!<\/span><\/p>\n Jett\u00e9, Ren\u00e9. (1991). Trait\u00e9 de G\u00e9n\u00e9alogie. <\/em>Montreal\u00a0: Les Presses de l\u2019Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al, 716 p.<\/span><\/p>\n Landry, Yves. (1992). Orphelines en France, pionni\u00e8res au Canada. Les Filles du roi au XVIIe si\u00e8cle suivi d’un r\u00e9pertoire biographique des Filles du roi. <\/em>Montreal\u00a0: Biblioth\u00e8que Qu\u00e9b\u00e9coise Editions, 280\u00a0p.<\/span><\/p>\n Pag\u00e9, Genevi\u00e8ve. (2017). La d\u00e9mocratie et les femmes au Qu\u00e9bec et au Canada in La politique qu\u00e9b\u00e9coise et canadienne, <\/em>Gagnon et Sanschagrin (dir.), 2nd <\/sup>Edition. Quebec\u00a0: Presses de l\u2019Universit\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec, p.353 \u00e0 374.<\/span><\/p>\n Reny, Paule and des Rivi\u00e8res, Marie-Jos\u00e9. (2005). Compte-rendu de Pierre-Yves Dionne De m\u00e8re en fille. Comment faire ressortir la lign\u00e9e maternelle de votre arbre g\u00e9n\u00e9alogique.<\/em> Montr\u00e9al, Les \u00c9ditions Multimondes et les \u00e9ditions du remue-m\u00e9nage, 2004, 79 p. Recherches f\u00e9ministes, <\/em>vol. 18, no. 1, p.153-154. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.7202\/012550ar<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (This is a 3 part article. Click to read: Part 2, Part 3) When starting this articles project about feminism and genealogy, I first asked myself what I could have to say about it. I had developed a certain expertise in feminist theory through my studies and activism, but I only knew genealogy from afar. … <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.genealogiequebec.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/arrival-of-the-brides.png\")
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