Clinton’s deep roots in Quebec’s history

Canada ties make her distant relative of Justin Trudeau

MONTREAL— If Hillary Clinton wins Tuesday’s election, Canada’s relationship with the White House could soon be cast as a family affair, thanks to the presidential candidate’s welldocumented French-Canadian ancestry.

Clinton’s family ties to Canada stretch back to the days of New France, making her a distant relative of many prominent Quebecers, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Céline Dion, genealogists have noted.

Gail Moreau-Desharnais, of the French-Canadian Heritage Society of Michigan, has traced a branch of Clinton’s family tree all the way back to the Filles du Roi or “King’s Daughters,” a group of young women who were sent from France in the 17th century to help populate the colony.

Clinton briefly mentioned her maternal grandmother’s French-Canadian roots in her 2003 memoir, Living History. But as she researched the connection, Moreau-Desharnais said she was surprised by how deep those roots went.

“She really has a good French-Canadian line,” she said in an interview. “And when you trace her matrilineal line, or female to female to female, her ultimate female ancestor is Jeanne Ducorps, one of the Filles du Roi.”

Ducorps was one of more than 700 women sent to New France — often against their will — by King Louis XIV between 1663 and 1673 to serve as brides for the men in the colony.

Many were orphans or had been abandoned in refuge houses, and were sometimes unfairly labelled “women of ill repute,” according to the president of a historical society dedicated to studying them.

“For the most part (the King’s Daughters) were girls who didn’t have a lot of future in France,” Irene Belleau said in a telephone interview.

Although Clinton’s Québécois ancestry may be interesting, it’s not unique.

Belleau, herself a proud descendant of a King’s Daughter, says some 95 per cent of so-called “old stock” Quebecers can find at least one of the women in her family tree, as can a significant percentage of Canadians and Americans.

An article published in 2008 by the New England Historic Genealogical Society noted that most French-Canadians are distantly related thanks to a small group of 17th-century French immigrants.

“It’s remarkable that based on all the other lines that feed in to her, (Clinton) can go back to four (King’s Daughters),” she said.