Federal party leaders with Quebec roots are related: Ho Hum!

This release from Ancestry.ca arrivevd in my email. My comments follow.

IT’S ALL IN THE FAMILY: THOMAS MULCAIR RELATED TO JUSTIN TRUDEAU AND GILLES DUCEPPE
After revealing Mulcair and Trudeau’s family connection in 2013, Ancestry discovers another federal family link – this time to the leader of the Bloc Québécois

·         As revealed in 2013, Mulcair and Trudeau’s connection goes back 400 years; the two are 9th cousins

·         New research reveals Mulcair and Duceppe are 10th cousins through their 9th great-grandfather, considered as one of the “founding fathers” of Quebec

·         Mulcair has Canadian politics in his blood – his 3rd great grandfather was the first Premier of Quebec, while his 2nd great grandfather was the 9th premier of the same province


TORONTO (October 7, 2015) With less than two weeks until election day and recent polls showing a tight three-way race between the Liberals, Conservatives and NDP, new research reveals that some parties’ leaders may be more historically aligned than previously thought.

According to Ancestry, the world’s largest online family history resource, NDP leader Thomas Mulcair is related to both Liberal leader Justin Trudeau – the two are 9th cousins – and Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe, who is Mulcair’s 10th cousin.

As revealed by Ancestry in 2013, Mulcair and Trudeau’s family ties go back nearly 400 years to their 8th great-grandparents, Mathieu Amiot and Marie Miville. Miville’s father, Pierre Miville, is one of the founding fathers of Quebec, and when his family arrived in the 1640s, they were considered to be one of the largest to settle in “New France”. When Amiot married Miville in 1649, her dowry brought him property in the town of Quebec, making him a very successful landowner.

Mulcair and Duceppe’s family connection goes back even further to their 9th great-grandfather, Marin Boucher. Marin was part of the “Percheron Immigration” from Perche, France in the 17th century. Most of these immigrants were builders, carpenters or - like Marin - stone masons, so they could literally build a new nation here in Canada. In fact, it is believed that the majority of French Canadian origins have Percheron blood.

For Mulcair, politics certainly run in the family. His 3rd great-grandfather, Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau headed a Conservative government as the first Premier of Quebec in 1867.

“While it’s fun to imagine that family ties spanning back 400 years could impact something as large as a federal election, the reality is that researching your family history can be incredibly eye-opening, revealing connections to other Canadians you could have never dreamed of,” said Lesley Anderson, family historian with Ancestry. “Records can not only reveal interesting family ties, but they also help paint a picture of what Canada was like centuries ago, and how your ancestors fit into the story of our nation.”

COMMENT: Here we see Ancestry taking advantage of the election to publicize their services.  Most of us will have forgotten the company findings that "Mulcair and Trudeau’s family ties go back nearly 400 years to their 8th great-grandparents."
We all have 1,024 8th great-grandparents, how does that compare with the population of Quebec at the time? According to Statistics Canada, as quoted here, the non-indigenous population of Quebec in 1610 was 18, by 1620 it exploded to 60 and by 1753 it was 2,000. Hardly surprising that  people who trace their Quebec roots back that far would have common ancestors. Ho Hum!