Are Quebecois Canadians mostly French descendant?

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The deeper their roots are, the more French Quebecers are. Yet, there are historical and genealogical exceptions. For instance, while all of my roots are in France, I have an English surname.

I am a descendant of many French people from various coastal areas of France (Charentes-Maritimes, Normandy, Brittany, etc.), some of which were among the earliest settlers in New France. In the 1600s, there were barely a few hundred settlers here. As the colony was dying out, "reinforcements" were brought in. This is known as "La Grande Recrue" in 1653. Through intermarriage, the number of settlers gradually increased, reaching tens of thousands.

Settlers from other lands soon followed. I have a Portuguese ancestor who sailed in with French settlers in the late 1600s. I have an English forefather who came from York, England in 1725 and settled in a rural area of Quebec where he quickly "Frenchified" his name to blend in with locals. Another was a German militiaman from Hesse who fought the Americans on the side of King George III of England in the revolutionary wars.

This is when "foreign", non-French names start appearing. In most cases, they were transliterated in official birth certificates into French-sounding names. Don't forget that, at the time, most people were illiterate and could not tell whether their name was spelled right. In my personal history, Nowell became NoÃ«l, and Kellerstein became Calestagne.

In the late 1800s, the opposite phenomenon occurred, as French Quebecers emigrated to the northeastern United States. In some cases, they "anglicized" their name. Boisvert became Greenwood, for instance. Again, this is what happened in my personal history. That is why I have an English-sounding surname even though a huge majority of my ancestors were French.

The strange thing about Canada is just that: One can have an English name and speak no English whatsoever, just as someone else can have a French name and speak no French whatsoever. Our name is just a freak accident depending on where we are born and at what time.

Douglas L

Nearly everybody that speak French as their first language in Canada is of ethnically French descent. The only ones I can think of that are not ethnically French are Haitian immigrates. That does not mean all French Canadians are pure French. Many have Irish, Scottish and English blood. It is not rare to meet a French Canadian with the last name of Ryan for example.

SimonL

My understanding is that yes,many Quebecois have a French name ,but not all even if their first language is French many of the originals settlers which were mostly from France have or had descendants that mixed with settlers from other Europeans countries.
I am thinking here of the Irish settlers as well as the Scottish as well as the British that came here after the Conquest...we now have names like Ryan,Robinson,Johnson ,Mc Fadden, and many others. These people have French as well as other European Countries origin.which have integrated our communities and adopted our customs and language One of my own ancestor came from France ,the other was from London England. My surname is French but not the original name given in the Mother Country.since it has been changed more than one generation after their arrival,if we consider that the word "dit" preceded the new name for many generations to come.
This article I copied :
http://globalgenealogy.com/globalgazette/gazed/gazed157.htm

37 million historical French-Canadian names launch online: Drouin Collection
Published: 15 April 2008
By: Rick Roberts, Biography & Archived Articles

From Ancestry.ca:

(Montreal, QC â€“ April 8 2008) Ancestry.ca today announced the online launch of the fully searchable indexes for the historic Drouin Collection, which contains Quebec records spanning 346 years from 1621 to 1967.

Starting with 29 million names for the years 1850 to 1967, the indexes will include 37 million names in baptism, marriage and burial records, and also a compilation of church records from Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and various New England states, when complete in mid-2008.

Included in The Drouin Collection are the ancestors of some of Canadaâ€™s most famous French-Canadians and Quebeckers such as Pierre Trudeau, William Shatner, John Labatt and Henri and Maurice Richard. (original images available)

Family history enthusiasts can also trace their lineage back to the founding families of Quebec and Acadia, which includes that of Zacharie Cloutier, a common ancestor of distant cousins Celine Dion, Madonna and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. (Cloutier family tree / original images available)

From the early 1600s, the Catholic parishes of Quebec kept meticulous records of their membersâ€™ baptisms, marriages and burials. The Quebec Government soon required the Catholic Church to provide it with copies of all its records and in doing so became the central holder for Quebecâ€™s vital records.

In 1899 a lawyer named Joseph Drouin founded The Drouin Genealogical Institute, using Quebecâ€™s vital records to research and sell family genealogies. His son Gabriel assumed stewardship in 1938, dedicating himself to microfilming and indexing Quebecâ€™s vital records; this important work formed what became the Instituteâ€™s principal reference collection.

The collection remained the property of the Institute until Gabrielâ€™s death in 1980, after which it was sold to the genealogist Jean-Pierre Pepin who created The Drouin Institute, which was dedicated to preserving the collection intact and in Quebec.

Recognising its historical significance, Ancestry.ca secured the right to host the collection online. It launched the original images â€“ more than 12 million in total â€“ in 2007, and in partnership with The University of Montreal has now indexed the collection to make it searchable online for the first time.

The Drouin Collection can be searched in French or English language by name, date, place, church or institution, and religion.

Ancestry.ca senior vice president Josh Hanna comments: â€œAs an estimated five million Canadians have French ancestry, The Drouin Collection is of huge national relevance, and especially to French-Canadian family history researchers.â€
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Reggie

have a look here Kaz hope you are well?

Em2k3

Bien Oui !

Samuel L

yes because the first huge waves of immigrants came from France, especially from Normandy and the north, so a lot of QuÃ©bÃ©cois have French names (plus, we still speak French) like me!

Temperance

Yes in a sense. They are French from a long long time ago. Not necessarily for the surnames, but for the most part yes. I see lot of English and Germanic last names also.

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