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The Contribution of Irish Immigrants to the Quebec (Canada) Gene Pool: An Estimation Using Data from Deep-Rooted Genealogies

La contribution des immigrants irlandais au pool génique du Québec (Canada) : une estimation à partir de données généalogiques

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Abstract

European settlement in Quebec (Canada) began in the early 17th century, with the arrival of French pioneers. After the British Conquest in 1760, immigrants from the British Isles began to settle in some parts of Quebec. Many of these immigrants were Irish Catholics. Historians and genealogists have identified several names of Irish origin in the French Canadian population, and many scholars have wondered about the importance of the integration of Irish migrants and their descendants within this population. The purposes of this study are to identify and characterize the founders of Irish origin to estimate the importance of their genetic contribution to the contemporary Quebec population, and to measure the variability of this contribution according to the founders’ period of arrival and county of origin in Ireland. Data was obtained from a set of 2,223 ascending genealogies going back as far as the early 17th century. The average genealogical depth is a little more than 9 generations, with many branches reaching 16 or 17 generations. Although Irish founders explain less than 1% of the total Quebec gene pool, results show that nearly 21% of the genealogies contain at least one Irish founder. These founders contributed to the peopling of all regions of Quebec, but there are some important variations from one region to another. A majority of the Irish founders immigrated during the 19th century, and most of them came from the counties of Southern Ireland.

Résumé

Le peuplement d’origine européenne au Québec (Canada) a commencé au début du 17e siècle avec l’arrivée de pionniers venus de France. Suite à la conquête anglaise de 1760, des immigrants en provenance des îles britanniques se sont installés sur le territoire québécois. Plusieurs de ces immigrants étaient des Irlandais catholiques. Des historiens et généalogistes ont identifié de nombreux patronymes d’origine irlandaise parmi la population canadienne-française et certains chercheurs se sont interrogés à propos de l’intégration des immigrants irlandais et de leurs descendants au sein de cette population. L’objectif de cette étude est d’identifier les fondateurs d’origine irlandaise et de caractériser leur contribution génétique à la population contemporaine du Québec, ainsi que de mesurer la variabilité de cette contribution selon la période d’arrivée et le comté d’origine en Irlande. Les données proviennent d’un corpus de 2223 généalogies ascendantes remontant jusqu’au début du 17e siècle. La profondeur moyenne des généalogies est d’un peu plus de 9 générations, plusieurs branches atteignant 16 ou 17 générations. Les fondateurs irlandais expliquent moins de 1% du pool génique québécois, mais près de 21% des généalogies contiennent au moins un fondateur irlandais. Ces fondateurs ont contribué au peuplement de toutes les régions du Québec, avec toutefois quelques variations importantes d’une région à l’autre. La majorité des fondateurs irlandais identifiés ont immigré au 19e siècle et provenaient principalement des comtés du sud de l’Irlande.

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Notes

  1. This massive emigration from Ireland was caused by the conjunction of several socioeconomic, demographic and political factors (Kennedy 1973; Willis 1990; Elliott 1999; McGowan 1999). It is estimated that by 1891, 39% of Irish-born people were living outside Ireland (Kennedy 1973).

  2. These two founders are amongst the first Irish settlers in Nouvelle-France. One of them came from Tullow in Carlow county and the other one came from St-Patrice-de-Diasonyden. Scholars do not agree on whether this parish was located in Kilkenny or Kerry. A problem with the earliest records dating from the French Regime is that they were written in French by French officials who sometimes did not know how to write the Irish names properly. Many names of individuals and places were then recorded on the basis of their pronunciation and got distorted through time.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Jean-Luc Allard, Michèle Jomphe and Ève-Marie Lavoie for their technical support, the Historical Geography Laboratory at Laval University for cartography work, and the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. Funding for this research was provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Interdisciplinary Research Group on Demography and Genetic Epidemiology, Quebec, Canada

    Marc Tremblay, Maude Letendre, Louis Houde & Hélène Vézina

  2. University of Quebec at Chicoutimi, Quebec, Canada

    Marc Tremblay & Hélène Vézina

  3. University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Canada

    Louis Houde

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  1. Marc Tremblay
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Correspondence to Marc Tremblay.

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Tremblay, M., Letendre, M., Houde, L. et al. The Contribution of Irish Immigrants to the Quebec (Canada) Gene Pool: An Estimation Using Data from Deep-Rooted Genealogies. Eur J Population 25, 215–233 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10680-008-9170-x

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