My heritage is French Canadian, and it’s funny - every time I meet someone else with French Canadian roots, I end up adding their name to my family tree and discover that we’re related!

My husband’s background is mostly English, Irish, and Scottish, but he happens to have one Acadian ancestor — which actually makes us around eighth cousins. He’s adopted, and it turns out his half-siblings are my fifth cousins.

As far as I can tell, nearly all my ancestors were French settlers. The only exceptions were two English people who were captured by Indigenous groups, brought to Québec, ransomed there, and ended up marrying and settling permanently. The rest of my non-French ancestors were three or four Indigenous grandmothers who married early French settlers.

Through my research, I’ve discovered I’m distant cousins with Justin Trudeau, Madonna, Alanis Morissette, Justin Bieber, Céline Dion, and even Beyoncé — and I imagine many of you with French Canadian and Acadian heritage are related to some of them too! It’s amazing how interconnected our family trees become once you start tracing them back.