Montreal skeletons show limited colonial mixing
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Researchers in Quebec analysed DNA from 45 skeletons buried in Notre-Dame Cemetery in Montreal, Canada, dating from 1683 to 1796, and found all individuals had French European ancestry.
The study aimed to investigate claims of intermarriage between French colonists and Indigenous people, which are common in family histories and amplified by commercial DNA tests. The scientists sequenced the DNA and compared it to genomes from Europe, West Africa, and Indigenous groups in the Americas.
The analysis revealed no recent Indigenous or African genetic contributions to the remains examined. This challenges the widespread belief that significant mixing occurred during the early colonial period and suggests Indigenous and African populations may have faced marginalisation in Montreal. However, the researchers cautioned that their sample size is limited to a single cemetery and doesn't prove such unions never happened.
The team also noted that the cemetery’s burial practices, with graves not organised by family, suggest different kinship structures in 17th-century Montreal. While the study does not deny the possibility of complex relationships between settlers and Indigenous people, it indicates that confirmed Indigenous ancestry among modern French Canadians may be less common than previously thought. Establishing Indigenous identity relies on community ties and connection to the land, not simply genetic markers.
