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Archiver > ACADIAN-CAJUN > 2004-12 > 1102294686


From: Gordon Bonnet <>
Subject: Re: [ACADIAN-CAJUN] Re: Metis question
Date: Sun, 05 Dec 2004 20:03:03 -0500
References: <90.5249951a.2ee4f987@aol.com>
In-Reply-To: <90.5249951a.2ee4f987@aol.com>


Hi Karen,

What a brilliant idea!

My background is population genetics (I'm currently a high school
biology teacher but did research in gene flow & migration in graduate
school), and I wonder why I didn't think of this first... LOL

If we could get some definitive results from this, it would be awesome.
I would be happy to help out in trying to trace lines maternally so we
could identify people whose mtDNA would be useful to determine the
origins of these women.

cheers,

Gordon

wrote:

>Gordon, Lucie, & List,
>
>This question of the probable Amerindian (or First Nation, as the Canadians
>term it) ancestry of several Acadian lines has also intrigued me. I share with
>Gordon the ancestor Radegonde LAMBERT, and I also have Edmée LEJEUNE, who
>married Francois GAUTROT. Their oldest daughter Marie GAUTROT married Claude
>THERIOT and became the ancestors of a large progeny.
>
>Stephen White is correct that there is no paper documentation for their
>native origins. However, there is now mitochondrial DNA testing, which can show
>definitively whether the maternal line originated among Europeans or among native
>Americans. There are distinctive differences, well-documented.
>
>All we need are to have enough women tested (with a simple cheek swab test)
>who descend from one of these women. If the results are consistent and show
>non-European DNA, then the proof would be incontrovertible. Only women can pass
>on their mitochondrial DNA to their children, but it remains virtually
>unchanged through thousands of generations.
>
>If you have an unbroken maternal line to Acadia, in your pedigree chart it
>would be the lower column, from you to your mother to your maternal grandmother,
>etc., on through that extreme edge of the chart. If the last known "mother"
>was Radegonde LAMBERT, Edmée LEJEUNE, or one of the other Acadiennes purported
>to be a "sauvagesse," we could settle the question for good. Incidentally, men
>who descend in a direct maternal line also could have the mtDNA test.
>However, they cannot pass it on to their children.
>
>I had begun collecting names of women born in Louisiana up to 1900 (the
>ending date of my Donald Hebert CD of Southwest Louisiana Records) who descend in
>unbroken lines from Edmée LEJEUNE. So far I have found four families, some with
>two known daughters who could have passed on their mtDNA to their daughters.
>If you know anyone descended from the following women, contact me. We can
>start a DNA project and settle at least one "Metis question." They are so far:
>
>1) Marie Lucie LEMAIRE, born 9 Sep 1900, daughter of Gabriel LEMAIRE & Amanda
>TRAHAN, baptized in Abbeville, Vermilion, LA.
>2a) Alexandrine SUIRE, born 6 Nov 1891, daughter of Desire SUIRE & Odile
>Joseph[e] LE BLANC, baptized in Abbeville, Vermilion, LA.
>2b) Pauline SUIRE [sister of the above], born 29 Jun 1899, baptized in
>Delcambre, Iberia, LA.
>3a) Odias [female?] LANDRY, born 26 Feb 1893, baptized in New Iberia, Iberia,
>LA.
>3b) Helene Alces LANDRY [sister of the above], born 27 Mar 1895, daughter of
>Sosthene LANDRY & Jeanne Humea ROBICHAUD, baptized also in New Iberia.
>4a) Edmondia PESSON, born 10 Oct 1895, daughter of Edmond PESSON & Emilda
>ROBICHAUD, baptized in New Iberia.
>4b) Edna PESSON [sister of the above], born 4 Jan 1899, also baptized in New
>Iberia.
>
>Karen Theriot Reader
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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