【海外の反応】たった800人の女性が1000万人の祖先に？ケベックを作った『王の娘たち』の歴史がヤバい

due to this, The French Canadians of Quebec are a classical example of a founder population, meaning that a large group of people come from a very few founding persons.

The French Canadians also had very high fertility rates, one of the highest in the world. They ranged anywhere from 7-13 children average fertility rate from the 1600s until the 1910s, at a time when the average western fertility rate was 4-5 children. Their fertility rate would take a plummet after 1960, when the quiet Revolution would start, leading to the secularization of Quebec society, which before 1960 was extremely religious. Quebec before 1960 had a mass attendance rate of 98%, the highest in the world at the time. Education and healthcare was also controlled by the church and not the government, this would change when the quiet revolution would arrive.

Thus, It was not uncommon at all for a Quebec family having 14-16+ kids before the 1960s.

The French Canadians had such a high fertility rate, that during the 18th century and onwards, there was a phrase called the revenge of the cradle, which meant the French Canadian population In Canada would out-breed the British because of the enormous amount of children they had. it was called revenge of the cradle since the British outnumbered the French Canadians due to them sending many immigrants to Canada, while basically no French came to Canada after the 1760s, and very few besides the kings daughters came before the 1760s.

The idea was that the huge amount of kids the French Canadians had would allow French Canadians to keep their political, cultural and demographic weight in Canada, which would avoid allowing the cultural and ethnic assimilation and domination of the French Canadians into English Canadian society. Basically the French Canadians would win over the English canadians by out breeding them.

Wiki link of the revenge of the cradle:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La\_Revanche\_des\_berceaux

There’s also been misconceptions that they were prostitutes (they weren’t) or that they were royalty (they weren’t). But imagining the guts it had to have taken to travel for months across the ocean pre-industrial age into an unknown land … just incredible courage and determination. Many of them had quite a few children too, hence the thousands of descendants now.

Since the citizenry law updated in December we have been exploring our family’s ancestry and this has come up repeatedly. It’s truly fascinating to learn about such deep connections. Turns out I have at least 9 Les Filles du Roi direct ancestors and at least 5 filles à marier direct ancestors, as well as several even older Acadian ancestors too. Randomly, we also realized my husband’s grandfather was born in Canada so he qualifies under the new law as well. I knew my mom’s (deeply southern) family had French Canadian roots but I’d never realized how connected to that history we really are.

I'm descended from a bunch of these! Two-thirds of people with French Canadian ancestry can trace back to at least one. There's a neat database that keeps detailed records on them: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Project:Filles_du_Roi

My family (Michigan) can trace ancestry to no less than 6 filles du roix.

My grand parents came from families of 8-12 kids

Parents generation barely 2-3

Current gen: 1.5-ish

Thing is, Quebec was super religious at the turn of the 20th century and it was a bad look for a woman to not be pregnant at the time. like back to back.