Author: French Canadian Roots Editorial Team

Almost every French-Canadian descends from one of fewer than 10,000 founding immigrants. Here’s how to trace your line back to the ancestor who left France for New France.

Who the Filles du Roi really were, why Louis XIV sent them to New France, and how to discover whether one of these 770 founding mothers sits in your family tree.

The Carignan-Salières Regiment brought 1,200 soldiers to New France in 1665—and hundreds stayed to settle. Learn how to identify a soldier ancestor in your tree.

French-Canadians overwhelmingly descend from northwestern France—Normandy, Perche, Poitou, Aunis, and Île-de-France. Here’s the regional map and how to find your ancestor’s.

You’ve found your immigrant ancestor—now cross the Atlantic. How to move from Québec records into French parish and civil registers, and what to expect.

In 1755 the British expelled more than 10,000 Acadians from their homeland. Understand the Grand Dérangement and how to trace ancestors through this records catastrophe.

How deported Acadians became Louisiana’s Cajuns—the migration, the Spanish welcome, and how Cajun descendants can trace their roots back through Acadia to France.

Roughly 900,000 French-Canadians moved to New England’s mill towns between 1840 and 1930. If your family is Franco-American, this is how they got here—and how to trace back.