Famous Cousins

~8th–9th Cousins0× removed — same generational distance from shared ancestors

Carl and Hillary Clinton share at least six confirmed ancestor couples through the founding population of New France. The clearest line runs through two sisters born four years apart in the 1670s.

How This Was Verified

Genealogist Gail Moreau-DesHarnais (French-Canadian Heritage Society of Michigan) traced Clinton’s family tree to three Filles du Roi: Madeleine Niel, Madeleine Plouard, and Catherine Paulo. Independently confirmed by genealogist Irène Belleau and published by Perche-Québec (Jean-François Loiseau). Clinton’s French-Canadian ancestry runs through her maternal grandmother Dorothy Howell (1919–2011) via Della Murray (1902–1960) and Delia Martin (1861–), who was half French-Canadian.

Sources: CBC News (Nov 6, 2016); Perche-Quebec.com; Moreau-DesHarnais & Sheppard, Michigan’s Habitant Heritage (2007); Gary Boyd Roberts, NEHGS (2008).

The Divergence

Through Madeleine Niel (Fille du Roi, ~1651, Rouen) & Étienne Charles dit Lajeunesse (Carignan-Salières soldier, 1643, Créteil). Two of their twelve children started the two lines.

Étienne Charles dit Lajeunesse

& Madeleine Niel

m. October 24, 1667, Trois-Rivières · 12 children · Fille du Roi & Carignan soldier

Carl’s Line

Catherine Charles

b. 1674, Boucherville

Older sister — went south to the Richelieu Valley

m. Jean Bissonnette

b. 1676, Varennes

Michel Bissonnette

b. 1701, Fief Tremblay (Longueuil)

m. Catherine Lussier

Catherine-Amable Bissonnette

Longueuil

m. Louis Goyette

b. 1728, St-Sulpice

François-Dominique Goyette

b. ~1758, Verchères

Louis Goyette

b. 1788, Verchères

Olivier Goyette

b. 1836, St-Hyacinthe

m. Apolline Decelles

b. 1836, St-Damase

Mélanie Goyette

b. 1855, Quebec

m. Jean Baptiste LaFlamme

Rose Lea LaFlamme

b. 1886, St-Valérien de Milton

m. Allen Vincent McInnis

1905, Pepperell, MA

Claire Rita McInnis

b. 1924, Lowell, MA

Jolene

Carl

Present day

Clinton’s Line

Hélène Charles

b. 1678, Île Jésus

Younger sister — stayed on Île Jésus, then Detroit

m. Michel Viau dit Lespérance

Île Jésus, QC

Marguerite Viau dite Pilet

b. 1706, Île Jésus, QC

m. Jacques Pilet Jr.

b. 1703, d. 1765, Detroit

⋮

3–4 generations in Detroit / Michigan

Antoine Martin

Michigan

Delia Martin

b. 1861, Michigan, half French-Canadian

m. Donald Murray

Della Murray

b. 1902, Illinois

m. Edwin Howell

Dorothy Howell

b. 1919, Chicago

m. Hugh Rodham

Scranton, PA

Hillary Diane Rodham

b. 1947, Chicago

Present day

Two sisters born four years apart in the 1670s. Catherine went south to the Richelieu Valley; Hélène stayed on Île Jésus. Their lines diverged for 350 years — one through Québec to Kansas, the other through Detroit to Chicago — before genealogy reconnected them. Both trace back to a 16-year-old orphan from Rouen who married a soldier three weeks after stepping off the ship.

𝓇

How “~8th–9th cousins” works

Two people are Nth cousins when their most recent common ancestor is N+1 generations back from each. Étienne & Madeleine are ~9–10 generations back for Carl and ~9–11 for Clinton, making them approximately 8th–9th cousins. Because multiple shared ancestor couples exist at slightly different depths, the relationship is expressed as a range. “0× removed” means both are roughly the same number of generations from the shared ancestors.

All Confirmed Shared Ancestors

Six ancestor couples confirmed through PRDH, Nos Origines, and published genealogies. All came from the Perche — Tourouvre and Mortagne — the region that sent more settlers per capita to New France than any other.

Jean Guyon du Buisson + Mathurine Robin

Born 1592 / ~1596 · Tourouvre, Perche

Carl: Gen ~10–11Clinton: Gen 12

One of the most important founding families. Their daughter Marie married François Bélanger; daughter Barbe married Pierre Paradis. Carl descends through both.

Gaspard Boucher + Nicole Lemaire

Born 1599 / 1595 · Mortagne, Perche

Carl: Gen ~11Clinton: Gen 12

From the same Percheron recruitment network as the Guyons. Part of Robert Giffard’s organized migration.

Étienne Charles + Madeleine Niel (FdR)

Born 1643 / ~1651 · Paris / Rouen

Carl: Gen ~12Clinton: Gen 11

The clearest shared line. Madeleine was a 16-year-old Fille du Roi orphan; Étienne was a Carignan-Salières soldier. Married three weeks after she arrived.

Jean Doyon + Marthe Gagnon

Born 1619 / ~1636 · La Rochelle / Perche

Carl: Gen ~13Clinton: Gen 11

Connected through the Percheron pioneer network centered on Tourouvre.

Mathurin Gagnon

Born 1606 · Tourouvre, Perche

Carl: Gen ~14Clinton: Gen 12

Part of the extraordinary Tourouvre-to-Québec migration. Clinton’s published descent runs through Pierre Gagné (b. 1610, Igé, Perche).

Pierre Gagnon + Renée-Madeleine Roger

Born 1572 / ~1580 · Tourouvre, Perche

Carl: Gen ~15Clinton: Gen 13

The earliest shared ancestors — born in the 1570s in the Perche. Their descendants crossed the Atlantic a generation later.

Clinton’s Published Descent

Through the Percheron pioneers, as documented by Perche-Québec (Jean-François Loiseau). Twelve generations from a farmer in Igé, Perche, to a presidential candidate.

Pierre Gagné (b. 1610, Igé, Perche)

Marguerite Gagné (1653–1720)

Marguerite Lefebvre (1676–1740)

Joseph Bourdeau (1703–1748)

Catherine Bourdeau (1744–)

Archange Campeau (1766–1821)

John Robert McDougall (1764–1846)

Mary Anne Frances McDougall (1823–1898)

Delia Martin (1861–)

Della Murray (1902–1960)

Dorothy Howell (1919–2011)

Hillary Diane Rodham (b. 1947)

The Demographic Miracle

The pre-1700 French-Canadian population was under 10,000 people. Only about 2,600 settlers left descendants who survived to modern times. Today, roughly 7 million francophone Québécois descend from them.

Carl’s 507 verified ancestors represent approximately 20% of that founding population. It is mathematically inevitable that anyone with French-Canadian ancestry shares multiple founders with Carl. The Clinton connection is not a coincidence — it is a consequence of the extraordinary bottleneck that built a nation from fewer families than fill a small village.

About 95% of “old stock” Québécois can find at least one of the Filles du Roi in Clinton’s tree among their own ancestors. The 770 women Louis XIV sent across the Atlantic became, in a very real sense, the mothers of a nation.

The Zacharie Cloutier Network

Writer

verified

Community connection (same Lowell neighborhood)

Verified = descent from Zacharie Cloutier confirmed by Perche-Québec or peer-reviewed genealogical sources. Claimed = listed on Wikipedia’s Cloutier descendants page but not independently confirmed by Perche-Québec.

Sources

Moreau-DesHarnais, Gail & Sheppard, Daniel. “Hillary Clinton’s French-Canadian Ancestry.” Michigan’s Habitant Heritage (2007). Best Article of the Year award.

Roberts, Gary Boyd. New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS), 2008.

Loiseau, Jean-François. Perche-Québec (perche-quebec.com). Published descent lines for Clinton through Percheron pioneers.

CBC News. “Hillary Clinton’s Quebec ancestry dates back to New France.” November 6, 2016.

Geneanet Blog. “Hillary Clinton and the King’s Daughters.” December 2008.

FamousKin.com. Ahnentafel #15627.

PRDH (Programme de recherche en démographie historique), Université de Montréal.

Nos Origines (nosorigines.qc.ca). Cross-referenced against Drouin Collection.

The King’s Daughters Four Centuries