No DNA matches in England but a lot from Quebec

[chrisos]

Hi all
Not sure if this is the correct forum for my post.
I really need a new perspective on my problem and was wondering if someone could offer me some advice please.  I am descended from a Sarah Chevalier, confirmed born 1815.  She had an illegitimate son in St Marylebone, Mdx in 1839.  Nothing before or after but it is generally accepted that she was the daughter of a James Chevalier and wife Sarah Parkes.  I have extensively researched this Chevalier line over many years and have doubts about it being the correct line.  Yes they had a daughter named Sarah in 1815 but is it the correct Sarah?.  My problem is that whilst neither myself nor two other descendants share any matches with anyone from this line in England, we all share numerous matches with Chevalier descendants in Quebec, Canada.  These are mainly sitting in the 8-10cM, with several around 16cM and all descend from one particular family. 

So was Sarah a later descendant of an earlier French Chevalier line in England or was she descended from the Chevalier Quebec line?  The James Chevalier sp. Sarah Parkes descent just doesn’t feel right and doesn’t match any of the family stories handed down.  I have also spent hours searching all the weird and wonderful variants that the name has thrown up on Ancestry but there is absolutely nothing there.

Regards
Chris

[SouthseaSteel]

I had a buddy whose unknown father transpired to be a Canadian airforce man over in England during WWII.  His DNA was "half" French Canadian in terms of Matches.   It was bewildering tbh and similar to what you described, although amazingly we did work out who is father was!!  He currently has an astonishing 83,000 matches but spread over only a handful of family surnames!!

All I can offer you is good luck but I did notice that on this occasion I did look at Ancestry Ethnicity and despite every single match I looked at being French Canadian, with some familes going back 100s of years in Quebec, the reported ethnicity was based on a certain region of France with "French Canadian regions" not featuring at all.

I am usually extremely sceptical of all things Ethnicity based but on this occasion it may provide some kind of connection back to a familiar part of France.

Like I say, good luck!!

[David Nicoll]

Hi, how many generations are we talking about here?
If it is a few it is possible that by chance your English relatives don’t share relevant DNA.
It may also be pedigree collapse in the French Canadians making them appear closer relationship than they are.
Finally it may be the Ancestry Timber algorithm hiding matches.

https://support.ancestry.com/s/article/How-Timber-Helps-You-Find-Meaningful-DNA-Matches

[chrisos]

Hi David
Firstly, thank you for replying to my posting.

Sarah is my 5Grt grandmother, so I would expect the 5-8 C range for the Quebec matches.  However, Ancestry are showing these matches in the 4C range which I don't believe is correct (DNA Painter is showing a more realistic 5C plus range).  I am inclined to agree with Timber in that the Quebec matches are more reflective of a regional location and possibly endogamy, rather than a direct ancestral descent.  The Quebec line goes back to the "filles du roi" era of Louis XIV and there is sufficient information on these girls to enable a degree of accuracy.  The genealogy in the Quebec case appears to have originated from Normandie, Fr. 

The info passed down through the family descended from Sarah's only known child suggests that her family were Huguenot silk weavers and that her mother played in the fields around Rouen.  There is no evidence in my research to indicate that there were any weavers in the Chevalier family (James Chevalier, sp. Sarah Parkes was a cabinet maker, his father James ditto and grandfather Samuel possibly a soldier in the Coldstream Guard in 1746, then a fishing tackle maker).  Sarah Parkes is a dead end but it is possible that Parkes was anglicised from Parques.  In any case Sarah would have been an Emigre not a Huguenot.  Hence my dilemma.  I might add that people have been looking for Sarah since the 1960's and I now suspect after unknown hundreds of hours of research, she may remain an enigma.  A researcher specialising in London research failed to come up with anything conclusive on her either.
All the best
Chris, NSW Aust.

[chrisos]

Hi Southsea Steel
Thank you for replying to my posting.  In Sarah's case, DNA has confirmed who the father of her son was, so I know that he was descended from an English family from Chippenham, Wilts.  However, just posting my Chevalier problem has helped me to consider another perspective.

I have been focussed on the lack of weavers in Chevalier line without considering the possibility that the weavers were from one of the Chevalier maternal lines.  If this is the case, then the story of weavers in the family may be correct.  Sarah's mother Sarah Parkes, bn ca 1788 may well have played in the fields of Rouen if her name had been anglicised from Parques for example, but I have no further information on Sarah Parkes to confirm this.  I do know that Sarah's son William spoke French, so there must have been some sort of contact between him & Sarah's family.  In any case, none of this explains the lack of DNA from England.

All the best
Chris, NSW, Aust.

[Wexflyer]

Is it not the case that France has banned DNA testing?
So any French DNA links are perforce from Quebec?

[chrisos]

Didn't know about France banning DNA.  The DNA I referred to would be coming from Ancestry contributors.
Chris

[Wexflyer]

Didn't know about France banning DNA.  The DNA I referred to would be coming from Ancestry contributors.
Chris

Thats the point. There aren't any French ones.

[chrisos]

Current US citizens with Quebec ancestry?  Most of the area relating to the Quebec line was in and around Montreal. 
Chris