Welcome / Bienvenue

Introduction

For as long as I can remember, the ancestry of my family has been in doubt. Or, should I say, half of my family. My mother's family, the Roberts, were most definitely of French descent by way of Canada. However, the ancestry of my father's side, the Guerins, was the subject of confused discussions that predated my birth and continued into adulthood. There were surname spelling changes with associated, contradictory explanations as to why they occurred. For instance, I have relatives named Gearin that I have never met. The result of these discussions was a consensus that, due to the Anglicization of the spelling differences, there was a 50/50 shot that we were either of Irish or French descent.

In April of 2021, after receiving a discounted rate at Ancestry.com, I decided to take the plunge into genealogy and find the answer for myself. After about 3 months of extensive effort, and relearning about primary and secondary source materials and how to be wary of assumptions regarding the veracity of other people's research, I can say with confidence that the Guerin line is of mostly French descent. Our original, non-Anglicized surname was Guérin. My heritage and DNA, according to one source, is 95% French by way of Nouvelle-France and Acadie.

Heritage

My heritage is three-fold: American, French-Canadian & European. Culturally, I am, of course, American, though flavored by the terroir of Dracut and Lowell, Massachusetts and the nearby historical enclave of "Little Canada". From Little Canada, my roots spread northward into Nouvelle-France & Acadie and, from there, through to Europe. While I am American by birth, the amount of time that my families have spent in the United States is less than their time spent in Canada, and even less than their time spent in Europe.

As it turns out, my family's documented roots are quite deep.

Contents

This web site contains information related to my heritage as discovered through genealogical and historical sources. It contains documents, authored by myself, which seek to describe my lineage through to Nouvelle-France and Acadie, across to Europe, and beyond into medieval aristocracy. It also contains rosters and heritage "cards" which highlight certain figures and events in my family's histories.

WikiTree

Note that while, initially, I was building my family tree on Ancestry, I have since moved it to WikiTree. The scholarship and research is much better there. It is a place for genealogists to converse and share information with other genealogists, whether professional or amateur. While it is an excellent hosting platform for storing your tree, and merging it with other trees, it is not a source to be used to find information, though I suppose you could use it as a reference against whatever tree you build on another site.

My advice:
Use the other sources listed below, keep copious notes, and host your tree on WikiTree.

And:
Cite, cite, cite your sources!

Terminology

Throughout this page and associated documents, you will see a relationship described as 9*ggf or 9*ggm. The 'ggf' stand for great-grandfather. 'ggm' stand for great-grandmother. The number with a '*' is how many "greats" there are before "grandfather" or "grandmother". So, 9*ggf is my great- (9 times) grandfather. The number of generations back is equal to the number given plus 2, so my 9*ggf is a man 11 generations up the family tree who is my biological ancestor.

Genealogy Documents

Note: These two documents are out-of-date as of this writing (23-Jul-2025). The one tree at Wikitree has been updated since 2021 and I need to transcribe the latest information there to these two documents.

Tracing Back [PDF]
This document traces the family tree of Kenneth F. Guerin through 10-14 generations through his French-Canadian heritage to his European roots.
Our Royal Lineage [PDF] (Updated: 24-Oct-2021)
This companion document to Tracing Back traces the family trees of Anne Couvent and Jeanne Le Marchand to their royal medieval ancestry.

Document Notes

The Tracing Back document is a formatted transcription of Ken's family tree as stored at WikiTree. The tree itself is ~89% complete through to mostly European & indigenous roots and covers a span of time going back ~14 generations in some cases.

There are five major research roadblocks preventing its completion:

Marie Françoise, named Mary Franke in US Census records, wife of Thomas Bridges, may have been an abandoned child, an orphan or may have been of Native American origin. According to most records, she was born in Canada East, aka Québec. Baptized infant girls in Québec whose parents were unknown or were of native origin, were baptized as "Marie Françoise" in the early 1800s, which is the time of her birth. (Inconnu is French for "unknown".)

Genealogy Sources

Medieval Genealogy Sources

Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de France...

Information on Irish Guerins

Historical Sources

Nouvelle-France

Acadie

Little Canada Heritage

Nouvelle-France Heritage

Medieval Heritage — House Plantagenet

Medieval Heritage — House Capet

Medieval Heritage — House Ivrea

Medieval Heritage — House Normandie

Medieval Heritage — House Jiménez

Medieval Heritage — House Carolingian

Medieval Heritage — Other Houses