Pure Laine... or, perhaps, not so pure?

Over the course of the past 400 years, people from France, England, Switzerland, Belgium and Germany, in addition to several Indigenous North American nations; among them, Catholics, Puritans, Calvinists and pagans - all have contributed to the bloodline of two families that came together in Canada in the 20th Century.

In 1926, Theodore Seguin from Thurso, Quebec married Alphonsine Seguin, his 5th-cousin from Essex County, Ontario. Their ancestry, believed by generations to be entirely undiluted French and Roman Catholic - the myth of Pure Laine - can now be seen as a colourful tapestry, inter-woven with many different ethnic, cultural and religious threads.

In our culture, our family name is usually passed down to us from our father. As a result, most genealogies trace only the paternal branches of a family tree - our fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers - while making only peripheral mention of the maternal line - our mothers, grandmothers and great-grand-mothers - the women without whom none of us would be here.

In this comprehensive family genealogy, Marc Seguin has included both paternal and maternal bloodlines of Theodore

Seguin and Alphonsine Seguin in a series of lineage charts stretching back 400 years to reveal a broader, more complex

and more complete family tree.

The lineage charts are supplemented by a rich narrative with numerous illustrations, highlighting the stories of many Seguin

ancestors and uncovering the reality behind the French-Canadian myth of Pure Laine.

Marc Philip Seguin, is an independent historian who grew up in

the Detroit River region and now lives in Prince Edward County,

Ontario, Canada.