Tangled Lines

My Tremblay and Desbiens lines are all tangled up, with generation after generation of intermarriages between the families for over three hundred years.

For example,
Etienne Debien II, first-born Desbiens in New France, married Marie-Dorothee Tremblay in 1715,
their grandson,
Etienne Desbiens IV was married to Marie-Francoise Tremblay in 1744,
their son,
Etienne Benjamin Desbiens married Felicite Savard in 1768, great-great-granddaughter of Etienne Desbiens II and Marie-Dorothee Tremblay through their daughter, Marie-Francoise Desbiens .

That's just the tip of the iceberg, just my direct ancestors before 1800. My great-grandparents, Jean Desbiens and Celinase Tremblay, married in 1883, are just one of the many Desbiens-Tremblay marriages in the 19th century.

I imagine there were lots of inter-marriages in New France and Acadia, and everybody is related who live in or came from the area. It seems like any time I meet someone with French-Canadian roots, I have at least one ancestor and more often, several ancestors in common with them, and that's with only one French-Canadian grandmother.

It doesn't seem that illogical, when I think about it, with the religious restrictions of marrying outside of the Catholic faith, and the population increases in New France were from reproducing, not from immigration after the 1600's. They were from already established families with a limited gene pool to fish from. After the expulsion a lot of families from Acadia came to New France , and, over the years moved back, so the Acadian surnames are found in Quebec as well.