Was Andre LaCombe's wife a Native American?

Might she be M.-Josette sauvagesse, born Dec 1790 at St.Joseph? Daughter of Francois-Joseph & Marie Sauvages.

Native Americans in French Canada and Acadia were baptized with Christian given names.  When Native Americans married or received a sacrement in the Quebec province parishes, typically their parents names and their last names are omitted in the parish registers of sacramental acts of baptism, marriage, or burial. 

Andre LaCombe*'s wife Marie Louise/Josette Gagne/Quirion/Roy had no parents listed at her marriage record.  There seem to be a couple of witnesses representing the bride, but the relationship to her is unclear.  More scrutiny of the marriage record will be discussed in a later blog.

Since traditional genealogical methods have been lacking, I am considering a DNA test which might unearth some clues about this ancestor and other ancestors.

Unlike an mtdna test (matrilineal dna), which traces only the deep ancestry of the mother's mother's mother, or a Y-DNA (paternal dna) test which traces the deep ancestry of the father's father's father, the Family Tree DNA Family Finder test will examine all 22 of your chromosomes.  "Match with five generations of your family.  With the Family Finder test you may extend the power of genetic genealogy to all of your ancestors. You can discover connections to descendants of all sixteen of your great-great-grandparents."

What if no matching relatives exist in the database?  The information will be kept on file in the database.  As the database increases by future testers, the likelihood of matches increase.  Additionally,"The Population Finder program determines your biogeographical ancestry — the story of your personal genetic history — by comparing your autosomal DNA to that of our world DNA population database. Population Finder results consist of up to four out of seven continental groups (Africa, America, East Asia, Europe, Middle Eastern, Oceania, and South Asia). For each, the percentage of your genome that matches is shown."  So basically, your autosomal DNA is being compared with populations as well as their database of people who have taken the tests. "  This test looks at the last 2000 years of your ancestry.

For more information on any of these tests, visit
Family Tree DNA  or visit them on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/FamilyTreeDNA

*A cousin in Belfast, Maine just let me know that her LaCombe relatives spell it with a capital C.  I'll now do the same.

I thank the Native Americans whose generous hearts helped the Acadian and French Canadian settlers to survive and prosper.