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What the Montreal study found
The study, published in PNAS on October 5, 2026, examined remains from Notre-Dame Cemetery, which operated from 1683 to 1796. Researchers sampled the cochlea inside temporal bones and associated teeth from 45 individuals. Their analyses included genotype imputation, runs of homozygosity and identity-by-descent comparisons.
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All of the analyzed genomes showed French European ancestry, with no detected recent Indigenous or African admixture. The University of Montreal summarized the result cautiously: “At the subsampling level, at least, there is no evidence of settler-Indigenous admixture.” “Subsampling level” matters: the result describes this set of remains, not everyone who lived in Montreal or New France.
Several genetic lineages appeared across successive burial phases instead of being concentrated in identifiable family plots. The spatial pattern is consistent with rapid demographic growth followed by disruption as urban development altered the cemetery. Those patterns help reconstruct how the burial ground was used, but they do not identify every relationship among the living population.
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What “no admixture” means—and what it does not
What the genomes support
- The 45 tested individuals had exclusively French European ancestry in the genetic data analyzed.
- No recent Indigenous or African ancestry was detected in this Notre-Dame Cemetery sample.
- The result weakens a claim that this particular Montreal burial population was broadly biologically mixed from its earliest generations.
What the study cannot establish
- It cannot show that Indigenous people were absent from colonial Montreal.
- It cannot prove that interracial unions never occurred.
- It cannot establish that other Montreal cemeteries, poorer burial grounds or settlements elsewhere in New France had the same ancestry profile.
- It cannot reconstruct every person’s ancestry from a cemetery whose occupants were not sampled completely.
Cemetery selection can shape the result. The University of Montreal report notes that wealthier people’s remains were more likely to be moved during urban redevelopment, while poorer burials were more likely to remain in place. A cemetery therefore represents a socially and archaeologically filtered population, not a neutral census.
Indigenous people are archaeologically documented at the earlier Pointe-à-Callière cemetery. Their presence there, and the possibility that their social position was marginal, shows why ancestry results must be read alongside burial context and colonial history.
How this compares with evidence from living Quebecers
A 2013 PLOS One study analyzed 205 contemporary Quebec individuals rather than colonial-era remains. Its f3 estimates of Native American admixture ranged from 0.5% to 2.9%. An ALDER analysis produced a lower-bound estimate of 0.8% ± 0.2%. One estimate placed the average timing of the inferred admixture at about 435 ± 80 years ago; using Native North American reference populations, another estimate gave 358 ± 102 years.
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Those figures concern descendants living in Quebec today and represent averages across the study’s participants. The 2026 work concerns one cemetery and people who died between 1683 and 1796. They are different populations, geographic samples and time frames, so the results are not a direct contradiction. A cemetery can lack detectable admixture even while later generations elsewhere in Quebec carry small but measurable Native American ancestry.
| Evidence | Population and place | Time frame | Main result | Key limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ancient DNA study, 2026 | 45 people from Notre-Dame Cemetery, Montreal | Burials from 1683–1796 | Exclusively French European ancestry in the analyzed remains | One cemetery and one sample |
| Population-genetics study, 2013 | 205 contemporary Quebec individuals | Admixture inferred in ancestors roughly 7–13 generations earlier | f3 estimates of 0.5%–2.9%; ALDER lower bound 0.8% ± 0.2% | Living participants do not represent every historical region or lineage |
The earlier study also warned that mitochondrial or other single-line inheritance markers cannot by themselves measure total nuclear-DNA admixture. A maternal or paternal lineage is only one branch of a family tree; autosomal ancestry provides a broader, but still statistical, estimate.
Contact in New France was broader than marriage
Genetic ancestry cannot be used as a simple score for the intensity of colonial contact. A 2024 bioarchaeological study describes French settlement along the St. Lawrence, policies that encouraged intermarriage and “francization,” and only 19 recorded marriages between Indigenous Catholics and colonists. It also records colonists living with Indigenous communities outside formal marriage.
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The historical record therefore includes trade, military and political alliances, conflict, missions, co-residence and family ties. Formal marriage registers capture only one of those forms of contact. Conversely, a policy encouraging intermarriage does not demonstrate that it happened widely in every settlement or social class.
Isabelle Ribot, a bioarchaeologist, has emphasized the social question that remains after identifying Indigenous individuals in a cemetery: “Even if we find (the remains of) Indigenous people in cemeteries, the question remains: What was their place in society?” Burial location, access to church cemeteries, mobility, missionization and colonial marginalization can all affect what the archaeological record preserves.
Can a DNA test prove Indigenous identity?
No. A DNA test can estimate genetic similarity to reference populations or identify inherited ancestry, but it cannot by itself establish Indigenous belonging. Diane Martin-Moya stated: “Biological ancestry cannot by itself establish Indigenous belonging.” The University of Montreal report explains that Indigenous identity is grounded in kinship, community, land and cultural relationships, not transmitted solely through blood.
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This distinction applies to both ancient remains and consumer ancestry tests. A small percentage estimate, a single mitochondrial lineage or a match to a population reference panel may suggest an ancestral connection, but none automatically confers citizenship, community membership or the right to speak for an Indigenous nation. Nation-specific citizenship rules and community relationships—not a commercial percentage—govern belonging.
The PNAS study places this issue in a broader decolonial context. Bioarchaeology is being asked to move beyond treating blood ties as the sole measure of kinship and to address reciprocal obligations of care for human remains. Genetic sampling can answer some questions about population history while leaving ethical, political and relational questions to communities and historians.
Why the result matters for the history of Montreal
The Notre-Dame genomes add a precise test to a debate often framed too broadly. For this cemetery, the available genetic evidence does not support a broadly admixed founding population. That finding encourages researchers to examine other cemeteries, burial groups and settlement regions rather than treating Montreal as a stand-in for all New France.
It also shows why historical conclusions need several kinds of evidence. Ancient DNA can reveal ancestry in particular individuals; parish records can document formal marriages; archaeology can show movement, burial access and material conditions; and Indigenous communities can define the meanings of kinship and belonging that genetics cannot measure.
The strongest conclusion is therefore narrow but important: the 45 tested Notre-Dame Cemetery individuals were genetically French European, while the wider history of settler-Indigenous relations included contact and some family ties that this cemetery sample cannot capture.
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