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Hi Jean,
Thanks for your support.
Following your remark about Judith Benoit having been over 90% French, I would like to remind everyone that she was born around 200 years ago, and that consequently her 1/16th of Indian blood, as well as her 15/16 of French, have become diluted by the intermarriage of her descendants with persons of other ethnic groups over the years.
Let's look at how this process plays out down to the present day. Judith Benoit married George Burton, who, according to the 1871 census was English, and who has never been shown to have had any Native or French ancestry. Thus her 1/16th Native ancestry was reduced to 1/32nd in her children's veins. Her son, Thomas Burton, married Elizabeth Brown, whose ancestors also came from the British Isles, so Judith's grandson James Burton was only 1/4 as much Native (1.56%) and French (23.44%) as his grandmother had been.
James Burton's wife was Esther Job, whose forebears were all English and Scottish, so the halving continued. The question was raised some while ago of just how much Indian blood a certain living person named Burton has, and this analysis provides a partial answer, because James Burton and Esther Job were that individual's great-grandparents.
The exact quantum that descends to him from Judith Benoit can accordingly be calculated quite easily; it is just a matter of simple arithmetic.
Here's another way of looking at things. Acadian people are seen as ethnically French, despite the fact that some of the first European settlers in Acadia were clearly not French.
Many of us with Acadian ancestry can include in our family trees Jean Pitre, who was Flemish; Pierre Melanson's wife Priscilla and Laurent Granger, who were both English; and Roger Caissy, who was Irish.
The fact remains unchanged that despite these very few strains of non-French blood in Acadian lines, the Acadian people are French. The above individuals married French spouses and were, for lack of a better term, "Frenchified" in Acadian communities.
In my estimation, any individuals with Acadian heritage calling themselves Native Americans because they have a 17th- or 18th- century ancestor who was Aboriginal are just as awkward as I would be calling myself "English" just because I have Pierre Melanson's wife Priscilla and Laurent Granger in my tree.
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