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DNA from 45 people buried in Montreal’s Notre-Dame Cemetery found exclusively French European ancestry, with no detected recent Indigenous or African admixture in this sample. The cemetery operated from 1683 to 1796, covering much of the city’s French-colonial period.
The result is evidence about these 45 individuals—not a genetic census of colonial Montreal. It does not show that Indigenous–French unions never occurred, that Indigenous or African-descended residents were absent, or that present-day Quebecers lack Indigenous ancestors.
What the study found
A team led by Diane Martin-Moya analyzed ancient DNA from 45 individuals recovered from Notre-Dame Cemetery. The PNAS study describes their ancestry as “exclusively French European.” No recent Indigenous or African admixture was detected in the analyzed remains.
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The burials span successive phases of the cemetery rather than a single family plot. Genetic results also indicate that unions between close relatives were uncommon. Graves had overlapped as the cemetery expanded, and later urban development disrupted parts of the burial ground, adding complexity to recovery and interpretation.
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Does this mean French settlers and Indigenous people in Montreal never intermarried?
No. A one-cemetery sample cannot answer that citywide or regionally. Martin-Moya said, “Our sample is small and comes from a single cemetery, so this does not show that such unions never happened.” The findings challenge a broad popular idea that widespread early admixture must have occurred throughout French-colonial Montreal, but they do not rule out individual family ties or relationships documented in other records.
Trade, military alliances, conflict, adoption, and other forms of contact could occur without leaving detectable ancestry in this particular group of burials. Conversely, a person with Indigenous or African ancestry might not be represented in the surviving sample at all.
How many skeletons were tested, and how?
The researchers generated and analyzed genetic data from 45 people. The abstract reports three principal analytical approaches:
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- Genotype imputation: statistical inference used to fill some missing genetic markers from patterns in reference data.
- Runs of homozygosity: stretches of matching DNA that can provide information about parental relatedness and population history.
- Identity-by-descent analysis: comparison of DNA segments shared because they were inherited from a common ancestor.
Together, these methods let the team assess ancestry, relatedness and the distribution of lineages across burial phases. They cannot recover information that was never preserved or sampled.
Why the cemetery sample may not represent Montreal
Burial practices and later construction can change which people remain available to archaeologists. The cemetery’s graves overlapped as new burials were added, and urban development disturbed the site. People buried inside the church were more likely to be exhumed or moved, while poorer residents buried outside could remain beneath later buildings or streets. Those processes can produce a preservation and sampling bias before DNA testing begins.
Access to the cemetery may also have varied by social status, period and burial location. The 45 individuals therefore represent the remains that survived, could be recovered and yielded usable genetic data—not every social group that lived in Montreal between 1683 and 1796.
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Why an earlier skeletal study looks more diverse
A 2024 morphometric study examined 214 temporal bones from multiple Quebec cemeteries and classified 82% as European (112 individuals), 7% as Indigenous (10), 6% as intermediate between African and Indigenous (8), and 5% as African (7).
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|---|---|---|---|
| Ancient DNA study | 45 people from Montreal’s Notre-Dame Cemetery | All analyzed individuals had French European ancestry; no detected recent Indigenous or African admixture | Direct genetic evidence for this cemetery sample; not a citywide population estimate |
| Skeletal morphology study | 214 temporal-bone individuals from multiple Quebec cemeteries, analyzed in 2024 | 82% European, 7% Indigenous, 6% African–Indigenous intermediate, 5% African | Broader regional pattern based on physical morphology, not directly interchangeable with DNA percentages |
These results should not be combined into a single percentage. Morphological classifications and genetic ancestry measure different signals, use different samples and cover different places. The multi-cemetery study may capture variation that a single Montreal cemetery does not, while morphology cannot provide the same type of genome-wide ancestry evidence as ancient DNA.
Can DNA prove that someone is Indigenous?
No. Genetic ancestry and Indigenous belonging are not equivalent. Indigenous identity can involve community citizenship, family and kinship, cultural continuity, nation-specific law, lived relationships and recognition by an Indigenous community. Martin-Moya summarized the distinction: “Biological ancestry cannot by itself establish Indigenous belonging.”
An ancient genome can indicate biological relationships or ancestry components in a set of remains. It cannot, on its own, determine a person’s nation, language, community ties or legal status. The same limitation applies to modern consumer ancestry tests: a reported percentage is not proof of Indigenous citizenship or belonging.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Does this prove Quebecers have no Indigenous ancestors?
No. The study says nothing that broad about people living in Quebec today. It tested 45 historical individuals from one cemetery and found no detected recent Indigenous or African admixture among them. Present-day ancestry reflects many populations, migrations and family histories across centuries, including people who were never buried at Notre-Dame Cemetery.
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Historical records and archaeological evidence remain important alongside genetics. A DNA result from one burial site can refine a specific historical question, but it cannot erase evidence from other cemeteries, archives or Indigenous communities.
Quick Recap
What the finding changes—and what it does not
- It changes: the assumption that widespread early Indigenous–French biological mixing must be visible in every colonial Montreal burial population.
- It does not change: the possibility of individual unions, alliances, trade networks, conflict, adoption or other sustained relationships between Indigenous peoples and French colonists.
- It does not establish: the demographic makeup of all colonial Montreal residents or the ancestry and identity of modern Quebecers.
- It reinforces: the need to interpret ancient DNA with burial history, archaeology, documentary evidence and Indigenous knowledge.
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