DNA Test Confirms the Albert's Connections to the Gaspe Peninsula

To date, I have taken two DNA tests; one from Family Tree DNA and one from Ancestry DNA. I urge other Alberts to take their DNA test also. Cheers to Susan Young for having tested already. In the image below, she appears on the top of my results page as my first cousin.

With the more delineated breakdown of the "Ethnicity Estimate" that Ancestry DNA provides, it shows that I have ancestors from the Gaspe region. This estimate aligns well with research I have done in this area and others represented in the red circle on the image above.

Fishing boats on the Gaspe around 1900

Our immigrant ancestor, Gabriel Albert, moved from France to the Gaspe region in the mid-18th century surely attracted by the rich industry of cod fishing. What lured fishermen like Albert away from their homeland in France?  According to GaspeCured, a modern day processing plant, the old tradition of curing cod dates back to 1755. "The region's perfect weather conditions, a cold and dry climate, make it the ideal place to salt and dry the cod." Seemingly, those conditions have not changed from Gabriel Albert's time.

The map with description above shows the closeness of the DNA report to my actual French Canadian heritage.  Two of my family lines immigrated from areas where the line emanates from (France).  Of course, one of these families is the Alberts. 

Creative Commons image of an English Silk Mill

One of the Albert descended sons, Ferdinand, decided to change the course of our family history and move to Southern Maine sometime before 1895.  Just as Gabriel had started a new life spurred on by the promise of a new industry, so had Ferdinand. The focus of our family's sustenance changed from an agricultural context to an industrial one as Ferdinand learned the craft of silk weaving in the growing French Canadian mill town of Westbrook, Maine.


Image Sources:
1. Fishing boats: 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/museemccordmuseum/5352062700/
2. Silk mill: 
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Silk_Mill_AJKeene.jpg

Clarifying the Albert Line

In an earlier post (Connecting Canada to France), the Albert's earliest ancestor was known to be Pierre Albert based on a genealogy book written by Gabriel Drouin. I have since discovered that information is apparently a mistake. As I trace the ancestry back from Ferdinand Albert (Auguste Albert's father), I see the line to be represented in the following graphic:

The Albert book written by Mr. Drouin did not include sources so I cannot confirm the lineage that he suggested. What I have confirmed is that Gabriel Albert did have a son named Pierre but the Drouin book references another Pierre Albert who came from Lucon area of France. I have seen no linkage of this Pierre Albert to our Ferdinand Albert. The Pierre Albert line described and highlighted in the Drouin book derived from the Kamouraska area of Canada, but we know that our Albert ancestors (correct lineage shown above) came from Normandy in France and Caraquet in New Brunswick, Canada. What I believe is the spot in the Drouin book where the mistake begins is shown circled in red. What should be in the red circle are the correct parent names of Jean Baptiste who are Gabriel Albert and Genevieve Boothillier. Therese's parent names are Louis Lanteigne and Marguerite Chapadeau. (see source: The Alberts).

Source: Acadiensis, Vol VII, 1907, David Russell Jack, ed.

Gabriel Albert's first son was Pierre and they both were among the founding families of Caraquet who received land grants from the British government. The image above shows an early map of Caraquet with the Albert names among the founding families of the town. The map also shows Caraquet Island where Gabriel moved his family to after the turmoil of the Acadian expulsion in 1755. Gabriel's second son was Jean Baptiste (see green arrow below) whose descendants included Ferdinand, Auguste, myself and the other Albert readers of this blog.