Annette

Vienneau Y-DNA Results

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May 132019
 

In 2013-2014, three Vienneau male descendants took the Y-DNA 37 markers test. The three males descend from three sons of Therese Baude & Michel Vienneau\Vianot: Jean-Baptiste Vienneau (b. 10 Jan 1754 Quebec city) who married Magdeleine Lejeune; Joseph Vienneau\Vienneau dit Michaud (b. 5 Dec 1755 Quebec city) who married Genevieve LaMontagne; and Francois Vienneau (b. 3 Jul 1762 St Charles, Bellechasse County, Quebec) who married Cecile Cormier.
There was an exact match on the results from the descendant of Jean-Baptiste Vienneau and of Joseph Vienneau\Vienneau Michaud. The result from the descendant of Francois Vienneau showed a mutation on the DYS458 marker of the 37 markers. His result showed 19 repeats at that marker whilst the other two cousins showed 18 repeats of the DNA strand at that marker. That means that over 5 to 6 generations, there has been only one change or mutation that occurred in the Y-DNA in the 37 markers that were tested and compared. At the 37-marker level a perfect or close match such as this strongly suggests (90% probability) a common ancestor within the past 8 generations. It is not uncommon to see 1 or 2 mutations.

The three Vienneau male descendants that were tested belong to the Haplogroup R-Z2566, a subclade of R-M269.

Even though there is a good paper trail on the Joseph Vienneau\Vienneau dit Michaud line, there were some questions as to whether they were descendants of Michel and Therese.  The Y-DNA test provides additional proof that they are indeed Vienneau descendants. Other people with a Michaud surname, who are not known descendants of Michel and Therese, have tested and belong to Haplogroup J and not R.

Apr 072018
 

In May 2017, Arthur and I travelled to south-eastern France to do research in various archives and explore the towns and countryside where my Vianot ancestors had lived during the 15th to 18th centuries prior to sailing to North America.  We stayed in Bollène for a week and saw the sites of the town, visited the Municiple Archives and found a few parish records there.  We took day trips to Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux, Donzère, Rochemaure, and Avignon, visiting local museums/archives and walking through the towns.  The following week we revisited the Departmental Archives of Vaucluse (DAV) in Avignon, and then moved northward to visit the Departmental Archives of Ardèche (DAA) in Privas, and the Departmental Archives of Drôme (DAD) in Valence, before playing tourist and exploring other areas of France.

Highlights of our trip included finding two Marriage Contracts in our search through many Notorial Records and other sources in the various archives.  Many of the Notorial Records had indices but some did not.  It was the records of Jean Doulhon, Notary of Bollène located at DAV in Avignon,  where we found the Marriage Contract dated 5th July 1705 for Antoine Vianot & his 2nd wife, Andrieue Lunel(le)  (page 1 of 9 pages).  Later, while looking at the Notorial Records for Etienne Barthélemy, Notary of Donzère on microfilm at DAD in Valence, we found the Marriage Contract dated 26th October 1638 for Andeol Vianot & his 1st wife, Catherine Barthélémy (page 1 and page 2 of 6 pages).  Marriage Contracts reveal more information about the families and give the names of the parents of the bride and groom.  Most marriage entries in parish registers around those dates do not provide the names of parents of the bride and groom.

With my limited French, we were still able to communicate with the staff at the various archives and found they went out of their way to welcome us.  They were generous with their time to show us what was available in different groups of records and assisted with interpretation of several entries from these records.  When they did not hold the records we sought, they referred us to other institutions that might hold them.

All in all it was an interesting trip as genealogists and as tourists.