by Jean-François Loiseau
published on October 28, 2017, updated on September 6, 2023
The direct paternal ancestor of Celine Dion, Jean, was named "Guyon". He was a mason who spent his career in Mortagne (Perche, Orne, France) up to 1634, year of his departure to "La Nouvelle-France" in Canada.
September 18th 1592! While Henri IV tried to conquer his Kingdom, the parish of Tourouvre in Le Perche has been the scene of a modest event. On the parish registers, the priest records the baptismal certificate of a new parishioner in latin:
« Johannes filius Jacobi Guyon er Maria eus uxoris… ». His father is a notable, his mother is Marie Huet.
We do not know precisely how his childhood liked like but we found his name mentioned on an act of May 18th, 1614 when he lent money to a ploughman of Autheuil.
One year later, the priest of the parish Saint-Jean de Mortagne writes on a register: "On June 12, 1615, Jehan Guyon, of the parish Tourouvre, and Mathurine Robin, of this parish, were married."
At 42 years old, ten days after the birth of his last child, Jean Guyon will yield to the proposals of Robert Giffard, doctor, cantor of the emigration to Quebec and decides to leave France to make colony in New-France.
In March 1634, Jean and his family, except for his daughter Barbe and his son-in-law who will join the rest of the family in Beauport in 1652, leaves Mortagne. Embarked in Dieppe, the Guyon family will arrive, after two months of sailing, to the mouth of the Saint-Laurent river in June 1634.
Years after years, his children and descendants gave birth to generations of Guyon, renamed Guion or Dion. They are settled in Quebec, Canada and in the United States. Adhemar Dion, father of Celine, native from Charlemagne, is a descendant of Jean Guyon, the first son of the pioneer mason.
perche-quebec.com has found more than 2000 Celine Dion's ancestors. See details here.
perche-quebec.com has discovered that Celine Dion has many family ties with other celebrities in music (Madonna, Justin Bieber, Alanis Morissette), politics (Hillary Clinton, Justin Trudeau, Stephane Dion), the film industry (Xavier Dolan, Ryan Gosling, Angelina Jolie) and royalty (Camilla, Queen of the United Kingdom).
All those celebrities have in common French-Canadian pioneers, and in particular Percheron pioneers.
For instance, the Percheron pioneer Zacharie Cloutier, an ancestor of most of the celebrities mentioned before, who was born in Mortagne-au-Perche.
As strange as it may seem, there is nothing exceptional about those family ties. As the Percheron pioneers were among the very first French settlers to arrive in what was then known as New France, most of North Americans with French-Canadian ancestry have Percheron blood and are more or less related.
Celine Dion's family tree has a very rare feature; the patrilineal and matrilineal ascending lineages meet respectively at the level of the 12th and 13th generations!
The pioneer couple Jean Guyon and Mathurine Robin who left Perche in 1634 are at the crossroads of these two lines. It is exceptional that the same couple appears in both patrilineal and matrilineal lines.
The matrilineal line is the one of a woman and her female ancestors. It is the lineage of the mother, the mother’s mother, the mother’s mother’s mother, etc. over a certain number of generations.
This line is most certainly the one which raises the fewest doubts in a family tree. If a man recognizes a child as his own at the time of the birth, it is more difficult for a woman to hide her pregnancy, even if exceptions do exist. Sometimes a grandmother declares being the mother of a child to save the family's reputation as well as her daughter's.
The patrilineal line climbs up the family tree from father to father, it is the one through which the family name is generally passed on. In the case of Celine Dion, the family name has evolved over the generations from Guyon to Dion.
Patrilineal line |
Matrilineal line |
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GUYON Jean (1592 Tourouvre - 1663 Beauport) |
⚭ 1615 Mortagne-au-Perche |
ROBIN Mathurine (~ end 16th Mortagne-au-Perche - 1662 Beauport) |
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GUYON Jean (1619-1694) ⚭ 1645 COUILLARD Elisabeth Isabelle (1631-1704) GUYON Pierre (1670-1697) ⚭ 1694 TESTU Angelique (1675-1710) GUYON Louis (1697-) ⚭ 1722 GAMACHE Marguerite Anne (1694-1759) GUYON Joseph Joachim (1728-1793) ⚭ 1751 FOURNIER Marie Marguerite (1734-1801) DION Joseph (1781-1810) ⚭ 1803 BERNIER Yvonne Modeste (1776-) DION Joseph (1804-) ⚭ 1833 CHESNEL Marie Julie (1806-1878) DION Joseph (1833-1905) ⚭ 1867 LeTOURNEAU Marcelline (1845-1922) DION Adelard (~1870-1940) ⚭ 1893 LEVESQUE Esther (1871-1934) DION Joseph Charles Adelard (1895-1957) ⚭ 1922 BARRIAULT Marie Ernestine (1904-1980) |
GUYON Barbe Marie (1617-1700) ⚭ 1632 PARADIS Pierre (1604-1675) PARADIS Madeleine Marie (1653-1669) ⚭ 1667 ROUSSIN Nicolas (1635-1697) ROUSSIN Marie (1669-) ⚭ 1685 TREMBLAY Pierre (1660-1736) TREMBLAY Marie Anne (1710-1749) ⚭ 1732 DUFOUR Joseph (~ 1709-1774) DUFOUR Marie Josephe (1735-1760) ⚭ 1750 TREMBLAY François (1727-) TREMBLAY Felicite (1759-)> ⚭ 1774 GAGNE Joseph Ignace (1752-) GAGNE Marie Modeste (1789-1866) ⚭ 1809 SAINT-LAURENT Michel (1786-1859) SAINT-LAURENT Emilie (1830-1896) ⚭ 1848 GAGNE Joseph (1822-1909) GAGNE Marie Adele (1853-~1901) ⚭ 1889 SERGERIE Joseph Gustave (1870-1910) SERGERIE Antoinette (1897-1976) ⚭ 1913 TANGUAY Achille Lauriat (1892-1953) | ||||
DION Adhemar (1923 les Mechins - 2003 Laval) |
TANGUAY Therese (1927 Ste-Anne-des-Monts - 2020 Laval) |
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⚭ 1945 La Tuque |
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DION Celine (1968 Repentigny) |
Besides Jean Guyon, the direct ancestor of Celine Dion born in Tourouvre, Celine Dion has many ancestors whose the origin is Perche. All immigrated in the 17th century.
Emigrants | Year of baptism | Place of baptism (or birth) | Year of migration | Year of death | Place of death |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Aloignon Pierre Denis | 1621* | Moussonvilliers | 1647 | 1690 | Quebec |
Bisson Gervais | 1603* | Contres | 1650* | 1674 | Quebec |
Bisson Gervais | 1642 | Pouvrai | 1652* | 1707 | Quebec |
Bouchard Claude dit Le Petit Claude | 1626* | Saint-Cosme-de-Vair | 1650 | 1699 | Saint-Francois-Xavier-de-la-Petite-Riviere |
Boucher Gaspard | 1599* | Mortagne-au-Perche | 1634* | - | Canada |
Boucher Jean Galeran | 1633 | Saint-Langis-les-Mortagne | 1634 | 1714 | Riviere-Ouelle |
Boucher Marie Marguerite | 1631 | Mortagne-au-Perche | 1635* | 1666<>1669 | Quebec |
Boucher Marin | 1587* | Mortagne-au-Perche | 1634 | 1671 | Chateau-Richer |
Boulay Jacqueline | 1659 | Saint-Germain-de-Loise | 1662 | 1736 | Montmagny |
Boulay Robert | 1630* | Perche | 1662 | 1707 | Montmagny |
Cloutier Anne | 1626 | Mortagne-au-Perche | 1635* | 1648 | Quebec |
Cloutier Charles | 1629 | Mortagne-au-Perche | 1635* | 1709 | Quebec |
Cloutier Jean | 1620 | Mortagne-au-Perche | 1635* | 1690 | Quebec |
Cloutier Louise Marie | 1632 | Mortagne-au-Perche | 1635* | 1709 | Quebec |
Cloutier Zacharie | 1590* | Mortagne-au-Perche | 1634 | 1677 | Chateau-Richer |
Cloutier Zacharie | 1617 | Mortagne-au-Perche | 1634 | 1708 | Chateau-Richer |
Cordeau Jean dit Deslauriers | 1635* | Dangeau | 1659* | - | Canada |
Cote Jean[1] | end 16th - early 17th | - | 1635* | 1661 | Quebec |
Delaunay Nicolas | 1629 | Comblot | 1654* | 1703 | Sainte-Famille-de-l'Ile-d'Orleans |
Dodier Jacques | 1637* | Champaissant | 1656* | 1677 | Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupre |
Drouin Robert | 1607 | Le Pin-la-Garenne | 1634* | 1685 | Chateau-Richer |
Dupont Xainte | 1595* | Mortagne-au-Perche | 1635* | 1680 | Chateau-Richer |
Fortin Julien | 1621 | Notre-Dame-de-Vair | 1650 | 1690* | Canada |
Fournier Guillaume | 1620* | Coulimer or Coulmer[2] | 1651* | 1699 | Montmagny |
Gagne Louis | 1612 | Ige | 1644* | 1661* | Pays des Aganiers |
Gagne Louis dit Bellavance | 1643 | Saint-Cosme-de-Vair | 1653* | 1698 | Quebec |
Gagne Louise | 1642 | Ige | 1644* | 1721 | Baie-Saint-Paul |
Gagne Pierre | 1610 | Ige | 1653* | 1656 | Saint-Anne-de-Beaupre |
Gagnon Jean | 1610 | Tourouvre | 1640* | 1670 | Chateau-Richer |
Gagnon Marguerite | 1598 | Tourouvre | 1643* | 1677 | Chateau-Richer |
Gagnon Robert | 1628 | La Ventrouze | 1655* | 1703 | Sainte-Famille-de-l'Ile-d'Orleans |
Giroux Toussaint | 1633 | Reveillon | 1651* | 1715 | Beauport |
Goulet Louise | 1628 | La Poterie-au-Perche | 1669* | 1699 | L'Ange-Gardien |
Grenier Francoise | - | Perche | 1662 | 1709 | Montmagny |
Guimond Louis | 1st half 17th | Champs | 1647 | 1661 | Canada |
Guyon Barbe Marie | 1617 | Mortagne-au-Perche | 1652* | 1700 | Saint-Pierre-de-l'Ile-d'Orleans |
Guyon Jean | 1592 | Tourouvre | 1634 | 1663 | Beauport |
Guyon Jean | 1619 | Mortagne-au-Perche | 1634 | 1694 | Chateau-Richer |
Guyon Marie | 1624 | Mortagne-au-Perche | 1636* | 1696 | Cap-Saint-Ignace |
Guyon Simon | 1621 | Mortagne-au-Perche | 1636* | 1682 | Quebec |
Huard Jean | 1641* | Autheuil[3] | 1662* | 1708 | La Pointe-de-Levy |
Landry Guillaume | 1623 | La Ventrouze | 1655* | 1689 | Sainte-Famille-de-l'Ile-d'Orleans |
Landry Mathurin | end 16th | Neuilly-sur-Eure | 1643* | - | - |
Langlois Noel | 1606 | Saint-Leonard-des-Parcs | 1634* | 1684 | Beauport |
Lehoux Francoise | 1628 | La Ventrouze | 1647* | 1685 | Beaupre |
Lehoux Jacques | 1580* | Perche | 1647* | 1680 | Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupre |
Lemaire Nicole | 1595 | Mamers | 1635* | - | Trois-Rivieres |
Lereau Marie | 1623* | Saint-Cosme-de-Vair | 1654* | 1687 | Quebec |
Letartre Rene | 1626 | Charencey | 1669* | 1699 | L'Ange-Gardien |
Mabille Michelle | 1592 | Tourouvre | 1641 | 1665 | Quebec |
Maheu Pierre, sieur des Hazards | 1630 | Mortagne-au-Perche | 1651 | 1717 | Beauport |
Mallet Perrine | 1604* | Courgeon or Courgeout | 1634 | 1687 | Chateau-Richer |
Maufay Pierre | 1625 | Ige | 1652* | 1677 | Quebec |
Mercier Julien | 1621 | Tourouvre | 1647 | 1676 | Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupre |
Michel Marie | 1619* | Saint-Martin-du-Vieux-Belleme | 1644* | 1687 | Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupre |
Paradis Guillaume | 1644 | Mortagne-au-Perche | 1652* | 1716 | Saint-Pierre-de-l'Ile-d'Orleans |
Paradis Jacques | 1641 | Mortagne-au-Perche | 1652* | Canada | |
Paradis Jean | 1650 | Mortagne-au-Perche | 1652* | 1717 | Charlesbourg |
Paradis Marie | 1639* | Mortagne-au-Perche | 1652* | 1708 | Sainte-Famille-de-l'Ile-d'Orleans |
Paradis Pierre | 1604 | Mortagne-au-Perche | 1652* | 1675 | Sainte-Famille-de-l'Ile-d'Orleans |
Pelletier Guillaume dit Globoteur | end 16th | Bresolettes | 1641 | 1657 | Beauport |
Pelletier Jean | 1627 | Tourouvre | 1641 | 1698 | La Pocatiere |
Robin Mathurine | end 16th | Mortagne-au-Perche | 1636* | 1662 | Beauport |
Roger Renee | - | La Ventrouze | 1640* | - | Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupre |
Rosee Marguerite | 1615* | Jauze | 1653* | - | Canada |
Roussin Francoise | 1631 | Tourouvre | 1651 | 1691 | Quebec |
Roussin Jean | 1597 | Tourouvre | 1650 | 1682 | L'Ange-Gardien |
Roussin Louise | 1642 | Tourouvre | 1650* | 1700 | Sainte-Famille-de-l'Ile-d'Orleans |
Roussin Nicolas | 1635 | Tourouvre | 1651 | 1697 | L'Ange-Gardien |
Tavernier Eloi[4] | end 16th / early 17th | Perche | 1643* | - | - |
Tavernier Marguerite | 1627* | Randonnai | 1643* | 1697 | Chateau-Richer |
Tremblay Pierre | 1626* | Randonnai | 1647 | 1688* | Canada |