Ancestry of Madonna

by Jean-François Loiseau
published on October 28, 2017, updated on April 21, 2026

When Madonna came to Quebec in 1987 for the «Who's That Girl Tour» , she revealed that her mother was French-American. Suddenly, genealogists started researches. "It took more than two years mainly because Michigan has no marriage registers like in Quebec" explains Rene Jette (1944-2003). This Canadian professor from Montreal University, author of a reference dictionary of the families of Quebec, teamed up with an American colleague Gail F. Moreau-DesHarnais. In 1994, they published the results of their research in the magazine Michigan's Habitant Heritage, Journal of the French-Canadian Heritage Society of Michigan.

French Canadian descent

Madonna talks about her French direct ancestor, Julien Fortin, in the French TV show "La chanson numero 1" broadcasted on France 2, June 8, 2003

Madonna Louise Ciccone (a.k.a. Madonna) was born on August 16, 1958 in Bay City, Michigan, located near the base of the Saginaw Bay on Lake Huron. She was the third of six children in a Catholic family.

Her father, Silvio Anthony Ciccone (a.k.a. Tony), was an Italian American design engineer for Chrysler/General Dynamics. He has his roots in L'Aquila in the Abruzzo region (Italy). He married a French Canadian descent, Madonna Louise Fortin, on July 2, 1955 in Bay City. The family lived in a small brick house in Pontiac, Michigan.

Madonna’s mother died of breast cancer in 1963 when Madonna was five years old. A few years later, her father married their housekeeper Joan Gustafson and had two more children.

Willard and Elsie Fortin, the maternal grandparents of Madonna, are direct descendants of Julien Fortin dit Bellefontaine, the first Fortin who settled in New France in 1650. He was from the parish Notre-Dame-de-Vair, today part of the village Saint-Cosme-en-Vairais (Sarthe, France). 90% of the American Fortin descend from Julien Fortin. The Fortins are today the ninth largest family in Quebec.

Ethnic breakdown of Madonna’s ancestry

Madonna, a cousin of Celine Dion, Justin Bieber, Justin Trudeau, Hillary Clinton, Ryan Gosling, Angelina Jolie and Camilla, Queen of the United Kingdom…

Lady Gaga and Madonna cousins?

Perche-Quebec has discovered that Madonna has many family ties with other celebrities in music (Celine Dion, Justin Bieber), politics (Hillary Clinton, Justin Trudeau), the film industry (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.

Famous cousins of Madonna

source & infographics Perche-Quebec

The Material Girl has many family ties with the famous descendants of those Percheron pioneers.

Perche-Quebec has found out not less than:
• 500 links with Justin Bieber
• 429 links with Celine Dion
• 336 links with Xavier Dolan
• 286 links with Jack Kerouac
• 205 links with Ryan Gosling
• 202 links with Jim Carrey
• 179 links with Angelina Jolie
• 100 links with Justin Trudeau
• 46 links with Alanis Morissette
• 45 links with Hillary Clinton
• 30 links with Camilla, Queen of the United Kingdom

The Percheron ancestors of Madonna

Besides Julien Fortin dit Bellefontaine, the direct ancestor of Madonna born in Saint-Cosme-en-Vairais, (Sarthe, France), Madonna has many ancestors whose the origin is Perche. All immigrated in the 17th century.