Leo XIV, his French-Canadian ancestors

On May 8, 2025, following the announcement of the election of Pope Leo XIV, born Robert Francis Prevost, the international genealogical community, particularly the French-speaking community, quickly became interested in his origins. The surname "Prevost," with its obvious French consonance, immediately attracted attention. Thanks to a collaborative effort conducted on the "Genealogy Center" Discord server, a group of researchers sketched out the broad outlines of his ancestry in the first hours following the election. Since then, Leo XIV's family tree has been expanded and can be viewed online here.

This article does not aim to trace the Pope's entire ancestry, which spans several countries (France, Italy, Cuba, and the United States), but to shed light on the segments of his maternal line leading to New France, particularly Quebec and the Perche region.

Immediate origins

Robert Francis Prevost was born on September 14, 1955, in Chicago, Illinois (United States), to Louis Marius Prevost and Mildred Agnes Martinez, a librarian, who were married in the same city on January 25, 1949^[1].

Contrary to what his surname might suggest, it is not the paternal line, but the maternal branch that allows us to go back to the first settlers of New France. The team of Pierre Gendreau-Hetu, director of the Genealogie Quebec project, in association with the Programme de recherche en demographie historique (PRDH) of the Universite de Montreal, has highlighted a genealogical link between Mildred Agnes Martinez and Pierre Boucher (1622–1717), governor of Trois-Rivieres, founder of Boucherville and ennobled by Louis XIV^[2].

At first, this ancestry could not be stated with certainty, due to documentary gaps, particularly in the Louisiana archives of the 18th century, although the converging sources were considered solid. On June 8, 2025, experts from the Genealogy Quebec project officially confirmed the French-Canadian roots of Leo XIV, based on autosomal DNA tests (on non-sex chromosomes) carried out in the United States but identified and analyzed by them^[3].

				MARTINEZ Joseph Nerval ° 1864 ✝ 1926 Chicago IL		BAQUIE Louise ° 1868 New Orleans LA ✝ 1945 Des Plaines LA
					⚭ 1887 New Orleans LA
PREVOST Louis Marius ° 1920 Chicago IL ✝ 1997 Homewood IL				MARTINEZ Midred Agnes ° 1911 Chicago IL ✝ 1990 Chicago Heights IL
		⚭ 1949 Chicago IL
PREVOST Robert Francis ° 1955 Chicago, IL Leon XIV

Creole ancestry in Louisiana

Mildred Agnes Martinez was the daughter of Joseph Nerval Martinez, a Cuban-born cigar maker, and Louise Baquie, born in New Orleans on February 4, 1868. The latter's grandfather, Aristide Baquie, born in Pointe-à-Pitre (Guadeloupe) on September 25, 1811, migrated to Louisiana. From his union with Celeste Lemelle^[4], a son was born, Ferdinand David Baquie, father of Louise.

Celeste Lemelle was herself the daughter of Louis Lemelle and Olympe Celeste Grandpre, both designated as "free people of color" in the marriage contract they entered into on October 16, 1798, at the Opelousas Post (Louisiana)^[5]. This document provides valuable genealogical information: Louis Lemelle is said to be “a free mulatto or carteron^[6], native of the said post, natural son of Mr. François Lemelle and Marie Jeanne Lemelle, a free mulatto, his father and mother”; His wife is described as "Celeste Olimpie Grandpres, a free woman of French origin, native of Pointe Coupee in this province, aged seventeen, natural daughter of Mr. Charles Grandpres and Jeanette Clapion, a free mulatto, her father and mother."

Although Olympe Celeste Grandpre's birth certificate has not been located, her year of birth can therefore be estimated at around 1781. At this time, Louisiana was under Spanish control following the Treaty of Fontainebleau of November 3, 1762, by which Louis XV ceded the territory to Spain to prevent a British takeover.

	LEMELLE Louis ° ca 1772 Opelousas LA		GRANDPRE Olympe Celeste ° ca 1781 La Pointe Coupee LA ✝ 1833 New Orleans LA
		⚭ 1798 Opelousas LA
BAQUIE Aristide ° 1811 Pointe-à-Pitre (Guadeloupe) ✝ 1822 New Orleans LA		LEMELLE Celeste ° ca 1814 LA ✝ 1877 New Orleans LA
BAQUIE Ferdinand David ° 1837 New Orleans LA ✝ 1883 New Orleans LA				GRAMBOIS Eugenie ° 1838 ✝ 1907 New Orleans LA
		⚭ 1864 New Orleans LA
BAQUIE Louise ° 1868 New Orleans LA ✝ 1945 Des Plaines LA

The Boucher de Grandpre lineage

Charles Louis Boucher, Lord of Grandpre served under the Spanish regime as commander of the Pointe Coupee military post from 1776 to 1781 and as lieutenant-governor of the Red River district (stationed at Avoyelles)^[7]. It therefore seemed highly likely that he was the father of Celeste Grandpre.

This uncertain link in the lineage was confirmed through DNA testing conducted as part of the Genealogie Quebec project. By comparing the DNA of legitimate descendants of Charles Louis de Grandpre with that of the so-called illegitimate lineage descended from Olympe Celeste Grandpre, genealogical researchers^[8] established a conclusive genetic match, thus validating the lineage.

Charles Louis Boucher de Grandpre was the son of Louis Boucher, Lord of Grandpre, squire, baptized in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, on July 3, 1695, and Therese Gaillard. Their marriage contract was signed on May 10, 1734, in New Orleans^[9]. Louis Boucher is a grandson of Pierre Boucher, seigneur of Boucherville (1622–1717), and belongs to a lineage already well studied in Canadian genealogical literature^[10].

On Louis Boucher's maternal side, we find two other pioneers from Perche, Sebastien Dodier and his wife Marie Belhomme, born in Ige (Orne), and who arrived in Canada around 1632.

Leo XIV, a cousin of Hillary Clinton, Madonna, Celine Dion, Angelina Jolie, Justin Bieber, Jack Kerouac...

perche-quebec.com has discovered numerous family ties between the Pope and figures from the political world (Hillary Clinton, Justin Trudeau), the Catholic Church (Marc Ouellet), of the song (Madonna, Celine DionJustin Bieber, or even cinema (Xavier Dolan, Ryan Gosling, Angelina Jolie). All these personalities have in common in their family tree pioneers of New France and notably Percheron pioneers.

For example, in the ancestry of Leo XIV, we note the Percheron pioneer Gaspard Boucher, an ancestor of most of the aforementioned personalities, originally from Mortagne-au-Perche (Orne).

As surprising as it may seem, these kinships are nothing exceptional. Since the Percheron pioneers were among the first to populate New France, most people with Franco-Quebecois ancestors have Percheron blood and are more or less distant cousins. The genealogy of Pope Leo XIV is a striking illustration of this.

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His Holiness shares many family ties with the illustrious descendants of the Percheron pioneers.

perche-quebec.com has discovered no fewer than:
• 51 family ties with Denis Villeneuve
• 24 family ties with Justin Bieber
• 8 family ties with Marc Ouellet
• 8 family ties with Justin Trudeau
• 6 family ties with Angelina Jolie
• 4 family ties with Hillary Clinton
• 4 family ties with Xavier Dolan
• 4 family ties with Madonna
• 2 family ties with Celine Dion
• 2 family ties with Jean Paul Lemieux
• 2 family ties with James Carrey
• 2 family ties with Jack Kerouac