Maybe talent runs in the family - superstars Bieber, Gosling and Lavigne are cousins: Ancestry.ca
Ancestry.ca researchers also confirm Bieber and Celine Dion share ancestry
TORONTO, Oct. 11, 2012 /CNW/ - Apparently the key to superstardom in Canada is good family genes. Researchers at Ancestry.ca have discovered that Canadian stars Justin Bieber, Ryan Gosling and Avril Lavigne are cousins. Bieber's celebrity bloodline doesn't stop there either as he's also related to mega-star Celine Dion.
Family history experts at Ancestry discovered that Bieber, Gosling and Lavigne share a common family connection that goes back 400 years to some of Quebec's earliest settlers. Bieber and Gosling are 11th cousins once removed and Bieber and Lavigne are 12th cousins through common relatives Mathurin Roy and Marguerite Biré.
Mathurin Roy and Marguerite Biré were both born in France in the early 1600s and they were married in 1637, in La Rochelle, France. Roy was a master mason who immigrated to Quebec, where he died between 1677 and 1681. Biré died in Quebec on March 27, 1675.
Bieber's star struck family tree also includes songstress Celine Dion: they are 10th cousins three times removed through Jacques Vézina and Marie Boisdon. The couple married in Saint-Rogatien in 1640. Jacques Vézina was a Frenchman born in the early 1600s. He immigrated to Quebec and died June 28, 1687, in L'Ange-Gardien. Marie was born in France in the early 1600s and died soon after her husband on Dec. 28, 1687, in L'Ange-Gardien, Quebec.
"Discoveries like this are rare, so the fact that some of Canada's top entertainment industry stars are all related is especially fascinating," says Lesley Anderson, a genealogist for Ancestry.ca. "There's something special about discovering a shared connection, and to be able to go so far back in history to do so is one of the most satisfying aspects of family history research."
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About Ancestry.ca
Ancestry.ca was launched in January 2006 and is part of Ancestry.com Inc, the world's largest online family history resource, with approximately 2 million paying subscribers. More than 10 billion records have been added to the site in the past 15 years. Ancestry users have created more than 39 million family trees containing more than four billion profiles. In addition to its flagship site www.ancestry.com, Ancestry.com Inc offers several localized web sites designed to empower people to discover, preserve and share their family history.
Images of the original records and a family tree showing the connection between Bieber, Gosling and Lavigne are available.
SOURCE: Ancestry.ca
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