Pure laine

The French term pure laine, literally meaning pure wool (and often translated as dyed-in-the-wool), refers to those whose ancestry is exclusively French-Canadian. (It probably relates to the raising of sheep for wool, which was common in rural Quebec of the 1700s.) Some definitions are more specific, indicating those whose families arrived in Canada during a specific period, with a lineage that is 100 per cent derived from New France (1534 to 1763) settlers.

Terms with a similar meaning include de souche (of the base of the tree, or root) and old stock as in "").

While many French-Canadians are able to trace their ancestry back to the original settlers from France, a number are descended from mixed marriages between the French, Scottish and Irish settlers. When these shared the same Roman Catholic faith, their unions were approved by the once-powerful Roman Catholic Church in Quebec. Another factor was the settlement of many English people in the region, especially after 1763 when Quebec was ceded to Britain, many of whom were ultimately assimilated into the francophone culture.

The genealogy of the pure laine – dating back to original settlers of New France in the seventeenth century – has been the subject of detailed research. Prior to 1663 the Société Notre-Dame de Montréal recruited women to come to Montreal, then known as Ville-Marie.King Louis XIV – following the advice of Jean Talon, Intendant of New France – sponsored about 800 female immigrants the King's Daughters or les filles du Roi to increase the number of marriages and therefore the population of New France. The Sisters of Notre-Dame facilitated their settling in Ville-Marie. In his 1992 PhD dissertation Yves Landry listed 770 of the approximately 800 by name.

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