A few weeks ago I wrote about Pope Leo XIV being my 9^th cousin twice removed on the Vadnais side of the family because of shared great-grandparents Gaspard Boucher and Nicole Lemaire; my 10^th great-grandparents and Pope Leo XIV’s 8^th great-grandparents. 

I received a comment from one of our cousins on the Peltier side asking if there was “Anyway to find a connection on the Ellen Peltier side of the family?  I’d be so proud to have that cousin [Pope Leo XIV].” 

I immediately thought that it was worth the effort to see if there were any other connections to the Pope in our family tree.  Little did I know that it was much more complicated than I had first thought.  As it turns out, the Vadnais-Peltier family tree has 7 branches that connect us to Pope Leo XIV: 5 through Vadnais ancestors and 2 through Peltier ancestors.  One of them is through the relationship mentioned in the first paragraph and all the others are through Gaspard Boucher’s parents, Jacques Boucher and Francoise Paigne, the Pope’s 9^th great-grandparents and my 10^th and 11^th great-grandparents.

Here’s Pope Leo XIV’s branch, created by American Ancestors, showing his connection to Gaspard Boucher and Nicole Lemaire.

The 5 Vadnais branches and the resulting relationships are as follows:

The 2 Peltier branches and the resulting relationships are as follows:

I think I can now safely say that Pope Leo XIV is a cousin on both sides of the family: Vadnais (9^th twice removed, 10^th once removed or 10^th twice removed) and Peltier (10^th once removed or 10^th twice removed).

Thanks for visiting, come back soon,
Cynthia

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