Pioneers Make More Babies

Women of the French families that colonized Canada in the 17th and 18th centuries had more children and grandchildren than late comers to the region.

Written byJef Akst

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17th century oil painting by Simon de VliegerWIKIMEDIA COMMONS, NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM

Canadian pioneers seemed to know they had a whole new country to populate: the first women to settle in the land birthed more children and had more grandchildren than the women that arrived in later years, according to a study published last week (November 3) in Science.

Data from the parish councils of Charlevoix and Saguenay Lac Saint-Jean, an area some 170 kilometers north of Quebec home to dairy farms, small villages, and some of the best-kept marriage records, according to BBC News, revealed that women who arrived in the first wave of Canadian immigration in the 17th and 18th centuries had 15 percent more children than those who moved to the country just a few decades later. Those women’s children also had more kids, ...

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Meet the Author

Jef Akst
Jef (an unusual nickname for Jennifer) got her master’s degree from Indiana University in April 2009 studying the mating behavior of seahorses. After four years of diving off the Gulf Coast of Tampa and performing behavioral experiments at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, she left research to pursue a career in science writing. As The Scientist's managing editor, Jef edited features and oversaw the production of the TS Digest and quarterly print magazine. In 2022, her feature on uterus transplantation earned first place in the trade category of the Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers.
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