Beyoncé ancestor was from Brittany

SUPERSTAR Beyoncé has Celtic roots, with one of her ancestors coming from Brittany’s Morbihan peninsula and the tiny island of Belle-Ile-en-Mer.

A genealogical group found that one of the star’s great, great, great, great grandmothers was Marie-Françoise Trahan, whose family moved in the 18th century to Calastren on the island after fleeing the French colony of Acadia in Canada. Her family later emigrated to Louisiana.

Marie-Françoise Trahan was baptised in the Belle-Ile community of Bangor in 1774.

She joins a list of other famous people with links to Brittany. Madonna has ancestors from Ploujean; Céline Dion has a family link to Ploudiry and Sylvester Stallone’s grandmother was born in Brest.

The links were discovered by association Racine et Rameaux which does genealogical research into people who emigrated to America.

Belle-Ile-en-Mer is the largest of the îles du Ponant, off Brittany Ptolemy and has been a favourite tourist destination for families since being made famous by the likes of Claude Monet and Sarah Bernhardt.

Further reading: Sylvester Stallone has Breton blood
Photo : Asterio Tecson