Saturday, December 31, 2016

Sibling Saturday: Juliette and Agathe Beauvais

Juliette and Agathe were my maternal grandmother and great-aunt, respectively. Their parents Joseph and Olivine (Hotte) Beauvais married in August 1897 in Hartwell (now Chénéville), Papineau County, Quebec.

Juliette, born on 30 June 1901 in Chénéville, was the third child and eldest daughter. Agathe, who was born on 3 March 1918 in nearby Montpellier, was the thirteenth child and second youngest daughter. They had twelve brothers and two sisters. Twenty-three years separated the oldest child Ovide from the youngest, fraternal twins Jean-Marie and Jean-Paul.

The Beauvais children were raised mostly in Montpellier, a village in the Laurentian Hills in Papineau County, in southwestern Quebec. Their father Joseph was a farmer and woodcutter. About 1922, the family moved to the quaintly named village of Moonbeam, in northern Ontario. Four years later, mother Olivine died in June 1926 of ‘cardiac asthenia’ (Da Costa’s syndrome).

A few months before her mother’s death, Juliette married Eugène Desgroseilliers on 18 August 1925 in Moonbeam. They were blessed with nine children: Noël (who died at birth), Mariette, Madeleine, Simone, Marianne (who died young), Jacqueline (my Mom), Gaston (he died when he was six years old), Normande, and Jeanne d’arc. After living in northern Ontario and northwestern Quebec for a few years, Eugène and Juliette settled in Blue Water, near Sarnia, Ontario in 1942.

Juliette Beauvais and her sister Agathe Beauvais

Juliette (left) and Agathe (right) pose on a staircase in the above photo. The handwriting on the back of the picture says “à Hearst vers 1930” [in Hearst about 1930]. I doubt that the year is correct, because Agathe would have been only 12 years old. If the location is correct, though, the photo dates more likely to the mid-1930s, because Juliette, her husband and their children lived in Hearst, west of Moonbeam, until about 1936, when they moved to Rouyn, Quebec.

On 25 March 1940, Agathe married Lucien Larouche in Val d’Or, Abitibi District, Quebec. Their marriage registration gives their occupation as bonne (maid) for Agathe and mineur (miner) for Lucien. The couple had eight children: Renée, Gaston, Blandine, Gérard, Laurier, a son (who died soon after birth), Elisabeth, and Christian.

In 1948, Juliette became ill. She had advanced cancer of the pancreas. Within a few months of the diagnosis, she died in hospital in Sarnia on 14 August 1948, four days before her 23rd wedding anniversary.

Agathe survived her sister by eight years. She died suddenly from a blood clot after giving birth to a son on 30 December 1956. My Mom and Dad were visiting her sister Madeleine in Kirkland Lake at the time. Mom recalls that she was sleeping in an upstairs bedroom at Aunt Madeleine’s house when Dad woke her to break the news. Mom cried because Agathe, her godmother, was her favorite aunt.

Copyright © 2016, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Tombstone Tuesday: Murray Grozelle

Murray R Grozelle gravemarker

Murray Grozelle is my maternal fourth cousin two times removed. Our common ancestors are Joseph Prosper Desgroseilliers (1743-1795/1800) and his wife Charlotte Nunegand dite Beaurosier (1754-1835).


The sixth child of Gilbert and Mary (O’Connor) Grozelle, Murray was born on 20 April 1923 in Esther, Alberta. [1] He had five older siblings: Ruth, Carmen, Thelma, Sylvia and Melvin.

Murray died on 30 August 1981 in Cottonwoods Extended Care at Kelowna General Hospital in Kelowna, British Columbia. [2] He was buried on 1 September 1981 in Kelowna Memorial Park Cemetery in Kelowna. [3]

His gravemarker reads:

In Memory Of
Murray R.J. Grozelle
1923 – 1981

Murray’s father and mother predeceased him in 1953 and in 1971, respectively. Murray shares his mother Mary’s plot.

Gilbert Mary and Murray Grozelle gravemarkers
Graves of Gilbert (left), Mary (right), and Murray (lower right)

My husband and I took these photographs during our recent visit to Kelowna, when we attended the Kelowna & District Genealogical Society’s conference in September 2016.


Sources:

1. “Genealogy – General Search”, digital images, BC Archives (http://search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Genealogy : accessed 6 July 2016), entry for Murray Randolph Joseph Grozelle (written as Murray Randolph Joseph Grozelle, indexed as Murray R J Grozelle), 30 August 1981, death registration no. 1981-09-014247.

2. “Genealogy – General Search”, digital images, BC Archives (http://search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Genealogy : accessed 6 July 2016), entry for Murray Randolph Joseph Grozelle, 30 August 1981.

3. “Genealogy – General Search”, digital images, BC Archives (http://search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Genealogy : accessed 6 July 2016), entry for Murray Randolph Joseph Grozelle, 30 August 1981. Also, Memorial Park Cemetery, City of Kelowna, database (http://www.kelowna.ca/CM/Page270.aspx : accessed 21 September 2016), entry for Murray R.J. Grozelle, death 30 August 1981, plot B 6 62 81.

Copyright © 2016, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Monday, December 19, 2016

Darlene Belair (1935-2016)

Aunt Darlene – Dad’s sister – died early this morning in hospital in Peterborough, Ontario, surrounded by her loved ones. She had been unwell for the last few years with multiple health issues, including COPD, diabetes, and dementia.

Darlene was the youngest surviving child of Fred and Julie (Vanasse) Belair. Born “Marie Lilianne Darleen” on 18 October 1935, Darlene had three older siblings: Maurice (my father), Jeanne (Joan), and Raymond (Ray).

Darlene Belair with her parents and brothers and sister
Darlene (back, right) with her parents and brothers and sister, 1956

Although born in Cochrane in northern Ontario, the Belair family lived in nearby Fauquier, where my grandparents relocated from southern Ontario during the Depression. Later, they moved to Timmins, where Darlene and her brother Ray went to elementary school. Later still, Darlene was educated at Académie Sainte-Marie in Haileybury, Ontario, a boarding and day school for girls run by an order of nuns.

After she moved to Peterborough in the early 1960s, Darlene worked at various jobs, including managing a convenience store and owning and operating a taxi cab in the 1980s. She was also a factory worker at Western Clock Company (Westclox) and at Outboard Marine Corporation.

Darlene Belair with her great-nephew Nicholas
Darlene with her great-nephew Nicholas, 2014

I’m glad that I had a chance to see my Aunt a couple of years ago when my husband and our son visited my home province of Ontario. I was happy to be with Darlene once again, because I always felt that she and Dad were a lot alike – they resembled each other, were hard workers, loved animals, and both had a sense of humor and loved to laugh.

Rest in peace, tante Darlene.

Copyright © 2016, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Sunday, December 18, 2016

Church Record Sunday: Angélique Desautels’ 1699 Baptism Record

With Christmas just one week away, I searched my ancestor database for an ancestor who was born on Christmas Day. The closest I got, though, were two ancestors who were baptised on December 25th: Angélique Desautels (1699-1780) and Augustin Rochon (1728-1805).

I wrote about Augustin, my paternal 6x great-grandfather, two years ago; see 52 Ancestors: #52 Augustin Rochon, born on Christmas Eve. Today, I’m featuring Angélique Desautels, ancestor no. 965, my maternal 7x great-grandmother.

Eldest child of Pierre Desautels dit Lapointe and his wife Thérèse-Angélique Thuillier, Angélique was born on 24 December 1699, eleven months after her parents’ marriage in Montreal. [1] She was likely a premature baby or appeared in danger of dying, because she was baptised without delay at home by her paternal grandfather Pierre Desautels. [2]

Newborn Angélique survived and was baptised the next day on Christmas in Notre-Dame church in Montreal. Father R.C. de Breslay, a French-born Sulpician and Notre-Dame’s parish priest, administered the Sacrament. [3] In attendance at the ceremony were Angélique’s father Pierre and her godparents Pierre Desautels (her paternal grandfather) and Jeanne Bernard [sic] (her maternal grandmother). [4] Of those three, only Pierre, grand-père, declared he could sign his name, which he did. (His signature appears just before that of the priest, in the second image below.)


Baptism record of Angelique Desautels

Angélique Desautels' 1699 baptism record (FamilySearch)

My transcription of Angélique’s baptism record, above (original lineation indicated by / ):


Le vinq cinquième Décembre mil six cent / quatre vinq dix neuf les ceremonies du baptême / ont étés supplies a Angelique fille de pierre / Desautels et d’Angelique Thuillier [sa femme] née / et ondoiée a la maison par pierre Desautels grand- / pere [du dit] enfant le vinq quatrieme des mois / et an [le dit] grand pere a servi de parein aux ceremonies / La mareine Jeanne Benard femme de Jacques Thuillier / le pere et la mareine ont declaré ne savoir signer / de ce interpollés suivant l’ordonnance / 
[signed] P desautels / R C De Breslay [prêtre] faisant / les fonctions curiales

My translation of the record (original lineation indicated by / ):


The twenty fifth December one thousand six hundred / ninety six the ceremonies of baptism /  were substituted to Angelique daughter of pierre / Desautels and of Angelique Thuillier [his wife] born / and [provisionally] baptised at home by pierre Desautels grand- / father [of said] child the twenty fourth of the month / and year [the said] grand father has served as godfather at the ceremonies / The godmother Jeanne Benard wife of Jacques Thuillier / the father and the godmother having declared they could not sign [their names] / added to [the text] following the regulation /  
[signed] P desautels / R C De Breslay [priest] performing / the parish functions

In January 1720, Angélique married Simon Sicard, a miller, by whom she had eleven children. Angélique died on 13 September 1780 in Sault-au-Récollet, in present-day Montreal. [5]

Sources:

1. René Jetté, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles du Québec (Montréal: Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 1983), 338.

2. Notre-Dame-de-Montréal (Montreal, Quebec), parish register, 1642-1699, no page no., no entry no. (1699), Angelique Desautels baptism, 25 December 1699; Notre-Dame-de-Montréal parish; digital images, “Quebec, Catholic Parish Registers, 1621-1979”, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ : accessed 9 December 2016).

3. E. A. Chard, “Breslay, René-Charles de”, Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 2, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003– (http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/breslay_rene_charles_de_2E.html : accessed 9 December 2016).

4. Notre-Dame-de-Montréal, parish register, 1642-1699, Angelique Desautels baptism, 25 December 1699.

5. “Dictionnaire”, database, Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) (http://www.genealogie.umontreal.ca : accessed 9 December 2016), Marie Angelique Therese Desautels Lapointe, Individu no. 24106.

Copyright © 2016, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Tuesday, December 06, 2016

Tombstone Tuesday: Mary (O’Connor) Grozelle


Mary OConnor Grozelle gravemarker

Mary Grozelle was the wife of Gilbert Grozelle, a distant maternal cousin of mine. Daughter of James and Catherine (McNearney) O’Connor, Mary was born on 17 October 1885 in Victoria Road, Victoria County, Ontario. [1]

Mary and Gilbert married in 1905 and had six children: Ruth, Carmen, Thelma, Sylvia, Melvin and Murray. Mary died on 15 November 1971 in Kelowna, British Columbia. [2]

Her gravemarker reads:

Mary R. Grozelle
In Loving Memory
1885 – 1971

Gilbert died in 1953. He and Mary are interred next to each other in Memorial Park Cemetery, Kelowna, while son Murray shares his mother’s plot. [3]

Gilbert, Mary and Murray Grozelle gravemarkers
Graves of Gilbert (left), Mary (right), and Murray (lower right)

My husband and I took these photographs during our visit to Kelowna, when we attended the Kelowna & District Genealogical Society’s conference in September 2016.

Sources:

1. “Genealogy – General Search”, digital images, BC Archives (http://search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Genealogy : accessed 28 September 2016), entry for Thelma Mary Grittner [sic], 19 January 1959, death registration no. 1959-09-001632. Thelma’s mother Mary (O’Connor) Grozelle was the informant.

2. “Genealogy – General Search”, digital images, BC Archives (http://search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Genealogy : accessed 6 July 2016), entry for Mary Beatrice Grozelle, 15 November 1971, death registration no. 1971-09-016099.

3. Memorial Park Cemetery, City of Kelowna, database (http://www.kelowna.ca/CM/Page270.aspx : accessed 21 September 2016), entry for Mary Beatrice Grozelle [sic], death 18 November 1971, plot B 6 62 81.

Copyright © 2016, Yvonne Demoskoff.