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| Gravemarker of Joseph Beauvais and members of his family |
My maternal great-grandfather Joseph Beauvais passed away 76 years ago today on 17 September 1937. He was 59 years old; cause of death was chronic endocarditis.1 Joseph died in the village of Moonbeam, Cochrane District, Ontario, where he and his family moved to in the mid-1920s. He was buried there two days later.
Mom’s only memory of her grandfather Joseph is of attending his funeral. She remembers how her father Eugène picked her up so that she could see her grandfather in his coffin. At four years old, the experience scared her and she never forgot it.
Although I visited Moonbeam a couple of times in the 1970s when I lived in Ontario, I never thought of stopping by the cemetery. I was fortunate to find a photograph of his tombstone online.2
Joseph’s name and that of his wife Olivine and two of their children (Marie-Louise and Aldège) are inscribed on the marker.
The gravemarker reads:
BEAUVAIS
Epoux / JOSEPH BEAUVAIS / 1878 – 1937
Epouse / OLIVINE NEE HOTTE / 1879 – 1926
Fils / ALDEGE / 1905 – 1940
Fille / MARIE-LOUISE / 1903 – 1947
Sources:
1. “Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1938 and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1947”, database and digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : 9 February 2012), entry for Joseph Beauvais, 17 September 1937.
2. Moonbeam Cemetery, database and digital images (http://cimetiere.moonbeam.ca/indexEn.html : accessed 12 September 2013), photograph, gravestone for Joseph Beauvais (1878-1937), Moonbeam, Ontario. Used with permission.
Copyright © 2013, Yvonne Demoskoff.
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