Friday’s Faces From the Past: Cousin Albert and the Photo

A couple of days ago, my Mom’s cousin Albert Desgroseilliers dropped in on us on his way back to eastern Canada. He was in British Columbia visiting family and to do some fishing.

Albert, who is a few years younger than Mom, is one of the sons of Joseph Desgroseilliers, the youngest brother of Mom’s father Eugène.

I took advantage of Albert’s unexpected visit to ask him some questions about the Desgroseilliers family, and show him some family photos to see if he could identify people, places and events.

Here’s one of the photos he identified for me:

Front, left to right:
Ovide, Donat and Léon Desgroseilliers

Centre, left to right:
Ovila Desgroseilliers, Bob Burdan and Eugène Desgroseilliers

Back:
Armand Desgroseilliers

Albert recognized the location as his uncle Léon’s home on Cache Bay Road in Sturgeon Falls. He added that the man at the back, Armand Desgroseilliers (sporting a brush cut), was a cousin, but couldn’t remember the specifics. I checked my notes on the Desgroseilliers descendants and found that he’s the son of Prosper Desgroseilliers (1877-1925), who was Eugène’s uncle.

The picture was taken in 1957.* Brothers Eugène, Léon, Donat, Ovide and Ovila (in birth order), their cousin Armand, and Eugène’s son-in-law Bob – were probably photographed at the funeral of Albert’s father Joseph, who died on 2 August that year.

* I have another photo with some of the same people in it and that picture is dated 1957. The date, which appears on the outside four corners of the image, was placed there during the printing process.

I suspect that Eugène is present because of Bob. Mom explained that her father didn’t own a car in those days and wouldn’t have been able to afford the trip, so Bob probably offered to drive his father-in-law to Sturgeon Falls from Sarnia (where they lived) so that he could attend the funeral of his youngest brother.

All the men in the photo are deceased, and Bob’s wife, my aunt Simone, passed away last year. Albert’s help with this photo is probably the best we can do in identifying the people and the circumstances.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.