Wednesday’s Child: Lina Desgroseilliers (1905-1915)

2015 marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Lina Desgroseilliers, my first cousin twice removed. I meant to have this article appear on my blog in April, but didn’t get around to it.

Lina was born on 20 April 1905 in St. Charles, Ontario. [1] She was the sixth child and fifth daughter of Joseph and Azéline (Lemieux) Desgroseilliers. Joseph was the eldest brother of my maternal great-grandfather Albert Desgroseilliers.

Lina Desgroseilliers' birth registration (Ancestry.ca)

At her baptism on 23 April, Lina received three names: Marie Marguerite Lina. Her godparents were her father’s brother Célestin and his wife Fabiana (Gauthier) Desgroseilliers. [2]

A few years earlier, Lina’s parents and their elder children left Russell County in southeastern Ontario for an area in northeastern Ontario that had recently opened up to colonisation. This settlement, Grand Brûlé, located south of Sudbury, would soon be known as St. Charles. Here, Joseph earned his living as a merchant, one of the first in the region. [3] He and Azéline had nine children: Liliane, Alice, Corinne, Florence, Hormidas, Lina, Léo, Alphège, and Lionel.

Tragedy struck the family in the spring of 1915 when Lina died suddenly a few days after her 10th birthday. [4] She was buried on 29 April 1915 in St. Charles. [5]

Lina Desgroseilliers' burial record (Ancestry.ca)

Neither Lina’s burial record nor her death registration gives a cause of death. Instead, I found that information in her family’s entry in the history of St. Charles published in 1945. According to that source, Lina died accidently “à la suite d’absorption de chlore” (after swallowing chlorine). [6]

A heart-breaking end to a short life. Rest in peace, my cousin.

Sources:

1. “Ontario, Canada Births, 1869-1913”, digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 16 April 2015), entry for Marie Desgrosillier [sic], 20 April 1905; citing Archives of Ontario, Registrations of Births and Stillbirths – 1869-1913; Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Archives of Ontario; microfilm series MS929, reel 180.

2. St-Charles (St-Charles, Ontario), parish register, 1902-1925, p. 8 stamped, no entry no. (1905), Marie Marguerite Lina Desgroseilliers baptism, 23 April 1905; St-Charles parish; digital images, “Ontario, Canada, Catholic Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1747-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 16 April 2015).

3. Lionel Séguin, Historique de la paroisse Saint-Charles (Saint-Charles, Ont., 1945), 231; digital images; Our Roots / Nos Racines (http://www.ourroots.ca : accessed 22 July 2014).

4. “Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1938 and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1947”, digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 16 April 2015), entry for Lina Desgross[ei]lliers (written as Lina Desgross[ei]lliers, indexed as Lina Desgrawcelliers), 29 April 1915; citing Archives of Ontario, Registrations of Deaths, 1869-1938; Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Archives of Ontario; microfilm series MS935, reel 213.

5. St-Charles (St-Charles, Ontario), parish register, 1909-1967, p. 55 stamped, entry no. 4 (1915), Lina Desgroselliers [sic] burial, 29 April 1915; St-Charles parish; digital images, “Ontario, Canada, Catholic Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1747-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 16 April 2015).

6. Séguin, Historique de la paroisse Saint-Charles, 231.

Copyright © 2015, Yvonne Demoskoff.