Church Record Sunday: Scholastique St-Michel’s 1864 Burial Record

My paternal great-great-great-grandmother Scholastique St-Michel (ancestor no. 33) passed away on a spring day 152 years ago this month.

Scholastique married twice and was widowed twice. By her first husband (and my ancestor) Pierre Janvry dit Belair, whom she married in September 1818, Scholastique was the mother of eleven children. (For a list of their children, see 52 Ancestors 2015: #32 – Pierre Janvry dit Belair, Father of 25 Children.)

After Pierre’s death, Scholastique married widower Joseph Clément in September 1851, but did not have children by him. The marriage was short-lived, because Joseph died between January 1852 and September 1854.

Scholastique lived on in Ste-Cécile-de-Masham (now La Pêche), Quebec, near her married children Paul (my ancestor), Mathilde, and Elisabeth and their families. Her other married children (Esther, Toussaint, and Denis) lived further afield (one in Montreal and two in the province of Ontario), so it’s not likely that she had much contact with them.

Scholastique died on 8 April 1864. She was buried two days later in the Roman Catholic cemetery attached to Ste-Cécile church in Masham. She was a month shy of her 68th birthday and not 69 as reported in her burial record.

Scholastique St-Michel burial record (Ancestry.ca)

The burial record (above) reads in French:

Le dix avril mil huit cent soixante quatre, nous / soussigné prêtre missionnaire de cette paroisse, avons / inhumé le corps de Scolastique St Michel épouse de / défunt Joseph Clément, décédée le huit de ce mois à / l’age de soixante neuf ans. Les témoins étaient Ambroise / Lemerle et de François Monnette. [signé L. Fremont]

My translation:

The 10 April one thousand sixty four, we / undersigned missionary priest of this parish, have / interred the body of Scolastique St Michel wife of / the late Joseph Clément, died the eighth of this month at / the age of sixty nine years. The witnesses were Ambroise / Lemerle and of François Monnette. [signed L. Fremont]

Source:

1. Ste-Cécile (Ste-Cécile-de-Masham, Quebec), parish register, 1853-1875, p. 117 verso, entry no. S.4, Scolastique St-Michel (written as Scolastique St-Michel, indexed as Scholastique St Michel) burial, 10 April 1864; Ste-Cécile parish; digital images, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 2 March 2016).

Copyright © 2016, Yvonne Demoskoff.