Tombstone Tuesday: Gilbert Grozelle

Gilbert Grozelle is my maternal third cousin three times removed. We descend from Joseph Prosper Desgroseilliers by his wife Charlotte Nunegand dite Beaurosier: Gilbert through eldest son Ambroise (b. 1774) and me through younger son François (b. 1783).

The fourth child of Alphonse Grozelle (né Desgroseilliers) and Annie McAlpine, Gilbert was born on 20 May 1884 in Bexley Township, Victoria County, Ontario. [1] He had nine brothers and sisters: Jennie, Peter, Charles, William, Joseph, Mary, Mabel, John, and Archibald.

A labourer, then farmer, Gilbert married Mary O’Connor on 2 June 1905. [2] Daughters Ruth and Carmen were born in Ontario before the family moved west to the prairie province of Saskatchewan in about 1910. The family moved once more, to Alberta, about 1912. Four more children (Thelma, Sylvia, Melvin, and Murray) were born between 1915 and 1923.

About 1945, Gilbert and Mary relocated to British Columbia. Gilbert, who had suffered from chronic coronary sclerosis for five years, died on 12 June 1953 in Kelowna, British Columbia. [3] He was buried four days later in Kelowna Memorial Park Cemetery in Kelowna. [4]

Gravemarker of Gilbert Grozelle

His gravemarker reads:

Grozelle Gilbert

In Loving Memory

1884 – 1953

Gilbert and Mary, who died in 1971, are interred next to each other. Their son Murray, who died in 1981, shares his mother’s plot.

Graves of Gilbert (left), Mary (right) and Murray (right, bottom), foregound

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.

Entrance to Memorial Park Cemetery, Kelowna, BC

Sources:

1. “Ontario, Canada, Marriages, 1801-1928”, digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 3 September 2015), entry for Gilbert E. Groselle – Mary O’Connor, 2 June 1905; citing Archives of Ontario, Registrations of Marriages, 1869-1928, 1933-1934; Toronto, Ontario Canada: Archives of Ontario; microfilm series MS932, reel 119. 1901 census of Canada, Township Dalton, Victoria (North), Ontario, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 119, subdistrict D-1, p. 5, dwelling 33, family 33, Gillbert Grozelle [sic]; digital image, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 30 September 2016); citing Census of Canada, 1901, microfilm reels T-6428 to T-6556, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Library and Archives Canada, 2004.

2. “Ontario, Canada, Marriages, 1801-1928”, digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 3 September 2015), entry for Gilbert E. Groselle – Mary O’Connor, 2 June 1905.

3. “Genealogy – General Search”, digital images, BC Archives (http://search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Genealogy : accessed 6 July 2016), entry for Gilbert Eric Grozelle, 12 June 1953, death registration no. 1953-09-006570.

4. Memorial Park Cemetery, City of Kelowna, database (http://www.kelowna.ca/CM/Page270.aspx : accessed 21 September 2016), entry for Gilbert Eric Grozelle, death 12 June 1953, plot B 6 62 82.

Copyright © 2016, Yvonne Demoskoff.