Sibling Saturday: The Children of Pierre Janvry dit Belair (1851-1941)

My paternal great-grandfather Pierre Janvry dit Belair was the father of sixteen children by his first two wives, Angélina Meunier (1855-1896) and Mathilde Cloutier (1861-1923). Pierre and his third wife Rosalie Lavictoire (1859-1927) did not have children.

By Angélina (my great-grandmother), Pierre had ten sons and six daughters. By Mathilde, he had two sons and three daughters.

The Belair children were born over the course of twenty-three years – 1883 to 1903. All were born in Ste-Cécile-de-Masham (now La Pêche), Gatineau County, Quebec and were baptised there. (I assume that Pierre’s eldest child, Pierre, was baptised in Masham, although his baptism record does not appear in Ste-Cécile’s sacramental register.)

Martineau – Belair wedding (1921)

Photos of Pierre are rare. Here is one that my late cousin Suzanne (who descends from Mathilde) sent me some years ago. Pierre is the second from left, his daughter Mathilde (in a hat) and her new husband Norbert are in the centre, while his wife Mathilde (in apron) is next to them. I wrote about this wedding in Wedding Wednesday: Martineau – Belair.

I prepared the following tables to show Pierre’s children with their birth, marriage(s), and death details. Most of this information is from sacramental records, but some is from death registrations, census records, and family information.

Table 1. Pierre and Angélina's children: 

Table 2. Pierre and Mathilde's children: 

Copyright © 2018, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Church Record Sunday: Mathilde Belair’s 1923 Burial Record

Mathilde Cloutier, second wife of my paternal great-grandfather Pierre Belair, died 95 years ago on 16 April 1923. [1]

Pierre’s first wife, Angélina Meunier, died in July 1896, leaving behind seven children, including my grandfather (Pépère) Fred, who was only six years old.

A year later, Pierre married Mathilde Cloutier, who was born and raised in Ste-Cécile-de-Masham, Pontiac County, Quebec, like Pierre and his family. They had five children: two sons and three daughters.

Mathilde’s burial record doesn’t indicate the cause of death (such records rarely did), but she was 62 years old at her death. Her husband was present at the funeral on 18 April, along with their son Joseph, my grandfather’s eldest half-brother.

I don’t know what kind of relationship Fred had with his stepmother. I wish I had thought of asking him when he was older after I got interested in genealogy.

Mathilde Cloutier burial record (Ancestry)

The burial record above reads in French:

Ce dix-huit avril mil neuf cent vingt-trois / je soussigné curé de cette paroisse ai / inhumé dans notre cimetière le / corps de Mathilde Cloutier, épouse / de Pierre Belair, de cette paroisse / et y décédée avant-hier âgée de / soixante ans. Etaient pré / sents Pierre Belair, Joseph Belair et autres parents et amis qui ne / revinrent pas après le service. 
[signed] Hector Yelle, ptre

My English translation:

This 18 April nineteen hundred and twenty-three / I undersigned [parish priest] of this parish have / interred in our cemetery the / body of Mathilde Cloutier, wife of Pierre Belair, of this parish / and who died [the day] before yesterday aged of / sixty years. Were pre / sent Pierre Belair, Joseph Belair and other relatives and friends who did not / return [to the church] after the [burial] service. 
[signed] Hector Yelle, [priest]

Source:

1. Ste-Cécile (Ste-Cécile-de-Masham, Quebec), parish register, 1918-1930, p. 95 verso, entry no. S.11 (1923), Mathilde Cloutier burial, 18 April 1923; Ste-Cécile-de-Masham parish; digital images, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 30 March 2018).

Copyright © 2018, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Church Record Sunday: Angélina Meunier’s 1896 Burial Record

Two years ago, I wrote about my great-grandmother Angélina Meunier; see 52 Ancestors: #7 Angélina Meunier – My great-grandmother. Today, I focus on her burial record on the 120th anniversary of her death.

Angélina died on 26 July 1896, four days after giving birth to her 11th child, a son, who did not survive. Her funeral took place two days later in Sainte-Cécile parish church in Masham (now La Pêche), Quebec.[1]

Angélina Meunier burial record (Ancestry)

Here’s a close-up version:

Angélina Meunier burial record, cropped (Ancestry)

The burial record (above) reads in French:

Le vingt-huit Juillet, mil huit cent quatre vingt-seize, nous / soussigné, Curé de cette paroisse, avons inhumé, dans le cime / tière paroissial, le corps d’Angélina Meunier, décédée / l’avant-veille, en cette paroisse, à l’âge de quarante et / un ans, épouse de Pierre Bélair, cultivateur, de cette parois / se. Étaient presents Pierre Bélair, époux de la Défunte, Jo- / seph Pinsonneault, cultivateur, qui n’ont pas su signer; / plusieurs Dames de la Congrégation de Ste. Anne, dont la / Défunte faisait partie, qui ont signé avec nous. Lec / ture faite. [Signatures of twenty-four women belonging to the Dames de la Congrégation de Ste. Anne, followed by the officiating priest.]

My English translation:

The twenty-eight July, one thousand one hundred ninety-six, we / undersigned, [parish priest] of this parish, have interred, in the parochial ceme / tery, the body of Angélina Meunier, deceased / the previous day, in this parish, at the age of forty / one years, spouse of Pierre Bélair, farmer, of the pari / sh. Were present Pierre Bélair, spouse of the Deceased, Jo- / seph Pinsonneault, farmer, [neither of] who knew how to sign [their names]; / several Ladies of the Congregation of Ste. Anne, of which the / Deceased belonged, who signed with us. Reading [of this record] done. [Signatures of twenty-four women belonging to the Dames de la Congrégation de Ste. Anne, followed by the officiating priest.]

Source:

1. Ste-Cécile (Ste-Cécile-de-Masham, Quebec), parish register, 1887-1898, p. 209 verso, entry no. S.20 (1896), Angélina Meunier burial, 28 July 1896; Ste-Cécile-de-Masham parish; digital images, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 1 March 2012).

Copyright © 2016, Yvonne Demoskoff.

52 Ancestors: #22 Louise Drouin

Amy Johnson Crow at No Story Too Small has issued herself and her readers a challenge for 2014. It’s called “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks”, and as Amy explains, the challenge is to “have one blog post each week devoted to a specific ancestor. It could be a story, a biography, a photograph, an outline of a research problem — anything that focuses on one ancestor”.

For the 22nd week of this challenge, I chose Louise Drouin (1835-1890).

Louise Drouin is my paternal great-great-grandmother and is number 19 in my ancestor list.

She was the fifth of ten children of Pierre Drouin, a day laborer, and his wife Marie Reine Poirier. Louise was the eldest surviving daughter of her parents, her two elder sisters (both named Marie Louise) having predeceased her in 1831 and 1834, respectively.

Louise, sometimes known as Eloise, was baptized on 16 August 1836 in St-Benoît (now Mirabel, a little to the north of Montreal) in Deux-Montagnes County, Quebec. According to her baptism record, she was born in July 1835. It’s possible that she was born in Cornwall, Ontario, where her father Pierre resided and worked at the time of her baptism.

I haven’t been able to trace where her parents and siblings lived in the 1840s, but the family lived somewhere in the southwestern part of the province of Quebec. By the 1851 census, the Drouin family, including 17-year-old “Leuesia”, is enumerated in Ste-Cécile-de-Masham in Gatineau County.

It was here in Masham that Louise met and married her fourth cousin Ménésippe Meunier, who I wrote about last week for 52 Ancestors; see his story here. The couple, who wed on 4 October 1853, had eleven children between 1855 and 1874, including my great-grandmother Angélina Meunier (1855-1896), whose story I wrote last February for 52 Ancestors.

After Ménésippe’s death in January 1883, Louise married widower Joseph Poliquin on 14 September 1884 in Masham. Louise and Joseph, a voyageur and later a day laborer, didn’t have children.

Louise died on 13 March 1890 in Masham; she was 53 years old, according to her burial record. Two days later, her funeral took place in the parish cemetery, with her younger son Gédéon Meunier in attendance.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

52 Ancestors: #21 Ménésippe Meunier

Amy Johnson Crow at No Story Too Small has issued herself and her readers a challenge for 2014. It’s called “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks”, and as Amy explains, the challenge is to “have one blog post each week devoted to a specific ancestor. It could be a story, a biography, a photograph, an outline of a research problem — anything that focuses on one ancestor”.

For the 21st week of this challenge, I chose Ménésippe Meunier (1829-1883).

Ménésippe Meunier is my paternal great-great-grandfather and is number 18 in my ancestor list.

He was born on 26 February 1829 in Ste-Anne-des-Plaines, northwest of Montreal, in Terrebonne County, Quebec and baptized there that day in Ste-Anne parish church.

Ménésippe was the seventh child of Jean-Baptiste Meunier and his wife Adélaïde Larose. He had seven brothers (four died as children) and three sisters.

During my search for records about my 2x great-grandfather, I encountered interesting spelling variations of his name. Examples include:

• Ménazime (at his baptism in 1829)

• Ménésippe (at his daughter Angélina’s baptism in 1855 and at his children Angélina, Léocadie and Ménésippe’s marriages in 1879, 1880 and 1882)

• Menazipe (on the 1861 and 1871 censuses)

• Ménazipe (on the 1881 census)

• Ménézique (at his burial in 1883).

His surname is usually spelled Meunier, but occasionally appears as Munier (at his marriage in 1853) and Munié (on the 1881 census).

In my files, I standardize his name as Ménésippe Meunier, but include a note about the variations.

If Ménésippe’s name isn’t a mystery, his presence on the 1851 Census of Canada is. (I’ve found him on the 1861, 1871 and 1881 censuses.) He’s not living in Ste-Anne-des-Plaines with his parents or his married brothers Jean-Baptiste and Moïse. He’s also not residing with his married sister Adélaïde in the town of Terrebonne. I even checked Ste-Cécile-de-Masham in Gatineau County to see if had relocated there, where his future wife lived, but no luck.

I estimate that Ménésippe moved from home in Ste-Anne-des-Plaines in the mid- to late-1840s. He probably settled in Ste-Cécile-de-Masham in the early 1850s, presumably after the 1851 census. Here he made the acquaintance of Pierre Drouin (Derouin) and his family, who were also recent arrivals to Masham.

I wonder if Ménésippe was aware that he and Louise (Eloise), Pierre’s younger daughter, shared common ancestors and were fourth cousins when they courted. It doesn’t look like a dispensation due to consanguinity was required when they wed on 4 October 1853 in Masham, because the priest did not record this fact in the sacramental register.

Ménésippe and Louise were the parents of eleven children, seven sons and four daughters. The eldest child was my great-grandmother Angélina. I’ve written about her for 52 Ancestors; see her story here.

After twenty-nine years of marriage, Ménésippe died on 24 January 1883 in Masham; he was not quite 54 years old. He was buried there two days later in the parish cemetery.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Census Sunday: The Belair Family and the 1891 Census

1891 census of Canada (Masham, Quebec) [1]

My great-grandfather Pierre Janvry dit Belair, his wife Angélina and their children were enumerated on the 1891 census of Canada. [2]

Pierre’s son Fred, my grandfather, was born in late 1889, so this census marks his first appearance on a federal Canadian census return.

Cropped version of 1891 Masham census

The Belair family, as seen in the above cropped image version of the Masham 1891 census, consisted of head of family Pierre (39), his wife Angélina (35), and their children Pierre (10), Paul (9), Angélina (7), Marie (5) [usually known as Délia], and Jean Bte (1) [my grandfather Fred].

The enumerator did not sign his name nor did he date the return. Enumerators were instructed to gather information “as it applied at midnight, when April 5 turned into April 6”. [3]

The Belair family home, described in Column 4 as “B1/3 “, was a one-story wooden house with three rooms. [4] Other details include the family members’ place of birth (Q, for the province of Quebec), religion (C.R., for Catholique Romain [Roman Catholic]), and that only mother Angélina and elder sons Pierre and Paul could read and write.

Sources:

1. 1891 census of Canada, Masham, Ottawa, Quebec, population schedule, subdistrict BB, p. 31, family 113, Pierre Jeanvry [sic] household; digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 30 July 2007); citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm T-6412.

2. 1891 census of Canada, Masham, Ottawa, Quebec, pop. sched., subdist. BB, p. 31, fam. 113, Pierre Jeanvry [sic] household.

3. Dave Obee, Counting Canada: A Genealogical Guide to the Canadian Census (Victoria, BC: Dave Obee, 2012), 135.

4. Census of 1891, Library and Archives Canada (http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/1891/Pages/about-census.aspx : accessed 1 May 2014), “About the 1891 Census: Common Abbreviations – Other”. Some of the abbreviations found on the 1891 census forms, including those for residential buildings, are explained on the LAC website. The unnamed enumerator wrote in French, thus the B in “B1/3” stands for bois (wooden).

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

52 Ancestors: #7 Angélina Meunier – My great-grandmother

Amy Johnson Crow at No Story Too Small has issued herself and her readers a challenge for 2014. It’s called “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks”, and as Amy explains, the challenge is to “have one blog post each week devoted to a specific ancestor. It could be a story, a biography, a photograph, an outline of a research problem — anything that focuses on one ancestor”.

For the 7th week of this challenge, I chose my paternal great-grandmother Angélina Meunier (1855-1896).

I don’t know much about my great-grandmother Angélina. There doesn’t seem to be any photographs of her that, if taken, have survived. She died when my grandfather Fred, her younger son, was only 6 years old. It’s strange, now I think about it, that I don’t ever remember asking my Pépère questions about her. If I had, what kind of memories would he have had of his mother?

Would he be able to tell me what she looked like physically, if she was short or tall, if she was petite, medium or large build, if she had blonde, brown, black or red hair, or if her eyes were blue, brown, green or hazel?

Would he be able to tell me what kind of personality she had, if she was quiet or outgoing, if she was calm and poised, or if she was active and adventurous?

Would he be able to tell me what kind of interests she had, if she like to sew, knit, paint, garden, or if she even had time to enjoy hobbies and activities?

With my grandfather gone 23 years ago, I know only what the records tell me – and what they might suggest – about his mother.

Her baptism record tells me that Angélina was born on 4 August 1855 in the rural community of Ste-Cécile-de-Masham, Gatineau County, Quebec. The eldest child of farmer Ménésippe Meunier and his wife Louise Drouin, she had seven brothers and three sisters (one of whom died as an infant). According to the 1861 census, the family lived in one-story log house.

Angélina seems to have been close to her family, because she named some of her children after them. For example, my grandfather was named after her father, and four other sons were named after her brothers Jean-Baptiste, Louis, Cyrille and Gédéon. Also, her mother was godmother to an elder son, while three brothers and one sister were godparents to her younger children.

At 24 years old, Angélina was the first of her family to marry. She and Pierre Janvry dit Belair, whom I wrote about last week here, exchanged wedding vows on 9 September 1879 in Masham’s parish church. Their first child, son Pierre, was born the following year. Seven boys and three girls followed with more or less regularity every two years until 1896.

That summer, on 22 July 1896, Angélina gave birth to her 11th child, Joseph. Sadly, he lived only a few hours. Four days later, Angélina died on 26 July. She was 40 years old. Her widower and seven children survived her.

Her funeral was largely attended. Twenty-three women, all dames de la Congrégation de Ste-Anne, signed their names in the sacramental register. I think that action on the part of those women reveal a great deal about Angélina, does it not?

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.