Sibling Saturday: The Children of Olivier and Elizabeth (Vanasse) Vanasse

Olivier and Elizabeth Vanasse are my paternal great-grandparents. Olivier was born on 4 February 1863 in Chapeau, Pontiac County, Quebec (then known as Canada East). He was the sixth and youngest child of Olivier and Elizabeth (Frappier) Vanasse. Elizabeth was born on 11 September 1862, also in Chapeau. She was the third of thirteen children of Joseph and Marie (Guérard) Vanasse.

Olivier and Elizabeth Vanasse (ca 1930s)

Olivier and Elizabeth were first cousins, their fathers being brothers. They married in the summer of 1889 and lived in Chapeau, where Olivier farmed. He and Elizabeth had nine children, who all survived to adulthood. Olivier died on 7 December 1944 at home. About 1946, my great-grandmother moved to Ottawa, Ontario to live with her daughter Mary. She died there on 1 September 1947.

Children of Olivier and Elizabeth (Vanasse) Vanasse

1. Mary Vanasse
Mary was born on 1 April 1890 and died, unmarried, on 21 September 1951.

2. George Vanasse
George was born on 13 October 1891. On 15 June 1920, he married Louisa Potvin (1902-1996) in Bourget, Ontario. Louisa was the sister of Clément Potvin, who married George’s sister Celia. George and Louisa had seven children. George died on 22 March 1976 in Ottawa.

3. William (Willie) Vanasse
Willie was born on 23 February 1893 and died on 13 May 1955 in a veterans’ hospital in London, Ontario. He was unmarried. Willie served in World War I.

4. Cecilia (Celia) Vanasse
Celia was born on 6 January 1895. She married on 14 June 1921 in Ottawa Clément (Clem) Potvin (1895-1987). Clem was the brother of Louisa Potvin, who married Celia’s brother George. She and Clem had two children. Celia died on 3 September 1986 in Ottawa.

Olivier and Elizabeth Vanasse (centre, back) with their children
Mary (centre, left) and Joe (in uniform) and (front, left to right)
Celia, Aggie, and Dave (ca 1939)

5. Julia (Julie) Vanasse
Julie was born on 31 August 1896. She married on 28 October 1926 Fred Belair (1889-1991) in Ottawa. Julie and Fred had six children, including my father Maurice. She died on 19 March 1967 in Timmins, Ontario.

6. Joseph (Joe) Vanasse
Joe was born on 23 January 1898. He married on 19 August 1942 Stella (Shirley) Ranger (1920-2010) in Chapeau. Like his elder brother, Joe served in World War I. He and his wife Stella had two children. Joe died on 23 March 1973 in Ottawa.

7. Corinne (Cora) Vanasse
Cora was born on 20 August 1900. She married Francis (Frank) Milks (1900-1968) on 5 November 1921 In Ottawa. Cora and Frank had five children. She died on 11 April 1977 in Ottawa.

8. David (Dave) Vanasse (Venasse)
Dave was born on 3 May 1903. He married on 12 June 1929 Louise St-Martin (1911-1991) in Chapeau. They didn’t have children of their own, but adopted a boy. Dave died on 28 May 1979 in Pembroke, Ontario.

9. Agnes (Aggie) Vanasse
Aggie was born on 12 September 1905. She married on 2 September 1935 Frederick (Fred; Freddie) Burchill (ca 1907-1989) in Chapeau. Fred was a British home child. He and Aggie had three children. Aggie died on 28 June 2000 in Ottawa.

Celia, Julie, Cora, and Aggie Vanasse (1962)

My grandmother Julie lived a couple of houses from mine when I was a child, so I knew her very well. I never met great-aunt Mary and great-uncle Willie, who passed away before I was born. I don’t believe I ever met George, Joe and Dave, but might have the year my family went to Ottawa on vacation in 1969. When I was a teenager, I visited Celia, Cora, and Aggie on a few occasions at their homes in Ottawa. I loved those visits with my great-aunts, because they were a link to my beloved grandmother after she passed away.

Copyright © 2018, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Sunday’s Obituary: Lucille Saucier

Lucille (Potvin) Saucier passed away ten years ago on 15 November 2006. [1]

Born Doris Lucille Potvin, she was “Lou” to her family and “Cousin Lou” to my Dad and I. Actually, I was first cousin once removed to her, while she and Dad were first cousins.

Lou was the only daughter of Clement and Cecilia (Vanasse) Potvin. She was four years older than her cousin Maurice, but they were rather close as young children and spent vacations on their grandparents’ farm on Ile des Allumettes in the late 1920s and early 1930s. In later years, Dad always spoke fondly of Lou, probably because he knew her best of his Vanasse cousins.

When I was a student at the University of Ottawa, Lou would invite me to her home for meals (and much appreciated they were) or to just hang out when I got lonely living in my dorm. Lou and I corresponded fairly regularly after my family moved to British Columbia. She was a wonderful source of information about our relatives and ancestors.

Cousin Lou is still missed and remembered to this day.

Source:

1. “Doris “Lou” Saucier”, obituary, undated clipping, 2006, from unidentified newspaper; privately held by Joan (Belair) Laneville, Timmins, Ontario, 2016. Yvonne scanned family memorabilia, including this obituary, when she visited her aunt Joan (Belair) Laneville in May 2014. Joan and Lou were first cousins.

Copyright © 2016, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Sunday’s Obituary: David Venasse

Great-uncle David was my grandmother Julie (Vanasse) Belair’s youngest brother. Some of the family spelled their last name Vanasse, others spelled it Venasse.

David, the eighth of nine children of Olivier and Elizabeth (Vanasse) Vanasse, was born on 3 May 1903 on Ile des Allumettes, Pontiac County, Quebec. He married Louise St-Martin in June 1929 and they adopted a son, Glen.

I don’t think I ever met David or Louise, but my Dad used to talk about his Uncle Dave to me.

A resident of Pembroke, Ontario, David passed away of cancer on 28 May 1979 in Queensway-Carleton Hospital in nearby Ottawa, Ontario. [1] His funeral took place three days later in Petawawa, just north of Pembroke, and he was interred in Chapeau on Ile des Allumettes. [2]

David’s death was a great blow to his wife Louise and to his surviving sisters Celia and Agnes, who were devoted to their brother.

Sources:

1. Agnes (Vanasse) Burchill (Ottawa, Ontario) to “Dear Joan”, letter, 1 June 1979; privately held by Yvonne (Belair) Demoskoff, British Columbia, 2016. Yvonne received assorted family memorabilia, including this letter, from her aunt Joan (Belair) Laneville when she visited her home in May 2014. Joan was Agnes’ niece.

2. “Venasse”, obituary, undated clipping, 1979, from unidentified newspaper; privately held by Yvonne (Belair) Demoskoff, British Columbia, 2016. Yvonne received assorted family memorabilia, including this obituary, from her aunt Joan (Belair) Laneville when she visited her home in May 2014. Joan, David’s niece, received it from his sister Agnes (Vanasse) Burchill in a letter to Joan dated 1 June 1979.

Copyright © 2016, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Sunday’s Obituary: Clement Potvin

“Uncle Clem” was my father’s maternal uncle. He married Cecilia (Celia) Vanasse, an elder sister of Dad’s mother Julie, in June 1921.

A man of slight build, Clem was a quiet person. I remember my family's visits to Ottawa in the 1970s and how we'd always find him happy. Uncle Clem didn’t say much, but he always had a smile on his face.

He died on 20 August 1987, age 92, less than a year after Celia passed away. They are interred in Notre-Dame Cemetery in Ottawa.

Source:

“Clement Potvin”, obituary, undated clipping (1987), from unidentified newspaper; Demoskoff Family Papers, privately held by Yvonne (Belair) Demoskoff, British Columbia, 2014. Yvonne received the original clipping from her Aunt Joan (Belair) Laneville when she visited her home in May 2014.

Copyright © 2015, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Wedding Wednesday: Saucier – Potvin

My Dad’s first cousin Lucille (Lou) Potvin married Joseph (Joe) Saucier on 22 June 1946, sixty-nine years ago next week. Father Fernand Faucher, a Dominican priest, officiated at the ceremony in St-Jean-Baptiste church on Empress Avenue in Ottawa, Ontario.

In the photo, Clem and Celia (Vanasse) Potvin stand next to their daughter, while Madame Victor Saucier is beside her son. Joe, who served in WWII, is wearing his army uniform.

I don’t think that my Dad and his family (his parents and his three siblings) travelled from their home in northern Ontario to attend his cousin’s wedding. (None of them appear in other photos I have seen of the wedding.)

Lou sent this photo to her cousin, my Aunt Joan (Dad’s sister). When I visited my Aunt last year, she gave me the picture; it was the first time I saw it. On the back of the photo, Lou wrote (in English and in French) in her distinctive handwriting:

Mum, Dad, Myself

& Joe & his Mum

Juin [June] 46

I don’t know the story of how Lou and Joe met, but maybe they got to know each other during the War. The Potvin family lived in Ottawa, but Joe and his family were from Cornwall, a little over an hour south of Ottawa.

My family and I visited Lou and Joe a few times where they lived in Ottawa. (Later, I visited them on my own when I was a student at the University of Ottawa.) I remember just a little bit about my first visit to their home in the summer of 1969, when their sons Ron and Dennis took me and my sister Marianne to the annual Ottawa Exhibition at Lansdowne Park.

Joe passed away in 1993 and Lou passed away in 2006. They were such nice people and I have fond memories of them.

Copyright © 2015, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Photo Consultation Part III – Vanasse Family

This blog post is the third and final article of a three-part series in which I write about the help I received from photo detective Maureen Taylor during a recent photo consultation. For the two previous installments, see Photo Consultation with Maureen Taylor and Photo Consultation Part II – Pierre Janvry dit Belair.

This picture of my Vanasse great-aunts and uncles (my father’s maternal relatives) was sent to me as a digital image by my cousin Nancy in the spring of 2013.

Seated at the front (left to right) are George, his sister Corinne (Cora) and his brother William (Willie). At the back (left to right) are his sister Agnes (Aggie), his wife Louise, his brother David (Dave), his sister Cecilia (Celia), and his brother Joseph (Joe). Missing from the group are parents Olivier and Elisabeth, and sisters Mary and Julie (my grandmother).

Here are Maureen’s thoughts about this picture:

• A studio portrait (painted background, heavy furniture, carpet).
  
• It could be part of a series of photos taken at the same time.
  
• Presumably a wedding photo, since Louise is less likely to be included with the family while unmarried to George.
  
• The men all wear different collars and ties. Joe (back, far right) appears to be “a bit of a dandy”, judging by the style of his collar.
  
• Joe has a protective hand on Willie’s shoulder.
  
• Cora (centre, front) and Celia (back, right) are fashionably dressed. Maureen added that she’s never seen Cora’s style of necklace.
  
• Aggie (back, far left), who’s about 14 years old, is “dressing younger than her age”. Her hair (in banana curls) and dress reflect a “very youthful style”. She could be dressed by an older person instead of having the chance to make her own fashion choices.
  
• Louise’s “dress is way too big”. She seems to have borrowed it from someone “taller and much larger in the chest”.

My impressions:

I believe this photo was taken in June 1920, when George (born in 1891) married Louise Potvin in Bourget, Russell County, Ontario. Louise’s dress with its shiny, heavy fabric, so different from what her sisters-in-law are wearing, suggests the picture was taken on a special occasion. Until Maureen pointed out how big Louise’s dress is, I hadn’t noticed how much fabric appears on her left sleeve.

If I’m correct about the year, the Vanasse brothers and sisters gathered for this photo less than two years after the end of the Great War (1914-1918). Willie (born in 1893) and Joe (born in 1898) both served overseas with the Canadian Expeditionary Forces. Poor Willie came back home shell-shocked and spent a number of years in veterans hospitals. I get the feeling that Willie and Joe were particularly close, and that Joe feels protective of his elder brother. I also think that Celia (born in 1895) is close to her youngest brother Dave (born in 1903), since she’s holding onto his arm.

Dave’s skin is darker than any of his brothers and sisters. His skin tone might be due to genetics: both his parents are great-grandchildren of Aboriginal women.

I'm grateful that my cousin Nancy shared this wonderful Vanasse family photo with me. I dearly loved my grandmother Julie, who died when I was eight and half years old. After her death, I felt privileged to have known her sisters, particularly Celia, who I used to visit at her home in Ottawa when I was there at university.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Wedding Wednesday: Four Sisters at a June Wedding

Sixty-five years ago today, my grandmother Julie (Vanasse) Belair, seen here on the far left, attended the wedding of her niece Marvel Milks to Charles Cosenzo on 4 June 1949 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. With Julie are her sisters (left to right) Agnes (Mrs. Fred Burchill), Cecilia (Mrs. Clem Potvin) and Cora (Mrs. Frank Milks).

I didn't know this photo existed until I saw it for the first time at my Aunt Darlene's home when I visited her last month during my trip to Ontario. She gave it to me, along with other family memorabilia, for which I'm truly grateful, because I love seeing any and all photos of my beloved Mémère Julie.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Wordless Wednesday: George Vanasse and His Sisters

George Vanasse with his sisters (left to right) Mary, Agnès and Celia (Cécile). They’re gathered for the wedding of George’s son Armand on 5 June 1950 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Copyright © 2013, Yvonne Demoskoff.