Sibling Saturday: The Children of Albert and Clémentine (Léveillé) Desgroseilliers

Today’s Sibling Saturday offering is the fourth part in an ongoing series about my ancestors’ families. Here are the previous articles in this series:

• Sibling Saturday: The Children of Jean-Baptiste Bouchard (1698-1755) 

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

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

My maternal great-grandparents Albert and Clémentine were born in Embrun, Russell County, Ontario. They married in April 1899 in nearby South Indian (now Limoges), but within a few months moved north to Nipissing (now Sudbury) District. They made their home in the village of St. Charles, where Albert’s parents lived. Albert, a farmer, and Clémentine were the parents of 14 children, 11 sons and 3 daughters. They suffered the loss of seven children during their lifetime, including my grandfather Eugène. Albert died in December 1957 and Clémentine passed away in October 1969.

Albert and Clémentine (seated) with some of their children, about 1955.
L to R: Flavie, Roméo, Ovide, Donat, Ovila, and Léon.

This photo shows them with six of their children. It might not be obvious from the picture, but the Desgroseilliers family had taller than average members. For example, Albert was about 6’5” and his son my grandfather Eugène (not in the photo) was 6’7”. Clémentine and her daughter Flavie were also tall.

Children of Albert and Clémentine (Léveillé) Desgroseilliers

1. Eugène Desgroseilliers
Eugène was born on 30 August 1900 in St. Charles, Ontario. On 18 August 1925, he married Juliette Beauvais in Moonbeam, Ontario. Juliette was the sister of Laurette (Lorette) Beauvais, who married Eugène’s brother Ovide. Eugène died on 20 September 1960 in Sarnia, Ontario. He was a chief of police in the 1920s-1930s and a carpenter in the 1940s-1950s. Eugène and Juliette are my maternal grandparents.

2. Arthur Desgroseilliers
Arthur was born on 11 July 1901 in St. Charles. When he was 21 years old, Arthur contracted typhoid fever and died about five days later on 10 May 1923 in Kapuskasing, Ontario. Arthur, a farmer, was unmarried. I’ve written about my great-uncle at Arthur Desgroseilliers (1901-1923). 

3. Alma Desgroseilliers
Alma was born on 14 January 1904 in St. Charles. She was only three and a half years old when she died from bronchitis on 7 July 1907 in Cobalt, Ontario, where her family lived. The story of Alma’s brief life can be read at Wednesday’s Child: Alma Desgroseilliers (1904-1907).

The three eldest: Eugène (left), Alma and Arthur, about 1906

4. Ovila Hormidas Desgroseilliers
Ovila Hormidas was born on 21 October 1905 in St. Charles. He appears to have died young, presumably before 11 December 1906, becase a brother of the same name was born on that date.

5. Hormidas Desgroseilliers
Hormidas was born on 11 December 1906 in South Indian (Limoges) where his family resided at the time. He died on 5 February 1934 in Cochrane, Ontario. The cause of death was a kidney and bowel infection that led to generalised peritonitis. Hormidas, who was 27 years old, was unmarried.

6. Roméo Desgroseilliers
Roméo was born on 26 May 1908 in St. Charles. He married on 11 October 1933 in Moonbeam, Marie-Claire Albert. Roméo died on 15 April 1995 in Sturgeon Falls, Ontario.

7. Anna Desgroseilliers
Anna was born on 10 December 1909 in St. Charles. She and her mother Clémentine were on a visit to South Indian (Limoges), when she died there on 7 August 1910 aged eight months old.

8. Léonidas Desgroseilliers
Léonidas was born on 21 July 1911 in St. Charles. On 1 August 1935, he married Thérèse Credger in Moonbeam. Léonidas died on 6 March 1999 in Labelle, Quebec. His nieces Madeleine and Jacqueline (Eugène’s daughters) knew him by his nicknames of Léo, Nida, and Oneida.

9. Flavie Desgroseilliers
Flavie was born on 16 May 1913 in St. Charles. She married on 27 September 1932 Georges Léonard in Moonbeam. Flavie died on 3 October 1991 in Sudbury.

9. Léandre (Léon) Desgroseilliers
Léandre was born on 15 March 1915 in St. Charles. On 22 December 1938, he married Annette Potvin in Rouyn, Quebec. Léandre, a carpenter, died on 28 May 1996 in Sturgeon Falls. Annette’s sister Lucille Potvin married Léandre’s brother Ovila.

10. Donat Desgroseilliers
Donat was born on 25 June 1916 in St. Charles. He died on 20 October 1979 in Sturgeon Falls. Donat, a farmer, never married.

11. Ovide Desgroseilliers
Ovide was born on 9 April 1918 in Moonbeam. He married Laurette (Lorette) Beauvais there on 9 September 1936. Ovila died on 9 June 1978 in Moonbeam. Laurette’s sister Juliette Beauvais married Ovide’s brother Eugène. My Mom was very fond of her aunt and uncle, because they reminded her of her parents.

12. Ovila Desgroseilliers
Ovila was born on 6 March 1920 in Moonbeam. He married Lucille Potvin there on 6 January 1943. Ovila died on 11 November 1997 in North Bay, Ontario. Lucille’s sister Annette Potvin married Ovila’s brother Léandre.

13. Joseph Desgroseilliers
Joseph was born on 8 March 1924 in Moonbeam. He married on 25 December 1946 in Cache Bay, Ontario, Florence Renaud. He died in a vehicle accident on 2 August 1957 in Sturgeon Falls. His widow remarried and died in 2017. Their son Albert visits Mom (his cousin) at our home whenever he travels to B.C.

Copyright © 2018, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Clémentine Desgroseilliers’ Death Registration (1969)

Today – 18 October 2017 – is the 48th anniversary of the death of my maternal great-grandmother, Clémentine (Léveillé) Desgroseilliers.

Clémentine Desgroseilliers (ca 1948)

Clémentine was almost 91 years old when she passed away on 18 October 1969. [1] Although she lived about 4 hours south of Timmins where my family lived, I never met her. My Mom knew her, though, and visited her small farm in Sturgeon Falls, Ontario, when she was a child.

I have vague memories of that October. Mom had just found out she was expecting my brother Raymond. A few days later, my cousin Richard died in a car accident and Mom rushed to Kirkland Lake to be with her older sister Madeleine. Two weeks later, Mom got the news that their grandmother Clémentine died. Mom didn’t go to Sturgeon Falls for the funeral. The last memory I have is of me telling my friends at school (I was in Grade 6) that my great-grandmother had passed away.

Clémentine Desgroseilliers’ death registration, 1969 (cropped)

Source:

1. Province of Ontario, Statement of Death, no. 1969-045667, Clementine Desgroseilliers (1969); Office of the Registrar General, Thunder Bay.

Copyright © 2017, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Church Record Sunday: Desgroseilliers – Léveillé 1899 Marriage Record

My maternal great-grandparents Albert Desgroseilliers and Clémentine Léveillé married 117 years ago today.

Desgroseilliers - Léveillé marriage record (Généalogie Québec)

Albert, a younger son of Pierre and Flavie (Lepage) Desgroseilliers, was born in February 1879. His bride Clémentine, a younger daughter of Joseph and Cordélia (Racette) Léveillé, was slightly older: she was born in November 1878. The young couple were distantly related: Albert was Clémentine’s fifth cousin three times removed.

Albert, a farmer, and Clémentine married on 24 April 1899 in Limoges (known as South Indian, at this time) in Russell County, Ontario. [1] Father Joseph-Hercule Touchette celebrated the nuptial mass.

The marriage record (above) reads in French:

Le vingt quatre Avril, mil huit-cent quatre-vingt / dix neuf, vu la dispense de deux bans de mariage, ac- / cordée par nous, en vertu d’un pouvoir, à nous accor- / dé par Sa Grandeur Monseigneur J.T. Duhamel / Archevêque d’Ottawa, après la publication d’un / ban de mariage, faite au prône de nos messes parois- / siales entre Albert Desgroseilliers, fils majeur de Pierre / Desgroseilliers, cultivateur, et de Philenis Lepage / de cette mission, d’une part, et Clémentine / Léveillé, fille mineure de Joseph Léveillé / journalier et de Cordélia Racette de cette mission / d’autre part; ne s’etant découvert aucun empêchement / nous soussigné, curé de cette mission avons reçu leur mutu- / el consentement de mariage, et leur avons donné la bénédic- / tion nuptiale en presence de: [Rodrigue?] Laframboise et / Viateur Godard. [signed J.H. Touchette Ptre]

My English translation:

The twenty fourth April, one thousand eighty / nine, considering the dispensation of two banns of marriage, ac- / corded to us, in virtue of the power, to us accor- / ded by His Most Reverend J.T. Duhamel / Archbishop of Ottawa, after the publication of one / bann of marriage, stated at the sermons of mass of our parish / between Albert Desgroseilliers, son of age of Pierre / Desgroseilliers, farmer, and of Philenis Lepage / of this mission, on the one part, and Clémentine / Léveillé, minor daughter of Joseph Léveillé / day labourer and of Cordélia Racette of this mission / on the other part; not having found any impediment / we undersigned, curate of this mission have received their mutu- / al consent of marriage, and have given the nuptial blessing / in presence of: [Rodrigue?] Laframboise and / Viateur Godard. [signed J.H. Touchette Priest]

Source:

1. St-Viateur (Limoges, Ontario), parish register, 1897-1910, p. 18 (stamped), entry no. M.1 (1899), Albert Desgroseilliers – Clémentine Léveillé marriage, 24 April 1899; St-Viateur parish; digital images, “Registres du Fonds Drouin”, Généalogie Québec (http://www.genealogiequebec.com : accessed 4 July 2014).

Copyright © 2016, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Wednesday’s Child: Alma Desgroseilliers (1904-1907)

Little Alma Desgroseilliers was only three years and six months old when she died. [1]
 

Alma with her brothers Eugène (left) and Arthur (right), about 1906.

She was the third child and eldest daughter of Albert and Clémentine (Léveillé) Desgroseilliers.

Born on 14 January 1904 in St-Charles, Ontario, Alma was baptised “Alma Fabiana” three days later in St-Thomas Apôtre church in nearby Warren. [2] Actually, I’m not sure if her godparents brought her to Warren (taking a newborn out in winter doesn’t seem prudent), or if Father Nayl travelled to St-Charles to baptise Alma, and then once back in Warren recorded the details in his church’s sacramental register.

In about 1906 or early 1907, Alma’s parents and her elder brothers (Eugène, my maternal grandfather, and Arthur) moved to Cobalt, northeast of St-Charles, near the Ontario-Quebec border. I don’t know what prompted my great-grandfather Albert to relocate his young family there, but perhaps it had something to do with silver being discovered in Cobalt in 1903. [3] Neither his daughter's death registration nor her burial record indicate what kind of work Albert did at this time. (He had been a farmer in St-Charles.)

Alma, who had been ill with bronchitis for one week, died on 6 July 1907 in Cobalt. [4] She was buried there in the cemetery the next day; her father was present. [5]

How sad it must have been for Albert, Clémentine and their sons when they returned to live in St-Charles in the spring of 1908.

Sources:

1. “Ontario, Canada Deaths, 1869-1932”, digital image, Ancestry.ca (www.ancestry.ca : accessed 20 January 2012), entry for Alma Degrossalier [sic], 6 July 1907; citing Archives of Ontario, Registrations of Deaths - 1869-1932; Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Archives of Ontario; microfilm series MS935, reel 131.

2. “Ontario, Canada Births, 1869-1907”, digital image, Ancestry.ca (www.ancestry.ca : 20 January 2012), entry for Alma Fabi[ana] Desgrosellier [sic] (written as Desgrosellier, indexed as Desgrciellier), 14 January 1904; citing Archives of Ontario, Registrations of Birth and Stillbirths – 1869-1904; Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Archives of Ontario; microfilm series MS929, reel 174. Also, St-Thomas Apôtre (Warren, Ontario), parish register, 1901-1967, p. 12 verso, entry no. 6 (1904), Alma Fabiana Desgroseilliers baptism, 17 January 1904; St-Thomas Apôtre parish; digital image, “Canada, Catholic Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1747-1967”, Ancestry.ca (www.ancestry.ca : 20 January 2012).

3. Wikipedia contributors, "Cobalt, Ontario", Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cobalt,_Ontario&oldid=611476989 : accessed 16 September 2014).

4. “Ontario, Canada Deaths, 1869-1932”, digital image, Ancestry.ca (www.ancestry.ca : accessed 20 January 2012), entry for Alma Degrossalier [sic], 6 July 1907.

5. "Ontario, Roman Catholic Church Records, 1760-1923," digital image, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1942-24489-8758-36?cc=1927566&wc=M6VR-DTP:220997601,220997602,220997603,221004101 : accessed 20 January 2012), Timiskaming > Cobalt > St Hilarion > Baptisms, marriages, burials 1906-1910 > image 26 of 113, entry for Alma DesGroselliers [sic].

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

52 Ancestors: #34 Joseph Léveillé

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 34th week of this challenge, I chose Joseph Léveillé (1839-1922).

Joseph is my maternal great-great-grandfather and is number 26 in my ancestor list.

Joseph Léveillé

Early in my research, I found sources that stated Joseph was born about 1839 or in 1842 in New Glasgow, Quebec. It wasn’t until I got a subscription to Ancestry that I eventually found his baptism record. It showed that my great-great-grandfather was born and baptized on 23 August 1839 in St-Lin, L’Assomption County, Quebec. [1] Granted, New Glasgow and St-Lin are near each other, but not near enough to be the same place.

Joseph was a younger son of Jean-Baptiste Léveillé and Adélaïde Coderre. He had four older brothers, Jean-Baptiste, François-Xavier, Louis and Joseph (the last two died as infants), and two sisters, Marguerite and Marie Mélina (who also died as an infant).

The Léveillé family is enumerated on the 1851 census in L’Assomption (at that time Leinster) County in Quebec. Ten years later, Joseph and his parents are living in Russell County, Ontario, according to the 1861 census. It’s possible they were there as early as 1857, because a local history book names a Jean-Baptiste Léveillé and a Xavier Léveillé among some of the first settlers of Embrun. [2] These men could be Joseph’s father and brother, or his two eldest brothers, who paved the way, so to speak, for the rest of the family to join them in this part southeastern Ontario.

In October 1862, Joseph married as his first wife Marguerite Gauthier in Embrun. [3] The couple had one child, a daughter, before Marguerite died. Despite my searches, I haven’t found her burial record or her death registration. I also haven’t found his second marriage, to Cordélia Racette, in the sacramental registers of St-Jacques parish of Embrun. Fortunately, though, the 1871 census helps out by giving a date: November 1870. [4]

In the late 1980s, a distant cousin wrote to me about our mutual ancestors Joseph and Cordélia. He told me about the time he visited their youngest daughter Florida and how she had shared with him many details about her family, as well as photos of her parents. Florida appears to be the source for her parents’ marriage date and place of 10 November 1870 Embrun, Ontario and for the photo of Joseph seen above that was sent to me by my correspondent.[5]

Joseph and Cordélia, who were third cousins, had eleven children, born between 1872 and 1896: Mélanise (Mélanie), Joseph (who died young), Léonie, Clémentine (my great-grandmother), Adeline, Amanda, Adélaïde, Odilon Dominat, Louis, Florida and Eugène.

Joseph, who was a laborer and farmer all his life, died presumably in October 1922. He was buried on 21 October 1922 in the parish cemetery of St-Viateur in Limoges, Russell County, Ontario. [6] Unfortunately, his burial record doesn’t give his date or place of death. I didn’t find Joseph's death registration in Ancestry.ca’s “Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1938 and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1947” database or in “Ontario Deaths 1869-1947” at FamilySearch.org. I even searched the microfilmed death registration records at the Archives of Ontario when I was in Toronto last May, but didn’t locate Joseph. I also checked the "Le LAFRANCE" database at GénéalogieQuebec.com in case he died in the province of Quebec, but there weren’t any candidates. Finally, Joseph’s death wouldn’t be registered in that site’s “Mariages et décès 1926-1997” database, because the records begin in 1926, five years after he passed away.

Sources:

1. St-Lin (St-Lin-des-Laurentides, Quebec), parish register, 1839, p. 21 recto, entry no. B.102, Joseph Léveillé baptism, 23 August 1839; St-Lin parish; digital image, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 22 August 2008).

2. J.-U. Forget and Elie-J. Auclair, Histoire de Saint-Jacques d’Embrun (Ottawa: La Cie d’Imprimerie d’Ottawa, 1910), 19; digital image, Our Roots (http://ourroots.ca : accessed 21 April 2013).

3. "Ontario, Roman Catholic Church Records, 1760-1923," digital image, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1951-24169-4211-91?cc=1927566&wc=M6VT-9TG:221001601,221046001,221030802,221049401 : accessed 27 March 2012), Russell > Embrun > St Jacques > Baptisms, marriages, burials 1858-1869 > image 62 of 187, Léveillé – Gauthier marriage.

4. 1871 census of Canada, Russell Township, Russell County, Ontario, population schedule, subdistrict d, p. 27, dwelling 95, family 95, Joseph Léveyer [sic] household; digital image, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 22 August 2008); citing Library and Archives Canada, Census of Canada, 1871. The enumerator wrote “November” in Column 16 (Married within last twelve months), indicating that Joseph and Cordélia married in November 1870.

5. Paul Lavoie to Yvonne Belair, letter, 7 January 1988; privately held by Yvonne (Belair) Demoskoff, 2014. Paul, a great-great-grandson of Joseph and Cordélia (Racette) Léveillé, spoke with their daughter Florida (Léveillé) Leroux in Vars, Ontario in 1974.

6. St-Viateur (Limoges, Ontario), parish register, 1911-1927, p. 294, entry no. S.15, Joseph Léveillé (written as Léveillé, indexed as Laville) burial, 21 October 1922; St-Viateur parish; digital image, “Ontario, Canada, Catholic Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1747-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 22 August 2008).

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

52 Ancestors: #10 Albert Desgroseilliers – A tall and bespectacled man

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 10th week of this challenge, I chose my maternal great-grandfather Albert Desgroseilliers (1879-1957).

During the first week of this challenge, I wrote about Albert’s wife Clémentine Léveillé; you can read about her here.

My great-grandfather Albert was born on 12 February 1879 in Embrun, Russell County, Ontario. He was the eighth child and fifth son of Pierre Desgroseilliers and his wife Flavie Lepage. (Five other children were born after Albert.) He received the name Norbert at his baptism the day after he was born, but was known as Albert. He was not the first son named Albert in his family, though. An earlier Albert was born in July 1873, but lived only 12 days.

Albert grew to be a tall man, about 6’5”. I don’t know when he started needing eyeglasses, but he appears to be wearing a pair in the earliest photo I have of him taken at his son Eugène’s wedding in August 1925.

In the spring of 1899, Albert married Embrun-born Clémentine Léveillé in St-Viateur church of Limoges, near Embrun, on April 24. Clémentine was a few months older than her husband, as she was born on 12 November 1878. Within a few months, the couple moved north to Nipissing (now Sudbury) District and made their home in the village of St. Charles, where Albert’s parents and other paternal relatives were now living.

Albert and Clémentine’s first child, Eugène, was born in August 1900. Thirteen more children followed between 1901 and 1923: Arthur, Alma, Ovila, Hormidas, Roméo, Anna, Léonidas, Flavie, Léandre, Donat, Ovide, Ovila, and Joseph. Two daughters and a son (Alma, Ovila and Anna) died when very young, between 1905 and 1910.

Albert (sitting, left) with his wife and six of their children, 1950s

After living in St-Charles for about 17 years, Albert moved his family further north to the quaintly named village of Moonbeam, in Cochrane District. There, his three youngest children were born. The family sustained two loses when sons Arthur (21) and Hormidas (27) died in 1923 and 1934, respectively.

The first child to marry was my grandfather Eugène, when he wed Juliette Beauvais in the summer of 1925 in Moonbeam. Albert and Clémentine became grandparents the next year when Juliette gave birth to a son in December 1926, but sadly, the child did not survive. More grandchildren, though, came at a regular pace over the years, with the last one born five years after Albert's death.

In the mid-1940s, Albert gave up farming, and moved to Sturgeon Falls, not far from St. Charles. Here, he and Clémentine lived out their remaining years.

In the fall of 1957, Albert travelled to Ottawa, presumably to visit his younger brother Célestin, who was ill. Célestin died that November in hospital. Albert must have been taken ill, as well, because he died while still in Ottawa less than a month after his brother, on 16 December 1957. His nephew Laurent (Célestin’s son) registered Albert’s death. (I’ve written here about how I learned that Albert died in Ottawa, instead of Sturgeon Falls where I had always been told he died.)

Albert’s funeral was held in Sturgeon Falls on 19 December 1957. He is buried there in St. Mary’s (Old) Cemetery.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

52 Ancestors: #1 Clémentine Léveillé

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”.

I love this challenge, because I’ve been looking for a regular column idea for my blog since I ended my “Ancestral Anniversaries” last month and because talking about ancestors on a genealogy blog is a good thing J

So, here goes with ancestor #1 (picked at random)!

Clémentine (Léveillé) Desgroseilliers, mid-1950s

My great-grandmother Clémentine Léveillé was born on 13 November 1878 in Embrun, Russell County, Ontario. She had ten brothers and sisters and an older half-sister.

In April 1899, Clémentine married Albert Desgroseilliers in the nearby community of South Indian (now known as Limoges). The young couple lived in different rural communities in Ontario, including Sturgeon Falls, in Nipissing District, where they had a small farm.

My Mom Jacqueline has a few memories of visiting her grandmother when she was a little girl. One of them includes the time she played with a child’s tea set with her cousin Gabrielle, one of Clémentine’s granddaughters by her daughter Flavie.

As you might be able to tell, Clémentine’s left eye is shut in this picture. It’s because when she was younger, she was kicked in the face by a farm animal (it might have been a cow).

Although my great-grandmother lived not too far from where I was born and grew up, I never met her. Clémentine was one month short of her 91st birthday when she died in October 1969.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Wedding Wednesday: Desgroseilliers – Léveillé

One hundred and fourteen years ago today, my maternal great-grandparents Albert Desgroseilliers and Clémentine Léveillé married on 24 April 1899 in St-Viateur Roman Catholic church in Limoges, Russell County, Ontario.



Albert and Clémentine Desgroseilliers, mid-1950s

The above photograph shows them at home at 286 Nipissing Street in Sturgeon Falls in the 1950s.

Albert and Clémentine had fourteen children, 11 sons and three daughters. Their youngest child, Joseph, was only two years old when their eldest child Eugène (my grandfather) married in August 1925.

My great-grandparents were married for 58 years. Their union is the third longest marriage in the first seven generations of my maternal and paternal ancestry.

Albert died aged 78 on 16 December 1957 in Ottawa. (I’ve written here about my theory as to why he died in Ottawa instead of in Sturgeon Falls, his usual place of residence.) Clémentine survived him nearly 12 years; she died on 18 October 1969, one month short of her 91st birthday.

Copyright © 2013, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Friday Photo: Clementine at a funeral

On the first two Fridays of each month, I showcase a family photo and answer the “who, what, when, where and why” of that picture. The first week’s Friday photo is taken from my side of the family and the second week’s Friday photo is chosen from my husband’s side of the family. (I got the idea for this column from Amy Coffin’s ebook The Big Genealogy Blog Book advertised on her The We Tree Genealogy Blog.)



Clémentine Desgroseilliers, Blue Water, Ontario, 1948

Who:
My maternal great-grandmother Clémentine (Léveillé) Desgroseilliers (1878-1969).

What:
Clémentine Desgroseilliers posed for a photo at the time of the death and funeral of her daughter-in-law Juliette. Her eldest son Eugène Desgroseilliers was left a widower with seven children when Juliette died of cancer on 14 August 1948.

When:
The photo was taken on or about the day of Juliette’s funeral on 17 August 1948. Her obituary appeared in the local newspaper.

Where:
Presumably at Eugène’s house (not seen in the photo) in Blue Water, near Sarnia, Lambton County, Ontario. One of Sarnia’s many oil refineries can be seen in the background.

Why:
Family and friends gathered for the funeral of Juliette Desgroseilliers, my maternal grandmother.

This picture is an important one in my family’s photo collection. It is a favorite of mine; not only is it a visual record of a time of sadness, it is also a record of a mother’s love and devotion for her bereaved son and his children. (Clémentine travelled from her home in northeastern Ontario to be with her son Eugène, who lived in southwestern Ontario.)

Copyright © 2013, Yvonne Demoskoff.