In Memoriam: George Cazakoff

George and Polly Cazakoff, 1950s

Today (March 12) marks the fifty-sixth anniversary of the death of my husband’s maternal grandfather George Wasilievitch Cazakoff. (For a brief explanation of this surname, see Surname Saturday: Cazakoff.)

George was born on 21 January 1884 in Orlovka, a village in Tiflis province in the Caucasus region of the Russian empire, now in present-day Georgia. [1] His Russian name was Gregorii.

George was one of at least four children of Wasyl Wasilievitch Cazakoff and Fedosia N. Savinkoff, Doukhobor pacifists. (I’ve previously written about this Russian religious group in Family History Through the Alphabet – S is for …) He had an older brother Mikhail (Michael), and a younger brother Nikolai (Nicholas) and sister Pologea (Polly).

In the late 1890s, George, his parents and siblings were part of a group of over 2,000 Doukhobors who left Russia for Canada. According to family tradition, they sailed on the chartered Canadian freighter S.S. Lake Huron from the Black Sea port of Batum on 22 December 1898, and arrived nearly one month later in January 1899 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. [2]

S.S. Lake Huron [3]

The Cazakoffs settled in what was known as the South Colony in the District of Assiniboia (now the province of Saskatchewan). [4] This land, or reserve, had been specially set aside for the new Doukhobor immigrants. (Other Doukhobor immigrants settled in the Saskatchewan Colony, the Good Spirit Lake Annex and the North Colony.)

About 1905, the family moved to Simeonovka (aka Semenova), a village in the North Colony, where George married Polya Iwanovitch Poznekoff. [5] Polya, known as Polly in English, was also a Doukhobor immigrant.

The couple had nine children between 1907 and 1926: Wasyl, John, Philip, Peter, Alex, Nicholas, Lawrence, Fred and Ann. Sons Wasyl and Alex died as infants. [6]

George, Polly and their sons (left to right) Philip, Pete, John and baby Nick, 1919
in front of George's first car, a 1918 Chevrolet

In 1910, George, his father and younger brother withdrew from communal living and became independent Doukhobors. [7] About six years later, George acquired a homestead in St. Phillips Rural Municipality, about ten miles northwest of Kamsack, in eastern Saskatchewan. [8]

After 39 years of agricultural work, George retired from farming in the mid-1950s. [9] He and Polly built themselves a house in the town of Kamsack, where they lived until George was taken ill.

George died on 12 March 1958 in Kamsack Union Hospital. [10] His six surviving sons were pallbearers at his funeral service two days later in the Kamsack Doukhobor Prayer Home. [11] George is interred in Riverview Cemetery, Kamsack. [12]

George Cazakoff's funeral, with his sons as pallbearers, 1958

My husband Michael, who was only 5 years old when his grandfather died, has few memories of him. He remembers that he paid one or two visits to his grandparents’ large house with its wide veranda, and that George smoked cigars.

Sources:

1. History Coming Alive, R.M. of St. Philips, Pelly and District, 2 vols. (Pelly, Saskatchewan: St. Philips/Pelly History Book Committee, 1988), I: 382.

2. “Doukhobors at Halifax”, The Globe, 21 January 1899, p. 13, cols. 6-7; digital images, The Globe and Mail (http://heritage.theglobeandmail.com : accessed 10 April 2009).

3. Photo of S.S. Lake Huron (built 1881), digital image, Norway – Heritage (http://www.norwayheritage.com : accessed 18 January 2014).

4. History Coming Alive, I: 383.

5. History Coming Alive, I: 384.

6. History Coming Alive, I: 384.

7. History Coming Alive, I: 383.

8. History Coming Alive, I: 384.

9. History Coming Alive, I: 384.

10. Province of Saskatchewan, death registration, no. 07-002372 (1958), George Wasyl Cazakoff; Department of Public Health – Division of Vital Statistics, Regina.

11. George W. Cazakoff’s In Memoriam: A Memorial Book, Kamsack, Saskatchewan, citing funeral service on 14 March 1958; privately held by Edna (Arishenkoff) Cazakoff, White Rock, British Columbia, 2011. Edna, George’s daughter-in-law, allowed her nephew Michael Demoskoff to scan the memorial booklet during a visit to her home in January 2011. The “Pall Bearers” section lists the names of George’s sons as the pallbearers.

12. “Doukhobors in Riverview Cemetery – Kamsack, Saskatchewan”, database, Doukhobor Genealogy Website (http://www.doukhobor.org/Cemetery-Kamsack.htm : accessed ), entry for George W. Cazakoff (1884-1958).

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

In Memoriam: Mariette White

Today – 17 February 2014 – marks the sixth anniversary of my Aunt Mariette’s passing. She was 80 years old, a widow, and survived by her seven children, and many grand- and great-grandchildren.

Mariette, my mother’s eldest sister, was born on 18 December 1927 at home in Hearst, Ontario, Canada. She was the second, but eldest surviving, child of her parents, Eugène and Juliette (Beauvais) Desgroseilliers.

Mariette, about 1936

During her early years, her father Eugène worked as chief of police in Hearst. He made a comfortable living, and was able to buy such luxuries as a piano for his children. He was also able to afford to send his elder daughters Mariette, Madeleine and Simone to the Académie Sainte-Marie, in Haileybury, Ontario, to be educated as boarding students by the Soeurs de l'Assomption de la Sainte Vierge.

About 1935, the family moved to northeastern Quebec. Life was good until about 1938 or 1939, when my grandfather Eugène became seriously ill with double pneumonia. He was unable to work for months, and ultimately lost his position as chief of police. Faced with unemployment, he moved his family to Ontario and found work as a guard in Nobel, just outside Parry Sound.

In the summer of 1942, the family relocated again, this time to Blue Water, a tiny community next to Sarnia, Ontario. It was here, in the mid-1940s, that Mariette met John (Jack) White, whom she married. They had three sons and four daughters.

I met my Aunt when I was very little, because my parents travelled to Sarnia at least twice when I was a toddler. But, I don’t remember anything of those visits. The next time I saw Aunt Mariette, I was a teenager. My parents and I (I don’t remember if my sister and brother were with us) were in Sarnia and visited her home. We walked into the living room where she and my cousins had gathered. As soon as I saw my Aunt, I was amazed at how much she and my Mom looked alike. I had, of course, seen photos of her over the years, but I had never really noticed this striking resemblance. Seeing her in person made such a difference, too. Mariette was a very beautiful woman, and with her dark looks, reminded me of actress Loretta Young.

Mariette (left) with her sister Jacqueline, 1974

I wish I had a better chance to know my Aunt and my cousins (actually all of my Sarnia relatives), but we lived so far apart from each other, and visits were, unfortunately, infrequent.

You are still loved and missed today, Aunt Mariette.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

In Memoriam: Maurice Belair

Maurice Belair, my Dad (or Pa, as I used to call him in French) would have been 86 years old today.

Dad was born on 2 August 1927 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He was his parents Fred and Julie’s first child. Dad was baptized at St-Jean Baptiste Roman Catholic church on Empress Avenue in Ottawa, where his parents married the previous October.

Maurice Belair (about 3 or 4 years old), 1930-1931

Dad grew up in Ottawa and Montreal, where his father Fred worked as an iron worker for the Dominion Bridge Company. Dad’s sister Jeanne (Joan) and brother Ray were born in Montreal. The family lived for a time in Chapeau, in Pontiac County, Quebec (where Julie was from), and then moved back to Ottawa, and soon after to nearby South March and Corkery.

In about 1934, the family moved to Fauquier in northeastern Ontario. While here, Dad received the sacrament of Confirmation at Ste-Agnès RC church in September 1935. Four years later in May 1939, he made his profession of faith at Ste-Agnès. (The certificate he received to commemorate the event is still in our possession. You can see it in Family History Through the Alphabet – R is for…) It was probably on one of these two occasions that he received a large, wood crucifix, which I wrote about in Treasure Chest Thursday: The Crucifix.

In the early 1940s, Dad and his family moved to Timmins, where his brother Ray and younger sister Darlene went to school. Later, they moved to Blue Water, near Sarnia, Ontario. By the mid-1950s, Dad’s parents Fred and Julie were back in Timmins, but he remained in southern Ontario where he worked as a welder.

In about 1952, Dad met my mom Jacqueline when she worked as a counter girl at a family-owned corner store in Blue Water. They courted for some time, and then married in Sarnia on 18 December 1954. After they married, Dad went wherever there was welding work for him in southern Ontario and Quebec. (I wrote about how Dad started out as a welder in Workday Wednesday: Maurice Belair, Welder.) When Mom was expecting their first child in 1958, they decided to settle down in Timmins. Dad’s parents and sister Joan lived there, so choosing that town seemed a logical choice.

One autumn day in 1979, Dad was injured while working in Bracebridge, Ontario. (See Workday Wednesday: The Pipeline Accident.) He spent a few months recovering, and then decided to give up being a full-time welder. He, Mom and us three children (my sister Marianne, brother Raymond and myself) moved to British Columbia. Here Dad and his brother Ray started a road-building business.

Dad spent the remainder of his life in Hope, where he passed away on 6 May 1996. He had suffered from coronary heart disease for a few years and died of a heart attack. I’ve written about his obituary (Sunday’s Obituary: My Father, Maurice Belair) and his gravemarker (Tombstone Tuesday: Maurice Belair.)

Copyright © 2013, Yvonne Demoskoff.

In Memoriam: Fred Belair

Today – December 18 – marks the 123rd anniversary of my paternal grandfather Fred Belair’s birth. Although his baptismal record states that he was born on 26 November 1889, my Pépère Fred once told me that he didn’t believe he was born in November and that someone at the church must have written an incorrect day and month of birth on his baptismal record. Years later, December 18th would be a very special day for my family for three reasons: it was my grandfather's birthday, my parents' wedding anniversary (they married on December 18, 1954) and my younger sister's birthday (born on December 18, 1960).

Born and baptised in Sainte-Cécile-de-Masham, Gatineau County, Quebec, Canada, Fred was the seventh child and fifth son of his parents Pierre and Angélina (Meunier) Belair. He received the names “Jean-Baptiste Ménésippe” at his baptism in the local parish church. Although he used either of his baptismal names as a child and young adult, he preferred to be known as Fred as an adult.

In the summer of 1896, Fred suffered a tragedy when his mother died a few days after giving birth to her eleventh child, a son Joseph who lived two days. His mother Angélina was only 41 years old. With seven surviving children, widower Pierre remarried within a year of his wife’s passing. Fred’s father and new stepmother Mathilde had five children, two sons and three daughters. (After Mathilde died in 1923, Pierre married a third time, to widow Rosalie Lavictoire.)

About 1911, Fred left home to seek work as a labourer in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, USA. During World War I, Fred worked in a munitions factory. During the 1910s and 1920s, Fred also worked in the shipyards of Wisconsin and Minnesota and on the railroad in Canada. He was employed as an ironworker for the Dominion Bridge Company in Montreal in the late 1920s-early 1930s. Later, in the 1940s, Fred was a cook in lumber camps in northern Ontario, Canada.



Fred and Julie Belair on their wedding day, 1926.

In October 1926, Fred married Julie Vanasse in Ottawa. They met through his half-sister Almina Belair, who was one of Julie’s friends. After their wedding, Fred and Julie settled in a part of Ottawa known as LeBreton Flats, which was a poor working area west of the city centre. While here, their first child, Maurice, was born in August 1927. Later, another son and two daughters completed the family unit.

Fred and his family lived in many places in the 1930s and 1940s, including Timmins, Ontario and Blue Water, near Sarnia, Ontario. After they returned to Timmins in the 1950s, Fred retired and he and Julie settled in a small apartment. After Julie passed away in March 1967, Fred continued to live in their one-bedroom home. It wasn’t until advanced old age that he moved to Peterborough, Ontario to live with his daughter Darlene.

In October 1989, Fred’s family and friends gathered in Timmins to celebrate his 100th birthday.


Fred with his children on his 100th birthday, 1989.


Fred died in Peterborough in January 1991; he was 101 years old. His funeral took place in Timmins, and he was interred next to his beloved Julie.

Copyright © 2012, Yvonne Demoskoff.

In Memoriam: Eugène Desgroseilliers

Early Life

Eugène Desgroseilliers, my maternal grandfather, was born on 30 August 1900 in St-Charles, Ontario. He was his parents Albert and Clémentine (Léveillé) Desgroseilliers’ first child. Eugène, the eldest of 14 children, had ten brothers and three sisters. His youngest sibling, Joseph, was only two years old when Eugène married in 1925.

Eugène with his younger brother Arthur and sister Alma, about 1907.

Eugène grew up in St-Charles, which had been carved out of the forest wilderness south of Sudbury after the CPR railway opened up the region in the 1880s-1890s. Eugène’s father Albert supported his family as farmer; they lived for a while on lot 9, concession 2. When Eugène was about 17 years old, the family moved to Moonbeam in northeastern Ontario, where some of his relatives lived.

Marriage and Family

In Moonbeam, Eugène met and courted a young woman named Juliette Beauvais, whom he married in the local Roman Catholic church on 18 August 1925. The couple were a visual contrast: he was tall (6’7”), she was short (5’2”). Juliette was so petite at her marriage that Eugène could wrap his hands around her tiny waist.

Eugène and Juliette had nine children: a son Noël Xavier (born and died on Christmas Day 1926), followed by five daughters (Mariette, Madeleine, Simone, Marianne, and Jacqueline), then a son (Gaston), and then two more daughters (Normande and Jeanne d’arc). Sadly, Marianne died in 1938 when she was six years old following an appendicitis attack, while Gaston died in 1941 of his injuries after falling out of a moving car; he was only six years old. My mother and her sisters say that their father never really recovered from the loss of his son Gaston.

Eugène and Juliette on their wedding day with their parents, 1925.

When he married, Eugène was a farmer in Moonbeam, but after moving to Hearst in 1927, he became the town’s chief of police. (My Mom doesn’t know what qualifications her father had in order to do police work, but believes he was chosen for the job because of his imposing height.)

For the next few years, Eugène served as chief of police in Hearst, and then transferred to Rouyn and later Duparquet and Cadillac, all in northwestern Quebec. With regular employment during the Depression, Eugène provided well for his family, and was able to afford such luxuries as a piano and boarding (convent) school education for his elder daughters. He was known for his generous nature, giving food and money to the poor who came knocking at his door.

Eugène when chief of police, 1930s.

Difficult Years

About 1940, Eugène became ill with double pneumonia and lost his job as police chief. The family returned to live in Ontario, where Eugène worked for a short time in an explosives and munitions factory near Parry Sound. By 1942, the family settled in Blue Water, a village near Sarnia, Ontario. Eugène then worked sporadically as a carpenter, but the family was very poor and there was little money.

The family suffered another tragedy when Juliette was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 1948. She died after a short illness that August. Eugène was left alone to raise his family. The youngest daughters continued with school, but the eldest ones had jobs or were married. (My mother regretted having to quit high school to find work soon after her mother died, because her father couldn’t afford the fees.)

Final Days

Eugène with his daughters (left to right) Jeanne d'arc, Jacqueline
and Madeleine, Blue Water, Ontario, 1959.

In the summer of 1960, Eugène told his daughter Jacqueline that he was ill. He did not know it at the time, but he had cancer. Eugène died on 20 September 1960, having just turned 60 years old. His funeral took place three days later at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Blue Water. 

My Memories

I don’t really remember my grandfather, even though I visited him on a couple of occasions when I was a toddler. I’m told that he would rock me on his knees and call me his “p’tite poule noire” (little black chicken) because of my dark brown hair and eyes.

Copyright © 2012, Yvonne Demoskoff.

In Memoriam: Wasyl Demosky

My husband Michael never knew his paternal grandfather, Wasyl Demosky, because he died twenty years before he was born. 

According to family tradition, Wasyl was originally from Tiflis, Russia (now Tbilisi, Georgia) or Kars, Russia (now in Turkey). His exact date of birth is unknown, but based on his age on census records and on his death registration, he was born about 1883. 

Wasyl, his father Mikhail and other family members left Russia for Canada in the spring of 1899. (His mother, whose name is unknown, died in Russia.) They were part of a large group of Doukhobors fleeing persecution for their pacifist and religious beliefs. The Demosky family settled in Moiseyevo, a village near Buchanan, Saskatchewan. They lived a traditional, agricultural and communal lifestyle, similar to what they had known in Russia. 



Wasyl Demosky, about 1927.


In about 1902, Wasyl married Lukeria (Lucy) Tomelin, a young Doukhobor immigrant, possibly in Moiseyevo village, where they appear with their respective families on the 1901 census. They had four children (a daughter and three sons) before relocating to British Columbia, where their son William (Bill) was born in 1914. After some years of hardship, the family returned to Saskatchewan and farmed land as independents, first near Buchanan, then later near Pelly. 

On 12 September 1933, Wasyl passed away at home at NE 1-35-32 W1 in Livingston rural municipality; he was only 50 years old. He was buried two days later in Tolstoy Cemetery near Veregin, Saskatchewan. 

Copyright © 2012, Yvonne Demoskoff.