Sarah (Martin) Grozelle’s 1938 Death Registration

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the death of Sarah Martin. Her husband Peter Grozelle (1838-1919) and my maternal grandfather Eugène Desgroseilliers (1900-1960) are distant relatives. They are descendants of the famous Canadian explorer and fur trader Médard Chouart, sieur des Groseilliers.

Sarah was born on 8 May 1847 in Otonabee, Peterborough County, in present-day Ontario, Canada. Her father James Martin emigrated from Ireland and her mother Lucy Watters came from England. Sarah received the Sacrament of Baptism on 5 June 1847 at St Joseph’s church in Douro, near Otonabee.

When she was 22 years old, Sarah married Pierre de Grozellier on 13 February 1870 at the Church of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lindsay, Ontario. Pierre was born in 1838 in Châteauguay, Canada East (now the province of Quebec). After his family moved to Ontario about 1850, they shortened their surname to Groselle or Grozelle, while Pierre (and his father Pierre) Anglicized their Christian names to Peter.

Sarah and Peter had three sons and four daughters, born between 1871 and 1887. Their younger son Martin died tragically in 1896; see Sympathy Saturday: Martin Grozelle. 

Sarah (Martin) Grozelle death registration (Ancestry)

Peter died in 1919 and Sarah survived him nearly twenty years. She died, age 91, on 18 September 1938 at home in Miners Bay, Haliburton County, Ontario. [1] She was ill for five days with bronchial pneumonia before she succumbed to the infection. Sarah’s burial took place on 20 September 1938 in nearby Kinmount.

Source:

1. “Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1938, 1943, and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1947”, digital images, Ancestry (www.ancestry.ca : accessed 30 December 2013), entry for Sarah Grozelle (written as Sarah Grozelle, indexed as Sarah Grozella), 18 September 1938; citing Archives of Ontario, Registrations of Deaths, 1869-1938; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; microfilm series MS935, reel 607. Sarah’s youngest son, Peter Grozelle, was the informant.

Copyright © 2018, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Sympathy Saturday: Martin Grozelle

As a genealogist, I know only the basic facts of Martin Grozelle's life, but as an historian, I wanted his short life to have a story.

Martin was born 140 years ago on 25 January 1874 in Lutterworth, a small community in Haliburton County in central southern Ontario. [1] He was a younger son of Pierre Desgroseilliers (also known as Peter Grozelle) by his wife Sarah Martin. [2] His siblings included brothers Jean-Baptiste (John) and Peter, and sisters Elizabeth, Lucy, Felicity and Mary. [3]

Martin's father, Pierre, came from a large French-Canadian family, whose branch changed their surname from Desgroseilliers to Grozelle when they settled in Ontario. Pierre was a second cousin to my mother Jacqueline’s paternal great-grandfather Pierre Desgroseilliers (1841-1904).

Martin's maternal grandfather, James Martin, was an Irish-born soldier, while his maternal grandmother, Lucy (née Waters), was an important and useful presence for his mother. She was the accoucheur or midwife at the births of her daughter Sarah's children, including Martin's. [4]

The community of Lutterworth is surrounded by magnificent nature with abundant lakes and rivers. It was among this outdoor backdrop, however, that cruel fate awaited Martin. One autumn day, Martin and friend Leslie Valentine (son of a Lutterworth farmer), were boating on nearby Gull Lake on October 14, 1896. In a moment, tragedy struck, and the "two young men [...] drowned together while crossing [the] lake". [5]

Martin and his companion were only 22 years old.

Image source: Microsoft Clip Art.

Sources:

1. “Ontario, Canada Births, 1869-1913”, digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 30 December 2013), entry for Martin Groselle [sic], 25 January 1874.

2. “Ontario, Canada, Marriages, 1801-1928”, digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 30 December 2013), entry for De Grozellier – Martin marriage, 13 February 1870.

3. 1891 census of Canada, Lutterworth, Victoria North, Ontario, population schedule, p. 13, family 57, Petar Grosell [sic] household; digital image, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 30 December 2013).

4. “Ontario, Canada Births, 1869-1913”, digital images, Ancestry.ca, entry for Martin Groselle.

5. “Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1932”, digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 2 May 2007) entry for Martin Grossell [sic], 14 October 1896.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.