Church Record Sunday: Almina Belair’s 1902 Baptism Record

Almina Belair (1902-1997) was the youngest sister of my paternal grandfather, Fred Belair.

She was actually his half-sister, being the daughter of Fred’s father Pierre Janvry dit Belair by his second wife, Mathilde Cloutier. For a list of Pierre’s children by his first two wives, see Sibling Saturday: The Children of Pierre Janvry dit Belair (1851-1941).

Almina was born on 8 July 1902 in Ste-Cécile-de-Masham (now La Pêche), Quebec, about half an hour northwest of Ottawa, Canada’s capital. Almina received the names Elizabeth Elmina two days later at her baptism in Ste-Cécile parish church. [1] Her godparents were her 22-year old half-brother Pierre and her half-sister Délia, 17 years old. Although his aunt appears as Elmina in her baptism record, my father Maurice remembered his aunt as Almina.

Almina Belair baptism record (Ancestry)

My transcription of Almina’s baptism record (original lineation indicated by / ):

Ce dix juillet mil neuf cent deux, Nous prêtre / curé soussigné, avons baptisé Elizabeth-Elmina / fille née avant-hier du légitime mariage / de Pierre Bélaire et Domitille Cloutier de / cette paroisse. Les parrains ont été Pierre / Bélaire et Délia Bélaire aussi de cette paroisse / qui, ainsi que le père n’ont pas signé avec Nous. / Lecture faite. [signé] P. Garon, Ptre Curé

My English translation of the record (original lineation indicated by / ):

This tenth July one thousand one hundred two, We parish / priest undersigned, have baptised Elizabeth-Elmina / daughter born before yesterday of the legitimate marriage / of Pierre Bélaire and Domitille Cloutier of / this parish. The godparents were Pierre / Bélaire and Délia Bélaire also of this parish / who, along with the father have not signed [their names] with Us. / Reading done. [signed] P. Garon, [Parish Priest]

Source:

1. Ste-Cécile (Ste-Cécile-de-Masham, Quebec), parish register, 1899-1908, p. 147 (stamped), entry no. B.44 (1902), Elizabeth Elmina Belaire [sic] baptism, 10 July 1902; Ste-Cécile parish; digital images, “Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968”, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 7 July 2018).

Copyright © 2018, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - What Did Your Father Love To Do?

It’s Saturday and Randy at Genea-Musings has issued his weekly challenge to his readers. With Father’s Day tomorrow, Randy asks, “What did your father really like to do in his work or spare time? Did he have hobbies, or a workshop, or did he like sports, or reading, or watching TV?”

Dad was a welder by trade and worked all over Ontario and Quebec, Canada, from the early 1950s until about 1979. He really liked this kind of work and he was very good at it, too. After we moved to British Columbia in 1979, Dad welded mostly for himself (like repairs on his MACK dump truck), but also for neighbors when they asked for his help with a project.

Trucking was Dad’s second favorite job, whether it was in partnership with his brother Ray building roads in the mountains between Hope and Boston Bar (here in B.C.) in the 1980s or when he drove snow plow trucks for the local highways department in the winter months to supplement his income.

Dad didn’t belong to service or sports clubs, not because he didn’t think they weren’t worthwhile, but because he liked the freedom to choose what he wanted to do and when he wanted to do it.

In the 1960s, Dad liked fishing, particularly for doré (I think it's walleye in English), abundant in Ontario where we lived. He had the usual gear, like fishing rods, reels, and tackle. What I liked best of all that stuff were the fly lures. At six or seven years old, I found their multi-coloured feathers pretty to look at, but nasty if I accidently pricked myself with a barbed hook.

Dad discovered the fun of CB radios in the 1970s. He was quite the enthusiast and bought himself a base station, desk mic, and an antenna tower.

When Dad more or less retired from trucking in the 1990s, he took up metal detecting. He treasure-hunted everywhere, from the field across the road by our house, to English Bay beach in Vancouver. When he and Mom travelled in the summer, Dad made sure his metal detector went with him.

Metal detecting at English Bay, Vancouver (1996)

Copyright © 2018, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - What Did Your Mother Love To Do?

Randy at Genea-Musings has issued his weekly Saturday challenge to his readers.

Today’s mission is to write about what “your mother really like to do in her work or spare time? Did she have hobbies, or a workshop, or did she like cooking, or reading, or watching TV?”.

Work

Mom was a young teenager when she started working in the late 1940s. After attending high school for a few weeks, she realized it would be too difficult for her recently widowed father (who was out-of-work at the time) to pay for her expenses, like clothes, supplies, and bus fare. Her elder sister Madeleine helped her get her first job working in the cafeteria of the Polymer Plant in Blue Water, near Sarnia, Ontario. She eventually moved up to waitress in the Plant’s restaurant and even worked banquets there on occasion.

A couple of years later, Mom and her friend Irene (sister of her future brother-in-law) moved to London, Ontario. They rented a small apartment and found work as waitresses. Mom doesn’t remember the name of the restaurant, but told me it was classy and on one of the main streets in London.

As an adult, Mom enjoyed being a waitress and was good at it. She was proud of how many plates of food she could balance on her arms as she brought orders to customers’ tables. She used to tell me that a good waitress always knew what the soup of the day was and what the specials were. She was trained to never return to the kitchen empty-handed. In later years, as a customer, she would always tut-tut whenever she noticed a waitress walk past a table that needed attention.

Mom was mostly at home in the 1960s when my sister and I were younger. But when I was about 10 or 11, Mom decided to work. Dad didn't make big wages (“des grandes gages”, as Mom used to say in French) as a welder, so it was a way for her to make some money and to keep busy during the day when my sister and I were in school. She walked in at the A&P grocery store in town and asked if there was an opening. She didn't have experience, but wanted to try working in the meat department. She was just an assistant to the butcher, but found she liked learning about different cuts of meat and other similar details. I liked that Mom worked, because it meant that I ate my lunch at school (I brown-paper bagged it), instead of having to trek to and from home and back to school in less than an hour.

Around the time my brother Raymond was born in 1970, Mom sold Avon products door-to-door. I’m not sure how she got into that, but my Aunt Joan (Dad’s sister) also sold Avon. I remember keeping Mom company once or twice on her rounds. It was fun to see (and try out) all the beauty products that were stored in her blue sales rep bag. As a pre-teen, I especially liked the mini lipsticks and perfumes.

Play

Mom’s favorite activity was (and is) playing cards with friends and family. She was about 12 years old when her new brother-in-law Jack (her sister Mariette’s husband) taught her to play poker for pennies.

Her two favorite games are Poker and “May I”, a variation of rummy. When the family gets together for cards, we seem to talk as much as we play. If we chat too much, though, Mom taps the table with a coin and tells us to get back to the cards, saying, “Are we here to talk or to play cards?”

When Mom was in her 60s, she suffered two strokes. In time, she recovered and after a few months, resumed her favorite pastime of playing cards, which she did with barely any cognitive difficulty.

After we moved to British Columbia in 1979, Mom and Dad started going to bingo games in Washington State, about 2 hours south of where we live in Canada. They typically drove to Lynden, Ferndale, or Bellingham on Friday nights. Mom had to watch Dad’s bingo cards as well as her own, because he tended to nod off. I don’t think Mom ever won much at bingo, but Dad won about $2300 one year.

I almost forgot to mention that Mom also loved to go to casinos in Reno and Las Vegas. She and Dad would drive there or she and her sisters Madeleine and Simone would fly or take a bingo bus to Nevada.

Mom turns 85 this summer and doesn’t show any sign of slowing down at cards. She’s a real trouper!

Copyright © 2018, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- How Did Your Parents Meet?

It’s Saturday (well, now it’s Sunday – I’m a day late) and Randy at Genea-Musings has issued his weekly challenge to his readers.

Tonight’s challenge is to answer the following question: "How Did Your Parents Meet?”

My parents Maurice Belair and Jacqueline Desgroseilliers and their families lived in Blue Water, a village that no longer exists next to Sarnia, Ontario.

They first met in about 1951. Mom was about 17 years old and Dad was about 23.

Dad was unemployed, but Mom worked at Scripnick Deluxe Confectionery in Blue Water. He used to drop in there, but didn’t notice Mom. One day, though, he did and after that, he regularly visited the store. Dad would chat with Mom while she worked at the lunch counter.

Eventually he asked her out on a date. I don’t know how their courtship progressed, but I remember Mom telling me that Dad got along well with her family, especially with her father, Eugène.

After dating for a few years, Mom gave Dad an ultimatum. They married soon after on December 18, 1954 in a civil ceremony in Sarnia. They didn’t have much money, so didn’t really have a honeymoon. Instead, they drove to northeastern Ontario to tell her father (he lived with his elder daughter Madeleine in Kirkland Lake) and his parents (Dad’s family lived in Timmins).

Mom and Dad celebrated their 41st wedding anniversary in 1995. Dad passed away five months later, but Mom is still with us.

Copyright © 2017, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Maintaining a Find A Grave Memorial Page

After I fulfilled two requests for gravemarker photos at Find A Grave today, I wondered if my late father had a memorial and photo. I was surprised to find that he did. I decided to email the original contributor to see if Dad’s memorial could be transferred to me. Within minutes, I got a positive reply. I now maintain Find A Grave Memorial #170621093.

I made sure the info on his page was correct and then added a transcription of his gravemarker. 

Next, I decided to sponsor Dad’s memorial page by paying the small fee ($5 U.S.) to have ads permanently removed from his page. Here’s a screenshot of it: 

By maintaining Dad’s Find A Grave page, I feel like I’m honoring his memory. 

Copyright © 2017, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Treasure Chest Thursday: The Religious Certificate

My late father Maurice received this document, a Certificat d’Instruction Religieuse (Certificate of Religious Instruction) 78 years ago today, on 18 May 1939.

As a Roman Catholic, Dad learned his Catechism at school. (His first teacher was his mother, Julie, who taught him his prayers as a young child.) When it was time for his Profession of Faith, he and the other prepared students went to their parish church, Ste-Agnès (in Fauquier, Ontario), where family, friends and possibly members of the congregation gathered. After Father Arthur Doyon asked the children questions about their faith, they recited the Nicene Creed, a prayer symbolizing our Christian Catholic faith.

The Profession de Foi (Profession of Faith) is “a public act by which personal belief is outwardly manifested in the form of a recital of a creed giving witness to the community of the authentic belief by the person in the teachings of the Church.” [1]

In the early 1970s, the typical age for this Catholic rite of passage was 13-14 years old. I was 13½ when I made my profession of faith in June 1972, but Dad was only 11½ years old when he made his.

The certificate measures approximately 22 cm x 30 cm (9” x 12”). Years of folding has left it wrinkled. Cellophane tape residue remains on a tear (8 cm/3”) in the top right-hand corner. The writing is readable, but faded. I think the certificate was kept rolled up in Dad’s dresser when I was growing up, and at some point, it was put in a frame. Mom gave it to me after he passed away.

In the lower left-hand corner are fields for entering dates of one’s Baptism, First Communion, Confirmation, and Scapular. Only the last one, Scapular, is filed out. [2] I know Dad was baptised (1927) and confirmed (1935), but I don’t know when he did his First Communion. Dad and the teacher who prepared the Certificat probably didn’t know the dates, so left those spaces blank.

I have transcribed the text; bold italic passages indicate hand-written portions:

Paroisse de Ste Agnès
Fauquier, Ont.

Certificat
d’Instruction Religieuse

Nous, soussigné, certifions que Maurice Bélaire [sic]
a subi avec Satisfaction l’examen final sur le catéchisme,
et a fait sa profession de foi et ses promesses de vie chrétienne.
En foi de quoi, nous lui avons décerné ce certificat.
Ce dix-huitième jour du mois de mai de l’an
mil neuf cent trente-neuf.

Baptême le … 19 … 
Première communion le … 19 … 
Confirmation le … 19… 
Scapulaire le 18 mai 1939

(Signed) Arthur Doyon ptre curé

My translation:

Parish of St Agnes
Fauquier, Ont.

Certificate
of Religious Instruction

We, undersigned, certify that Maurice Bélaire [sic]
has undergone with Satisfaction the final Catechism exam
and has made his profession of faith and of promises of Christian life.
In witness whereof, we have awarded this certificate.
This eighteenth day of the month of May of the year
one thousand thirty-nine.

Baptism on … 19 … 
First Communion on … 19 … 
Confirmation on … 19 … 
Scapular on 18 May 1939

(Signed) Arthur Doyon [parish priest]

Sources:

1. Reverend Peter M. J. Stravinskas, editor, Our Sunday Visitor’s Catholic Encyclopedia (Huntingdon, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., 1991), 787, “Profession of Faith”.

2. A scapular consists of “two small pieces of cloth, about two and a half by two inches, connected by two long cords and worn over the head and resting on the shoulders”. Stravinskas, Our Sunday Visitor’s Catholic Encyclopedia, 868, “Scapular”. The Scapular that Dad received would have been a devotional one for lay people, not the kind worn by those in religious orders.

Copyright © 2017, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Those Places Thursday: Our Maple Street Home

296 Maple Street North – the only home my parents owned.

When I was growing up, my parents lived in various rented apartments or duplexes in the town where I was born, Timmins, Ontario. Some of these places were small like the upstairs apartment on Lincoln Avenue when I was a few months old and where Mom had to share the clothes washer in the basement. Other places were spacious like the three-bedroom duplex on Main Street when I was a young teenager. This house had a main floor, an upstairs, and a nice, cool basement, where I used to listen to my collection of 45s during the summers.

One evening in late winter of 1972, my parents and I went to see a house they were thinking of buying. It was newly built, awaiting its first buyers. We walked in the front door into a large living room with a roomy kitchen beyond it. There were three bedrooms and a bathroom on the main floor and a small back entrance with stairs that led to an unfinished basement. From the back bedroom window, I saw a large yard. To my amazement, I realized that the snow in the yard was almost as high as the window!

My parents bought this house at 296 Maple Street North and we moved in March 1972, 45 years ago this month. Since it was winter, Dad asked one of his friends who had a front-end loader to ‘shovel’ our backyard. Mom and Dad got the front bedroom, I got the middle bedroom (but no view because my window faced the house next door) and my sister and baby brother shared the back bedroom.

Mom and Dad in our living room, New Year's Eve, 1973

It was exciting to move to a brand new house that was all ours, but there were some adjustments to make. For example, instead of belonging to our parish church on Commercial Avenue, we were now parishioners of the Cathedral in downtown. My sister Marianne changed elementary schools, but I opted to stay at my old school, St-Gérard. However, that decision meant I needed to take a city bus to get to the other side of town for school. There were only three months left in my Grade 8, so it was a small price to pay, and I got to be with my friends and teachers until the end of the school year.

Marianne and Raymond in our kitchen, ca 1974

In time, Dad made improvements to our house. He and friends built a one-car garage in the backyard (it was handy to the back lane) one summer. He also finished the basement with a family room (panelled in fake knotty pine, no less) and a workshop for himself.

Raymond in the front yard next to the evergreen Dad planted, 1974

Other improvements included putting up a white picket fence around the front yard and planting a small evergreen tree in the yard. (Mom used to say, “We planted that tree when Raymond was three.”) For her part, Mom, who loved wallpaper, papered the kitchen (her favorite patterns included ivy), parts of the living room and our bedrooms. She also put in green-patterned wall-to-wall carpeting in the kitchen, because Dad didn’t like the cold linoleum floor when he got up early in the mornings.

Cementing part of the backyard, summer of 1977

One winter, Dad decided he had enough of paying high costs in heating, so he got a back issue of Popular Mechanics (Dad was a big reader of Popular Mechanics and Popular Science magazines) from the public library. From the instructions in the magazine article, Dad fabricated a wood-burning stove using sheet steel. Since he was a welder by trade, it was a do-able project for him. He ran a line through the stove that fed the water heater, which heated our home’s hot water. In fact, that wood stove heated our house so efficiently that Ontario Hydro came to our house one day to see if something was wrong, because our bills were so low. One look at that wood stove convinced the hydro fellow that we had a legitimate heat source for our home.

Front yard, winter 1978. Dad was a CB enthusiast and he
installed a tower in the backyard (seen above the roof). 

We lived on Maple Street from 1972 until the summer of 1979. That year, we moved to British Columbia when Dad decided to give up working as a welder and start a road-building business with his younger brother Ray.

In May 2014, my husband, our son and I visited Timmins. I wanted to see the places where I lived, so one day we drove to as many of the homes that I could remember. The first house we drove by was 296 Maple Street North. It looked about the same as it did when I lived there.

Our old house (front yard), 2014

The fence in the front yard was gone, though, and there was brick siding on the house and a new living room window. The backyard had a fence, but Dad’s garage was still there. By the way, that little evergreen sure grew, didn’t it?

Our old house (back yard), 2014

Copyright © 2017, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Darlene Belair (1935-2016)

Aunt Darlene – Dad’s sister – died early this morning in hospital in Peterborough, Ontario, surrounded by her loved ones. She had been unwell for the last few years with multiple health issues, including COPD, diabetes, and dementia.

Darlene was the youngest surviving child of Fred and Julie (Vanasse) Belair. Born “Marie Lilianne Darleen” on 18 October 1935, Darlene had three older siblings: Maurice (my father), Jeanne (Joan), and Raymond (Ray).

Darlene (back, right) with her parents and brothers and sister, 1956

Although born in Cochrane in northern Ontario, the Belair family lived in nearby Fauquier, where my grandparents relocated from southern Ontario during the Depression. Later, they moved to Timmins, where Darlene and her brother Ray went to elementary school. Later still, Darlene was educated at Académie Sainte-Marie in Haileybury, Ontario, a boarding and day school for girls run by an order of nuns.

After she moved to Peterborough in the early 1960s, Darlene worked at various jobs, including managing a convenience store and owning and operating a taxi cab in the 1980s. She was also a factory worker at Western Clock Company (Westclox) and at Outboard Marine Corporation.

Darlene with her great-nephew Nicholas, 2014

I’m glad that I had a chance to see my Aunt a couple of years ago when my husband and our son visited my home province of Ontario. I was happy to be with Darlene once again, because I always felt that she and Dad were a lot alike – they resembled each other, were hard workers, loved animals, and both had a sense of humor and loved to laugh.

Rest in peace, tante Darlene.

Copyright © 2016, 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.

Workday Wednesday: Maurice Belair, Bushworker

Rural Preliminary List of Electors, 1945 (Ancestry)

I knew that my late father, Maurice Belair, worked in bush camps as a young man, but I didn’t know the details. I recently called my Aunt Joan (Dad’s younger sister) to see if she could fill in the blanks for me. We had a nice, long chat that lasted about an hour. Aunt Joan remembered how, during the summer school holidays, Dad used to follow his father Fred into the camps to work. When Dad left school (I think it was grade 7 or 8) about 1940-1941, he started to work full-time in the bush. Before he left home, his mother Julie prepared him a ‘goodie’ bag (sort of like what a hobo carries on a stick) to take with him. Dad was only 13 years old.

In the spring of 1945, Dad appeared on a voters’ list as “M. Belair”. He was a bushworker in Camp 49 in the township of Cumming near Kapuskasing, in northern Ontario, Canada. [1] He’s no. 3 on the list of mostly French-Canadian men. (Dad was only 17½ years old at the time, so I’m not sure if he should have been on that voting list.) I had a vague idea of what ‘bushworker’ meant, but Aunt Joan told me that Dad did a young man’s work: he drove horses and cut wood.

Maurice Belair (1945)

Dad must have been a thrifty fellow when he worked in the bush camps. In the above photo, taken in the winter of 1945, he’s dressed in good winter clothes that he bought with his wages.

For the next few years, Dad worked in logging camps, in mills and in mines in places like Matheson, Kirkland Lake and Haileybury in northeastern Ontario. He eventually became a welder after he moved to Blue Water, near Sarnia in southwestern Ontario in the early 1950s. (I’ve written about that occupation in Workday Wednesday: Maurice Belair, Welder.)

Source:

1. “Voters Lists, 1935-1980”, digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 3 March 2016), entry for M. Belair (written as M. Belair, indexed as M Bushworkcr Belair), bushworker, 1945 Rural Preliminary List of Electors, Electoral District of Cochrane, Rural Polling Division No. 210, Camp 35 [and] 49, Township of Cumming, stamped p. 1228; citing Voters Lists, Federal Elections, 1935–1980, R1003-6-3-E (RG113-B), Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Copyright © 2016, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Maurice Belair and the Coquihalla Highway

2016 marks the 30th anniversary of the completion of the first phase of the Coquihalla Highway in British Columbia, Canada. The new highway was “carved out of some of the toughest, most daunting terrain in British Columbia”. [1] It cost $375,000,000 and took nearly two years to build. [2]

View of the unfinished Coquihalla Highway from Maurice's truck (ca 1985)

My late father Maurice Belair was one of the 1000s of men and women who worked on that project from 1984 to 1986. He and his trusty Mack dump truck worked on Phase 1 (Hope to Merritt) of the 120 km (about 74.5 miles) toll highway. [3]

Maurice's dump truck on the unfinished Coquihalla Highway (ca 1985)

In early May 1986, Dad received a letter from the Ministry of Transportation and Highways (MOTH) to thank him for his “contribution in helping build the Coquihalla Highway”.

MOTH letter to Maurice Belair

We still have the letter, but the pin seems to be missing. I know that I didn’t attend the official opening on 16 May 1986, but I can’t remember if Dad did.

Sources:

1. “Coquihalla: more than just a new highway”, The Hope (British Columbia) Standard, 14 May 1986, p. 4.

2. “Paving starts in spring”, The Hope (British Columbia) Standard, 8 January 1986, p. 3.

3. “Paving starts in spring”, The Hope Standard, 8 January 1986.

Copyright (c) 2016, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Wedding Wednesday: Belair – Desgroseilliers

Tomorrow, December 18th, would have been my parents Maurice and Jacqueline’s 60th wedding anniversary. (Dad passed away in 1996.)

Mom and Dad married on 18 December 1954 in Sarnia, Lambton County, Ontario. Their attendants were their friends William (Bill) and Helen Chaban.

It was a mid-afternoon civil ceremony, with only Bill and Helen present. Mom bought herself a two-piece grey suit at Saks of Sarnia, and Dad wore a dark suit. Afterwards, photographs were taken, and then the newlyweds and the Chabans went out for dinner.

The next day, Mom and Dad left for northern Ontario to tell the news to their families. They first stopped in Kirkland Lake to see Mom’s sister Madeleine and their father Eugène. Later, they drove to Timmins (about 1½ hours west) to tell Dad’s parents.

The news was unexpected, since no one knew about their plans. Mom once told me that since she and Dad didn’t have much money (she was a waitress and Dad was a pipefitter) and didn’t want to burden their families, they chose to have a quiet wedding. It didn’t take long for everyone to get over their surprise, though, because Dad’s family knew Mom (they had dated for about three years), and Mom’s father liked Dad and got along well with him.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Workday Wednesday: The Bridge Accident

My grandfather Fred Belair was a steel worker for the Dominion Bridge Company in the 1920s and early 1930s. While working on the new bridge in Montreal, Quebec in the afternoon of 5 August 1929, he was “struck by [an iron] beam which fell on him”. He sustained a “fractured right thigh and open fracture of the leg”. [1]

His accident was reported in at least two Montreal newspapers: in English in The Gazette and in French in La Presse [2]. Both articles misspelled his surname (Blair instead of Belair).

The Gazette (6 August 1929)

La Presse (6 August 1929)

This new bridge must have been Montreal Harbour Bridge (renamed Jacques Cartier Bridge in 1934) that Dominion Bridge constructed between 1925 and 1930. [3]

S.S. "Duchess of Richmond" passing under Montreal Harbour Bridge, Montreal, P.Q. (1936)*

* Photo credit: Canada. Dept. of Interior / Library and Archives Canada / PA-044424.

The accident was serious enough to keep my Pépère Fred in Notre-Dame hospital for a few weeks. I wonder how my grandmother Julie coped during his hospitalization? Not only did she have their two year old son Maurice (my father) to care for, she  was also eight months pregnant.

Fred was still in Notre-Dame when Julie gave birth there to a baby girl (my Aunt Joan) on September 1st. How was life for their little family once Fred and Julie were back at home? Did my grandfather return to work or did he lose his job because of his enforced absence from the Dominion Bridge Company? How did they manage to pay their hospital bills? Did neighbors help my grandmother care for her newborn and toddler? (As far as I know, they didn't have relatives living with them in Montreal.)

I don’t know if or what kind of operation my grandfather might have needed during his hospital stay. Come to think of it, I also don’t know who cared for my Dad while both his parents were in hospital. Somehow those details were never brought up in any of the conversations I had about this subject with my grandfather, my Dad or my Aunt.

One thing I do know, though, is that my grandfather Fred was left with a slightly shorter leg and walked with a bit of a limp.

Sources:

1. “Bridge Worker Hurt”, The Gazette (Montreal, Quebec), 6 August 1929, p. 5, col. 5; digital images, Google News Archive (http://news.google.ca : accessed 4 May 2011).

2. “Accident au nouveau pont de Montréal”, undated clipping, ca August 1929, La Presse, Montreal, Quebec; privately held by Joan (Belair) Laneville, 2014. Joan, who was Fred’s elder daughter, allowed her niece Yvonne (Belair) Demoskoff to scan the image while visiting her home in May 2014.

3. Wikipedia contributors, "Jacques Cartier Bridge", Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jacques_Cartier_Bridge&oldid=613822624 : accessed 4 August 2014).

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Sibling Saturday: Maurice Belair, the eldest of six

Maurice in early 1928

Today – August 2 – would have been my father’s 87th birthday. He passed away 18 years ago, but his family does not forget him, and later today we will spend time remembering him when we visit his grave.

Dad was the eldest of his parents Fred and Julie’s six children. Dad and his little sister who died at birth were born in Ottawa, where my grandparents married in October 1926. The next two children, Joan and Ray, were born in Montreal, Quebec, where my grandfather Fred was an ironworker. After my grandparents settled in northern Ontario in the mid-1930s, their fifth child Darlene was born at the hospital in Cochrane. The last child, a little boy named Joseph, was born at home in Fauquier, but he lived only one hour.

My aunts and uncles in birth order:

• Maurice, born 2 August 1927, died 6 May 1996

• An unnamed daughter, born and died 29 June 1928

• Jeanne (Joan), born 1 September 1929

• Raymond (Ray), born 19 January 1931

• Darlene, born 18 October 1935

• Joseph, born and died 31 January 1937

Maurice (right) with his baby sister Joan and their cousin Lucille (left), 1930

Dad (centre) with his brother and sisters and their young cousins, about 1941

Dad (centre) with his mother Julie and his brother Ray and sister Darlene, about 1943

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

52 Ancestors: #31 My parents are 6th cousins

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 31st week of this challenge, I chose my late father Maurice Belair (1927-1996).

My Dad, who passed away 18 years ago, knew that he and Mom were related. I showed him a chart I made after discovering their most recent common ancestors, a couple named Paul Martel and Marie Madeleine Guillot, who married in 1698 on Ile d’Orléans near Quebec City.

Here’s the chart I originally created in 1986, which I updated for my blog. It shows how my Mom Jacqueline is the 6th cousin twice removed of my Dad Maurice.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

A Day in My Ancestor’s Life – Julie (Vanasse) Belair

I got the idea for this blog article when I read the tip of the day for 18 November 2013 at Genealogy Tip of the Day.

The object of the exercise is to:

“Pick a day in your ancestor's life. Try and answer the following questions as of that date:

• Where was my ancestor living?
• Who was in his (her) household?
• What was the ancestor's occupation?
• What was the ancestor's age?
• What was going on nationally on this date (at this point in time)?
• What was going on locally/regionally?
• Were my ancestor's parents alive?
• Were my ancestor's siblings alive?
• Where would he (she) have gone to church the previous Sunday?
• Who were my ancestor's neighbors?”

I picked 2 August 1927, the day my grandmother Julie gave birth to my father. It was a Tuesday. [1] The forecast was mostly fine, with moderate winds. [2] The average temperature was 15.6 C, with a low of 9.4C and a high of 21.7C. [3]

Julie (right), who was expecting my father, with her sister-in-law Almina (1927)

• Where was my ancestor living?

Julie and husband Fred lived in Ottawa, Carleton County, Ontario, Canada. Their home was located at 62 Lloyd Street. [4] My grandfather never made big wages, so he and Julie likely lived in an apartment. Lloyd Street was in the working-class neighborhood known as LeBreton Flats, located near the downtown core, west of the Parliament Buildings and south of the Ottawa River.

Aerial view of Ottawa (1927)

• Who was in his (her) household?

There were at least two people in the household, Julie and Fred. I don’t know if they lived by themselves or shared accommodations.

• What was the ancestor’s occupation?

My grandmother didn't work outside of the home at the time of my father’s birth. If she worked at “other than household duties”, it would have been noted on the birth registration form. [5]

• What was the ancestor's age?

Julie was 30 years old. (She turned 31 at the end of the month.)

• What was going on nationally on this date (at this point in time)?

Canada was celebrating the diamond anniversary of its Confederation (1867-1927).

• What was going on locally/regionally?

HRH the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VIII, later Duke of Windsor) and his younger brother HRH Prince George, were visiting Canada. “Thousands of citizens” gathered on Parliament Hill and gave them an “exceedingly cordial welcome” on their arrival in Ottawa on Tuesday, 2 August 1927. [6]

Also, the third World’s Poultry Congress was on its second-to-last day. The well-attended event at Lansdowne Park showcased poultry and educational exhibits, and featured international speakers from countries like Canada, USA, Italy, Germany and Egypt. [7]

• Were my ancestor's parents alive?

Both my Dad’s parents were alive.

• Were my ancestor's siblings alive?

Dad was his parents’ first-born child, so, he didn’t yet have siblings.

• Where would he (she) have gone to church the previous Sunday?

Julie probably attended Sunday mass at St-Jean-Baptiste church, located at the corner of Empress and Primrose streets. It was probably her local parish, because that’s where she married the previous October, and where my father was baptised a week after he was born. St-Jean-Baptiste had served the French-Canadian community of the LeBreton neighborhood since 1872. Sunday mass might have been said by curé Bernard Doucet, O.P. [8]

• Who were my ancestor's neighbors?

I don’t know who my grandmother’s neighbors were. (I don’t have access to a 1927 city directory to Ottawa, but I hope to find one some day.) Based on where she lived in LeBreton Flats, though, many were probably from the same background: working folk, French-Canadian, and Roman Catholic.

Some Thoughts

I wonder how my grandmother Julie spent the last few days before my father’s birth? Did she spend some of her time viewing the poultry exhibits at Lansdowne Park (all that walking might not have been a good idea during her last trimester)? Would she have preferred listening to the band of the Governor-General’s Foot Guards who performed on Parliament Hill that Sunday afternoon? [9] Or, did she spend her time quietly at home, making sure she had all she needed for her baby’s layette and her hospital stay? [10]

Sources:

Image of Ottawa: Canada. Dept. of Mines and Technical Surveys / Library and Archives Canada / PA-015557.

1. “Perpetual Calendar”, infoplease (http://www.infoplease.com/calendar.php : accessed 31 January 2014).

2. “Record and Forecast of the Weather”, The Ottawa Evening Journal, 2 August 1927, p. 1; digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 31 January 2014), Newspapers & Publications Records.

3. “Historical Climate Data”, Climate – Government of Canada (http://climate.weather.gc.ca/ : accessed 31 January 2014), “Ottawa”.

4. Ontario, birth registration, no. 1927-05-020795 (1927), Maurice Melvin Belair; Office of the Registrar General, Thunder Bay.

5. Ontario, birth registration, no. 1927-05-020795 (1927), Maurice Melvin Belair.

6. “Great Throngs Loudly Acclaim Notable Guests”, The Ottawa Evening Journal, 2 August 1927, p. 1; digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 31 January 2014), Newspapers & Publications Records.

7. “Women Speak to Poultry Men Today’s Session”, The Ottawa Evening Journal, 2 August 1927, p. 1; digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 31 January 2014), Newspapers & Publications Records.

8. “Historique”, Paroisse St-Jean-Baptiste (http://www.stjeanbaptiste.ca/ : accessed 31 January 2014).

9. “Guards’ Concert Greatly Enjoyed”, The Ottawa Evening Journal, 1 August 1927, p. 4; digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 31 January 2014), Newspapers & Publications Records.

10. Ontario, birth registration, no. 1927-05-020795 (1927), Maurice Melvin Belair. The physician in attendance was J. M. Laframboise, MD, so my grandmother presumably had her baby in a hospital. (The hospital’s name does not appear on the registration form.)

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.