Sibling Saturday: The Children of Joseph and Olivine (Hotte) Beauvais

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

• 21 May 2016: Sibling Saturday: The Children of Jean-Baptiste Bouchard (1698-1755)

• 21 April 2018: Sibling Saturday: The Children of Pierre Janvry dit Belair (1851-1941)

• 21 July 2018: Sibling Saturday: The Children of Olivier and Elizabeth (Vanasse) Vanasse

• 15 September 2018: Sibling Saturday: The Children of Albert and Clémentine (Léveillé) Desgroseilliers

Joseph and Olivine (possibly their wedding photo)

My maternal great-grandparents Joseph Beauvais and Olivine Hotte were born in Papineau County, Quebec – he in Ripon and she in nearby Hartwell (now Chénéville). They married on 16 August 1897 in Chénéville. Joseph and Olivine were the parents of 16 children: 12 sons and 4 daughters. Joseph was a bûcheron (a woodcutter, timberman or a faller) and that’s probably what led him to move his young family to Tupper Lake in New York State, an area known for its lumber production. His second son Oscar was born there in 1899. The Beauvais family lived in New York for one or two years, before they returned to live in the province of Quebec. About 1923, Joseph and his family moved to Moonbeam, a village in northern Ontario. Olivine died there soon after on 4 June 1926. Joseph died on 17 September 1937, also in Moonbeam.

I knew some of my mother’s aunts and uncles, like Réal and the three youngest ones. When my family was on holiday in Ontario and Quebec in 1986, we visited Gatineau (across from Ottawa in the province of Quebec) and met Réal (Mom’s godfather) and his wife Stella. While there, we visited Jean-Marie and spent a lovely afternoon at his home. His twin brother Jean-Paul was there, so I met him, too. As for Laurette, I knew her from our occasional visits to Moonbeam where she lived. (Moonbeam is about 1½ hours north of Timmins where my family lived.) After we moved to British Columbia in 1979, we rarely saw Mom’s Beauvais relatives. We really appreciated that Aunt Madeleine, Mom’s sister, who lived in eastern Canada, kept us up-to-date with news about their relatives.

Children of Joseph and Olivine (Hotte) Beauvais

1. Ovide Beauvais
Ovide was born on 8 June 1898 in Chénéville. On 7 June 1920, he married Lucienne Duchesne in Sturgeon Falls, Ontario. They had 16 children. In 1941, Ovide and his family moved from Sudbury and settled in Blue Water, a village that no longer exists near Sarnia, Ontario. He died on 12 July 1981 in Sarnia.

2. Oscar Beauvais
Oscar was born on 25 November 1899 in Tupper Lake, Franklin County, New York, USA. He married on 5 October 1922 in Montpellier, near Chénéville, Rosa Robillard. They were the parents of 14 children. Oscar and his family later settled in Blue Water like Ovide and Juliette. Oscar died on 4 July 1979 in Sarnia.

3. Juliette Beauvais
My grandmother Juliette was born on 30 June 1901 in Chénéville. On 18 August 1925, she married Eugène Desgroseilliers in Moonbeam. Juliette and Eugène, who had nine children, lived in northern Ontario and northern Quebec, where he was a chief of police. In 1942, they settled in Blue Water like her brothers Ovide and Oscar. Juliette died of pancreatic cancer on 14 August 1948 in Sarnia, Ontario. Eugène’s brother Ovide Desgroseilliers married Juliette’s sister Laurette (Lorette) Beauvais. I wrote about Juliette and her sister Agathe at Sibling Saturday: Juliette and Agathe Beauvais.

Juliette and Agathe (about 1935)

4. Marie-Louise Beauvais
Marie-Louise was born on 30 January 1903 in Montpellier. She died on 26 May 1947 in hospital, possibly in Kapuskasing, Ontario. Marie-Louise was unmarried. About 10 years ago, her niece, my Aunt Madeleine, told me that Marie-Louise had been in love with one of her sister Juliette’s brothers-in-law, either Arthur Desgroseilliers (1901-1923) or Hormidas Desgroseilliers (1906-1934). Unfortunately, both brothers died young and unmarried.

Marie-Louise (left) holding her niece Mariette, daughter of Juliette (centre) and Eugène (right) (1928)

5. Aldège Beauvais
Aldège was born on 16 August 1905 in Montpellier. In January 1940, one of Aldège’s horses kicked him in the face. He died from complications from his injuries on 2 February 1940 in Montreal, Quebec. Aldège was unmarried.

6. Léger Beauvais
Léger was born on 4 January 1907 in Montpellier. On 26 February 1935, he married Rollande Filion in Cochrane, Ontario. They lived in Moonbeam and were the parents of 14 children. Léger died on 6 September 1992 in Moonbeam.

7. Romuald Beauvais
Romuald was born on 16 March 1908 in Montpellier. He married Bernadette Dubosse (Dubosq) on 22 November 1944 in Moonbeam. They had four children. Romuald died on 5 November 1991 in Kapuskasing.

8. Emile Beauvais
Emile was born on 7 April 1910 in Montpellier. On 15 July 1947, he married Claire Bourgeois, a schoolteacher, in Val-Rita, Ontario. The couple had four children. Emile died on 28 July 1990 in Hearst, Ontario.

9. Martial Beauvais
Martial was born on 17 September 1911 in Montpellier. He married Marie-Paule Marin on 3 July 1948 in Moonbeam. They had seven children. Martial died 18 August 1982. The cause of death was a vehicle accident, according to the coroner’s report.

10. Réal Beauvais
Réal was born on 26 January 1913 in Montpellier. On 15 August 1936, he married Stella Moisan in Val d’Or, Quebec. The couple had 16 children. Réal died on 29 September 1997 in Gatineau. Réal and his younger sister Agathe were godparents to their niece, Jacqueline Desgroseilliers (my mother), at her baptism in 1933.

Réal (1986)

11. Aurèle Beauvais
Aurèle was born on 6 June 1914 in Montpellier. He married Florence Carrière on 12 May 1942 in Moonbeam. They had four children. Aurèle died in 1996 in Hearst.

12. Joseph Beauvais
Joseph was born on 22 August 1916 in Montpellier. On 22 November 1939, he married Germaine Girard in Moonbeam. The couple, who had six children, lived in Val d’Or. Joseph died there on 6 March 2003.

Joseph (about 1936)

13. Agathe Beauvais
Agathe was born on 3 March 1918 in Montpellier. She and her elder brother Réal were godparents to their niece, Jacqueline (my mother), at her baptism in 1933. Agathe married Lucien Larouche on 25 March 1940 in Val d’Or. They had eight children. Agathe died on 30 December 1956 in Val d’Or after giving birth to a son earlier that day. Her niece, my Aunt Madeleine, said her death was due to a blood clot. My Mom Jacqueline was visiting her when they got the news of their Aunt’s death. I wrote about Agathe and her sister Juliette at Sibling Saturday: Juliette and Agathe Beauvais.

14. Laurette (Lorette) Beauvais
Laurette (Lorette) was born on 9 August 1919 in Montpellier. She married Ovide Desgroseilliers on 9 September 1936 in Moonbeam. They had seven children, all boys, and lived in Moonbeam. Laurette died on 24 April 1995. Ovide’s brother Eugène Desgroseilliers married Laurette’s sister Juliette Beauvais.

Ovide and Laurette with their niece Jacqueline (1974)

15. Jean-Marie Beauvais
Jean-Marie and Jean-Paul were fraternal twins. They were born on 1 May 1921 in Montpellier. Jean-Marie married Huguette Larouche on 5 July 1948 in Val Senneville, Quebec. They lived in Gatineau, Quebec and were the parents of four children. Jean-Marie died there on 20 December 2010. Jean-Marie and Jean-Paul served in World War II. Jean-Marie was posted at CFB Chilliwack, British Columbia for a time. On their leave, the twins visited their eldest sister, my grandmother Juliette, at home in Blue Water. Mom said Juliette loved her brothers and was close to them even though there was a 20-year gap between them. Uncle Jean-Marie lived for a brief time with my parents and our family in the early 1970s. He was a sales rep for Filter Queen vacuum cleaners and came to Timmins to recruit my father as a salesman. I can still see Uncle Jean-Marie sitting in our living room on Main (now Bélanger) Avenue talking to someone on the telephone and asking for a French operator. He believed that since Canada was a bilingual country, the phone company ought to find him someone who spoke French. I'm pretty sure he succeeded, too.

16. Jean-Paul Beauvais
Jean-Paul and Jean-Marie were fraternal twins. They were born on 1 May 1921 in Montpellier. On 12 September 1959, Jean-Paul married Pauline Ennis, a widow, in Montreal. He died in 2002.

Back, left to right: Jean-Marie, Joseph, and Jean-Paul
Front, left to right: Laurette, Réal and his wife Stella (1987)

Copyright © 2018, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Sibling Saturday: Juliette and Agathe Beauvais

Juliette and Agathe were my maternal grandmother and great-aunt, respectively. Their parents Joseph and Olivine (Hotte) Beauvais married in August 1897 in Hartwell (now Chénéville), Papineau County, Quebec.

Juliette, born on 30 June 1901 in Chénéville, was the third child and eldest daughter. Agathe, who was born on 3 March 1918 in nearby Montpellier, was the thirteenth child and second youngest daughter. They had twelve brothers and two sisters. Twenty-three years separated the oldest child Ovide from the youngest, fraternal twins Jean-Marie and Jean-Paul.

The Beauvais children were raised mostly in Montpellier, a village in the Laurentian Hills in Papineau County, in southwestern Quebec. Their father Joseph was a farmer and woodcutter. About 1922, the family moved to the quaintly named village of Moonbeam, in northern Ontario. Four years later, mother Olivine died in June 1926 of ‘cardiac asthenia’ (Da Costa’s syndrome).

A few months before her mother’s death, Juliette married Eugène Desgroseilliers on 18 August 1925 in Moonbeam. They were blessed with nine children: Noël (who died at birth), Mariette, Madeleine, Simone, Marianne (who died young), Jacqueline (my Mom), Gaston (he died when he was six years old), Normande, and Jeanne d’arc. After living in northern Ontario and northwestern Quebec for a few years, Eugène and Juliette settled in Blue Water, near Sarnia, Ontario in 1942.

Juliette (left) and Agathe (right) pose on a staircase in the above photo. The handwriting on the back of the picture says “à Hearst vers 1930” [in Hearst about 1930]. I doubt that the year is correct, because Agathe would have been only 12 years old. If the location is correct, though, the photo dates more likely to the mid-1930s, because Juliette, her husband and their children lived in Hearst, west of Moonbeam, until about 1936, when they moved to Rouyn, Quebec.

On 25 March 1940, Agathe married Lucien Larouche in Val d’Or, Abitibi District, Quebec. Their marriage registration gives their occupation as bonne (maid) for Agathe and mineur (miner) for Lucien. The couple had eight children: Renée, Gaston, Blandine, Gérard, Laurier, a son (who died soon after birth), Elisabeth, and Christian.

In 1948, Juliette became ill. She had advanced cancer of the pancreas. Within a few months of the diagnosis, she died in hospital in Sarnia on 14 August 1948, four days before her 23rd wedding anniversary.

Agathe survived her sister by eight years. She died suddenly from a blood clot after giving birth to a son on 30 December 1956. My Mom and Dad were visiting her sister Madeleine in Kirkland Lake at the time. Mom recalls that she was sleeping in an upstairs bedroom at Aunt Madeleine’s house when Dad woke her to break the news. Mom cried because Agathe, her godmother, was her favorite aunt.

Copyright © 2016, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Arthur Desgroseilliers (1901-1923)

Arthur (right) with his brother Eugène and sister Alma, about 1906

My maternal great-uncle Arthur Desgroseilliers was born on 11 July 1901 in St. Charles, Sudbury District, Ontario. [1] The second son of Albert and Clémentine (Léveillé) Desgroseilliers, Arthur had thirteen siblings: ten brothers (including my grandfather Eugène) and three sisters.

Arthur Desgroseilliers baptism record (Ancestry)

He was baptised “Ovide-Arthur” on 14 July 1901 by Father G.A. Picotte of St-Thomas Apôtre Church in Warren, Sudbury District, Ontario. [2] I’m not sure if three-day-old Arthur was taken to Warren to be baptised or if Father Picotte travelled to St. Charles to perform the ceremony. It seems more likely that the priest went to St. Charles and then recorded the details in his church’s sacramental register once back in Warren. Arthur’s godparents were Arthur Gervais (husband of his aunt Emma Desgroseilliers) and Euphémie Desgroseilliers (Emma’s younger sister).

The Desgroseilliers family lived in St. Charles from 1900 to about 1917, but spent one or two years (1906-1908) in Cobalt, a mining community northeast of St. Charles, near the Ontario-Quebec border. It was here that Arthur’s little sister Alma died from bronchitis in July 1907. [3] (See her story in Wednesday’s Child: Alma Desgroseilliers (1904-1907).)

In June 1911, Arthur was enumerated on that year’s federal census as a 10-year-old boy in his parents’ household. [4] The family lived on concession 2 in Appleby Township in Nipissing District. His father Albert was a farmer, while Arthur and his brother Eugène were school students. The two boys and their parents could read and write and they all spoke French.

About 1917, Arthur and his family moved north to the village of Moonbeam in Cochrane District. His three youngest brothers, Ovide, Ovila and Joseph, were born there.

When searching for Arthur on the 1921 census, I found him in two locations. First, he and the Desgroseilliers family were enumerated in one household on lot 12, concession 1 in Fauquier Township, except for Arthur, who’s on lot 14, concession 2. He was a farmer. [5] Second, he was enumerated in his own household in Jackson Bay in nearby Kendrey Township. [6] His home, which he rented, was a one-room wood structure. According to the census, Arthur could not read nor write. He earned $600 as a laborer in the past twelve months.

In the early years when I was researching my great-grandparents and their family, I didn’t know when Arthur died. I had the chance to ask his brother Ovila when he visited my parents in August 1990. Great-uncle Ovila told me that Arthur was 18 years old when he died in Kapuskasing of typhoid fever. A few years later, I found a mention of his death in a local history book stating that Arthur died on 10 May 1922. [7]

Arthur Desgroseilliers death registration, top portion (Ancestry)

Arthur Desgroseilliers death registration, bottom portion (Ancestry)

I recently found Arthur’s death registration at Ancestry.ca. It gave his date and place of death as 10 May 1923 in Spruce Falls (Power and Paper) Company Hospital in Kapuskasing, Cochrane District, Ontario. [8] The cause of death was typhoid fever with broncho-pneumonia as a contributory factor. [9] He was ill for at least five days before he succumbed to the disease.

What is typhoid fever? Typhoid fever is an infectious disease that “spreads through contaminated food and water or through close contact with someone who's infected. Signs and symptoms usually include high fever, headache, abdominal pain, and either constipation or diarrhea.” [10]

In early 1923, a typhoid epidemic was raging in northern Ontario, particularly in the town of Cochrane. Arthur might have become ill by eating or drinking contaminated food or water. Cochrane’s water was compromised that year when “sewage [… was] drawn into the city’s water system”. [11] Alternatively, Arthur might have come into contact with someone affected with the disease in Cochrane or closer to his home.

In early April 1923, other cases of typhoid appeared in communities northwest of Cochrane like Smooth Rock Falls, Kapuskasing and Hearst in the province of Ontario and east in Amos in the province of Quebec. [12]

The epidemic lasted until the end of May. In all, “over 953 cases [of typhoid fever] from Cochrane and adjoining municipalities with some 84 deaths” were reported. [13] Children and adults, male and female alike, between the ages of 5 and 25 were “particularly affected”. [14]

Arthur was buried on 11 May 1923 in Moonbeam. [15] He was only 21 years old (he would turn 22 that July) and unmarried. His death must have been a great loss for his family.

Sources:

1. St-Thomas Apôtre (Warren, Ontario), parish register, 1901-1967, no page no., entry no. 31 (1901), Ovide-Arthur Desgroseillers (written as Ovide-Arthur Desgroseillers, indexed as Ovide Arthur Desgroseillers) baptism, 14 July 1901; St-Thomas Apôtre parish; digital images, “Ontario, Canada, Catholic Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1747-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 4 February 2016). Also, “Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1938 and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1947”, digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 20 May 2013), entry for Arthur DesGroseilliers (written as Arthur DesGroseilliers, indexed as Arthur Desgroselliers), 10 May 1923; citing Archives of Ontario, Registrations of Deaths, 1869-1938; Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Archives of Ontario; microfilm series MS935, reel 999.

2. St-Thomas Apôtre, parish register, 1901-1967, no page no., Ovide-Arthur Desgroseillers baptism, 14 July 1901.

3. “Ontario, Canada Deaths, 1869-1932”, digital image, Ancestry.ca (http://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.

4. 1911 census of Canada, Appleby, Hawley [Townships], Nipissing, Ontario, population schedule, enumeration district 3, p. 1, dwelling 8, family 8, Albert Deapeniallin (written as Desgros[iallier?], indexed as Deapeniallin) household; digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 9 May 2016); citing Census of Canada, 1911, microfilm reels T-20326 to T-20460; Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

5. 1921 census of Canada, Fauquier Township, Temiskaming, Ontario, population schedule, subdistrict 75, p. 15, dwelling 123, family 123, Albert Desgrosellier (written as Albert Desgrosellier, indexed as Albert Desgroseillier) household; digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 9 May 2016); citing Library and Archives Canada, Sixth Census of Canada, 1921; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Library and Archives Canada, 2013; Series RG31; Statistics Canada Fonds.

6. 1921 census of Canada, Bradhurn, Syders, Haggart, Kendry, Alexandra (Townships), Temiskaming, Ontario, population schedule, subdistrict 73, p. 2, dwelling 123, family 123, Art DesGroseilliers (written as Art DesGroseilliers, indexed as Art Desgroseillers) household; digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 9 May 2016); citing Library and Archives Canada, Sixth Census of Canada, 1921; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Library and Archives Canada, 2013; Series RG31; Statistics Canada Fonds.

7. Lionel Séguin, Historique de la paroisse Saint-Charles (Saint-Charles, Ont., 1945: 228); digital images, Our Roots (http://www.ourroots.ca/ : accessed 18 June 2013).

8. FICHES DE DÉCÈS/SÉPULTURES Kapuskasing DEATH/BURIAL RECORDS 1915 – 2010, database (http://kapuskasingdeathrecords.com/default.htm : accessed 4 February 2016), death entry for Arthur Desgroseilliers, 10 May 1923) and “Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1938 and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1947”, digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 20 May 2013), entry for Arthur DesGroseilliers, 10 May 1923.

9. “Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1938 and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1947”, digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 20 May 2013), entry for Arthur DesGroseilliers, 10 May 1923.

10. “Typhoid Fever”, database, Mayo Clinic (http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/typhoid-fever/basics/definition/CON-20028553 : accessed 9 May 2016).

11. “Cochrane Has Now 500 Sick; Epidemic Grows”, The Ottawa (Ontario, Canada) Evening Journal, 31 March 1923, p. 1; digital images, Newspapers.com (http://www.newspapers.com : accessed 9 May 2016).

12. “Death List Growing Cochrane Epidemic”, The Ottawa (Ontario, Canada) Evening Journal, 4 April 1923, p. 13; digital images, Newspapers.com (http://www.newspapers.com : accessed 9 May 2016).

13. Forty-second Annual Report of the Provincial Board of Health of Ontario, Canada for the year 1923 (Toronto: Clarkson W. James, 1924, 280 and 54); digital images, University of Toronto (http://scans.library.utoronto.ca/pdf/4/39/ontariodepthealth1923ontauoft/ontariodepthealth1923ontauoft.pdf : accessed 9 May 2016).

14. Forty-second Annual Report of the Provincial Board of Health of Ontario, Canada, 34.

15. “Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1938 and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1947”, digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 20 May 2013), entry for Arthur DesGroseilliers, 10 May 1923. Also, Moonbeam Cemetery, database and digital images (http://cimetiere.moonbeam.ca/dEn.html : accessed 12 September 2013), entry for Arthur Desgroseillers [sic], Moonbeam, Ontario. However, another source states that Arthur was buried on 11 May 1923 in Immaculée-Conception Cemetery in Kapuskasing. (FICHES DE DÉCÈS/SÉPULTURES Kapuskasing DEATH/BURIAL RECORDS 1915 – 2010, database (http://kapuskasingdeathrecords.com/default.htm : accessed 4 February 2016), death entry for Arthur Desgroseilliers, 10 May 1923.)

Copyright © 2016, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Wordless Wednesday: Eugene and Juliette

Eugene and Juliette (Beauvais) Desgroseilliers on their wedding day – 90 years ago – on 18 August 1925 in Moonbeam, Ontario, Canada. This photo might be the only extant picture of that occasion.

Copyright © 2015, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Wordless Wednesday: By the lake

My Mom Jacqueline (in the brown sweater) poses with her sisters and brother-in-law (Jeanne d’arc, Normande, Howard, Madeleine and (in front) Simone) near Moonbeam, Ontario, in the summer of 1974.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

52 Ancestors: #12 Olivine Hotte – Timeline of Her Life

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 12th week of this challenge (already 3 months!), I chose my maternal great-grandmother Olivine Hotte (1877-1926).

Olivine seems to have had a fairly typical French-Canadian, Roman Catholic life for one who was born in the 19th century. She lived at home until she married, had a large brood of children, followed her husband when he moved briefly to the U.S.A. and then back to Canada. (I wrote about this move in her husband’s story last week, which can be read here.) Olivine gave birth to her last children (twin boys) in 1921 and died, sadly, when they were only five years old, in 1926.

Timeline of Olivine Hotte

Childhood Years

10 Jan 1877 – Olivine Hotte is born in Hartwell (now Chénéville), Papineau County, Quebec. She is the eighth of eleven children of Louis Hotte and his wife Marguerite Lacasse.

15 Jan 1877 – Olivine is baptised in St-Félix-de-Valois R.C. church in Chénéville.

4 Apr 1881 – Olivine, her parents and her siblings appear on the 1881 census, residing in Chénéville.

23 Jun 1891 – Olivine, her parents and her siblings appear on the 1891 census, residing in Chénéville.

Married Years

16 Aug 1897 – Olivine marries Joseph Beauvais in Chénéville.

8 Jun 1898 – Olivine’s first child, son Ovide, is born in Chénéville.

Between 8 Jun 1898 and 25 Nov 1899 – Olivine, her husband and their young son move to Tupper Lake, Franklin County, New York, USA.

25 Nov 1899 – Olivine’s second child, son Oscar, is born in Tupper Lake.

1 Jun 1900 – I haven’t located Olivine and her family in Franklin County, New York on the 1900 U.S. census. It’s possible that they have already returned to Canada by this date.

Between 25 Nov 1899 and 31 Mar 1901 – Olivine and her family return to live in Chénéville.

31 Mar 1901 – Olivine, Joseph, and their two young sons appear on the 1901 census, residing in Chénéville.

30 Jun 1901 – Olivine’s third child, daughter Juliette, is born in Chénéville. (Juliette is my grandmother.)

Between 1 Jul 1901 and 30 Jan 1903 – Olivine, Joseph and their family move to Montpellier, near Chénéville.

30 Jan 1903 – Olivine’s, fourth child, daughter Marie-Louise, is born in Montpellier.

16 Aug 1905 – Olivine’s fifth child, son Aldège, is born in Montpellier.

4 Jan 1907 – Olivine’s sixth child, son Léger, is born in Montpellier.

3 Apr 1907 – Olivine’s mother Marguerite dies in Chénéville.

31 Jul 1907 – Olivine and Joseph are godparents to Oscar Pilon, his sister Odile (Beauvais) Pilon’s two-day old son, in Chénéville.

16 Mar 1908 – Olivine’s seventh child, son Romuald, is born in Montpellier.

7 Apr 1910 – Olivine’s eighth child, son Emile, is born in Montpellier.

17 June 1911 – Olivine, Joseph and their family appear on the 1911 census, residing in Chénéville.

17 Sep 1911 – Olivine’s ninth child, son Martial, is born in Montpellier.

26 Jan 1913 – Olivine’s tenth child, son Réal, is born in Montpellier. (Réal would later be my mother’s godfather.)

About Jun 1914 – Olivine’s, eleventh child, son Aurèle, is born in Montpellier. He was baptised between 28 May and 14 July 1914. (The record omits his date of baptism, but states that he was born the previous day.)

22 Aug 1916 – Olivine’s twelfth child, son Joseph, is born, in Montpellier.

3 Mar 1918 – Olivine’s thirteenth child, daughter Agathe, is born in Montpellier.

9 Aug 1919 – Olivine’s fourteenth child, daughter Laurette, is born in Montpellier.

7 Jun 1920 – Olivine’s eldest child Ovide marries Lucienne Duchesne in Sturgeon Falls, Nipissing District, Ontario. He is the first of her children to marry.

1 May 1921 – Olivine’s fifteenth and sixteenth children, fraternal twin sons Jean-Marie and Jean-Paul, are born in Montpellier. They are the last of Olivine’s children.

1 Jun 1921 – Olivine, Joseph and their family appear on the 1921 census, residing in Chénéville.

Later Years and Death

13 Aug 1921 – Olivine becomes a grandmother for the first time when her son Ovide’s wife gives birth to their first child, son Conrad.

5 Oct 1922 – Olivine’s second child, son Oscar, marries Rosa Robillard in Montpellier. Her husband Joseph is present at the ceremony.

Between Oct 1922 and Aug 1925 – Olivine, Joseph and their younger children move to Moonbeam, Cochrane District, Ontario.

20 Dec 1923 – Olivine’s father Louis dies in Chénéville. It’s possible that Olivine, Joseph and their family have already moved to northern Ontario, because Joseph does not appear among the list of men who were present two days later at his father-in-law’s funeral.

18 Aug 1925 – Olivine’s eldest daughter Juliette marries Eugène Desgroseilliers in Moonbeam. After the ceremony, she and Joseph are photographed with the newlyweds and their in-laws.

4 Jun 1926 – Olivine dies in Moonbeam. Cause of death: cardiac asthenia.

27 Jun 1926 – Olivine’s funeral takes place in Moonbeam. (Three weeks is a long interval between one’s death and burial. Olivine's death registration does not indicate that an autopsy took place. I wonder if that length of time was to allow family members to gather for her funeral?)

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

52 Ancestors: #11 Joseph Beauvais – Resident of Canada and of USA

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 11th week of this challenge, I chose my maternal great-grandfather Joseph Beauvais (1877-1937).

Joseph and Olivine (Hotte) Beauvais

Biographical Info

Joseph was born on 11 April 1877 in Ripon, Papineau County, Quebec. He was the second of seven children of Pierre Beauvais and his wife Arline Deschatelets. On 16 August 1897, Joseph married Olivine Hotte in Hartwell (later Chénéville), near Ripon. Between the birth of the couple’s first child, son Ovide, in June 1898 and autumn 1899, Joseph and his young family moved to Tupper Lake, Franklin County, New York. Since Joseph was a bûcheron (woodcutter, timberman or faller) on the 1901 census of Canada, I suspect that he was in search of work in a part of New York that was known for its lumber production. After son Oscar was born there in November 1899, Joseph was back in Hartwell by March 1901, where he is enumerated on that year’s census with his wife and two sons.

Places of Residence

After his return to Canada, Joseph lived in other communities, so to help me visualize these localities, I created an “ancestral migration” map and added his places of residences on it. I got the idea for this activity a few years ago when I came across a genealogy book or website that suggested creating a map showing where an ancestor lived. Now that I think about it, it might have been The Unpuzzling Your Past Workbook, by Emily Anne Croom (1996). Since that time, I’ve done a few of these maps for myself, which I title “Ancestral Migration of [name of ancestor]”. I’m not sure if author Croom coined the term, or if I came up with it on my own.

Image 1: Map of Quebec, including part of New York State

Image 1 shows where Joseph lived in the province of Quebec and in New York State. Note: Tupper Lake appears on this map of Quebec, but is, of course, in the USA. (Combining Canada and USA on one map was an easy way to show the location of Tupper Lake in relation to where Joseph lived in Canada.)

Image 2: Map of Ontario

Image 2 shows where Joseph lived in the province of Ontario. It was here, in Moonbeam, that he died on 17 September 1937. Joseph was survived by all of his sixteen children, his wife Olivine having predeceased him in 1926.

Make Your Own

If you’d like to make your own “ancestral migration” maps, print an outline map of your desired province or state, determine when and where your ancestor lived, locate those places of residence on your map, make a legend showing the date range of those locations, add some sticky dots (my favorite are the Avery brand ¼” round assorted colour-coding labels), and then write letters inside the dots to correspond with the legend. If you want, include capital cities or other important locations to give you an idea of how close or far your ancestor lived from those places. Be sure to give your map a title and the date you created it, and you’re done!

Source for map outlines (without the addition of yellow stickers and handwritten text added by me):

“The Atlas of Canada”, database, Natural Resources Canada (http://atlas.gc.ca/site/english/index.html : accessed 23 September 2009), “Reference Maps: Provincial and Territorial Outline – Quebec Map” and “Reference Maps: Provincial and Territorial Outline – Ontario Map”. The "reproduction is a copy of an official work that is published by Natural Resources Canada and [...] the reproduction has not been produced in affiliation with, or with the endorsement of, Natural Resources Canada”.

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.

Tombstone Tuesday: Joseph Beauvais

Gravemarker of Joseph Beauvais and members of his family

My maternal great-grandfather Joseph Beauvais passed away 76 years ago today on 17 September 1937. He was 59 years old; cause of death was chronic endocarditis.¹ Joseph died in the village of Moonbeam, Cochrane District, Ontario, where he and his family moved to in the mid-1920s. He was buried there two days later.

Mom’s only memory of her grandfather Joseph is of attending his funeral. She remembers how her father Eugène picked her up so that she could see her grandfather in his coffin. At four years old, the experience scared her and she never forgot it.

Although I visited Moonbeam a couple of times in the 1970s when I lived in Ontario, I never thought of stopping by the cemetery. I was fortunate to find a photograph of his tombstone online.²

Joseph’s name and that of his wife Olivine and two of their children (Marie-Louise and Aldège) are inscribed on the marker.

The gravemarker reads:

BEAUVAIS

Epoux / JOSEPH BEAUVAIS / 1878 – 1937

Epouse / OLIVINE NEE HOTTE / 1879 – 1926

Fils / ALDEGE / 1905 – 1940

Fille / MARIE-LOUISE / 1903 – 1947

Sources:

1. “Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1938 and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1947”, database and digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : 9 February 2012), entry for Joseph Beauvais, 17 September 1937.

2. Moonbeam Cemetery, database and digital images (http://cimetiere.moonbeam.ca/indexEn.html : accessed 12 September 2013), photograph, gravestone for Joseph Beauvais (1878-1937), Moonbeam, Ontario. Used with permission.

Copyright © 2013, 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.