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.

Wednesday’s Child: Lina Desgroseilliers (1905-1915)

2015 marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Lina Desgroseilliers, my first cousin twice removed. I meant to have this article appear on my blog in April, but didn’t get around to it.

Lina was born on 20 April 1905 in St. Charles, Ontario. [1] She was the sixth child and fifth daughter of Joseph and Azéline (Lemieux) Desgroseilliers. Joseph was the eldest brother of my maternal great-grandfather Albert Desgroseilliers.

Lina Desgroseilliers' birth registration (Ancestry.ca)

At her baptism on 23 April, Lina received three names: Marie Marguerite Lina. Her godparents were her father’s brother Célestin and his wife Fabiana (Gauthier) Desgroseilliers. [2]

A few years earlier, Lina’s parents and their elder children left Russell County in southeastern Ontario for an area in northeastern Ontario that had recently opened up to colonisation. This settlement, Grand Brûlé, located south of Sudbury, would soon be known as St. Charles. Here, Joseph earned his living as a merchant, one of the first in the region. [3] He and Azéline had nine children: Liliane, Alice, Corinne, Florence, Hormidas, Lina, Léo, Alphège, and Lionel.

Tragedy struck the family in the spring of 1915 when Lina died suddenly a few days after her 10th birthday. [4] She was buried on 29 April 1915 in St. Charles. [5]

Lina Desgroseilliers' burial record (Ancestry.ca)

Neither Lina’s burial record nor her death registration gives a cause of death. Instead, I found that information in her family’s entry in the history of St. Charles published in 1945. According to that source, Lina died accidently “à la suite d’absorption de chlore” (after swallowing chlorine). [6]

A heart-breaking end to a short life. Rest in peace, my cousin.

Sources:

1. “Ontario, Canada Births, 1869-1913”, digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 16 April 2015), entry for Marie Desgrosillier [sic], 20 April 1905; citing Archives of Ontario, Registrations of Births and Stillbirths – 1869-1913; Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Archives of Ontario; microfilm series MS929, reel 180.

2. St-Charles (St-Charles, Ontario), parish register, 1902-1925, p. 8 stamped, no entry no. (1905), Marie Marguerite Lina Desgroseilliers baptism, 23 April 1905; St-Charles parish; digital images, “Ontario, Canada, Catholic Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1747-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 16 April 2015).

3. Lionel Séguin, Historique de la paroisse Saint-Charles (Saint-Charles, Ont., 1945), 231; digital images; Our Roots / Nos Racines (http://www.ourroots.ca : accessed 22 July 2014).

4. “Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1938 and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1947”, digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 16 April 2015), entry for Lina Desgross[ei]lliers (written as Lina Desgross[ei]lliers, indexed as Lina Desgrawcelliers), 29 April 1915; citing Archives of Ontario, Registrations of Deaths, 1869-1938; Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Archives of Ontario; microfilm series MS935, reel 213.

5. St-Charles (St-Charles, Ontario), parish register, 1909-1967, p. 55 stamped, entry no. 4 (1915), Lina Desgroselliers [sic] burial, 29 April 1915; St-Charles parish; digital images, “Ontario, Canada, Catholic Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1747-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 16 April 2015).

6. Séguin, Historique de la paroisse Saint-Charles, 231.

Copyright © 2015, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Sentimental Sunday: Remembering Eugene

Today is the 115th anniversary of the birth of my maternal grandfather, Eugène Desgroseilliers. The eldest child of Albert and Clémentine (Léveillé) Desgroseilliers, he was born in St. Charles, a village south of Sudbury, Ontario on 30 August 1900.

I don’t have a picture of my Pépère and I, so I chose one of him with some of his daughters. From left to right are Jeanne d’arc, Jacqueline (my Mom), Eugène, and Madeleine. The photo was taken in Blue Water, outside of Sarnia, Ontario, in the summer of 1959.

I don’t have memories of my grandfather, because he died when I was two years old. Mom used to tell me how, when we’d visit him, he rock me on his knee and call me his “p’tite poule noire” (little black chicken), because of my dark hair and eyes.

Copyright © 2015, Yvonne Demoskoff.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

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

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

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

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

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

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

52 Ancestors: #33 Flavie Lepage

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 33rd week of this challenge, I chose Flavie Lepage (1847-1906).

Flavie is my maternal great-great-grandmother and is number 25 in my ancestor list.

Born on 1 December 1847 in St-Constant, Laprairie County, Quebec, Flavie was the eldest of the fourteen children of Narcisse and Flavie (Moquin) Lepage. [1] By the time she married Pierre Desgroseilliers on 7 November 1865, [2] Flavie’s mother had eleven children, and would go on to have three more.

Flavie fille was used to moving from town to town from a young age. Before she married, she, her parents and her siblings lived in three different locations in Laprairie and Châteauguay Counties in southwestern Quebec. After her marriage, Flavie, her husband and their children lived in five different communities in Quebec and Ontario, including Montreal’s Hochelaga district in the early 1890s. [3]

Birds eye view city of Montreal 1889.

Like her mother, Flavie gave birth to a large family – thirteen children – over the course of 24 years. Two died as infants, son Albert in 1873 and daughter Elodia (Azilda) in 1886. The children who reached adulthood and married were Philomème, Joseph, Narcisse, Emma, Euphémie, Prosper, Albert (my great-grandfather), Célestin, Ovide, Dorilla and Marie Célanise.

While taking care of her large brood, Flavie was also godmother to at least six children. Four were her own grandchildren, while the other two were her youngest brother and her husband’s niece.

Flavie’s date of death is a bit of a mystery. Depending on the source, she died on 30 March 1906 [4] or on 1 August 1906 in St-Charles, Ontario. [5] I didn’t find her burial information when I looked at the parish records of St-Charles, Ontario, using Ancestry.ca’s “Ontario, Canada, Catholic Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1747-1967” database. (St-Charles’ records begin in 1905, but they are unfortunately incomplete.) I also searched for her death registration at Ancestry.ca, but couldn’t locate it in the “Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1938 and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1947” database. Last, I was unsuccessful at finding her death record when I viewed the relevant microfilms at the Archives of Ontario this past May.

Image credit: Library and Archives Canada, online MIKAN no. 4137889.

Sources:

1. St-Constant (St-Constant, Quebec), parish register, 1847, p. 28 recto, entry no. B.126, Flavie LePage [sic] baptism, 2 December 1847; St-Constant parish; digital image, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 11 August 2007).

2. St-Chrysostôme (St-Chrysostôme, Quebec), parish register, 1865, p. 27 verso, entry no. M.26, Desgroseilliers – Lepage marriage, 7 November 1865; St-Chrysostôme parish; digital image, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 24 August 2007).

3. “Lovell’s Montreal Directory, For 1891-92 […]”; digital image, Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (http://bibnum2.banq.qc.ca/bna/lovell/index.html : accessed 27 April 2012), 483, “Pierre Desgroseillier [sic]”. Pierre resided at 51 rue Davidson; he was a laborer.

4. St Charles Cemetery (Dunnet Township), digital images (http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~murrayp/sudbury/st_char/public/page0002.htm : accessed 10 August 2014), photograph, grave marker for Flavie Lepage, St-Charles, Ontario. To view Flavie’s gravemarker, click on image “desgros1”.

5. Lionel Séguin, Historique de la paroisse Saint-Charles (Saint-Charles, Ont., 1945: 232); digital images, Our Roots (http://www.ourroots.ca/ : accessed 18 June 2013).

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

52 Ancestors: #32 Pierre Desgroseilliers, buried and reburied

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 32nd week of this challenge, I chose Pierre Desgroseilliers (1841-1904).

Pierre is my maternal great-great-grandfather and is number 24 in my ancestor list.

He was born on 11 June 1841 in Ste-Martine, Châteauguay County, Quebec. [1] He was the seventh child and third son of François Desgroseilliers by his wife Elisabeth (Isabelle) Lemieux. On 7 November 1865, Pierre married Flavie Lepage in St-Chrysostôme, also in Châteauguay County. [2] The couple had thirteen children – seven sons and six daughters – between 1866 and 1890. The family moved to the relative wilderness area known as Grand Brûlé, now St-Charles, south of present-day Sudbury, Ontario, in the late 1890s.

A little over a year ago, I wrote an article about determining when Pierre died. I wanted to show that he couldn’t have died in 1901 as seen in a local history book that was published in 1945. [3] You can read about it here in Proof Summary: Pierre Desgroseilliers’ Death Date.

That publication might have been wrong about Pierre’s date of death, but it also had interesting details about his life in St-Charles.

For example, Pierre was the “premier villageois” (first villager) in that community, although he wasn’t the first inhabitant in the area. [4] In 1901, Reverend Father Charles Langlois, the curate of nearby Verner, occasionally celebrated Mass at Pierre’s house, located on Lot 12, Concession 1 in Dunnet. [5] A few years later, Pierre was one of three men who chose the site for the new church, after the two earlier chapels were destroyed by fire in 1900 and 1903, respectively. [6]

One particularly interesting item stands out in the text, though.

The first Roman Catholic cemetery in St-Charles was located close to the first chapel built in 1900, on a small hillside shaded by tall willow trees. [7]

There was a problem with the land, though: it didn’t drain well. A committee decided to relocate the cemetery on a new plot of land. Accordingly, the coffins from the first cemetery were exhumed and moved to the new location. Pierre Desgroseilliers was among the souls who were relocated. [8]

Unfortunately, this second location proved just as difficult to drain, so much so, that it wasn’t unusual to see coffins floating to the surface. And so, a third location was considered in 1939, but in the end, the parish kept the current cemetery, having levelled it and drained it. [9]

And that’s how my great-great-grandfather Pierre Desgroseilliers was buried and reburied.

Image source: Microsoft Clip Art.

Sources:

1. Ste-Martine (Ste-Martine, Quebec), parish register, 1841, p. 21 verso, entry no. B.8115, Pierre Desgroseilliers baptism, 12 June 1841; Ste-Martine parish; digital image, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 24 August 2007).

2. St-Chrysostôme (St-Chrysostôme, Quebec), parish register, 1865, p. 27 verso, entry no. M.26, Desgroseilliers – Lepage marriage, 7 November 1865; St-Chrysostôme parish; digital image, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 24 August 2007).

3. Lionel Séguin, Historique de la paroisse Saint-Charles (Saint-Charles, Ont., 1945: 232); digital images, Our Roots (http://www.ourroots.ca/ : accessed 18 June 2013).

4. Séguin, Historique de la paroisse Saint-Charles, 129. The townships of Appleby, of Jennings and of Casimir, known as St-Charles, were established as a municipality in 1908.

5. Séguin, Historique de la paroisse Saint-Charles, 342.

6. Séguin, Historique de la paroisse Saint-Charles, 43-45. The other two men were Reverend Father Charles Langlois and Antoine Chaloux.

7. Séguin, Historique de la paroisse Saint-Charles, 51.

8. Séguin, Historique de la paroisse Saint-Charles, 52. To view Pierre's gravemarker, click on image "desgros2" at St Charles Cemetery (Dunnet Township).

9. Séguin, Historique de la paroisse Saint-Charles, 52.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

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

Amy Johnson Crow at No Story Too Small has issued herself and her readers a challenge for 2014. It’s called “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks”, and as Amy explains, the challenge is to “have one blog post each week devoted to a specific ancestor. It could be a story, a biography, a photograph, an outline of a research problem — anything that focuses on one ancestor”.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

52 Ancestors: #3 Eugène Desgroseilliers and His Baptism Record

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 3rd week of this challenge, I’m focusing on my maternal grandfather Eugène Desgroseilliers and his baptism record. [1]

Background info:

Eugène was the eldest child of Albert and Clémentine (Léveillé) Desgroseilliers. He was born on 30 August 1900 in the rural community of St-Charles, Sudbury District, Ontario. My grandfather’s baptism record states that his parents were domiciled at that time in Jennings, which I believe is a little to the southwest of St-Charles. Although a chapel was established in St-Charles, it burned in May 1900. [2] A new chapel wasn’t built until 1903, so baptisms, marriages and burials took place locally, but were recorded by priests from nearby churches, which in my grandfather’s case happened to be the parish of St-Jean-Baptiste in Verner. [3]

Eugène’s baptism record, shown in two parts:

Left side of sacramental register

Right side of sacramental register

The text reads in French and Latin:

94 / Emmanuel Eugène / Desgroseilliers / 30 / Augusti / Albert Desgroseilliers et Clémentine Leveillé / Jennings / 11a Septembris / Chs Langlois ptre / Ovide Desgroseilliers et Amanda Leveillé

The English translation of the text with comments in square brackets:

[entry no.] 94 / [baptism name] Emmanuel / [surname] Desgroseilliers / [date of birth] 30 / [month of birth] August / [parents’ names] Albert Desgroseilliers [and] Clémentine Leveillé / [parents’ place of residence] Jennings / [date of baptism] 11 / [month of baptism] September / [officiating priest] Chs Langlois [priest] / [godparents] Ovide Desgroseilliers [and] Amanda Leveillé

Sources:

1. St-Jean-Baptiste (Verner, Ontario), parish register, 1895-1910, p. 29, entry no. 94 (1900), Emmanuel Eugene Desgroseilliers baptism, 11 September 1900; St-Jean-Baptiste parish; digital image, “Ontario, Roman Catholic Church Records, 1760-1923”, FamilySearch.org (https://familysearch.org/ : accessed 6 January 2014). This database is search-only; to reach Eugène’s baptism record, follow this path from the homepage at FamilySearch.org: Search > Canada > Historical Record Collections > Ontario, Roman Catholic Church Records, 1760-1923 > Nipissing > Verner > St John the Baptist > Baptisms 1895-1910 > Image 45 of 108.

2. Lionel Séguin, Historique de la paroisse Saint-Charles (Saint-Charles, Ont., 1945: 42); digital images, Our Roots (http://www.ourroots.ca/ : accessed 18 June 2013).

3. Séguin, Historique de la paroisse Saint-Charles, 43.

Copyright © 2014, 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.

Funeral Card Friday: Albert Desgroseilliers

This funeral card is dedicated to the “douce mémoire” (dear memory) of Albert Desgroseilliers, my maternal great-grandfather. The card measures 10 cm long by 5.5 cm wide (approximately 4” x 2”). I don’t remember how I came to own it, but my mother had it for many years before she gave it to me.

I never met Albert, because he died a few months before I was born. He was a tall man, about 6’5” (his eldest son Eugène was even taller – 6’7”), and was a farmer most of his life. Albert was born in February 1879 in Embrun in Russell County, Ontario, and married Clémentine Léveillé in April 1899 in nearby Limoges. Soon after their wedding, they relocated north to St-Charles in Nipissing District, where their son Eugène was born in the summer of 1900.

When I first started researching my mother’s side of the family many years ago, I was told that Albert died in Sturgeon Falls, close to St-Charles, where he and Clémentine settled on a small property. Years later, when I found his burial record in the “Drouin Collection” at Ancestry.ca, I read that he died on December 16, 1957 and that his funeral took place three days later on December 19 in La Résurrection parish in Sturgeon Falls. I was told he died in Sturgeon Falls by my mother and her sister Madeleine, I knew he was buried in that town, and I was satisfied with this information. About three years ago, I ordered a certified copy of Albert’s “Statement of Death” (death registration) from the Office of the Registrar General in Ontario. Was I ever surprised and confused to read that my great-grandfather died not in Sturgeon Falls as I had always believed, but miles away in Ottawa General Hospital in our country’s capital city! (I knew I had the correct Albert Desgroseilliers, because all the other bits of info on the form matched what was verified about him, like his date and place of birth, the names of his parents, and the name of his wife.) I asked Mom if she could clear up this mystery, but she assured me that Sturgeon Falls was where her grandfather died. She suggested I call her elder sister, Madeleine, who would surely confirm that “fact”. So, I call my Aunt Madeleine, and she was just as sure as Mom was about where Albert died. She couldn’t explain why his death registration gave a different, and until now, unheard of place of death. At this point in time (2009), all of Albert’s 14 children were deceased, so I couldn’t ask any of them for their help. I looked at the document one more time hoping to see if I had missed important clues. I believe I found two. First, according to “Length Deceased Resided” were the death occurred, it says that Albert lived in Ottawa for “2 mois” (2 months), indicating that he was there since October. I wondered what would have brought him to Ottawa? I checked my files on his family, and saw that his younger brother Célestin had recently died on November 22 in Vanier. (Vanier used to be a municipality next door to Ottawa, but is now part of that city.) Second, the name of the informant was Laurent DesGroseilliers, Albert’s nephew, and Célestin’s son. It now seemed reasonable to think that Albert travelled from his home in Sturgeon Falls to visit his ailing brother in Vanier. While there, he became ill, was taken to the hospital where he subsequently died. (The death registration does not have a section for cause of death.)

Copyright © 2012, Yvonne Demoskoff