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.

Sibling Saturday: The Children of Pierre Janvry dit Belair (1851-1941)

My paternal great-grandfather Pierre Janvry dit Belair was the father of sixteen children by his first two wives, Angélina Meunier (1855-1896) and Mathilde Cloutier (1861-1923). Pierre and his third wife Rosalie Lavictoire (1859-1927) did not have children.

By Angélina (my great-grandmother), Pierre had ten sons and six daughters. By Mathilde, he had two sons and three daughters.

The Belair children were born over the course of twenty-three years – 1883 to 1903. All were born in Ste-Cécile-de-Masham (now La Pêche), Gatineau County, Quebec and were baptised there. (I assume that Pierre’s eldest child, Pierre, was baptised in Masham, although his baptism record does not appear in Ste-Cécile’s sacramental register.)

Martineau – Belair wedding (1921)

Photos of Pierre are rare. Here is one that my late cousin Suzanne (who descends from Mathilde) sent me some years ago. Pierre is the second from left, his daughter Mathilde (in a hat) and her new husband Norbert are in the centre, while his wife Mathilde (in apron) is next to them. I wrote about this wedding in Wedding Wednesday: Martineau – Belair.

I prepared the following tables to show Pierre’s children with their birth, marriage(s), and death details. Most of this information is from sacramental records, but some is from death registrations, census records, and family information.

Table 1. Pierre and Angélina's children: 

Table 2. Pierre and Mathilde's children: 

Copyright © 2018, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Church Record Sunday: Mathilde Belair’s 1923 Burial Record

Mathilde Cloutier, second wife of my paternal great-grandfather Pierre Belair, died 95 years ago on 16 April 1923. [1]

Pierre’s first wife, Angélina Meunier, died in July 1896, leaving behind seven children, including my grandfather (Pépère) Fred, who was only six years old.

A year later, Pierre married Mathilde Cloutier, who was born and raised in Ste-Cécile-de-Masham, Pontiac County, Quebec, like Pierre and his family. They had five children: two sons and three daughters.

Mathilde’s burial record doesn’t indicate the cause of death (such records rarely did), but she was 62 years old at her death. Her husband was present at the funeral on 18 April, along with their son Joseph, my grandfather’s eldest half-brother.

I don’t know what kind of relationship Fred had with his stepmother. I wish I had thought of asking him when he was older after I got interested in genealogy.

Mathilde Cloutier burial record (Ancestry)

The burial record above reads in French:

Ce dix-huit avril mil neuf cent vingt-trois / je soussigné curé de cette paroisse ai / inhumé dans notre cimetière le / corps de Mathilde Cloutier, épouse / de Pierre Belair, de cette paroisse / et y décédée avant-hier âgée de / soixante ans. Etaient pré / sents Pierre Belair, Joseph Belair et autres parents et amis qui ne / revinrent pas après le service. 
[signed] Hector Yelle, ptre

My English translation:

This 18 April nineteen hundred and twenty-three / I undersigned [parish priest] of this parish have / interred in our cemetery the / body of Mathilde Cloutier, wife of Pierre Belair, of this parish / and who died [the day] before yesterday aged of / sixty years. Were pre / sent Pierre Belair, Joseph Belair and other relatives and friends who did not / return [to the church] after the [burial] service. 
[signed] Hector Yelle, [priest]

Source:

1. Ste-Cécile (Ste-Cécile-de-Masham, Quebec), parish register, 1918-1930, p. 95 verso, entry no. S.11 (1923), Mathilde Cloutier burial, 18 April 1923; Ste-Cécile-de-Masham parish; digital images, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 30 March 2018).

Copyright © 2018, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Church Record Sunday: Angélina Meunier’s 1896 Burial Record

Two years ago, I wrote about my great-grandmother Angélina Meunier; see 52 Ancestors: #7 Angélina Meunier – My great-grandmother. Today, I focus on her burial record on the 120th anniversary of her death.

Angélina died on 26 July 1896, four days after giving birth to her 11th child, a son, who did not survive. Her funeral took place two days later in Sainte-Cécile parish church in Masham (now La Pêche), Quebec.[1]

Angélina Meunier burial record (Ancestry)

Here’s a close-up version:

Angélina Meunier burial record, cropped (Ancestry)

The burial record (above) reads in French:

Le vingt-huit Juillet, mil huit cent quatre vingt-seize, nous / soussigné, Curé de cette paroisse, avons inhumé, dans le cime / tière paroissial, le corps d’Angélina Meunier, décédée / l’avant-veille, en cette paroisse, à l’âge de quarante et / un ans, épouse de Pierre Bélair, cultivateur, de cette parois / se. Étaient presents Pierre Bélair, époux de la Défunte, Jo- / seph Pinsonneault, cultivateur, qui n’ont pas su signer; / plusieurs Dames de la Congrégation de Ste. Anne, dont la / Défunte faisait partie, qui ont signé avec nous. Lec / ture faite. [Signatures of twenty-four women belonging to the Dames de la Congrégation de Ste. Anne, followed by the officiating priest.]

My English translation:

The twenty-eight July, one thousand one hundred ninety-six, we / undersigned, [parish priest] of this parish, have interred, in the parochial ceme / tery, the body of Angélina Meunier, deceased / the previous day, in this parish, at the age of forty / one years, spouse of Pierre Bélair, farmer, of the pari / sh. Were present Pierre Bélair, spouse of the Deceased, Jo- / seph Pinsonneault, farmer, [neither of] who knew how to sign [their names]; / several Ladies of the Congregation of Ste. Anne, of which the / Deceased belonged, who signed with us. Reading [of this record] done. [Signatures of twenty-four women belonging to the Dames de la Congrégation de Ste. Anne, followed by the officiating priest.]

Source:

1. Ste-Cécile (Ste-Cécile-de-Masham, Quebec), parish register, 1887-1898, p. 209 verso, entry no. S.20 (1896), Angélina Meunier burial, 28 July 1896; Ste-Cécile-de-Masham parish; digital images, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 1 March 2012).

Copyright © 2016, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Church Record Sunday: Pierre Belair’s 1941 Burial Record

Seventy-five years ago, my paternal great-grandfather Pierre Belair died on 6 May 1941.[1] He was 89½ years old, the father of 16 children (ten predeceased him), and outlived three wives.

I first saw Pierre’s burial record when I visited Ste-Cécile-de-Masham (now La Pêche), Gatineau County, Quebec in the 1980s. The parish church secretary allowed me to look at and photocopy family records from Ste-Cécile’s sacramental registers. Years later, I got the opportunity to re-view my great-grandfather’s burial record after I got a subscription to Ancestry.ca. The image, my transcription and my translation are from that site.

Pierre’s burial record (above) reads in French:

Le huit mai mil neuf cent quarante et un, nous soussigné / curé avons inhumé dans le cimétière de cette paroisse / le corps de Pierre Bélair époux de feues Anna Meunier / Mathilde Cloutier et de Rosalie Lavictoire, décédé en / cette paroisse, muni des derniers Sacrements de l’Eglise / le six du courant mois à l’âge de quatre-vingt-dix / ans et cinq mois. Furent présents Joseph Bélair, Paul / Bélair et autres qui ont signé. Lecture faite.
[signed Paul Bélair / Joseph Bélair / J.R.X. Filiatreault ptre curé]

My English translation:

The eight May one thousand one hundred forty one, we undersigned / [parish priest] have interred in the cemetery of this parish / the body of Pierre Bélair spouse of the late Anna Meunier / Mathilde Cloutier and of Rosalie Lavictoire, died / in this parish, provided with the last Sacrements of the Church / the six of the current month at the age of ninety / years and five months. Were present Joseph Bélair, Paul / Bélair and others who signed. Reading [of this record] done.
[signed Paul Bélair / Joseph Bélair / J.R.X. Filiatreault parish priest]

Most of my CRS posts end about here, but today I’m adding something else: a summary of what I learned about Pierre from this record.

One thing I didn’t learn, though, was if my grandfather Fred, Pierre’s younger son, attended his father’s funeral. His name is not recorded as being present, but I suspect that he wasn’t there. Fred, who lived in the small village of Fauquier in northern Ontario, might not have received the sad news in time to make the journey to Masham.

Source:

1. Ste-Cécile (Ste-Cécile-de-Masham, Quebec), parish register, 1930-1943, p. 326 (stamped), entry no. S.7 (1941), Pierre Bélair burial, 8 May 1941; Ste-Cécile-de-Masham parish; digital images, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 1 March 2012).

Copyright © 2016, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Church Record Sunday: Scholastique St-Michel’s 1864 Burial Record

My paternal great-great-great-grandmother Scholastique St-Michel (ancestor no. 33) passed away on a spring day 152 years ago this month.

Scholastique married twice and was widowed twice. By her first husband (and my ancestor) Pierre Janvry dit Belair, whom she married in September 1818, Scholastique was the mother of eleven children. (For a list of their children, see 52 Ancestors 2015: #32 – Pierre Janvry dit Belair, Father of 25 Children.)

After Pierre’s death, Scholastique married widower Joseph Clément in September 1851, but did not have children by him. The marriage was short-lived, because Joseph died between January 1852 and September 1854.

Scholastique lived on in Ste-Cécile-de-Masham (now La Pêche), Quebec, near her married children Paul (my ancestor), Mathilde, and Elisabeth and their families. Her other married children (Esther, Toussaint, and Denis) lived further afield (one in Montreal and two in the province of Ontario), so it’s not likely that she had much contact with them.

Scholastique died on 8 April 1864. She was buried two days later in the Roman Catholic cemetery attached to Ste-Cécile church in Masham. She was a month shy of her 68th birthday and not 69 as reported in her burial record.

Scholastique St-Michel burial record (Ancestry.ca)

The burial record (above) reads in French:

Le dix avril mil huit cent soixante quatre, nous / soussigné prêtre missionnaire de cette paroisse, avons / inhumé le corps de Scolastique St Michel épouse de / défunt Joseph Clément, décédée le huit de ce mois à / l’age de soixante neuf ans. Les témoins étaient Ambroise / Lemerle et de François Monnette. [signé L. Fremont]

My translation:

The 10 April one thousand sixty four, we / undersigned missionary priest of this parish, have / interred the body of Scolastique St Michel wife of / the late Joseph Clément, died the eighth of this month at / the age of sixty nine years. The witnesses were Ambroise / Lemerle and of François Monnette. [signed L. Fremont]

Source:

1. Ste-Cécile (Ste-Cécile-de-Masham, Quebec), parish register, 1853-1875, p. 117 verso, entry no. S.4, Scolastique St-Michel (written as Scolastique St-Michel, indexed as Scholastique St Michel) burial, 10 April 1864; Ste-Cécile parish; digital images, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 2 March 2016).

Copyright © 2016, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Church Record Sunday: Pierre Janvry dit Belair’s 1852 Baptism Record

Today – 24 January – marks the 164th anniversary of the baptism of my paternal great-grandfather Pierre Janvry dit Belair. [1]

Pierre Janvry dit Belair baptism record (FamilySearch)

I recently downloaded the above image from FamilySearch, but I first saw Pierre’s baptism record about 30 years ago. I was on vacation in Ottawa at the time, and decided to visit the Archives nationales du Québec (Centre de l’Outaouais) across the river in Hull (now Gatineau), Quebec.

I chose a microfilm reel of baptism, marriage and burial records and hoped to find Pierre’s baptism, thinking he should appear under either “Janvry” or his dit name “Belair”. I knew that he was born in December 1851, so I concentrated on that month. I was puzzled when I couldn’t find him, so tried a second time and included January 1852. As I viewed that month, something caught my eye. The name in the sidebar on the microfilm was challenging to read, but it looked like “Peter Geanvrier”. I wondered if this person could be my Pierre Janvry, so I read the text and realized it was my ancestor. Pleased with my find, I immediately made a paper copy of the page.

When I began looking at those microfilmed records, it hadn’t occurred to me to keep in mind that Pierre’s name might be spelled differently from what I was used to. I imagine it must have been difficult for the officiating Irish-born Oblate priest Thomas O’Boyle to understand my French great-great-grandfather pronounce his surname. [2] Father O’Boyle might have figured that “Geanvrier” was close enough to “Janvry”.

The baptism record (above) reads in English:

On the twenty fourth day of January in / the year one thousand eight hundred and / fifty two, we the undersigned Priest / have baptized Pierre born the first / of December last of the lawful marriage / of Paul Geanvrier & Angèle Lalonde. / The Godfather was Joseph Clemens & / the Godmother Scholastique St Michel, who / as well as the parents cannot write. [signed] Thomas O’Boyle o.m.i.

One last note: although Pierre’s baptism record does not mention his parents’ place of residence, he was presumably baptized where he was born in Ste-Cécile-de-Masham (now La Pêche), with the event registered in the sacramental registers of St-Camillus church in nearby Farrellton, Quebec.

Sources:

1. "Québec, registres paroissiaux catholiques, 1621-1979," digital images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1942-28000-2281-98?cc=1321742 : accessed 21 January 2016), Farrellton > Saint-Camille > Baptêmes, mariages, sépultures 1850-1876 > image 26 of 246; nos paroisses de Église Catholique, Quebec (Catholic Church parishes, Quebec).

2. Anne-Marie Ibell, “[Q-R] Father Thomas Boyle1820-1866”, QUEBEC-RESEARCH-L Archives, message board, 6 August 2003 (http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/index/QUEBEC-RESEARCH : accessed 21 January 2016).

Copyright © 2016, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Wedding Wednesday: Gauthier – Meunier

Sixty-seven years ago today, Cécile Meunier, my Dad’s cousin, married Ovila Gauthier on 14 October 1948 in Ste-Cécile-de-Masham (now La Pêche), Gatineau County, Quebec. Father Louis-Léon Binet, Ste-Cécile’s prêtre-curé, officiated at the ceremony.

Cécile was the daughter of my grandfather Fred’s half-sister Priscille Belair by her husband Aldoria Meunier. Born on 1 July 1924 in Masham, Cécile was the eldest of thirteen children. I’ve written about her mother Priscille in Church Record Sunday: Sisters Priscille and Domitille Belair.

I first saw this lovely black-and-white photograph when I visited my Aunt Joan last year. It looks like Cécile sent it to Joan’s parents, Fred and Julie (Vanasse) Belair, her uncle and aunt. Left to right are Aldoria, Cécile, Ovila, and Edmond, his father.

There are two handwritings on the back of the photo. The first one belongs to Cécile, who wrote: “Cela c’est mon père / et le père de mon / marie et moi et / mon marie”. (This one is my father / and the father of my / husband and me and / my husband.)

The second handwriting is Joan’s, who wrote: “Oncle AIdoria Meunier 1948 / Cecile Meunier’s Wedding / Ovila Gauthier son papa / Edmond Gauthier”. (Uncle Aldoria Meunier 1948 / Cecile Meunier’s Wedding / Ovila Gauthier his father / Edmond Gauthier.)

I don’t believe I ever met Cécile and her husband. She died in February 2009, while Ovila, who predeceased her, died in April 1985.

Copyright © 2015, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Wedding Wednesday: Liard – Janvry (Belair)

This Friday (July 17) marks the 110th anniversary of Délia Janvry dit Belair’s first marriage. She was my paternal grandfather Fred Belair’s elder sister.Born in April 1885, Délia married Charles Liard on 17 July 1905 in Ste-Cécile, the R.C. parish church in Ste-Cécile-de-Masham, Quebec. [1]

Liard – Belair marriage record (Généalogie Québec.com)

The marriage record, seen above, is in French. The officiating priest, J. Eug[ène]. L. Limoges, vicar of Ste-Cécile, recorded that two banns of marriage were announced (published) during Sunday Masses and that a dispensation was granted for the third bann. Charles is described as the fils majeur (son of age) of his parents Xavier and Félanise [Phelonise] (Moreau) Liard, residents of Ste-Cécile parish. For her part, Délia is described as the fille mineure (minor daughter) of her parents Pierre Janvrie [Janvry dit Belair] and the late Angélina Meunier, also of this parish. There were no impediments to the marriage. The young couple received the nuptial blessing in the presence of Charles’ father Xavier and of Pierre Janvrie, as well as plusieurs autres parents et amis (many other family and friends). Three people signed the sacramental register: Délia, a woman named Claire Gauvreau (possibly her friend, who married the following month), and Pierre Janvrie. This Pierre is not likely Délia’s father, but instead her eldest brother, also named Pierre, who was literate. [2] I’ve never seen my great-grandfather Pierre’s signature, because he didn’t sign or was unable to sign his name in his family’s baptism, marriage, and burial records.

After Charles’s death in 1918, Délia married widower Isaïe Brazeau in March 1919 in Ste-Cécile parish. Isaïe, who was twice mayor of Ste-Cécile-de-Masham, died in 1954. Délia died on 30 December 1972 in Hull, Quebec.

Sources:

1. Ste-Cécile (Ste-Cécile-de-Masham, Quebec), parish register, 1899-1908, folio 131 (recto)/p. 262 (stamped), entry no. M.15 (1905), Charles Liard – Délia Janvrie [sic] marriage, 17 July 1905; Ste-Cécile parish; digital image, “Le LAFRANCE”, Généalogie Québec (https://www.genealogiequebec.com/ : accessed 9 July 2015).

2. Ste-Cécile (Ste-Cécile-de-Masham, Quebec), parish register, 1899-1908, folio 165 (recto)/p. 330 (stamped), entry no. M.8 (1907), Pierre Belair – Elisa Barnabée [sic] marriage, 9 July 1907; Ste-Cécile parish; digital image, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection, 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 27 April 2010). Délia’s father Pierre was present at her brother Pierre’s wedding. The priest noted that only the bridal couple could (and did) sign their names in the sacramental register.

Copyright © 2015, Yvonne Demoskoff.

52 Ancestors: #44 Pierre Drouin, from Catholic to Presbyterian, then back again

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 44th week of this challenge, I chose Pierre Drouin (1805-1894).

Pierre is my paternal 3x great-grandfather and is number 38 in my ancestor list.

Background info

Pierre was born and baptized on 12 January 1805 in St-Benoît, northwest of Montreal. [1] He was the second child and eldest son of Pierre Drouin, a farmer, and his wife Agathe Brunet dite Létang. Pierre married Marie Reine Poirier, a widow with two young children, on 2 March 1829 in St-Benoît. [2] The couple had ten children, including first-born twins (a son and a daughter) and Louise (1835-1890), my ancestor. Pierre died on 28 January 1894 and was buried two days later in Quyon, Pontiac County, Quebec. [3]

A few questions

As I was preparing a profile about Pierre for 52 Ancestors, I found myself wondering about certain aspects of his life. That’s when I decided to compile a list of questions instead of Pierre’s biography for this blog post.

1. Why did Pierre leave St-Benoît about 1832, where he was a farmer, and move to Rigaud, in nearby Vaudreuil County?
2. Why did he leave Rigaud about 1834 for Cornwall, Upper Canada to work as a day laborer?
3. Why wasn’t he present at the baptism of his daughter Louise in St-Benoît in August 1836? Was it because he was still in Cornwall?
4. Why did he return to St-Benoît about 1838 when his son Camille was born there in July? (It was a dangerous time to be in this region due to the Patriots’ War or the 1837-1838 Rebellion.)
5. Where did he live in Lower Canada when his children Marie and Joseph were born about 1843 and 1845, respectively?
6. When did he arrive in Ste-Cécile-de-Masham, Gatineau County? (He was present at his stepdaughter’s wedding there in 1848.)
7. Why was his son Moïse buried on 9 April 1862 when he died on 6 March of that year? (His burial record in Masham does not state the cause of death or why there was a delay between his death and his burial.)
8. When did Pierre leave Ste-Cécile-de-Masham for Onslow, a few miles away in Pontiac County?
9. Why did Pierre become Presbyterian? (He was Roman Catholic when his son Moïse was buried in 1862, but Presbyterian on the 1871 and 1881 censuses.)*
10. Why did Pierre and his wife return to their original faith? (On the 1891 census, he was Methodist, while she was RC, but both were RC when they were buried.)

* One reason that Pierre, his wife and their younger son François became Presbyterian was “likely due to sectarianism. In some cases it proved difficult for Catholics to find jobs and uncomfortable for Catholics to settle in certain areas where the population was primarily Irish or Scots protestant.” [4]

Sources:

1. St-Benoît (St-Benoît, Quebec), parish register, 1799-1805, p. 162 recto, entry no. B.7 (1805), Pierre Drouin baptism, 12 January 1805; St-Benoît parish; digital image, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 28 April 2008).

2. St-Benoît (St-Benoît, Quebec), parish register, 1829, p. 9 verso, entry no. M.16, Pierre Drouin – Marie Reine Poirier dite Déloge [sic] marriage, 2 March 1829; St-Benoît parish; digital image, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 28 April 2008).

3. Ste-Marie (Quyon, Quebec), parish register, 1894, p. 2 recto, entry no. S.2, Peter Deroine [sic] burial, 28 January 1894; Ste-Marie parish; digital image, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 25 October 2009).

4. RonaldDale100, “Re: From Catholic to Presbyterian”, Ancestry Message Boards – Pontiac, message board, 11 November 2009 (http://boards.ancestry.ca/localities.northam.canada.quebec.outaouais.pontiac/3424.1/mb.ashx : accessed 27 October 2014).

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

52 Ancestors: #22 Louise Drouin

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 22nd week of this challenge, I chose Louise Drouin (1835-1890).

Louise Drouin is my paternal great-great-grandmother and is number 19 in my ancestor list.

She was the fifth of ten children of Pierre Drouin, a day laborer, and his wife Marie Reine Poirier. Louise was the eldest surviving daughter of her parents, her two elder sisters (both named Marie Louise) having predeceased her in 1831 and 1834, respectively.

Louise, sometimes known as Eloise, was baptized on 16 August 1836 in St-Benoît (now Mirabel, a little to the north of Montreal) in Deux-Montagnes County, Quebec. According to her baptism record, she was born in July 1835. It’s possible that she was born in Cornwall, Ontario, where her father Pierre resided and worked at the time of her baptism.

I haven’t been able to trace where her parents and siblings lived in the 1840s, but the family lived somewhere in the southwestern part of the province of Quebec. By the 1851 census, the Drouin family, including 17-year-old “Leuesia”, is enumerated in Ste-Cécile-de-Masham in Gatineau County.

It was here in Masham that Louise met and married her fourth cousin Ménésippe Meunier, who I wrote about last week for 52 Ancestors; see his story here. The couple, who wed on 4 October 1853, had eleven children between 1855 and 1874, including my great-grandmother Angélina Meunier (1855-1896), whose story I wrote last February for 52 Ancestors.

After Ménésippe’s death in January 1883, Louise married widower Joseph Poliquin on 14 September 1884 in Masham. Louise and Joseph, a voyageur and later a day laborer, didn’t have children.

Louise died on 13 March 1890 in Masham; she was 53 years old, according to her burial record. Two days later, her funeral took place in the parish cemetery, with her younger son Gédéon Meunier in attendance.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

52 Ancestors: #21 Ménésippe Meunier

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 21st week of this challenge, I chose Ménésippe Meunier (1829-1883).

Ménésippe Meunier is my paternal great-great-grandfather and is number 18 in my ancestor list.

He was born on 26 February 1829 in Ste-Anne-des-Plaines, northwest of Montreal, in Terrebonne County, Quebec and baptized there that day in Ste-Anne parish church.

Ménésippe was the seventh child of Jean-Baptiste Meunier and his wife Adélaïde Larose. He had seven brothers (four died as children) and three sisters.

During my search for records about my 2x great-grandfather, I encountered interesting spelling variations of his name. Examples include:

• Ménazime (at his baptism in 1829)

• Ménésippe (at his daughter Angélina’s baptism in 1855 and at his children Angélina, Léocadie and Ménésippe’s marriages in 1879, 1880 and 1882)

• Menazipe (on the 1861 and 1871 censuses)

• Ménazipe (on the 1881 census)

• Ménézique (at his burial in 1883).

His surname is usually spelled Meunier, but occasionally appears as Munier (at his marriage in 1853) and Munié (on the 1881 census).

In my files, I standardize his name as Ménésippe Meunier, but include a note about the variations.

If Ménésippe’s name isn’t a mystery, his presence on the 1851 Census of Canada is. (I’ve found him on the 1861, 1871 and 1881 censuses.) He’s not living in Ste-Anne-des-Plaines with his parents or his married brothers Jean-Baptiste and Moïse. He’s also not residing with his married sister Adélaïde in the town of Terrebonne. I even checked Ste-Cécile-de-Masham in Gatineau County to see if had relocated there, where his future wife lived, but no luck.

I estimate that Ménésippe moved from home in Ste-Anne-des-Plaines in the mid- to late-1840s. He probably settled in Ste-Cécile-de-Masham in the early 1850s, presumably after the 1851 census. Here he made the acquaintance of Pierre Drouin (Derouin) and his family, who were also recent arrivals to Masham.

I wonder if Ménésippe was aware that he and Louise (Eloise), Pierre’s younger daughter, shared common ancestors and were fourth cousins when they courted. It doesn’t look like a dispensation due to consanguinity was required when they wed on 4 October 1853 in Masham, because the priest did not record this fact in the sacramental register.

Ménésippe and Louise were the parents of eleven children, seven sons and four daughters. The eldest child was my great-grandmother Angélina. I’ve written about her for 52 Ancestors; see her story here.

After twenty-nine years of marriage, Ménésippe died on 24 January 1883 in Masham; he was not quite 54 years old. He was buried there two days later in the parish cemetery.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

52 Ancestors: #20 Angélique Lalonde, a bride at 27 years old

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 20th week of this challenge, I chose Angélique Lalonde (1818-1900).

Angélique is my paternal great-great-grandmother and is number 17 in my ancestor list.

She was born on 5 February 1818 in Les Cèdres, Soulanges County, Quebec and received the name Angélique at her baptism the next day. She was known as Angèle on at least three occasions: on the 1851 census, at her son Pierre’s baptism in 1852, and at her son Paul’s marriage in 1887.

Angélique was the second youngest among the twelve children of Jean-Baptiste Lalonde and his wife Angélique Bray. Through her father, Angélique is a descendant of Sarah Allen (Madeleine Hélène), who was brought to New France in 1704 as a Deerfield captive.

Les Cèdres, ca 1840

Angélique’s parents were born and married in Les Cèdres; it’s also where all but their last child was born. When Angélique was a young girl, the Lalonde family moved a little to the west to Côteau-du-Lac. Located in southwestern Quebec, these small rural communities are located on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River.

In June 1842, Angélique’s mother died aged 66 in Côteau-du-Lac. By now, all of Angélique's surviving brothers and sisters were married. She was 24 years old and unmarried. Angélique must have wondered what her prospects were like for a marriage and a family of her own.

I don’t know what prompted my 2x great-grandmother to leave her family and widowed father in Côteau-du-Lac, but by the summer of 1845, she was living in Hull, a logging town on the Ottawa River across the future city of Ottawa, capital of Canada.

At the rather advanced age of 27, Angélique married Paul Janvry dit Belair on 2 September 1845 in Aylmer, near Hull. Her husband was four years younger than she was. (I recently wrote about Paul for 52 Ancestors. You can read his story here.)

The couple’s first child Paul was born in August 1846. He died three months short of his eighth birthday when he drowned in May 1854. Angélique’s third child, daughter Delphine, died when she was only five weeks old, in January 1850.

Angélique and Paul’s other children, most of whom were born in Ste-Cécile-de-Masham, not far from Hull, lived to maturity.

• Joseph, born in 1848, eventually moved to Ontario, where he married and had seven children.

• Pierre, born in 1851, my great-grandfather. He married three times and had 16 children.

• Lucie, born in 1853, also married and had a family.

• Emilien, born in 1855, married a local girl and had 12 children.

• Jean-Baptiste, born in 1856, also married a local girl, and had a family. He followed his elder brother’s example and moved to Ontario.

• Paul, born in 1858, married, had a family and went to live in nearby Hull.

• Youngest child Adélaïde (Adèle), born in 1861, remained in Masham, where she married and had six children.

At about the same time as the Belair family arrived in Masham, Angélique elder sister Geneviève left Soulanges County with her husband Joseph Onézime Legros and their children and established themselves in the same community. It is through this couple, Geneviève and Joseph, that I am a fourth cousin of the Dionne quintuplets, whom I’ve written about in Famous Relatives: The Dionne Quintuplets.

Angélique died on 16 January 1900 in Ste-Cécile-de-Masham. She was buried there two days later in the presence of a large number of family and friends, including her sons Pierre and Emilien.

Image credit: Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, no d'acc 1931-218-1.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

52 Ancestors: #19 Paul Janvry dit Belair

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 19th week of this challenge, I chose Paul Janvry dit Belair (1822-1902).

Paul is my paternal great-great-grandfather and is number 16 in my ancestor list.

He was born on 13 May 1822 in Ste-Geneviève (later Pierrefonds, and now part of the City of Montreal) on the Island of Montreal, Lower Canada (now the province of Quebec), and baptized there the following day.

Paul was the third child, but second surviving son of Pierre Janvry dit Belair and his second wife Scholastique St-Michel. By his first wife, the late Marguerite Campeau, Pierre had 14 children, 10 sons and 4 daughters.

Throughout his life, Paul’s surname alternated between his patronym Janvry (and its spelling variations like Janvril) and its dit name Belair (with its spelling variations like Bellaire).

Paul’s parents moved frequently when he was younger. The family lived in Ste-Geneviève, then a little to the north in Ste-Anne-des-Plaines, then at some distance west in the Hull-Gatineau area (across from the future city of Ottawa, later capital of Canada), where Paul’s youngest siblings were born.

When Paul was 23 years old, he married Angélique Lalonde on 2 September 1845. Although the bride and groom each resided in Hull, the wedding ceremony took place in a mission church attached to St-Paul RC church in Aylmer, just to the west of Hull.* Missionary priest J. Desautels blessed their union, which was witnessed by Paul’s father Pierre, his younger brother Toussaint, and his sister’s husband Louis Poulin.

* A mission church is a church that does not have a resident priest. It is served by a missionary priest, who travels from the home church to outlying areas to serve the faithful.

Masham, comté d'Ottawa [Masham, county of Ottawa]

Paul and Angélique settled on lot 55 in range 4 of Ste-Cécile-de-Masham Township (now La Pêche), about 30 kilometres (19 miles) north of Hull, between 1849 and 1851.

The couple had nine children, most of who were born in Masham: Paul, Joseph, Delphine, Pierre (my great-grandfather), Lucie, Emilien, Jean-Baptiste, Paul, and Adélaïde (Adèle). Paul père supported his large brood as a farmer on his own land of about 123 acres.

Paul died in Masham on 17 July 1902; he was 80 years old. He was predeceased by Angélique and three of their children. Paul’s funeral took place three days later in Ste-Cécile parish church. It was well attended by family, including his sons Pierre and Emilien, and by members of the Ligue du Sacré-Coeur (a lay brotherhood devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus), to which Paul belonged.

Image credit: Library and Archives Canada (MIKAN no. 4126897).

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Census Sunday: The Belair Family and the 1891 Census

1891 census of Canada (Masham, Quebec) [1]

My great-grandfather Pierre Janvry dit Belair, his wife Angélina and their children were enumerated on the 1891 census of Canada. [2]

Pierre’s son Fred, my grandfather, was born in late 1889, so this census marks his first appearance on a federal Canadian census return.

Cropped version of 1891 Masham census

The Belair family, as seen in the above cropped image version of the Masham 1891 census, consisted of head of family Pierre (39), his wife Angélina (35), and their children Pierre (10), Paul (9), Angélina (7), Marie (5) [usually known as Délia], and Jean Bte (1) [my grandfather Fred].

The enumerator did not sign his name nor did he date the return. Enumerators were instructed to gather information “as it applied at midnight, when April 5 turned into April 6”. [3]

The Belair family home, described in Column 4 as “B1/3 “, was a one-story wooden house with three rooms. [4] Other details include the family members’ place of birth (Q, for the province of Quebec), religion (C.R., for Catholique Romain [Roman Catholic]), and that only mother Angélina and elder sons Pierre and Paul could read and write.

Sources:

1. 1891 census of Canada, Masham, Ottawa, Quebec, population schedule, subdistrict BB, p. 31, family 113, Pierre Jeanvry [sic] household; digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 30 July 2007); citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm T-6412.

2. 1891 census of Canada, Masham, Ottawa, Quebec, pop. sched., subdist. BB, p. 31, fam. 113, Pierre Jeanvry [sic] household.

3. Dave Obee, Counting Canada: A Genealogical Guide to the Canadian Census (Victoria, BC: Dave Obee, 2012), 135.

4. Census of 1891, Library and Archives Canada (http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/1891/Pages/about-census.aspx : accessed 1 May 2014), “About the 1891 Census: Common Abbreviations – Other”. Some of the abbreviations found on the 1891 census forms, including those for residential buildings, are explained on the LAC website. The unnamed enumerator wrote in French, thus the B in “B1/3” stands for bois (wooden).

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Church Record Sunday: Sisters Priscille and Domitille Belair

My paternal grandfather Fred Belair’s half-sisters Priscille Belair (1900-1939) and Domitille Belair (1901-1973) both died in the month of April and were buried on the same day, 34 years apart.

I found these genealogical details when I travelled to the province of Quebec in the late 1980s and located their church burial records in Ste-Cécile-de-Masham in Gatineau County. If I wanted to see those same records today, I would view them in the “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967” database at Ancestry.ca.

Priscille Belair

Priscille Belair’s burial record, 1939 [1]

Priscille was the elder of the two sisters. She died relatively young on 24 April 1939. Her death at 39 years old must have been a devastating loss for her husband Aldoria Meunier, by whom she had 13 children, as well as their surviving 10 children, including the youngest, Marie Rose, who was only six weeks old.

Priscille’s burial record states that she died in Hôpital Sacré-Coeur of Hull (about 30 minutes from Masham), but does not give the cause of death; RC church records rarely do. I wonder if her death had something to do with her last pregnancy or the birth of her last child.

Domitille Belair

Mathilde Belair’s burial record, 1973 [2]

Domitille, also known as Mathilde, was a month short of her 72nd birthday when she died on 10 April 1973. She too died in hospital, but in the General Hospital of Kingston, Frontenac County, Ontario, according to her burial record.

By her first husband Norbert Martineau, Domitille had five children. (I’ve written about the couple’s wedding day in Wedding Wednesday: Martineau - Belair.) Domitille married André Renaud in June 1972, one year after Norbert’s death.

The Sisters' Funerals

Both sisters were interred in Ste-Cécile-de-Masham, where they were born and raised.

Priscille’s funeral took place on 27 April 1939. Father Filiatreault, who performed the ceremony, noted in her burial record that Priscille was “munis des derniers Sacrements de l’Eglise”, meaning that she received the last rites of the Roman Catholic Church. A priest, possibly Sacré-Coeur Hospital’s chaplain, administered the last Sacraments: Penance (confession), Anointing of the Sick, and Viaticum (communion), and offered prayers and readings for the dying. [3]

Domitille’s remains were transported from Kingston to Ste-Cécile-de-Masham. Her funeral took place there on 27 April 1973, with Father René Soucy of Masham as the celebrant.

Priscille died many years before I was born, so I never knew her. Although Domitille lived in Kingston when I was a young teen and lived a few hours north in Timmins, I don’t believe we ever met.

Sources:

1. Ste-Cécile Roman Catholic Church (Ste-Cécile-de-Masham, Quebec), sacramental register, p. 255, entry no. S.9, burial of Priscille Bélair [sic], 27 April 1939; parish rectory, Ste-Cécile-de-Masham. (My husband and I made photocopies of selected baptism, marriage and burial records from the sacramental registers when we visited Ste-Cécile in the late 1980s, but we unfortunately didn’t note which volumes we used.)

2. Ste-Cécile Roman Catholic Church (Ste-Cécile-de-Masham, Quebec), sacramental register, p. 78, entry no. S.11, burial of Mathilde Bélair (Renaud) [sic], 27 April 1973; parish rectory, Ste-Cécile-de-Masham. (My husband and I made photocopies of selected baptism, marriage and burial records from the sacramental registers when we visited Ste-Cécile in the late 1980s, but we unfortunately didn’t note which volumes we used.)

3. Reverend Peter M. J. Stravinskas, editor, Our Sunday Visitor’s Catholic Encyclopedia (Huntingdon, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., 1991), 572, “Last Sacraments”.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

A Day in My Ancestor’s Life – Pierre Belair

Last month, I made my first attempt at recreating “a day in my ancestor’s life” when I wrote about my paternal grandmother Julie (Vanasse) Belair; you can read her story here. I’m following up that post with a go at another ancestor: my paternal great-grandfather Pierre Belair (1851-1941). (I began the research for this article a few weeks ago, but I'm just posting the finished product today.)

Note: The questions below are courtesy of the tip of the day (“Pick A Day”) for 18 November 2013 at Genealogy Tip of the Day.

Pierre Belair as a young man

I picked 6 April 1891, when the third census for the Dominion of Canada was held. I don’t know if Pierre and his family were enumerated that day (the date is left blank on the census form), but enumerators were instructed to gather information “as it applied at midnight, when April 5 turned into April 6”. [1]

April 6 was a Monday. [2]

I didn’t find weather data for Ste-Cécile-de-Masham, where Pierre lived. Instead, I chose Montreal, where the temperature hovered between -5.6 and 0.0 on Sunday 5 April and between -3.9 and 3.3. on 6 April. [3]

• Where was my ancestor living?

Pierre lived in Ste-Cécile-de-Masham, a rural community in Ottawa (now Gatineau) County, Quebec. His home was a farm house, a short distance from the village.

The Belair home (taken in the 1980s)

• Who was in his (her) household?

Besides Pierre, there was his wife Angélina (née Meunier) and their children Pierre (age 10), Paul (9), Angélina (7), Marie (5) and Jean-Baptiste (1). [4] (Jean-Baptiste, aka Fred, was my grandfather, and he was more like 1½, because he was born in December 1889.)

1891 census of Canada [5]

(Pierre's family is on the last seven lines.)

• What was the ancestor’s occupation?

Pierre was a cultivateur (farmer). He did his own work without the help of an employee, according to the census. [6] It’s too bad that the agricultural schedule of the 1891 census has not survived in manuscript form, because it would be interesting to get details about his crops, livestock and such. [7] Based on family tradition, though, Pierre engaged in general farming.

• What was the ancestor's age?

Pierre was 39 years old.

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

Nationally, the country’s third census had begun. A few days earlier, a newspaper worried about a “census curiosity”. The unnamed reporter wondered how the census would be able to reveal if “there are any Canadians in Canada except French Canadians”. The reporter noticed there were only two columns for nationality on the census form: “country or province of birth” and “French Canadians”, and none for “native [-born] Canadians”. [8]

Previously, but probably still in the public’s mind, was the general election that took place last month on 5 March 1891. Sir John A. Macdonald's Conservative party was re-elected at the federal level, but in the County of Ottawa where Pierre resided, the Liberal party outweighed the Conservatives. [9]

Also in the public’s mind was the Springhill mining disaster of 21 February 1891. The Nova Scotia coal mine explosion left “125 dead and dozens more injured”. The newspaper reported the latest financial contributions – amounts between 25 cents and $5.00. [10]

• What was going on locally/regionally?

One local/regional story was the continuing work of the rail line from Hull to Maniwaki of the “Ottawa and Gatineau Railway Company”. The project began in 1871, but construction didn’t start until some years later. The first section that linked Hull to Wakefield was only completed in 1891. [11]

• Were my ancestor's parents alive?

Pierre’s parents Paul and Angélique (Lalonde) Belair were alive, but I wasn't able to locate them on the 1891 census, despite a page-by-page search of the images at Ancestry.ca. The couple doesn't appear to be living in the households of their other children or in the households of Paul's surviving siblings Esther (in Montreal), Mathilde and Elisabeth (in Masham), and Denis (in Gloucester Township, Ontario).

• Were my ancestor's siblings alive?

Pierre had only one sibling living in Masham: his youngest sister Adèle and her husband Jean-Baptiste Milliquette. They had two children, and were the godparents of Pierre’s youngest son Fred. Adèle and her family lived close to Pierre, because they appear on the census two households away from his property.

His other sister Lucie and younger brother Emilien lived with their respective families in Onslow, Pontiac County, Quebec. His younger brothers Jean-Baptiste and Paul lived in Hull, Ottawa County, Quebec with their families. Finally, Pierre’s eldest surviving brother Joseph moved to Ontario in about 1883, where he, his wife Emilie Berton and their children lived.

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

The village’s only Roman Catholic church is dedicated to Ste-Cécile. It’s where Pierre was baptised and married, and where his children were also baptised. Angélina was a devout woman, so it's likely that Pierre and his family attended Mass the previous day, the first Sunday after Easter. The parishioners would have heard Father A.-G. Lyonnais preach the Liturgy in Latin, since the vernacular (native language of the people) was not used until the 1960s. Curé Lyonnais was relatively new to Masham, having arrived in the community in October 1889. [12]

• Who were my ancestor's neighbors?

Some of Pierre’s neighbors were Jean-Baptiste and Elmire Meunier (Angélina’s brother), Victor and Marie Robert, Antoine and Sydonie Giroux, and his own sister Adèle and her family. Other nearby families included those of Moïse and Marie Martineau, Joseph and Justine Martineau, Louis Rose père, and Louis Rose fils and his wife Sophie née Martineau, Pierre’s first cousin.

Some Thoughts

Although I don’t know for sure, I’d like to think that Pierre had a somewhat good life. At 39 years old, he was married, the father of five (living) children, had property that he worked himself to support and feed his family. He lived in the community where he was born and raised, and where a sister and close relatives also lived.

Pierre couldn’t read or write, but that didn’t stop him from sending his sons Pierre and Paul to school, because they could read and write, according to the census.

Speaking of the census, I wonder if Pierre was the one who gave his family's details to the enumerator? Did his children gather nearby to listen and perhaps comment among themselves about their father's responses? Did Pierre have to ask Angélina about such-and-such a child's age, or did he know all of their ages by heart?

Politically, Pierre was a constituent of a traditionally Conservative county, so perhaps he voted Conservative in the March election. If so, he would have presumably been pleased when Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first prime minister, came back to power for a sixth term. What if he was a Liberal, though? Did he cheer the victory of merchant C.R. Devlin, the Liberal who won the election in Ottawa County, but feel disappointed at his party’s overall loss? [13]

Sources:

1. Dave Obee, Counting Canada: A Genealogical Guide to the Canadian Census (Victoria, BC: Dave Obee, 2012), 135.

2. “Perpetual Calendar”, infoplease (http://www.infoplease.com/calendar.php : accessed 11 December 2013).]

3. “Historical Climate Data”, Climate – Government of Canada (http://climate.weather.gc.ca : accessed 7 December 2013), “Montreal”.

4. 1891 census of Canada, Masham, Ottawa, Canada, population schedule, subdistrict BB, p. 31, family 113, Pierre Jeanvry household [indexed as Jeansey, but written as Jeanvry]; digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 30 July 2007); citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm T-6412.

5. 1891 census of Canada, Masham, Ottawa, Canada, pop. sch., subdist. BB, p. 31, fam. 113, Pierre Jeanvry household.

6. 1891 census of Canada, Masham, Ottawa, Canada, pop. sch., subdist. BB, p. 31, fam. 113, Pierre Jeanvry household.

7. Obee, Counting Canada, 137.

8. “A Census Curiosity”, The [Ottawa] Evening Journal, 4 April 1891, p. 4, col. 1; digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 8 December 2013), Newspapers & Publications.

9. “History of Federal Ridings since 1867”, database, Parliament of Canada (http://www.parl.gc.ca/About/Parliament/FederalRidingsHistory/HFER.asp : accessed 10 March 2014), “General Elections”.

10. Nova Scotia, Canada, Men in the Mines (http://www.novascotia.ca/nsarm/virtual/meninmines/default.asp?Language=English : accessed 9 December 2013), “The Springhill Mine Disasters of 1891, 1956 and 1958”. Also, “The Springhill Disaster – another handsome addition to the relief fund”, The [Ottawa] Evening Journal, 6 April 1891, p. 2, col. 4; digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 8 December 2013), Newspapers & Publications.

11. “History of the Municipality of La Pêche”, database, Municipalité de La Pêche (http://www.villelapeche.qc.ca/index.php/en/la-peche/history : accessed 11 December 2013). Also, “Up the Line: The Railway from Hull to Maniwaki”, database, Outaouais Heritage WebMagazine (http://outaouais.quebecheritageweb.com/article/line-railway-hull-maniwaki : accessed 11 December 2013).

12. Hector Legros, prêtre, Histoire de LaPêche et Masham (Hull, Quebec: Evêché de Hull, 1966), 113.

13. “History of Federal Ridings since 1867”, database entry for “General Elections”. The County of Ottawa was Liberal-Conservative (aka Conservative) since August 1867, and then went Liberal in March 1891.

Copyright © 2013, Yvonne Demoskoff.