Sympathy Saturday: Joseph Grozell (1909-1917)

Joseph Grozell was just eight years old when he died on 4 July 1917, 100 years ago this year.

He was my maternal fourth cousin twice removed. We descend from Joseph Prosper and Charlotte (Lunegand) Desgroseilliers through their sons Ambroise (b. 1774) and François (b. 1783).

The eldest child of Charles, a laborer, later a tanner, and his wife Katherine, née O’Connor, Joseph had three younger brothers and two younger sisters. (A third sister was born a few years after he died.)

“Map of Bexley Township”, ca 1880 (red arrow indicates Coboconk) [1]

Joseph’s birth registration states that he was born at home on 15 March 1909 in Coboconk, Bexley Township, Victoria County, Ontario, Canada. Other registration details include when and where his parents married, that a physician was present at his birth, and that his father registered his birth a little over a month after the event. [2]

Joseph’s birth registration (Ancestry.ca)

By 1911, the Grozell family lived in Bracebridge, just north of Coboconk, when it appeared on that year’s federal census. The household consisted of Charles, his wife Kate, their sons Joseph (2 years old) and Lawrence (1 year old), and Charles’ brother and sister-in-law, newlyweds William and Sarah (O’Connor) Grozell. Charles worked as a labourer in a tannery, while William was a labourer at a sawmill. [3]

In the spring of 1916, Charles enlisted with the Canadian Expeditionary Forces (C.E.F.) during World War I. A private in an infantry battalion, Charles back home that December. He never saw overseas service due to rheumatism. [4]

“Sick Children's Hospital, Toronto, Ont.”*

* Photo credit: Canada. Dept. of Interior / Library and Archives Canada / PA-043827.

The Grozell family unit remained intact for only a few more months. In the early summer of 1917, Joseph died suddenly on July 4th at “Hosp Sick Children” (now The Hospital for Sick Children) in Toronto, Ontario. [5]

Joseph's death registration (Ancestry.ca)

The attending physician Dr. Strachan wrote “Pul: Embolus” as the cause of death. According to MedlinePlus, a pulmonary embolus is “a blockage of an artery in the lungs. The most common cause of the blockage is a blood clot”. [6] Childhood embolism or pediatric thrombosis (when a blood clot forms inside a blood vessel) is a rare condition. [7]

Unfortunately, the death registration does not provide enough information to give us a better understanding of the circumstances of Joseph’s death. For example, there are no sections on the DR form as to whether an autopsy was performed or if surgery preceded death. Did Joseph have an underlying condition, illness or disorder (genetic or acquired) that might have contributed to his death?

I noticed that a certain “A W Miles” was the informant on the death registration. Curious about his identity, I did a Google search for Miles’ address, “396 College Street”. One of the results featured an image of an old three-storied building (dated circa 1913) with a caption that read: “Front elevation. Arthur W. Miles’ new undertaking parlors, Toronto”. [8] I now knew that the informant was the undertaker.

Joseph's gravemarker [9]

Joseph was laid to rest in St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic cemetery in Bracebridge. [10]

I searched online for a possible obituary for young Joseph, but didn’t find one. However, I came across a small article in The Muskoka Herald, a Bracebridge newspaper. [11]

“The Muskoka Herald” (July 5, 1917)

Did this devastating fire have anything to do with Joseph’s death? The report doesn’t mention how the fire affected the Grozell family and so far, I haven’t found other articles about it.

Sources:

1. “Search: Maps”, database and digital images, In Search of Your Canadian Past: The Canadian County Atlas Digital Project (http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/countyatlas/searchmapframes.php : accessed 14 May 2017), “Township of Bexley”.

2. “Ontario, Canada Births, 1869-1913”, digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 8 September 2016), entry for Joseph Alphonse Grozell (written as Joseph Alphons[e] Grozell, indexed as Joseph Alphons Grozell), 15 March 1909; citing Archives of Ontario, Registrations of Births and Stillbirths – 1869-1913; Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Archives of Ontario; microfilm series MS929, reel 23.

3. 1911 census of Canada, Muskoka, Muskoka, Ontario, population schedule, no enumeration district (ED), subdistrict 12, pages 12-13, dwelling 119, family 119, Charles Grozell household; digital image, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 9 May 2017); citing Census of Canada, 1911; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Library and Archives Canada, 2007; Series RG31-C-1; Statistics Canada Fonds; Microfilm reels T-20326 to T-20460.

4. “Soldiers of the First World War: 1914-1918”, digital images, Library and Archives Canada (http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/first-world-war/first-world-war-1914-1918-cef/Pages/canadian-expeditionary-force.aspx : accessed 13 January 2016), Charles Alphonso Grozell, regimental no. 763431, digitized service file.

5. “Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1938, 1943, and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1947”, digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 9 September 2016), entry for Joseph Grozell, 4 July 1917; citing Archives of Ontario, Registrations of Deaths, 1869-1938; Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Archives of Ontario; microfilm series MS935, reel 228.

6. MedlinePlus, database (https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000132.htm : accessed 10 May 2017), “Pulmonary embolus”.

7. Thrombosis Canada / Thrombose Canada, database (http://thrombosiscanada.ca/?page_id=18# : accessed 12 May 2017), “Pediatric Thrombosis”. For more information about pulmonary embolism in children, see AJR – American Journal of Roentgenology (June 2015, Volume 204, Number 6).

8. urbantoronto.ca, digital images (http://urbantoronto.ca/news/2011/09/then-and-now-396-college : accessed 10 May 2017), “Then and Now: 396 College”.

9. Northern Ontario Gravemarker Gallery, digital images (http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~murrayp/muskoka/bracebri/stjoes/page0003.htm : accessed 12 May 2017), photograph, gravestone for Joe Grozell, Bracebridge, Ontario. Used with permission.

10. “Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1938, 1943, and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1947”, digital images, Ancestry.ca, entry for Joseph Grozell, 4 July 1917.

11. “Dwelling Burned”, The Muskoka Herald (Bracebridge, Ontario, Canada), 5 July 1917, p. 4; digital images, Canadian Community Digital Archives (http://communitydigitalarchives.com/ : accessed 10 May 2017).

Copyright © 2017, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Sympathy Saturday: New France Epidemic of 1687

On 25 March 1687, Paul Daveluy dit Larose presented himself at St-Enfant-Jésus church in Pointe-aux-Trembles, east of Montreal. He and godparents Jean Roy and Anne Archambault were there on this late winter’s day for the baptism of his newborn son Jean Paul. [1]

Plan de l’Île de Montréal, 1744. BM5-C-26-050 (extrait).

His wife Elisabeth (née Haguin), my 9x maternal great-grandmother, was home recovering from the birth of her seventh child. With her were her five surviving children, Jeanne, François, Marie Madeleine, Jean Baptiste, and Marguerite. [2] Elisabeth also had four older children, three daughters and one son (Antoine, my ancestor), by her late first husband Antoine Courtemanche dit Jolicoeur.

Within a few months, life changed dramatically for Elisabeth. A trio of illnesses – pleurisy, measles, and malignant fever – soon appeared in the colony. [3] In July, measles broke out among the day-students at the Ursuline convent in Quebec (city) and spread to the boarding students and the teaching nuns. [4] It reached epidemic proportions in Lachine, near Montreal, where deaths were recorded from August to late December. [5]

Rénald Lessard in his Au temps de la petite vérole was aware of the problem of correctly identifying the epidemic. He notes that it was also a concern for the colonial authorities like the Marquis de Denonville (Governor General of New France) and de Champigny (Intendant of New France), who wrote, “Ces maladies ont commencé par la rougeolle Il y a du pourpre et ensuite des fluctions Sur la poitrine”. (These illnesses began with measles, there is typhus and then [presumably dysentery].) [6]

Author and demographer Hubert Charbonneau wrote an article in the mid-1990s about the “grandes mortalités épidémiques” (great epidemic mortalities) in New France prior to 1760. He identified the 1687 epidemic as typhus. [7]

Four members of the Daveluy family succumbed to the epidemic in late 1687. In the span of twelve weeks, Elisabeth lost three children and her husband. [8] First, eldest daughter Jeanne (13) died on 3 October and was buried that day. Then, son François (11) died; he was buried on 9 November. Daughter Marie Madeleine (9) was buried on 25 November. Four weeks later, husband Paul was buried on 21 December. (The burial records of the last three do not indicate a date of death, but it’s likely that they were buried the day they died.) [9]

Elisabeth and her three youngest children were spared. She never remarried, and died in April 1718, thirty years after the fateful year of 1687. [10]

Image Credit:

“Vie montréalaise”, database and digital images, Archives Montreal (http://archivesdemontreal.com/2014/02/03/incendie-a-pointe-aux-trembles-en-1912/ : accessed 8 October 2015), Plan de l’Île de Montréal, 1744. BM5-C-26-050 (extrait).

Sources:

1. St-Enfant-Jésus (Pointe-aux-Trembles, Quebec), parish register, 1674-1700, p. 78 recto, entry no. B.4 (1687), Jean Paul Daveluy baptism, 25 March 1687; St-Enfant-Jésus parish; digital images, “Le LAFRANCE”, Généalogie Québec (http://www.genealogiequebec.com : accessed 8 October 2015).

2. “Dictionnaire”, database, Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) (http://www.genealogie.umontreal.ca : accessed 8 October 2015), Paul Daveluy Larose DePicardie – Elisabeth Aquin [sic], Famille no. 3965. The list of children in PRDH is different from the one in Jetté, which shows eight children. It appears that the eighth child (Jean Paul) is the same person as the fourth child (Jean). René Jetté, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles du Québec (Montréal: Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 1983), 311. The same eight children also appear in Elisabeth’s entry in Peter J. Gagné, Before the King’s Daughters: The Filles à Marier; 1634-1662 (Orange Park, Florida: Quintin Publications, 2008), 167-168.

3. Rénald Lessard, Au temps de la petite vérole: La médecine au Canada aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (Québec: Septentrion, 2012), 44, note 138, citing Jeanne-Françoise Juchereau de Saint-Ignace et Marie-Andrée Duplessis de Saint-Hélène (éditées par Dom Albert Jamet), Les Annales de l’Hôtel-Dieu de Québec 1636-1716 (1939; reprint, Québec, L’Hôtel-dieu de Québec, 1984), 232.

4. Lessard, Au temps de la petite vérole, 44, citing Archives des Ursulines de Québec, 1/E9, 1, Vieux récits, 1687, 50.

5. Lessard, Au temps de la petite vérole, 44.

6. Lessard, Au temps de la petite vérole, 77, note 285, citing Lettre de Denonville et Champigny au ministre, 6 novembre 1687, ANOM, Fonds des Colonies, série C11A, vol. 9, f. 5r.

7. Hubert Charbonneau, “Les grandes mortalités épidémiques avant 1760”, Mémoires de la Société généalogique canadienne-française 46 (été 1995): 129.

8. Youngest child Jean Paul, who was baptised on 25 March 1687, died in 1761, not on 20 December 1687, as seen in Jetté, Dictionnaire, 311.

9. “Dictionnaire”, Paul Daveluy Larose DePicardie – Elisabeth Aquin [sic], Famille no. 3965.

10. Jetté, Dictionnaire, 311.

Copyright © 2015, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Sympathy Saturday: René Legault

Four years ago today, on 11 October 2010, my Aunt Madeleine and my cousins lost their beloved husband and father, René. He was 86 years old.

Uncle René was a tall, good looking man, with wavy hair. He was always happy and smiled a lot. Mom loved dancing with him at family events like weddings, and he and Dad shared a similar sense of humor and got along well.

These are two of my favorite photos of Uncle René. They are wonderful reminders of how I most remember him: the working man (a police officer in a small northeastern Ontario town) and the family man with lots of humor.

When uncle René was dressed in his uniform, he seemed serious, but still approachable. When he was home, off work, he was lots of fun and loved teasing his children and us, his nieces (my younger sister Marianne and I), when we visited him and Aunt Madeleine and their eight children – my cousins Richard, Michel, Raymond, Robert, Jean-Paul, Lise, Patrick and Gérard – at their home with the big yard.

In the above photo, there’s my cousin Robert (far left), my Mom holding me, Aunt Madeleine holding her son Patrick, and Uncle René hanging on to daughter Lise’s pigtail. He wasn’t being mean (Uncle René was the most fair and upright man I ever knew), but just being playful with his only daughter.

Still missing you, mon oncle René.

Copyright © 2104, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Sympathy Saturday: Gathered for a Funeral

Jacqueline (left) with her sisters and their paternal aunt Flavie (centre, back), 1960

My grandfather Eugène died 54 years ago today on 20 September 1960. He had recently turned 60, and had been unwell for some time. When his younger daughter Jacqueline (my mother) visited him earlier that summer, he told her that it wasn’t the same ‘unwell’ feeling he had when drinking (“C’est pas la boisson”, he said), but something different.

One day that September, Mom got a phone call from her sister Madeleine. She “just about broke down” when Madeleine told her their father was very ill, in hospital with cancer.

After leaving me in the care of my paternal grandparents at home in Timmins (I was only two years old and Dad was working), Mom, Madeleine and a few of their Desgroseilliers relatives who also lived in northeastern Ontario left for Sarnia. They drove all night, a journey of about 963 km (about 597 miles), that Mom still remembers as “a really bad night”. The next day, they were met by Mom’s sisters Mariette, Simone, Normande and Jeanne d’arc, who lived near their father.

Arriving at Sarnia General Hospital, Mom and Madeleine realized just how ill their father was when he didn’t recognize his daughters, even though Madeleine gently told him “Poppa, c’est Jacqueline…”.

A few days later, while Mom was resting at her sister Simone’s home, Eugène passed away.

A requiem high mass was held three days later at St. Thomas Aquinas church on 23 September 1960. Mom, her sisters, as well as their father’s surviving brothers and sister and various relatives, were present.

A blurry photo of sisters in mourning; left to right:

Simone, Mariette, Jacqueline, Madeleine, Jeanne d’arc and Normande, 1960

Eugène was laid to rest next to his Juliette, who predeceased him in 1948, at Our Lady of Mercy cemetery in Sarnia.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Sympathy Saturday: Accidental Death of William Brennan

It’s been 75 years since the accidental death of William Brennan in August 1939, and four years since I first learned about him while researching my grandmother Julie’s relatives.

William John Brennan was a younger son of James Brennan and Olivine Fleury. He was born on 4 January 1892 at Trout Lake, and baptized one month later in Sheenboro, Pontiac County, Quebec. [1]

William suffered a double tragedy when he was less than two years old: his parents died within months of each other in late 1893. He and his infant sister Rose Mary went to live with their maternal grandparents, while their elder brother went to live with a maternal uncle.

In April 1914, William married Mary (Minnie) Vanasse in Chapeau, Pontiac County, not long after his sister Rose Mary married Minnie’s brother Francis Guy Vanasse there in September 1912. [2]

Francis Guy and Minnie were first cousins of my paternal grandmother Julie (Vanasse) Belair, who was a bit younger than they were.

William and Minnie had seven children: one son and six daughters, of whom four survived. A year after the birth of their fourth child, the Brennan family moved from rural Chapeau to the mining town of Cobalt, Timiskaming District, Ontario in 1922. [3]

Grand View Avenue, Cobalt. [Ont.] (1924)

One summer’s night in 1939, William was walking on a highway when he was struck by a “half ton panel truck owned by Pardon’s Service Station” on “the main road not far from the O’Brien Mill at Mileage 104”, a few miles north of Cobalt. [4] The accident occurred about 9:15 p.m. on Saturday, 19 August, 1939. William was taken to Cobalt Municipal Hospital, but did not regain consciousness. He died at 1:35 p.m. the following day. [5]

Unfortunately, it appears that William was under the influence of alchohol at the time of the accident. A witness “had seen Brennan ‘staggering’ about the middle of the road going toward Cobalt” and the attending doctor at the hospital attested that “there was ‘a strong odor’ of liquor on [Brennan’s] breath”. [6]

Later, a coroner’s inquiry “held the circumstances to have been accidental, ‘with no blame attached to the driver of the truck’ […]”. [7]

William’s funeral took place on 23 August 1939 at St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church. He is interred in Ste. Therese Cemetery, Cobalt. [8]

Photo credit: John Boyd / Library and Archives Canada /

Sources:

1. St. Paul the Hermit [St. Bridget] (Sheenboro, Quebec), parish register, 1873-1893, p. 335 (printed), entry no. B.3 (1892), William John Brennan baptism, 1 February 1892; St-Paul the Hermit [St. Bridget] parish; digital image, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 8 September 2010). William’s parents were residents of Sheen[boro] township at his baptism, suggesting that he was born there. Alternatively, William was born in “Trout Lake, Quebec”, according to the 1925 death registration of his daughter on which his wife Mary (Minnie) was the informant. (“Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1936 and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1947”, digital image, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : 15 September 2010), entry for Bernadette Brennan, 13 October 1925.)

2. St-Alphonse (Chapeau, Quebec), parish register, 1914, p. 6 recto, entry no. M.3, William John Brennan – Minnie Venasse [sic] marriage, 20 April 1914; St-Alphonse parish; digital image, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 8 September 2010).

3. “Mrs. Brennan 90 years old and still going strong”, Temiskaming Speaker, 21 March 1979, p. 12a, col. 3; digital images, World Vital Records (http://wvr.paperofrecord.com : accessed 12 September 2010), Newspapers and Periodicals.

4. “Jury Exonerates Driver In Saturday Accident”, Temiskaming Speaker, 24 August 1939, p. 1, col. 7; digital images, World Vital Records (http://wvr.paperofrecord.com : accessed 12 September 2010), Newspapers and Periodicals.

5. “Jury Exonerates Driver In Saturday Accident”, Temiskaming Speaker, 24 August 1939.

6. “Jury Exonerates Driver In Saturday Accident”, Temiskaming Speaker, 24 August 1939.

7. “Jury Exonerates Driver In Saturday Accident”, Temiskaming Speaker, 24 August 1939.

8. “Jury Exonerates Driver In Saturday Accident”, Temiskaming Speaker, 24 August 1939. Also, Find A Grave, digital image (http://findagrave.com : accessed 15 August 2014), photograph, gravestone for William John Brennan (1892-1939), Find A Grave Memorial no. 72899549, Sainte Therese Cemetery, O'Brien, Timiskaming District, Ontario.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Sympathy Saturday: Martin Grozelle

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

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

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

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

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

Martin and his companion were only 22 years old.

Image source: Microsoft Clip Art.

Sources:

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

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

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

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

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

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Sympathy Saturday: Deaths of 12 Children in One Family

Reading an article last week at Olive Tree Genealogy Blog reminded me of a similar situation in my paternal family tree in which a family lost 12 of their 16 newborn or young children.

Burial record of Adèle Belair (1869-1871)

In the late autumn of 1861, Moïse Belair married Martine Guestier in the picturesque village of Ste-Adèle, north of Montreal, Quebec. [1] The Belair and Guestier families’ relationship went back to 1850, when Martine’s uncle Jérémie Guestier married Moïse’s sister Virginie. [2] The family links were strengthened when newly married Moïse and Martine became godparents to Damase, younger son of Jérémie and Virginie, in March 1862. [3]

Martine gave birth to 16 children between 1863 and 1885, but only the first four children survived to adulthood. Something changed after the birth of her daughter Adèle in December 1869. Martine’s next pregnancy in 1871 (her sixth in eight years) and her subsequent ones all ended in the death of her babies at birth or when very young.

First Children

Moïse and Martine’s first child was a daughter, baptised Martine on the day she was born in April 1863. [4] The next child was daughter Malvina, born in June 1864. [5] Two years later, the couple’s first son, Moïse, was born in March 1866. [6] Another son, Israël, followed in October 1867. [7] He became the inspiration for the French-Canadian fictional literary character “Séraphin Poudrier” in Un homme et son péché, by Claude-Henri Grignon. (See my post Black Sheep Sunday: Séraphin Poudrier, Fact or Fiction?) 

A Family’s Sorrows

Martine’s fifth child was another daughter, Adèle, born and baptised on Christmas Day 1869. [8] In the summer of 1871, Martine was expecting her sixth child. She was 25 years old, according to that year’s census, when the family was enumerated in May. [9]

On July 23, Martine was delivered of a child of unspecified gender. The infant didn’t live long enough to be ondoyé* and died within moments of its birth. [10] Father Louis-Alfred Dequoy officiated at the funeral two days later. [11]

* The word ondoyé (or ondoyée for a female child) appears in an infant’s burial record. If the child survives and is subsequently baptised, the priest records the event in the baptism register.

Within days of the family’s sorrow, daughter Adèle died on August 1. Her death was ruled an accidental drowning, according to a coroner’s jury; she was only 19 months old. Moïse was present at his little girl’s funeral. [12]

A Pattern of Births and Deaths

The birth and death of this 1871 anonymous child set a pattern (with one exception) that lasted until late 1885.

In October 1872, Martine’s newborn child died within moments of its birth. [13] One year later, her eighth child died soon after birth in October 1873. [14] A little girl was baptised Marie Louise in February 1876, but she died when 15 days old. [15] The next child was born and died in August 1878. [16] With this latest death, Father Dequoy had buried six Belair infants.

In April 1879, Martine’s 11th child died soon after birth. [17] This time, Father F.-X. Sauriol, Ste-Adèle’s new parish priest, buried the infant. He would also bury those who were born and died in August 1880, August 1881, May 1882, March 1883, and November 1885. [18]

Two months earlier in September 1885, while Martine was expecting her 16th child, she and Moïse were present at the baptism of their first grandchild, Marie Rose. [19] The newborn was the daughter of Martine and her husband Calixte Desjardins, who had married the previous year.

Four Surviving Children

I can’t imagine what it must have been like for Moïse and Martine to go through these losses year after year. I don’t know how Martine coped and carried on, but perhaps she received comfort from her faith and gained a certain amount of happiness when her surviving children Martine, Malvina, Moïse and Israël married in her lifetime.

Martine died in the spring of 1912 in Ste-Adèle, 27 years after the death of her last child. [20]

Sources:

1. Ste-Adèle (Ste-Adèle, Quebec), parish register, 1861, p. 23 verso, entry no. M.22, Jeanvry – Guétier [sic] marriage, 26 November 1861; Ste-Adèle parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 16 November 2013).

2. St-Jérôme (St-Jérôme, Quebec), parish register, 1850, p. 21 recto, entry no. M.28, Guétier – Janvry [sic] marriage, 30 April 1850; St-Jérôme parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 16 November 2013).

3. Ste-Adèle (Ste-Adèle, Quebec), parish register, 1863, p. 10 recto, entry no. B.33, Martine Bélair baptism, 3 April 1863; Ste-Adèle parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 20 November 2013).

4. Ste-Adèle (Ste-Adèle, Quebec), parish register, 1864, p. 14 verso, entry no. B.63, Marie Malvina Bélair baptism, 28 June 1864; Ste-Adèle parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 20 November 2013).

5. Ste-Adèle (Ste-Adèle, Quebec), parish register, 1866, p. 6 verso, entry no. B.21, Moïse Bélair baptism, 15 Mar 1866; Ste-Adèle parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 20 November 2013).

6. Ste-Adèle (Ste-Adèle, Quebec), parish register, 1867, p. 14 recto, entry no. B.63, Israël Bélair baptism, 7 October 1867; Ste-Adèle parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 20 November 2013).

7. Ste-Adèle (Ste-Adèle, Quebec), parish register, 1862, p. 8 verso, entry no. B.27, Damase Guéthier baptism, 16 March 1862; Ste-Adèle parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 15 November 2013).

8. Ste-Adèle (Ste-Adèle, Quebec), parish register, 1869, p. 21 recto, entry no. B.79, Adèle Bélaire [sic] baptism, 25 December 1869; Ste-Adèle parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 15 November 2013).

9. 1871 census of Canada, Ste-Adèle, Terrebonne, Quebec, population schedule, district 99, subdistrict m, p. 61, dwelling 208, family 208, line 15, Martine Janvril [sic]; digital image, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 16 November 2013); citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm C-10033.

10. When a newborn is in danger of death, he or she can be “baptised without any delay” [Can. 867] by someone present at its birth. The sacrament of baptism is usually conferred by a Roman Catholic priest in the “proper parish church of the parents” [Can. 857], but if a priest isn’t present, “[...] in a case of necessity, any person who has the requisite intention may do so.” [Can. 861] (The Code of Canon Law In English translation, The Canon Law Society Trust, London: Collins Liturgical Publications, 1983, 159-160)

11. Ste-Adèle (Ste-Adèle, Quebec), parish register, 1871, p. 12 verso, entry no. S.17, Anonyme de Moise Belair burial, 25 July 1871; Ste-Adèle parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 16 November 2013).

12. Ste-Adèle (Ste-Adèle, Quebec), parish register, 1871-1880, p. 13 recto, entry no. S.18 (1871), Adèle Bélaire [sic] burial, 1 August 1871; Ste-Adèle parish; digital image, “Quebec, Catholic Parish Records, 1621-1979”, FamilySearch.org (https://familysearch.org : accessed 15 November 2013).

13. Ste-Adèle (Ste-Adèle, Quebec), parish register, 1872, p. 17 verso, entry no. S.25, Anonyme de Moïse Bélaire burial, 16 October 1872; Ste-Adèle parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 16 November 2013).

14. Ste-Adèle (Ste-Adèle, Quebec), parish register, 1873, p. 22 verso, entry no. S.43, Anonyme de Moïse Bélaire burial, 17 October 1873; Ste-Adèle parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 16 November 2013).

15. Ste-Adèle (Ste-Adèle, Quebec), parish register, 1876, p. 3 recto, entry no. B.6, Marie Louise Bélaire baptism, 11 February 1876; Ste-Adèle parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 16 November 2013). Also, Ste-Adèle (Ste-Adèle, Quebec), parish register, 1876, p. 5 recto, entry no. S.8, Marie Louise Bélaire burial, 28 February 1876; Ste-Adèle parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 16 November 2013).

16. Ste-Adèle (Ste-Adèle, Quebec), parish register, 1878, p. 19 recto, entry no. S.27, Anonyme de Moïse Bélaire burial, 12 August 1878; Ste-Adèle parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 16 November 2013).

17. Ste-Adèle (Ste-Adèle, Quebec), parish register, 1879, p. 11 verso, entry no. S.19, Anonyme de Moïse Bélair burial, 28 April 1879; Ste-Adèle parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 16 November 2013).

18. Ste-Adèle (Ste-Adèle, Quebec), parish register, 1880, p. 16 recto, entry no. S.16, Anonyme de Moïse Bélair burial, 16 August 1880; Ste-Adèle parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 16 November 2013). Also, Ste-Adèle (Ste-Adèle, Quebec), parish register, 1881, p. 14 recto, entry no. S.30, Anonyme de Moise Bélair burial, 7 August 1881; Ste-Adèle parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 16 November 2013). Also, Ste-Adèle (Ste-Adèle, Quebec), parish register, 1882, p. 12 verso, entry no. S.28, Anonyme de Moise Bélair burial, 29 May 1882; Ste-Adèle parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 16 November 2013). Also, Ste-Adèle (Ste-Adèle, Quebec), parish register, 1883, p. 5 recto, entry no. S.3, Anonyme de Moïse Bélair burial, 3 March 1883; Ste-Adèle parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 16 November 2013). Also, Ste-Adèle (Ste-Adèle, Quebec), parish register, 1885, p. 21 recto, entry no. S.56, Anonyme de Moïse Bélair burial, 3 November 1885; Ste-Adèle parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 16 November 2013).

19. Ste-Adèle (Ste-Adèle, Quebec), parish register, 1885, p. 17 verso, entry no. B.51, Marie Rose Desjardins baptism, 14 September 1885; Ste-Adèle parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 20 November 2013).

20. Ste-Adèle (Ste-Adèle, Quebec), parish register, 1912, p. 4 verso, entry no. S.10, Martine Guesthier [sic] burial, 13 April 1912; Ste-Adèle parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 16 November 2013).

Copyright © 2013, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Sympathy Saturday: Cousin Richard

43 years ago, my cousin Richard passed away. He was killed in a car accident on 4 October 1969 in North Bay, Ontario. He was only 18 years old.

Richard was the eldest child of René and Madeleine (Desgroseilliers) Legault. Born on 2 February 1951 in Sarnia, Ontario, Richard was the first of seven sons in a family of eight children. His sister Lise was the only daughter.

Richard on his first birthday, 1952.

When he was a baby, Richard and his parents moved to Kirkland Lake in northeastern Ontario, where his siblings were born. I didn’t know my cousin Richard all that well, because he was a few years older than me, and I have only a few memories of him. 

Aunt Madeleine with her eldest children, Christmas 1959.
Richard is on the right at the bottom of the picture.

My family lived about 2 hours away in Timmins and we’d often travel to Kirkland Lake to spend a weekend there. I loved visiting my Legault cousins. When we were with them, my sister and I would have lots of fun playing with our naturally exuberant cousins. We even didn’t mind getting teased by them, because it was good-natured and we felt special getting all this attention from our cousins.

In the fall of 1969, my Mom found out she was expecting a baby (my brother Raymond) the following spring. It wasn’t long after she told us her good news that we got a phone call. Cousin Richard was dead. My aunt, uncle and cousins’ lives were forever changed. Mom went to Kirkland Lake to be with her sister for Richard’s funeral. My sister and I stayed with our aunt Joan in town, while Dad was away at work.

In February 2006, Richard’s youngest brother Gérard died suddenly while driving home in London, Ontario. They are buried next to their father René, who died two years ago.

Copyright © 2012, Yvonne Demoskoff.