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.

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.

Wednesday’s Child: Aurore, l’enfant martyre

Gravemarker of Aurore Gagnon*

* Image courtesy of Fortierville.com

Aurore Gagnon lived a brief life. Her last few years were filled with pain and abuse. She died too young at ten years old, 94 years ago this month.

It wasn’t until I prepared this article that I discovered that Aurore and I are related. We share a distant (17th century) common ancestral couple, Jean Gagnon and his wife Marguerite Cauchon, which makes me Aurore’s 9th cousin once removed.

My Experience

I was about 8 to 10 years old when I first heard of Aurore, l’enfant martyre [Aurore, the child martyr]. My best friend, Joanne, asked if I wanted to see a movie about a little girl. I don’t remember if she told me other details about the story, but since it was being shown in the basement of our parish church a block from where we lived, I said I’d go.

Joanne and I walked to the church, Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes, opened the big double doors, and went down the stairs to a semi-darkened basement. Rows of chairs were arranged facing the film screen. We took our places, and soon the movie began.

It was in black-and-white, and in French. There wasn't any problem understanding the language, since Joanne and I were French-Canadian. But, soon, a problem manifested itself. You see, I didn’t know anything about this little Aurore. I also didn’t know anything about child abuse. It wasn’t long into the movie before I got so uncomfortable and frightened with the story and images that I decided I had to get out of there before the picture was over. I don’t know if I even bothered to tell Joanne that I was leaving, but I got up and made my way back to the staircase and out of the church.

I felt a great sense of relief as I stepped into the daylight and fresh air of that afternoon. As I walked home, my mind was filled with thoughts of that poor child and the horrible pain she suffered. It’s with hindsight that I wish someone would have told me about the movie before I agreed to see it, that an adult could have been present with my friend and I to watch over us, and that prior to the showing, someone could have told the audience that the film might not be suitable for children under a certain age. (I don’t think I told my mother much about the movie before I went to see it that day, otherwise I doubt she would have let me go.)

The movie I saw all those years ago in the 1960s was probably the 1952 version titled La petite Aurore: l'enfant martyre. A few years ago, another version was released in 2005, simply called Aurore. I saw this French-language colour production on television, and this time, was able to sit through to the end. I was very moved by it, but not distressed in the same way I was when a young child.

Aurore’s Story

Aurore Gagnon was born on 31 May 1909 in Fortierville, Lotbinière County, Quebec. She was baptised there at Sainte-Philomène church and received the names Marie Aurore Lucienne.

When she was about seven years old, her life changed. Her mother Marie-Anne Caron became ill with tuberculosis and was hospitalized. Another woman, Marie-Anne Houde, a widowed mother related by marriage to Aurore’s father Télesphore Gagnon, moved in. Aurore’s youngest sibling, Joseph, died suddenly in November 1917; he was only two years old. Soon afterwards, Aurore’s mother died in January 1918. One week later, on 1 February, Télesphore married Marie-Anne Houde.

Aurore suffered physical abuse from her step-mother, as well as her father. After years of mistreatment, Aurore fell into a coma. She died at home on 12 February 1920. The coroner’s report noted “54 wounds, which ‘could only have been the result of the blows to the child’s body’.” [1]

Aftermath

Télesphore and Marie-Anne were arrested, sent to trial, and found guilty. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, but released after serving five years. She was sentenced to be hanged that fall. In the intervening time, Marie-Anne gave birth to twins; not long after, her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. However, she was released in 1935, and died the following year. For his part, Télesphore married a third time, and died in 1961.

Further reading

• Aurore Gagnon, l'enfant martyre in “Histoire” at Fortierville.com [in French]

• Généalogie de Aurore, l'enfant martyr at FrancoGène [in French]

• “Aurore Gagnon” at Dictionary of Canadian Biography

• "Aurore Gagnon" at Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

• Aurore! The mystery of the martyred child at Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History

Source:

1. Dictionary of Canadian Biography (http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/gagnon_aurore_14E.html : accessed 8 February 2014), “Gagnon, Aurore”.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Wednesday’s Child: Baby Boy Desgroseilliers

Maurice and Jacqueline Belair with their godson

I don’t know the name of this child, and I don't know if a photo of his gravestone exists.

Baby boy Desgroseilliers was born in the late 1950s or early 1960s, and died when very young.

His parents Jean-Paul and Fleur-Ange (Dupuis) Desgroseilliers lived in Timmins, where my parents lived.

Jean-Paul asked my mom Jacqueline, his cousin, and my dad Maurice to be his son’s godparents.

The baptism took place at St-Antoine cathedral in Timmins, and afterwards, Mom and Dad were photographed with their godson.

Copyright © 2013, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Wednesday’s Child: Gaston Desgroseilliers, A Brief Life

Gaston Desgroseilliers (lower right) and his sisters, 1937

Top row: Mariette (left) and Madeleine.

Middle row: Simone (left), baby Normande, and Marianne.

Bottom row: Jacqueline (left) and Gaston.

(This lovely, but somewhat blurry, photo is the only one that my Mom has of her brother. Gaston looks about 2½ years old. I’m assuming that the baby in the picture is his little sister Normande, who was born in early 1937.)

On 21 February 1935, on a cold winter day, Gaston Desgroseilliers was born in the village of Hearst, Ontario, Canada. He was my uncle, my mother’s younger brother. Like his elder sister Marianne, who died young, I never got to know him. (I've written about Marianne's story here.)

One day in the spring of 1941, six year old Gaston, his father Eugène, his uncle Jean-Paul Beauvais (his mother's brother) and a few others went fishing on Georgian Bay, not far from where the Desgroseilliers family lived in Parry Sound, Ontario.

On the way home, Gaston sat in the back seat of the car. The door suddenly opened when the vehicle turned a corner. Gaston fell out. The car stopped and Gaston, who seemed alright, was helped back in. He worried that his mother wouldn't let him go fishing again, so he asked his father not to tell his mother about the accident.

But Gaston wasn’t alright. At home, he became feverish and ill. Two weeks later, on 6 May 1941, Gaston died at the hospital. He was only six years old. His parents Eugène and Juliette never fully recovered from the loss of their son.

In February 1987, I wrote to the Town of Parry Sound to see if I could find out where Gaston was buried. (My mother didn't know for sure where Gaston rested.) I soon received a reply from the Cemetery Records department, and later a follow-up reply. The letters contained information about the cause of death and the burial location. I was grateful to receive these details, but they came with an unexpected twist.

Mom had always believed that Gaston died of head injuries, but according to the death certificate (with its information transcribed into the Cemetery’s Interment Register), the cause of death was “acute lung trouble” (a type of pneumonia). As for Gaston’s place of burial, Mom only knew that it was somewhere in Parry Sound. Now she learned that her beloved brother was laid to rest in an unmarked, single grave in Hillcrest Cemetery.

Rest in peace, mon uncle Gaston.

Copyright © 2013, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Wednesday’s Child: Marianne Desgroseilliers

In the village of Hearst in northern Ontario, Canada, a baby girl was born on 23 January 1932. She was baptised “Hélène Marie Anne” on the following day, but was known as Marianne to her family. Her parents Eugène and Juliette (Beauvais) Desgroseilliers had three other children: Mariette (4), Madeleine (2½) and Simone (1½). Four more children would come after Marianne, three sisters and a brother.

During the 1930s, the Depression caused great hardship throughout the country, but the Desgroseilliers family managed to weather the storm. Eugène was the chief of police in Hearst and was able to provide for his family. He was also a charitable man, who gave food and money to the poor and needy of the village.

Marianne (right) with her sister Madeleine, about 1936.

When Marianne was about 4 years old, her family moved to Rouyn in northwestern Quebec, where Eugène served as chief of police. It was here that her sister Normande was born in early 1937. Within a few months, Eugène relocated to nearby Duparquet, where he continued to work as chief of police.

1938 began with such promise for the family. Marianne’s sixth birthday was coming up in three weeks’ time, and her mother Juliette was expecting her ninth child. However, Marianne became very ill. It was appendicitis. She died on 3 January 1938. Her sudden death plunged her family in mourning. Eugène was present at his little girl’s funeral, which took place two days later at St-Albert-le-Grand church in Duparquet. She was buried in the local cemetery.

Marianne was not forgotten. When my sister was born in 1960, Mom named her Marianne after her beloved sister.

Copyright © 2013, Yvonne Demoskoff.