Wedding Wednesday: Demosky – Popoff

Fred and Mary Demosky's wedding photo 
11 November 1938 Arran, Saskatchewan

Front: Luchenia Demosky with her grandsons Allan (left) and Lawrence (right).

Back (left to right): Louis and Mabel (Demosky) Safonoff, Fred and Mary (Popoff) Demosky, Annie (Chernoff) and Pete Demosky.

Luchenia was present at her younger son Fred’s wedding to Mary Popoff. Also there were her children Mabel and Pete and their respective spouses Louis and Annie, and her grandchildren Allan and Lawrence (Pete and Annie’s sons). Luchenia’s youngest sons George and Bill (my father-in-law) aren’t in the photo, but they were present.

Copyright © 2013, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Ottawa City Directories

About a year ago, I viewed the 1926 Ottawa, Ontario, Canada city directory at WorldVitalRecords.

I searched for my grandfather Fed Belair, thinking he ought to be listed in it since he married in Ottawa in October 1926. Unfortunately, there was no Fred or the other names he used when younger (like Ménésippe and Jean-Baptiste) under “Belair” or "Belaire".¹

So then I searched for my grandmother Julie, his soon-to-be wife.

I think I found her as “Juliet Vanasse”, living at 370 Cooper Street, a centretown-downtown street in Ottawa that runs east-west between Bank and O’Connor.²



1926 Ottawa city directory (cropped image of p. 646)


My grandmother was Julie, Julia or Juliette, never “Juliet”, as far as I know. That particular spelling could be due to how the directory canvasser chose to spell her name. Or, maybe someone (perhaps the landlord) spoke on my grandmother Julie’s behalf and guessed at how she spelled her name.

I don't know when my grandfather moved to Ottawa, but I know he worked there at the time of his marriage. My grandmother Julie lived and worked there before she married, but I'm not sure just when she left her home in the province of Quebec for Ottawa. With that thought in mind, I looked at the 1923 Ottawa city directory, but neither of them seem to appear in that edition.³

So far, I haven’t located other 1920s Ottawa city directories on the Internet. I’d love to travel to Ottawa in the next couple of years and find these books at a library or an archive so that I can have a good look for my grandparents.

Sources:

1. “The Ottawa City Directory, 1926, Part 1”; digital image, World Vital Records (http://www.worldvitalrecords.com : accessed 27 April 2012), 83, “Belair” and “Belaire”.

2. “The Ottawa City Directory, 1926, Part 1”, 646, “Juliet Vanasse”.

3. “The Ottawa City Directory 1923"; digital image, Internet Archive (http://archive.org/ : accessed 20 February 2013), 234, “Belair”, 235, “Belaire”, 812, “Vanasse”, 813, “Venance”, and 813, “Venasse”.

Copyright © 2013, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Wordless Wednesday: Three Sisters





Mariette Desgroseilliers posing, in what appears to be a studio portrait, with her youngest sisters Jeanne d’arc (left) and Normande (right), about 1940.

Copyright © 2013, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Black Sheep Sunday: Séraphin Poudrier, Fact or Fiction?

What would you say if I told you that Séraphin Poudrier – the fictional character from French-Canadian literature – wasn’t so fictional after all?

Until I started researching a certain branch of my paternal relatives a few years ago, I didn’t know that Séraphin was based on someone who actually lived. I was surprised to find that the real Séraphin was related to me; in fact, he was a second cousin of my grandfather Fred Belair.¹

The Novel

L’avare Séraphin (Seraphin the miser) made his first appearance in Un homme et son péché [A man and his sin], by Claude-Henri Grignon. This famous novel, published in 1933, later inspired a radio series, motion picture films, and the very popular Quebecois television series Les Belles Histoires des Pays d’en Haut, with its haunting intro melody.²

In Ste-Adèle of the 1880s-1890s, lived a man named Séraphin Poudrier. A pitiless miser, he lends money to those in need, but charges exorbitant interest rates. He makes the acquaintance of young Donalda, a devout Catholic girl from the village. They marry. Séraphin keeps tight control of the couple’s expenses, even to the point of not having children, because it would cost him money. When Donalda becomes ill, Séraphin delays in calling the doctor. At her death, Séraphin finds yet another way to save money: he chooses a too-small coffin for his late wife. Later, while attempting to save a wandering cow in the nearby river, Séraphin sees his house in flames. He rushes to the building, but cannot rescue the sacks of oats that he keeps hidden there. When his body is pulled from the smoldering ruins, the villagers see that the miser clutches a few gold coins in his fist.

The Author

Claude-Henri Grignon was born and raised in Ste-Adèle, a village situated about 70 km (43 miles) northwest of Montreal. Grignon’s father Doctor Wilfrid Grignon settled here after curé Antoine Labelle, a Roman Catholic priest known as the ‘King of the North’, helped colonise this region.

The Inspiration

Ste-Adèle is also where a certain Moïse Belair married and raised a family, including a son named Israël, who was born in 1867. Apparently, Israël was the inspiration for literature’s well-known Séraphin, according to Grignon’s daughter Claire. In an interview in 2002, she stated that: “Séraphin était inspiré d'un avare de Sainte-Adèle, Israël Bélair, dont la femme, comme Donalda, n'a vécu qu'un an et un jour après son mariage”.³

In the past, whenever Grignon was asked to reveal the name of the real Séraphin, he would reply that three men from his childhood in Ste-Adèle were the models for Séraphin. Claire explained that her father deliberately said three men instead of the actual one because “des descendants d'Israël Bélair vivaient toujours”.⁴

The Miser

Just how far would the real Séraphin go to save to money? One anecdote reveals that Israël Belair “[…] pouvait marcher des kilomètres pour marchander le prix de la saucisse, par exemple, entre le boucher de Sainte-Adèle et celui de Mont-Rolland pour n'économiser qu'un misérable sou.”⁵

The Research

It was inevitable that, after reading these and other online articles, I’d want to know more about Israël. I wanted to know if we were related, and if there were similar events in his life and that of Grignon’s character.

Here is what I found:

• Israël Belair was born on 6 September 1867 in Ste-Adèle. He was the second son among sixteen children of Moïse Belair, a farmer, and his wife Martine Guestier.⁶

• Bernadette Desjardins was a younger daughter of Israël Desjardins, the village blacksmith, and his wife Philomène Lapointe. She was born on 31 October 1876 in Ste-Adèle and baptised that same day; her godmother was her eldest sister Donalda Desjardins.⁷

• Israël and Bernadette were married on 15 January 1895 in Ste-Adèle.⁸

• The following year, Bernadette gave birth to a son on 5 June 1896. This unnamed boy was baptised at home by Doctor Wilfrid Grignon, but died within a few hours.⁹ One week later, on 11 June 1896, Bernadette died; she was 19 years and 8 months old.¹0

So far during the course of my research, I’ve found a convicted murderer on my grandmother’s side of the family (Madness Monday: A Cold-Blooded Murder) and now there's an infamous miser on my grandfather’s side of the family.

What other surprises will I discover about my family tree?

Sources:

1. ‘Séraphin’ and Fred are related through their common ancestor François Janvry dit Belair:

François Janvry dit Belair (ca 1731-1817) : Pierre Janvry dit Belair (1772-1848) : François Belair (1802-1878) :  Moïse Belair (1835-1919) : Israël Belair (1867-?)

François Janvry dit Belair (ca 1731-1817) : Pierre Janvry dit Belair (1772-1848) : Paul Belair (1822-1902) : Pierre Belair (1851-1941) : Fred Belair (1889-1991)

(Note: François (b. 1802) is Pierre’s son by his first wife Marguerite Quevillon, while Paul (b. 1822) is his son by his second wife Scholastique St-Michel.)

2. Claude-Henri wrote his story in the summer of 1933. It was available for purchase in bookstores that December. For a history of the author, his novel, and the subsequent films, radio and television series, see Un homme et son péché … l’oeuvre de Claude-Henri Grignon.

3. My translation of this quote: “Seraphin was inspired by a miser from Sainte-Adèle, Israël Bélair, whose wife, like Donalda, lived only one year and one day after her marriage.” Odile Tremblay, “Séraphin, un archetype qui ne veut pas mourir”, Le Devoir.com, 23 November 2002, Web edition (http://www.ledevoir.com/2002/11/23/13928.html : accessed 16 November 2005).

4. My translation of this quote: “descendants of Israël Bélair were [still] living [at this time]”. Tremblay, “Séraphin, un archetype qui ne veut pas mourir”, Le Devoir.com, 23 November 2002. Israël apparently left no descendants, but his surviving sister and brother did.

5. My translation of this quote: “[…] would walk kilometres in order to bargain the price of sausage, for example, between the butcher of Sainte-Adèle and the one in Mont-Rolland to save one miserable penny.” “Chroniques de Pierre Grignon et autres, année 2005”, Sainte-Adèle (http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~meilleuro/adele.htm : accessed 22 November 2012), “Sainte-Adèle en fête – 150 ans de belles histoires”.

6. Ste-Adèle (Ste-Adèle, Quebec), parish register, 1867, p. 15 recto, entry no. B63, Israël Bélaire [sic] 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 11 February 2009).

7. Ste-Adèle (Ste-Adèle, Quebec), parish register, 1876, p. 17 recto, entry no. B64, Marie Bernadette Desjardins baptism, 31 October 1876; Ste-Adèle parish; digital image, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 11 February 2009).

8. Ste-Adèle (Ste-Adèle, Quebec), parish register, 1895, p. 2 recto, entry no. M2, Israël Janvry dit Belair – Bernadette Desjardins marriage, 15 January 1895; Ste-Adèle parish; digital image, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 11 February 2009).

9. Ste-Adèle (Ste-Adèle, Quebec), parish register, 1896, p. 10 verso, entry no. B34, Anonyme de Israël Bélair baptism, 5 June 1896; Ste-Adèle parish; digital image, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 11 February 2009). Also, Ste-Adèle, parish register, 1896, p. 10 verso, entry no. S20, Anonyme de Israël Bélair burial, 6 June 1896.

10. Ste-Adèle (Ste-Adèle, Quebec), parish register, 1896, p. 11 recto, entry no. S22, Bernadette Desjardins burial, 15 June 1896; Ste-Adèle parish; digital image, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 11 February 2009).

Copyright © 2013, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Surname Saturday: Cazakoff

My late mother-in-law Ann was born a Cazakoff. She was the youngest child and only daughter of George and Polly (Poznekoff) Cazakoff, Doukhobor immigrants who settled Canada in 1899. (For a brief explanation of this Russian religious group, see Family History Though the Alphabet – S is for …)

In 1948, Ann’s elder brother Philip legally changed his surname Cazakoff to the more English-sounding Casacove.

As a surname, Kazakoff developed from the word kazak, which means Cossack. According to the Doukhobor Genealogy Website, Doukhobors with the surname Kazakov “originated from the province of Tambor, Russia in the 18th century”.¹

Kazakoff is one of the most common Doukhobor surnames in Canada; it ranked fourth in 1970.² Other English spellings include Kazakow, Kozakoff, Casacove, Kazakove, Kasikoff and Kasakoff.³

Sources:

1. “Origin and Meaning of Doukhobor Surnames”, Doukhobor Genealogy Website (http://www.doukhobor.org/Surnames.htm : accessed 7 April 2009), entry for Kazakov.

2. “Origin and Meaning of Doukhobor Surnames”, Doukhobor Genealogy Website, entry for Kazakov.

3. “Origin and Meaning of Doukhobor Surnames”, Doukhobor Genealogy Website, entry for Kazakov.

Copyright © 2013, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Sunday's Obituary: Jenny Belair

My cousin, Janet Rae (known as Jenny), was the elder child and only daughter of Ray and Emily (Murphy) Belair. Ray, who was my Dad’s younger brother, had moved from Ontario to British Columbia in the early 1950s, where he still lives today. Aunt Emily passed away in 1980.

I met Jenny for the first time when my family (my parents and my sister) went on a trip to BC in the summer of 1966. Uncle Ray lived on a large rural property near the town of Hope. Jenny and her brother Leo had a huge yard in which to play, took a bus to school, and every window of their home featured views of the Cascade Mountains. It was all so different from the urban life my sister Marianne and I knew in the northern Ontario mining town of Timmins.

It’s hard to believe that it’s already been two years since Jenny passed away. Rest in peace, my cousin.


Jenny Belair obituary, 2011

Source: “Janet Rae (Jenny) Belair”, obituary, The Hope Standard (Hope, British Columbia), 17 February 2011, p. A18.

Copyright © 2013, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Treasure Chest Thursday: The Pocket Watch

My husband owns a gold pocket watch that used to belong to his maternal grandfather George Cazakoff (1884-1958), who emigrated to Canada from Russia in 1899. After George passed away, his watch eventually came into his only daughter Anne's possession. After her death in 1980, the watch stayed with her husband William. A few years after the birth of our son, Nicholas, Bill presented the watch to Michael, with the idea that it would eventually go to Nicholas.


George Cazakoff (about 1949)

Michael knew very little about this open-face pocket watch, except that it was in working condition, had belonged to his grandfather, was probably old, and had probably been in the family for a long time. He rarely looked at the watch, but kept it safely stored in his dresser until the day he would pass it on to our son Nicholas.

About a year ago, in April 2012, our local library hosted “Antiques in the Attic”. Three appraisers looked at family heirlooms and antiques. They gave their professional opinions as to the worth or value of the items, tips on how to care for them, and where to get more information. Michael and I decided to attend this free event and chose two items for appraisal: a serving platter that my Mom bought when she was first married and Michael’s grandfather’s pocket watch.

It was our first time at an “antiques roadshow” and we looked forward to having our family treasures valued. We also wondered what interesting details the pros would share with us.


George Cazakoff's pocket watch (2012)

After a brief look, the appraiser checked his antique collectors’ handbook, but couldn’t find a listing for this “Solar - Birkdale” watch. He then carefully opened the back cover for a closer inspection. The case was 10K gold filled, made in Canada, with the mechanism housing made in Switzerland. The chain wasn’t gold, but maybe brass. He estimated that the watch was made in the 1940s. The appraiser explained that about five years ago, it might have been worth about $300.00, but since there were so many similar watches on auction sites like eBay, it now had a market value of about $100.00.

In the end, the fact that the pocket watch is of relatively recent manufacture and of modest value doesn’t matter to Michael. What’s really important is that the pretty timepiece has great sentimental value and has been in his family for three generations.

Copyright © 2013, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Madness Monday: A Cold Blooded Murder

About two years ago, I was researching a first cousin of my maternal grandmother Julie (Vanasse) Belair named Emma Vanasse. Emma and her husband Michael Bradley, a farmer, had four children. Michael, son of Irish immigrant Joseph Bradley and his wife Margaret Berrigan, was born on 2 December 1891 in Sheenboro, Pontiac County, Quebec.¹

After finding Michael’s death registration and his burial record, I was curious to know why he died relatively young (he was only 43 years old). In my effort to find more about the circumstances of his death, I searched the online archived edition of the Ottawa Citizen. This newspaper often carries stories about people in nearby communities like Pembroke, Ontario (where a lot of Vanasse lived) and Chapeau, Quebec (where the Vanasse family settled in the 1850s).

I soon found the cause of Michael’s death, but also discovered a “cold blooded murder”.²

On a summer’s morning in July 1933, Michael killed his parents, his brother Thomas, his sister Johanna, and an uncle with his Winchester rifle at their farm in Demers Centre, on Ile des Allumettes in Pontiac County, Quebec.³

Within two years, he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. The Defense argued that Michael was provoked and that he was insane. The Crown argued that Michael’s actions were premeditated and that he was sane.⁴

The newspaper accounts suggested the motive for the family murder was due to possible ill-treatment Michael received from his father, who, after having an argument with his son, told Michael he would not inherit the family farm in spite of having worked on it and financially supported it.⁵

Justice was swift. The jury took 35 minutes to return a unanimous verdict of guilty of murder. Five minutes later, the judge pronounced the sentence.⁶

Michael was hanged on 5 April 1935 in the prison yard of the Common Goal in nearby Campbell’s Bay.⁷ He was buried in St. Alphonsus parish church cemetery in Chapeau. ⁸

Ottawa’s Evening Citizen reported his death that same day. The article stated that he "walked to the scaffold unassisted. The trap was sprung at [5:57 a.m.] and he was pronounced dead by Dr. Jerome Kelly at [6:04 a.m.]".⁹

Michael Bradley is the only criminal I’ve found while researching my family’s history and genealogy. I hope he’s the only one.

Sources:

1. St-Paul l’Ermite (Sheenboro, Quebec), parish register, 1873-1893, p. 161 verso, entry no. B. 27, Michael John Bradley baptism, 8 December 1891; St-Paul l’Ermite parish; digital images, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 12 July 2010).

2. “Michael Bradley Found Guilty, Sentenced to Hang April 5”, The Evening (Ottawa) Citizen, 11 January 1935, p. 4, col. 6, digital images, Google News (http://news.google.com/newspapers : accessed 12 July 2010), News Archive Search.

3. “Maniac Slays 4 of Own Family Near Pembroke”, The Ottawa Evening Citizen, 21 July 1933, p. 1, cols. 1-2, digital images, Google News (http://news.google.com/newspapers : accessed 12 July 2010), News Archive Search.

4. “Michael Bradley Found Guilty, Sentenced to Hang April 5”, The Evening (Ottawa) Citizen, 11 January 1935, p. 4, cols. 3-4, digital images, Google News (http://news.google.com/newspapers : accessed 12 July 2010), News Archive Search.

5. "Michael Bradley Is Executed Today”, The Evening (Ottawa) Citizen, 5 April 1935, p. 4, col. 6, digital images, Google News (http://news.google.com/newspapers : accessed 12 July 2010), News Archive Search.

6. "Michael Bradley Is Executed Today”, The Evening (Ottawa) Citizen, 5 April 1935, p. 4, col. 1, digital images, Google News (http://news.google.com/newspapers : accessed 12 July 2010), News Archive Search.

7. “Persons Sentenced to Death in Canada, 1867-1976”, database, Criminal Records: Capital Case Files (RG 13 B 1), Library and Archives Canada (http://data2.archives.ca/pdf/pdf001/p000001052.pdf : accessed 3 June 2011), entry for file number 0172 Michael Bradley.

8. St-Alphonse (Chapeau, Quebec), parish register, 1935, p. 10 recto, entry no. S. 2, Michael Bradley burial, 5 April 1935; St-Alphonse parish; digital images, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 12 July 2010).

9. "Michael Bradley Is Executed Today”, The Evening (Ottawa) Citizen, 5 April 1935, p. 4, col. 1, digital images, Google News (http://news.google.com/newspapers : accessed 12 July 2010), News Archive Search.

Copyright © 2013, Yvonne Demoskoff.