Mystery Monday: The Real Wife of Joseph Danis

Marriage record of Joseph Danis and Catherine Plante, 1749

In the summer of 1749, twenty-eight year old Joseph Danis married Catherine Plante in St-Michel church in Yamaska, New France (later the province of Quebec). [1] Published sources, like Tanguay's famous Dictionnaire, repeat this information. [2]

Joseph's marriage contract (dated 10 August 1749) and marriage parish record (of 11 August 1749) confirm Catherine’s name and those of her parents, Louis Plante and Angélique Patenaude, and their place of residence.[3]

However, according to a 1957 article in Mémoires, the quarterly publication of the Société Généalogique Canadienne-Française, Joseph's wife was more likely Marie-Catherine Turcot, daughter of Louis Turcot and Angélique Plante. [4]

The article, written by renowned francophone genealogist Archange Godbout, explains that while Joseph’s parents and children are found in the parish registers of New France, Catherine’s parents are not. Although two Louis Turcot existed during the time frame in question, one died probably as an infant, while the other resided in a different location. Additionally, no Angélique Patenaude can be found in the parish registers. [5]

These complications support Godbout’s belief that Louis Plante and Angélique Patenaude are not Catherine’s parents. Godbout concludes by writing that, after much research, the only possibility for Joseph Danis’ wife is Marie-Catherine Turcot, daughter of Louis Turcot and Marie Angélique Plante, who married in 1721.

Joseph and Catherine are my 6x great-grandparents. I have two lines of descent from them through my paternal grandmother Julie Vanasse. I was fortunate to come across Godbout’s article in the Mémoires a few years ago; it’s the only place I’ve seen so far that discusses the presumed real identity of Joseph Danis’ wife.

Sources:

1. St-Michel (Yamaska, Quebec), parish register, 1734-1750, no p. no., no entry no. (1749), Danis – Plante marriage, 11 August 1749; St-Michel parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 5 January 2014).

2. Cyprien Tanguay, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles canadiennes, 7 vols (1871–1890, reprint, Montréal: Editions Elysée, 1991), III: 238.

3. A. Godbout, “Joseph Danis et Catherine Plante, 1749”, Mémoires de la Société Généalogique Canadienne-Française 8 (Janvier 1957): 60.

4. Godbout, “Joseph Danis et Catherine Plante, 1749”, 60. The author states that he came to this conclusion after "actives recherches".

5. Godbout, “Joseph Danis et Catherine Plante, 1749”, 60.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Those Places Thursday: The Hope Slide, 49 years ago

“The Hope slide, near Hope, British Columbia. Image by Fawcett5, August, 2005.”
(Image in public domain, Wikipedia)

In the early morning of 9 January 1965, a small avalanche occurred in the Nicolum Valley, near Hope, in southwestern British Columbia. Three vehicles travelling on this stretch of Highway 3 (known locally as the Hope-Princeton Highway) came upon the debris, preventing them from going further. While they waited on the road, a second, deadly slide struck when a massive amount of rock came down Johnson Peak, destroying its southwestern face.

It was the “largest landslide ever recorded in Canada […] estimated at 47 million cubic metres […] of pulverized rock, mud, and debris 85 metres (279 ft) deep and 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) wide, which came down the 2,000-metre (6,600 ft) mountainside”. [1]

Four people – the waiting travellers – were killed in their cars and trucks. Rescuers recovered two bodies; the other two “have remained entombed under the rock since 1965”. [2]

My parents and my sister and I must have seen the Slide when we drove through BC during our summer vacation in 1966, but I don’t remember it. The next time I saw the devastation was in May 1980, a few months after my family moved to Hope.

A video of what the area looks like today is available at Hope Slide.

Here are some pictures I took during my 1980 visit to the Hope Slide. I’ve been back to the site a few times since that year. The landscape hasn’t really changed; it’s still quiet, bleak and desolate-looking.

The valley floor, looking east (1980)

Information board explaining the events of that fateful day (1980)

Looking east, with my brother in the centre pointing to the mountain (1980)

A northeast view, with my father and his friend Paul (1980)

Sources:

1. Wikipedia contributors, "Hope Slide," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hope_Slide&oldid=585452999 : accessed January 8, 2014).

2. Wikipedia contributors, "Hope Slide," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Sunday’s Obituary: Pete Demosky

Pete Demosky obituary, 1987

Pete, my husband’s paternal uncle, passed away twenty-seven years ago on 1 January 1987. He was the second child and eldest son of Wasyl and Luchenia (Tomelin) Demosky, who immigrated to Canada from Russia in 1899.

Pete and his wife Annie, whom he married in 1933, lived in Saskatchewan until they moved to British Columbia in 1941. They had two sons, Allan and Lawrence.

Pete died in Grand Forks, BC, and was interred there in Evergreen Cemetery.

Source:
“Demosky”, obituary, undated clipping, from unidentified newspaper; Demoskoff Family Papers, privately held by Yvonne (Belair) Demoskoff, British Columbia, 2014. Yvonne received an assortment of family memorabilia (including Pete’s obituary) in January 2012 from her father-in-law William (Bill) Demoskoff.

Copyright © 2104, Yvonne Demoskoff.

52 Ancestors: #1 Clémentine Léveillé

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”.

I love this challenge, because I’ve been looking for a regular column idea for my blog since I ended my “Ancestral Anniversaries” last month and because talking about ancestors on a genealogy blog is a good thing J

So, here goes with ancestor #1 (picked at random)!

Clémentine (Léveillé) Desgroseilliers, mid-1950s

My great-grandmother Clémentine Léveillé was born on 13 November 1878 in Embrun, Russell County, Ontario. She had ten brothers and sisters and an older half-sister.

In April 1899, Clémentine married Albert Desgroseilliers in the nearby community of South Indian (now known as Limoges). The young couple lived in different rural communities in Ontario, including Sturgeon Falls, in Nipissing District, where they had a small farm.

My Mom Jacqueline has a few memories of visiting her grandmother when she was a little girl. One of them includes the time she played with a child’s tea set with her cousin Gabrielle, one of Clémentine’s granddaughters by her daughter Flavie.

As you might be able to tell, Clémentine’s left eye is shut in this picture. It’s because when she was younger, she was kicked in the face by a farm animal (it might have been a cow).

Although my great-grandmother lived not too far from where I was born and grew up, I never met her. Clémentine was one month short of her 91st birthday when she died in October 1969.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Funeral Card Friday: Cecilia (Brazeau) Caron

Front of card

This funeral card is in memory of Cécilia Brazeau, épouse bien-aimée (beloved wife) of Michel Caron, who died on 25 December 1956. The card measures 10 cm x 5.5. cm (approximately 3¾” x 2¼”).

Back of card

I received this card with family memorabilia either from my Aunt Darlene or my Aunt Joan in the 1980s or 1990s.

I don’t know if or how Cécilia is related to my family, but from basic research I did, she might have been someone who knew my grandparents Fred and Julie (Vanasse) Belair when they lived in northeastern Ontario during the 1940s and 1950s.

Cécilia, born about 1881, was the daughter of Léon and Célina (Gauthier) Brazeau. She married on 22 June 1903 in Notre-Dame-du-Laüs, Labelle County, Quebec, Michel Caron, son of Paul and Zoe (Gauthier) Caron.

Cécilia and Michel had at least six children: three sons (Domina, Emilien and Gérard) and three daughters (Marie-Emilia, Sonia and Yvette). The family lived in the township of Montjoy and next door in Timmins, Ontario from about 1937 through the 1950s.

After Cécilia’s death, presumably in Timmins, Michel lived there with his daughter Yvette and her husband Aldéric Lafontaine.

Copyright © 2013, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Tombstone Tuesday: Philip Casacove

Gravemarker of Philip Casacove

Philip Casacove (né Cazakoff) was my husband’s maternal uncle. His obituary can be read here.

The third, but second surviving son of George and Polly (Poznekoff) Cazakoff, Philip was born in July 1911 in Simeonovka (aka Semenovo), a Doukhobor village near Arran, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Philip legally changed his name to ‘Philip Gordon Casacove’ in July 1948. A few weeks earlier in June, he married Mary Abrosimoff in Vancouver, British Columbia. The couple had two daughters, Donna and Elizabeth.

Philip died thirty-seven years ago on 16 December 1976. He was buried four days later at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Burnaby, British Columbia. His wife Mary, who died in 2002, is interred beside him.

His gravemarker reads:

IN LOVING MEMORY

PHILIP G. CASACOVE

1911 – 1976

Copyright © 2013, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Sunday’s Obituary: Philip Casacove

Obituary of Philip Casacove, 1976

Philip is my husband’s maternal uncle, being an elder brother of his mother Ann. He passed away thirty-seven years ago tomorrow (December 16).

Philip was the third child of George and Polly (Poznekoff) Cazakoff, Doukhobor immigrants who left Russia in 1899. He changed his surname from Cazakoff to Casacove in the summer of 1948.

Philip married twice and had children by both unions. He was survived by his (second) wife Mary and their daughters Donna and Elizabeth.

Source:
“Casacove”, obituary, undated clipping, from unidentified newspaper; Demoskoff Family Papers, privately held by Yvonne (Belair) Demoskoff, British Columbia, 2013. Yvonne received an assortment of family memorabilia (including Philip’s obituary) in January 2012 from her father-in-law William (Bill) Demoskoff.

Copyright © 2013, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Church Record Sunday: Fred Belair’s Baptism Record

Fred Belair's baptism record*

My paternal grandfather Fred Belair always maintained that he was born on 18 December 1889. I had no reason to doubt him; after all, he should know, shouldn’t he?

One summer in the 1980s, I visited my Pépère Fred’s hometown of Ste-Cécile-de-Masham in Gatineau County, Quebec. While there, I took the opportunity to do some research in the local Roman Catholic church’s sacramental registers. I looked for my Pépère’s baptism record on or about December 18th, but didn’t locate it. I searched a few pages before and after that date, but only found the record when I went as far back as December 1st. That’s when I found entry no. B.81 for Jean-Baptiste-Ménésippe Bélair. I knew I had the right person, because my grandfather’s real name was Ménésippe. But I couldn’t believe my eyes when I read the date of birth – 26 Novembre dernier (26 November last). My goodness! My grandfather was, according to this document, born in late November, not in mid-December.

My grandfather Fred once told me that his baptism record was incorrect, because a fire had destroyed the church’s records. But, during my visit, I asked the secretary if there ever was a fire at Ste-Cécile’s. She told me, yes, there had been a fire a long time ago, but that the records were saved.

I wasn’t about to argue this point with my beloved Pépère. He was in his 90s, by then, and had celebrated his birthday on December 18th for as long as my family could remember, that it didn’t matter too much on what day he was born.

* Source: Ste-Cécile-de-Masham (Ste-Cécile-de-Masham, Quebec), parish register, 1887-1898, p. 42 recto, entry no. B.81 (1889), Jean-Baptiste-Ménésippe Bélair baptism, 1 December 1889; Ste-Cécile-de-Masham parish; digital image, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 30 July 2007).

Copyright © 2013, Yvonne Demoskoff.