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.

A Grandmother Remembers

I recently put order in some of my genealogy memorabilia and came across a spiral-bound booklet titled Grandmother Remembers: A Book of Special Memories for the Family to Share that I forgot I had. I bought it a few years ago with the intention of recording my mother’s memories for my son Nicholas, but I only got as far as pencilling in a handful of responses based on the prompts in the booklet.

I’ll probably never add more memories to Grandmother Remembers, so I thought I’d transcribe what I have in a blog post. (Mom’s words are quotation marks.)

• Mom said she was named “Jacqueline”, because “my mother liked that name”.

• Mom had a nickname – “Ki-kine” (it rhymes with Jacqueline). She told me, “Oncle Léon Desgroseilliers first called me that”. 

• Mom’s youngest sister Jeanne d’arc “was called Bébé until she was about 9 or 10 years old”.

• Mom said that some of her father Eugène’s favorite foods were spaghetti (he “loved that”) and baked beans (he “would bake them outside in the hot sand in summer”).

• Mom remembered one traditional family custom: “Christmas stockings”.

Jacqueline with her mother Juliette (ca 1946)

• Mom told me that she called her mother “Maman”. She described her as about 5’4”, with brown eyes and dark brown hair. Mom remembers that she was “quiet”, “pretty”, and “couldn’t speak English much and had me [Jacqueline] translate for her”.

Recording memories and good intentions … but at least it’s a little bit more than what I had before!

Copyright © 2018, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Sunday’s Obituary: Florence Cazakoff

Florence was the first wife of Lawrence (Larry) Cazakoff, my husband’s maternal uncle.

A younger daughter of Stephen and Elizabeth (Strelaeff) Perepelkin (var. Perepolkin), Florence was born on 25 July 1914 in Veregin [sic], Saskatchewan. She married John Remesoff by whom she had four children. He passed away in 1945.

Florence married Larry in 1968, but they did not have children. It was a brief union, because Florence died on 11 April 1970 in Kamsack, Saskatchewan after “a short illness”. She was interred three days later in Riverview Cemetery in Kamsack.

My late father-in-law Bill, who collected obituaries of family, friends, and acquaintances, added the year 1970 in pen at the top of the (yellowed) obituary clipping.

Source:

“Florence Cazakoff”, obituary, undated (1970) clipping, from unidentified newspaper; Demoskoff Family Papers, privately held by Yvonne (Belair) Demoskoff, Hope, British Columbia, 2018. Yvonne received an assortment of family memorabilia (including Florence’s obituary) from her father-in-law William (Bill) Demoskoff in 2012.

Copyright © 2018, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Wedding Wednesday: Deschatelets – Colle

Nearly 240 years ago – on 4 April 1780 – my maternal 5x great-grandparents François and Marie Louise (Colle) Deschatelets married. [1]

François, born in 1755, was the second, but eldest surviving son of Joseph Marie Pineault dit Deschatelets and Marie-Gabrielle Sullière. For her part, Marie Louise, born in 1758, was a younger daughter of Jean-Baptiste Colle and Marie Josephe Paule Martel. Jean-Baptiste, originally Valentin Cole from Boston, converted to the Roman Catholic faith a few months before his marriage to Marie Louise’s mother in 1753.

François and Marie Louise were the parents of six children (two sons and four daughters) before Marie Louise died aged 30 in December 1788. Four years later, widower François married Marie Angélique Duquet, by whom he had eleven children. He died in 1833.

Deschatelets – Colle marriage record, Ancestry

Transcription of François and Marie Louise’s marriage record:

Le quatre avril mil sept cent quatre vingt par nous ptre / apres la publication de trois bans de mariage faite au prone / des grandes messes parroissial entre francois dechatelest et / fils de Joseph Pinault dt dechatelest et de marie Gabrielle / Sullière de cette parroise d’une part et de marie Louise / colle fille de Jean Baptiste colle et de marie Josette paul / martelle aussy de cette paroisse d’autre part, sans [qu’il / ce soit?] trouvé aucun enpèchement canoniques [au Séville?] au / dt mariage et Leur avon donné La Benediction nuptial / avec les ceremony prescripte par notre mere La Ste Eglise / catholique apostolique et Romaine en presence de / Joseph dechatelest frere de l’epoux de noel lavoix son / oncle et de Jean LeBoeuf et du cotté de l’epouse de Jean / Baptiste colle son pere de Joseph Locas et plusieurs autres / parant et amis qui ont declaré ne savoir [signer?] [des … ?] / qui suivant Lordce 
[signed] Petrimoulx ptre

My translation of the text:

The fourth april one thousand seven hundred eighty by us [priest] after the publication of three banns of marriage at the sermons of the parish high masses between francois dechatelest and / son of Joseph Pinault [aka] dechatelest et of marie Gabrielle Sullière of this parish on the one part and of marie Louise / colle daughter of Jean Baptiste colle and of marie Josette paul / martelle also of this parish on the other part, without [having?] found any canonical impediments [as well as civil ones?] to the [said] marriage and [we] have given The nuptial Benediction / with the prescribed ceremonies of our mother The Holy catholic and apostolic Roman Church in the presence of / Joseph dechatelest brother of the groom de noel lavoix his / uncle and of Jean LeBoeuf and on the side of the bride of Jean / Baptiste colle her father of Joseph Locas and of several other / relatives and friends who declared could not sign [their names] [des … ?] / following the [ordinance] 
[signed] Petrimoulx [priest]

Source:

1. St-Pierre-du-Portage (L’Assomption, Quebec), parish register, 1777-1782, p. 78 verso, no entry no. (1780), Francois Dechatelest – Marie Louise Colle [sic] marriage, 4 April 1780; St-Pierre-du-Portage parish; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 11 February 2011).

Copyright © 2018, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun – Drive Down Memory Lane: Family Cars

Randy at Genea-Musings issued his weekly Saturday challenge to his readers two days ago. I’m late with my response, but I still want to participate, so here I am.

The challenge was to answer the following question: "Drive down Memory Lane - what were your family cars - from childhood to now, year, model, color, features. Can you remember?”

At first, I didn’t think I’d remember much about our family cars, but after looking at family photos and talking with Mom, my brother, and my husband, I decided to “drive down Memory Lane”.

The earliest memory I have of a family vehicle is of my Dad’s pickup truck. I was young, maybe 7 years old, so it must have been about 1966. I don’t remember any details about it, like the make and model. My only memory is of us four (my parents, my younger sister and I) trying to fit comfortably on the bench seat. I think it was Mom who complained that a truck wasn’t suited to a family.

Summer, ca 1967

The above photo shows my Mom, my grandfather Fred, and my sister and I. Our cousin Pauline is also with us; she’s scrunched in between Marianne and our Pépère. Marianne and I are in dresses and wear light coloured socks and shoes, while Pauline is in a sleeveless dress. The day we took this picture was probably a Sunday, summer of 1966 or 1967. I don’t have a clue where we are, though, or why we stopped to take pictures, but I doubt it was very far from home. (Dad loved home best and didn’t like travelling too far, if he didn’t have to.) We see just a bit of the front of our car in the lower right of the picture, but it appears to be a Ford – maybe a 1965 Ford Galaxie. I don’t remember this car, but Dad liked to change cars every few years, usually getting a lightly used one, so we likely didn’t have this Ford for too long.

Dad and Pépère (1969)

The next car I remember was the one in this photo, taken in the summer of 1969. We had recently moved to Main (now Belanger) Street. I compared our car with ads for the 1970 Ford Maverick released in the spring of 1969 and I think it’s the same vehicle. It was one of the few occasions Dad bought a new car. We still had the Maverick two years later, because Dad and my brother Raymond posed with the car in the summer of 1971.

Dad and Raymond (1971)

Dad soon changed cars and this time it was a Volkswagen Beetle. (Why get an even smaller vehicle when you have three children, I don’t know.) That car was the first of only two foreign vehicles Dad owned. I can still hear the distinctive sound of that VW when Dad pulled into the driveway all those years ago.

In the winter of 1972, we moved to another part of town, to Maple Street North. I don’t think the Beetle came with us, but I know Dad acquired a Dodge pickup in 1973 or 1974. That’s me holding my little brother on the hood of that truck.

Yvonne and Raymond (1974)

In August 1975, we went to Sturgeon Falls, near North Bay, for the wedding of one of Mom’s Desgroseilliers cousins. We travelled in a roomy car, possibly a 1973 Chrysler Newport. We took photos of ourselves just before leaving for church. Mom told me that she remembers that spacious car, saying how much she thought it was nice.

Jacqueline (1975)

The last two vehicles we owned before we moved to British Columbia were Mom’s Duster and Dad’s Sierra. Mom learned to drive when she was a young adult, but didn’t have a licence by the time she was in her 40s. After she got her driver’s licence, Dad bought Mom a Plymouth Duster, 1974-1976 vintage. He was often out of town for work, so that car came in handy. Soon after, Marianne also got her licence and began to drive the car, usually to school.

Mom's Plymouth Duster (1978)

In the winter of 1977, Marianne drove us to our high school for band practice one evening. Our little brother Raymond sat between us. We entered the school grounds and as we approached a parking space, the car suddenly hit a patch of ice. Marianne stepped on the brakes and I quickly put my arms against Raymond to hold him back. I’m not sure how well I could have held on to my brother (the car didn’t have seatbelts), but the car stopped safely and no one was hurt. That’s the Duster sitting in our driveway in 1978; lots of snow, eh?

While Mom (and Marianne) had a car, Dad had his truck – a GMC Sierra, a 1977 or 1978 model. That pickup was a darn efficient vehicle, because it ran on diesel and had dual fuel tanks. Dad had that truck in late 1978 when he worked in Bracebridge, Ontario. Dad had a serious accident on the job site and was hospitalized for a few weeks. When it was time to come home, he wasn’t strong enough to drive, so Mom drove them back to Timmins in the GMC. She found the eight-hour drive on winter roads nerve-wracking, since she was used to her small car. They stopped overnight in Kirkland Lake at Aunt Madeleine’s house, so that helped her to regain her confidence for the remainder of the drive home. Here’s a photo of Dad with that pickup in Hope, British Columbia.

Dad tinkering with his GMC (1980)

After we moved to BC, Dad continued his pattern of getting a used (or occasionally new) car every two or three years. He would drop in at the local dealership, look around, pick a vehicle, arrange the financing, and then come home. It was usually a spur of the moment decision and Mom often didn’t know that he had traded their car. Once home, he’d either walk in the house or call to Mom from the front door, saying something along the lines of “Jackie – come see the nice new car I bought you”. One day I was in the kitchen with Mom when Dad came home with another car. I still remember the eye roll she did and that “he did it again” look on her face. One time Dad brought home a blue-coloured car, because he knew she liked that colour. Mom liked blue for clothes, but not necessarily for cars. I don’t think she ever put Dad in the picture, though.

In the last two decades of his life, Dad bought more vehicles. I remember the 1977 Ford Thunderbird, another Chrysler Newport (1979 model), and a white station wagon (maybe a Plymouth Aries) that didn’t last long, because we couldn’t get used to the red interior. Trucks included a 1981 Dodge Ram Power Wagon (it caught fire and burned about five years later at work up in the bush near Boston Bar) and a Ford XLT (it replaced the Ram). The second and last time Dad bought a foreign vehicle was the silver Hyundai Sonata he got in the mid-1980s. They were very popular at the time and Dad didn’t want to be left behind.

The last car Dad owned was a ’92 Buick Regal in a deep blue colour. Mom and Dad loved that 4-door sedan. They often drove it to Bellingham, Washington (about two hours from Hope) where they liked to play bingo. They usually came back from there with a new batch of stuffed toys they won in those claw grabber machines. Our son Nicholas ended up with quite a collection when he was a toddler.

I’m really glad I decided to go on this memory lane trip. It brought back such wonderful memories of my family, particularly of my late father Maurice, which I’ll always cherish. Thanks for the challenge, Randy!

Copyright © 2017, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Clémentine Desgroseilliers’ Death Registration (1969)

Today – 18 October 2017 – is the 48th anniversary of the death of my maternal great-grandmother, Clémentine (Léveillé) Desgroseilliers.

Clémentine Desgroseilliers (ca 1948)

Clémentine was almost 91 years old when she passed away on 18 October 1969. [1] Although she lived about 4 hours south of Timmins where my family lived, I never met her. My Mom knew her, though, and visited her small farm in Sturgeon Falls, Ontario, when she was a child.

I have vague memories of that October. Mom had just found out she was expecting my brother Raymond. A few days later, my cousin Richard died in a car accident and Mom rushed to Kirkland Lake to be with her older sister Madeleine. Two weeks later, Mom got the news that their grandmother Clémentine died. Mom didn’t go to Sturgeon Falls for the funeral. The last memory I have is of me telling my friends at school (I was in Grade 6) that my great-grandmother had passed away.

Clémentine Desgroseilliers’ death registration, 1969 (cropped)

Source:

1. Province of Ontario, Statement of Death, no. 1969-045667, Clementine Desgroseilliers (1969); Office of the Registrar General, Thunder Bay.

Copyright © 2017, Yvonne Demoskoff.

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.