52 Ancestors: Aime Godin (1852-1909) Caraquet, New Brunswick, Canada

I am back on the Mazerolle-Godin side of my family tree this week with Aime Godin, my great-great-grandfather, the father-in-law of Beatrice Hebert from my post on Feb 8, 2014.

Aime was born in approximately 1852, most likely in Caraquet, New Brunswick, Canada. I have not yet been able to find a birth or baptism record to verify this information. His death certificate does list Caraquet as his place of birth but his age is slightly incorrect. His age reported on all the census records are consistent with his birth year being 1852, someone remembered his birth year, just not the person who reported his death!

Aime's was the 4th of 8 children of Joseph & Tharsile Godin. He grew up in Caraquet where he learned the art of being a farmer from his father, along with his older and younger brothers.  He must have went to school when he was younger as he was able to read and write and his parents were unable to.

On Feb 18, 1879 Aime married Marie Theriault in Caraquet at Ste. Pierre Aux Liens Parish. What a great reason to celebrate during the long dreary winters, having a wedding! Aime and Marie lived in Caraquet and raised at least 7 of their 10 children there until sometime between 1891 and 1901 when they moved approximately 20 km away to Paquetville. I wonder why they moved there? Did they have the opportunity for a larger farm? Were they following other family members who went before them? The only thing I know for sure is that if they had not moved to Paquetville, my great-grandfather (Jean Godin) most likely would never have met my great-grandmother (Beatrice Hebert) and I would not be here today.

Aime continued to make his living as a farmer in Paquetville until his death April 14, 1909 from stomach cancer. Although he was not attended to by a physician at the time of his death he must have seen a doctor to have been diagnosed with stomach cancer. Aime must have worked through the pain and illness to put his farm to bed for the winter for the last time before being diagnosed. He suffered from cancer of the stomach for 6 months (Oct-April). It must have been a difficult winter for his family knowing that they would not spend another one with him and for his wife who would have just celebrated 30 years of marriage to him.

                                                           NB Archives, Provincial Returns Death, Godin, Aimee, accessed Feb 22, 2014.

52 Ancestors: Alexander Christie (1853-1923)

This week I have moved over to my mother’s side of the family and will share with you what I have discovered out about my Great-Grandfather Alexander Christie.

Alexander was born in Peter’s River, Gloucester, New Brunswick.  He was the eighth child of William Christie and Tarsiel (Teresa) Arseneau.  Alexander was born December 21, 1853 and was baptised Dec 25, 1853 in Bathurst at Ste. Famille Parish when he was 4 days old.  What a wonderful Christmas present he must have been to his parents and siblings!

Alexander continued in his father’s and older siblings footsteps and worked as a farm labourer and then at his father’s death, I assume, he continued to work the family farm.

Between 1871 and 1881 Alexander’s father passed away and his older siblings left the family home; this left Alexander as the oldest child (27 years old) living at home with his mother.  On the 1881 Census, Alexander’s mother was listed as the head of the household containing Alexander and 4 other children.  This is the only census in which Alexander’s origin is identified as Scotch.  His mother and the remaining siblings living at home were recorded as being of French origin.  I wonder if Alexander was the person answering the census questions.  Was his father recently deceased and he was feeling a need to honor his father’s heritage and wanted to have it recognized?  This is the only time other than on his death certificate that his origin is listed as Scotch.  Even though all other census records have Alexander identified as French he must have talked to his children about being of Scottish decent as my Mom (his granddaughter), who never met him, often told me that the Christie’s came from Scotland.  My goal is to try and find that first ancestor who arrived from Scotland.

On October 30, 1882, when Alexander was a few months shy of his 29^th birthday, he married Margaret Ann Lecacy (Legace) in Bathurst, New Brunswick at the same parish he was baptised, Ste. Famille.

Even though Alexander was late to marry, he and Margaret had twelve children, born between 1883-1904.  Unfortunately he would outlive half of his children; 3 died as infants, 3 died as adults including a son who died during WWI in the Battle of Vimy Ridge.  Alexander’s children were all able to read and write plus speak both English and French.

Alexander died August 12, 1923 in South Tetagouche (Bathurst) where he lived since 1903. He lived his entire life and raised his family all within a 20 km area between (A) Peter’s River, (B) Ste. Famille parish and (C) South Tetagouche.

                                          Google Maps, accessed Feb 15, 2014

52 Ancestors - Beatrice Hebert (1880-1914) Death from Consumption

This week I'm going to write about by Great-Grandmother Beatrice Hebert.

Beatrice Hebert was born approximately January 15, 1880 in Shippagan, Gloucester County, New Brunswick, Canada.  At the time she was born her father made his living as a fisherman and she had 7 older siblings.  Her 3 oldest siblings were attending school.

In 1891, Beatrice's family was still living in Shippagan where her father now made his living as a farmer & fisherman.  I wonder if he knew his time as a fisherman was coming to an end?  At this time Beatrice was living with her parents and 7 siblings (2 older brothers, 2 older sisters, 2 younger brothers and 1 younger sister).  She must have enjoyed school as she was the only one in her household who could read and write!

Sometime between 1891 and 1901 Beatrice's family moved from Shippagan to Paquetville (approximately 25 miles away).  Why did they move? Possibly because working as a fisherman was not profitable enough to support his large family.  The household that Beatrice lived in now consisted of 3 separate families. It must have been one large and/or crowded house.  Beatrice's older brother, Honore, was listed as the head of this household, not her father. Perhaps Beatrice's family moved in with her brother.  Honore's family consisted of his wife and 2 children. Beatrice's family consisted of her father, Dazi; her mother, Marie; and 3 younger siblings (2 brothers and a sister).  The third family living in the household was a border with his wife and infant son.  The entire household was French speaking only, with Beatrice and her sister-in-law being the only ones able to read and write.

Beatrice was married on August 26, 1901 in Paquetville to Jean A. Godin at St. Augustin Parish.  They both belonged to this parish and it is most likely where they met since they lived 65 dwellings apart, which would have been a considerable distance apart in 1901.

Beatrice and Jean lived beside Jean's family where they had 5 children (2 daughters and 3 sons).  Beatrice continued to be the only person in her household who could read and write (Jean signed his marriage certificate with an X).  Education must have continued to be important to her as she was ensuring her children were attending school as evidenced in the 1911 census where her oldest child, Marie Clementine (my grandmother), was listed as having attended school for 8 months in the last year and was able to read and write.

Beatrice's life with her family was ended January 3, 1914 after a 3 month illness of consumption (tuberculosis).  At the time of her death Beatrice was attended to by a physician which was quite unusual for this area and must have been difficult for them to afford.

#52 Ancestors - Week 5 - Elizabeth Lebreton (abt. 1876-1962)

This is week 5 (week 3 for me) of the 52 Ancestors Challenge. I'm finding this challenge is helping me to really focus on my research and to think about more than just the names and dates.  Many times I am finding myself with more questions than answers.  I have been finding myself becoming more interested in history and wanting to know what the daily lives were like.  Maybe genealogy should be taught in school along side the history classes.

This week I struggled with who to focus my research on as I have come across very interesting information on some of my ancestors that I would like to write about but will require some deeper research by me, including a field trip to the Canadian Library and Archives to look as some files onsite.  Good thing I am only a 20 minute drive from there!  Stay tuned for an interesting post someday.

My first two posts were about ancestors from my mothers side.  I am going to try and post equally from both sides of my family tree.  This week I am writing about my Great Grandmother, Elizabeth Lebreton.

 Elizabeth Lebreton is my Great-Grandmother, my father's grandmother. She passed away, April 3, 1962, just before I was born, in Grande Anse, Gloucester County, New Brunswick, Canada where she lived the last 4 years of her life.

When Elizabeth, or Eliza as many records refer to her as, was approximately 5 years old her family lived in Inkerman, Gloucester County, New Brunswick, Canada.  Her father was a farmer as many of the men in the area were.  She was the second oldest child living in the household, with an older sister Marie (6) and two younger brothers David (3) and Francis (1).  Also living with them at this time was a Domestic who is listed as the same age as Elizabeth's mother.  So far I have not been able to find any information about this person.  It is unknown if this person was employed by the family or just living with the family.  It seems unusual to me for a farm family to have a domestic as they would typically face struggles to feed their own family, which was not very large (yet) and did not have children extremely close in age.

When when Eliza was approximately 16 years old she was still living in Inkerman, Gloucester County, New Brunswick, Canada and her household consisted of  her parents: Patrice Lebreton and Margaret Comeau; siblings: Mary (18), David (12), Francis (11), Nazaire (8) ad Malvina (2); an aunt, Margaret Lebreton and also her grandparents, Morice (71) and Alice (77) Como (Comeau).  The household was starting to fill up.

Eliza married Jeremie Mazerolle in 1894 in the parish of L'Immaculee Conception in Pokemouche en-haut, Gloucester County, New Brunswick, Canada.  David Lebreton and Marie Anne St. Pierre were their witnesses. David could have been Eliza's brother. I don't know who Marie Anne St. Pierre was but I suspect the St. Pierre family must have a close connection to them as George St. Pierre was a sponsor for their first son's (Leo) baptism. Eliza and Jeremie were both members of the parish of L'Immaculee Conception and continued to be members of this parish as they raised their family and had them baptized there.

Eliza and Jeremie continued to live in Inkerman and had 12 children the last two who were twins spanning 1895 - 1913. I am still working on sourcing the facts for most of the children, who knows maybe I will find more!