52 Ancestors: Marcelline (Marie) Roy (1845-1916)

Marcelline a.k.a. Marie Roy is my Great Great Grandmother from my Mom's side of my tree.  Marie was born, raised, married, widowed, re-married, raised her children and died all within 10 km (Petit Rocher - Beresford, New Brunswick). What a small area she lived her whole life in, I travel further than that just to get to and from work everyday.

Marie was born December 16, 1845 in Petit Rocher, New Brunswick (based upon information pieced together from various census records and her death certificate). She must have married young, by the time she was 25 in 1871 Marie had 5 children aged 9,7,4,3 & 1 and was already a widower! Her first marriage was sometime before 1862 when her oldest child was born, she became a widow less than 10 years later, some time between 1869 (one year before her youngest child) and 1871 (the year of the census). Her first husbands last name was Pitre, maybe I'm related to Pitre's by more than one branch, see my previous post on Victor Pitre. So far I have been unable to find Marie's marriage or baptism certificates which has hindered me in determining her husband's first name or her parents names.

Sometime between 1871 and 1874 Marie met and married Joseph Godin and they started their family together. It must have been a difficult several years for her to raise such a young family all by herself. Joseph must have welcomed Maries children as the two youngest lived with them into their 20's.

Marie and Joseph had at least 10 additional children (7 girls and 3 boys). Several of them ended up living only a few households away.  By 1911 all 15 children had moved on (died or married), they were now empty nester's. I'm sure they were not lonely as they lived next door to their youngest son and his family and with that many children they must have had many grandchildren.

Marie is one of the few women in my family who have not outlived their husbands. She was 70 years old when she died Feb 15, 1916 in Petit Rocher from heart disease (possibly a heart attack as her death is listed as sudden).