My Journey Into My Past

I lived quite close to my parish cemetery as a child, and spent hours wandering around the gravestones. My siblings and I were quite fascinated by the gravestones and the aura that could be found within.   There were three cemeteries at my church.   The oldest one held mostly Irish graves, from the time St Patrick Church was in the long-gone village of Athlone.   The second cemetery held mostly German, but some Irish graves.   The names in this cemetery populate the village of Carleton and fill the pews of St Pat’s to this day.   This is were my people lay.   The third cemetery was mostly empty when I was a child but lay adjacent to a wooded area owned by the parish.   There one could find perfectly good plastic flowers, the kind that were popular in the 60’s, that we would scrounge through and take home to Mom.   She did not appreciate our offerings. Our wanderings in the cemeteries did not cease.   We would find the right place by g...

I made some minor changes, I thought.....  All my posts are now out of order.  I am sorry about this but don't know how to fix it. 

What can I say about dinner?   Well, on Sundays, my Dad cooked dinner.   For most of my childhood, Dad would fix chicken and mashed potatoes for Sunday dinner.   The day usually started frantic.   Dad would get up, get ready for Mass, and go sit in the car and honk the horn while Mom struggled to get 6 kids dressed, brushed, and hatted.   Back then all women and girls had to wear hats to Mass, and we fought over who got to wear which hat, all of us preferring the little round lace things called chapel caps.    There were also chapel veils, which were triangular, also made of lace, they came in black or white.   Sometimes we were reduced to folding up a tissue and bobby pinning it to our hair. Mom always had a proper hat.   After Mass, we would wait impatiently in the car, while Dad conversed with his friends on the church steps.   Mom did not honk the horn.   When we got home and changed from church clothes to regular clothes, D...

The January 2019 themes are: First Challenge Unusual Name At the Library My first attempt at genealogy was back when I was in college.   I put together some facts and figures to help my niece do an ancestor report for school.   At that time my Aunt Rosemary was starting to research her family tree.   She gave me some help, and I talked to my Dad’s brother Eddie who gave me some information also.   I didn’t have a full picture of my ancestry, but It was a start.   My Aunt Rosemary did fabulous research. Remember, this was pre-internet!   She would write a letter, and then find a translator. She wrote to Germany and Quebec, so had to find someone to translate German and French. I am not sure what library resources were available.   My crotchety bachelor uncle gave some facts, but he wasn’t sure of dates. He mostly just liked to argue with my dad, saying we were Russian not Polish. He wasn’t far off the mark on some of the other informatio...

I love to hang out in my local library.   (Maybee Branch of the Monroe County Library System) It is tiny and cute, and I see my friends there.   I also do a lot of research. Yes, I can do it at home on my laptop, but where’s the fun in that.   Besides, the desktop is more user friendly.   The library also has some subscriptions I don’t have and cannot afford.   I have found many documents on the LaFrance site.   It is a wonder!   The great part is, it has a cover sheet, if you will, for each document. In English!   You can also click on the person and get a family history! How cool is that. There are other references websites as well, all for free.   For more reference materials, there is the reference center at Ellis Branch.   Lou, the librarian is always there to help locate materials for you, and several of my genealogist friends hang out there as well.   Ray has helped me find information on Barbara McDonald, and occasio...

I am going to revert to first person, just because it is easier.   That doesn’t mean the research is all my own… Linda and I are a team. We both are deeply involved. The biggest challenge has been Barbara McDonald.   She is an enigma has driven me crazy.   I have talked to many people about her, have had a lot of help from my friend Ray, but she still eludes me.   What I have:   She went by the French variation of her name, Barbe.   A few places list her as Barbara Madeleine McDonald, some list her as Elisabeth Durresseau.   She married my 4GGF Pierre Tessier. She married a man name Jean Marie St Ours Baudreau dit Graveline after Pierre died.   I wrote about her in the first few weeks of the challenge, when I was working from the 2018 list of themes, but here she is again. “OUR ELUSIVE ANCESTOR Every genealogist has that elusive ancestor, the one you know existed, but cannot document. Our elusive lady is Barbara Magdeleine McDonald...

January 11, 2019 Week 2 Favorite Photo There were many challenges in my family’s past.   I am kind of skipping and jumping here, so I will jump to Grandma’s parents. Edward Rivard immigrated to the US and settled in Newport MI.   He was the youngest of 17 children born to Jean Baptiste Rivard and Adelaide Loranger.   Edward was born 20 November 1851 in St Alban, Quebec.   Jean Baptiste and Adelaide were married in Quebec in 1831. Shortly before Edward married Rose LaDuke, his mother gave him 40 acres at the corner of Telegraph and Newport Roads, in Ash Township. The land records show he paid her $1.00 for this transaction.    He was to live there the rest of his life.   He married Rose LaDuke, the daughter of Louis Leduc and Eliza Tessier, on 8 January 1879 in Newport MI.    They raised a family of at least nine children: Agnes 1879, Ada 1882, Felix 1884, Joseph 1885, Rosa Cecelia 1886, Eli 1890, Louis 1888, Eliza 1893, and Mae 1895. ...

January 5, 2019 These are Lena’s words as said to her daughter. The items in parenthesis were added for clarification. Lena Married August John (Gus) Wickenheiser on April 20, 1915. “Attendants Rose Rivard and Arthur Brancheau (her sister, his best friend) Father Moran (They were married at St. Charles Church, Newport, MI) Attended                                                                                             Gift Louis Nadeau and family                     ...

The longest-lived ancestor I know of is my 4GGM Barbara McDonald.   This is what I know.   She first appears in the Ste Anne Detroit, MI marriage book. “Pierre Thessie (Tessier) son of deceased parents Pierre and Genevieve Parantot (Parenteau), grooms’ parents of the parish of St Michael, government of Trois Riviere. He was a resident of the Riviere aux Raisin “and “Barbe” were married on 31 October 1790.   Other sources list her name as Barbara McDonald.   She is listed on the Land Claims of the Riviere aux Raisin Area as widow and heir of Pierre Tessier, and it stated that after his death the property was occupied the tract.   Mr. de St Ours married Tessiers widow.   She is listed in the book “Souls of St Antoine” for Pierre; buried 15 October 1801. Wed Barbara Magdeleine McDonald, no parents listed.   The next notice was the 1850 census, as Elisabeth Tessier in the household of François Tessier (Grandson) age 100. On another website about the ...

The challenge this week is a favorite photo, I love this one of my grandparents and their children.   Grandma wrote on it “the first 5”, there were 5 more to come. The girl in white is my mother Clara.   We are fortunate to have photos of her childhood.   They are sorely lacking in my Dad’s family.   Nothing till he was a teenager….   Except a first communion or confirmation photo. Both my parents were raised during the Depression, and it is a wonder that photographing their family was a priority.   My mom took bread spread with lard, sometimes sprinkled with sugar to school in her lunch pail.    Both were raised on farms, so they did have enough to eat.   Mom wore flour sack dresses, they all pitched in and worked around the home and the farm, and they weathered the hard times better than many. A reminder for those not used to older pictures.   Exposure time for photogr...