Travelling Back in Time
March 18, 2007 at 10:24 pm (Home Sweet Home, Photographs)
Have you ever done some research on your genealogy? Lately, I’ve been working on such a project for one of my school assignments. It took a while before the fire started burning, but now I can’t seem to let it go. My father had done some work several years ago and managed to go back to the 1600s in the Gauthier (Gonthier ?) lineage in France (Poitou). So, with all that work done, I wondered how else I could add to this work in progress.
Little did I know that you can access census records and many church registries online. Thanks to an amazing project by the Institut Généalogique Drouin in Québec, many of these have been scanned and are available for viewing. Although it’s time consuming to pore over these records, I find it fascinating when I come up with a “find” and see information about who lived where, when, and with whom. Having purchased a year’s membership with www.ancestry.ca has made the work easier. As I enter information about a person, their service automatically provides links to documents or other people’s tree that may link to the person in question.
Now that my family back home is aware of this little project, they are scanning old photos that I didn’t know existed and send them to me. The stories I am told that go along with these photographs are also interesting. I learned many little details that either were never told to me before, or I just never payed enough attention to retain the information.
When reading these registries and thinking about these people who are my ancestors , all of whom have now passed, it makes me think about the ephemeral quality of life. Looking at the year 1906 written in my great-grandfather’s marriage record (on my mother’s side) reminds me of how, throughout all of 2006, the year was written on documents everywhere, and in a hundred years from now, someone somewhere will be poring over those records perhaps thinking the same thing.
Here are a couple of old photographs that were sent to me (I have yet to touch them up):
Aldéric Vendette et Yvonne (Lahaie) Vendette, maternal great-grandparents
Albert Gauthier and Yvonne Audet, paternal great-grandparents, wedding Aug 18, 1915
Théophile & Marie (Tremblay) Gauthier, parents of Albert Gauthier
Damas Rancourt & Eleonore Sylvain, parents of Desneiges (Rancourt) Guillemette, my great-great grandparents
Liane in TO said,
March 20, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Thanks for sharing Carole! Your family pictures are wonderful. We have a small abum entitled “My first home Ingersol [Ontario] 1912″ that my great-grandmother Ethel Conn Kennedy put together. The wonderful thing is that in addition to seeing family resemblances, we still have an amazing number of her furnishings in our home today and the album lets us see how they were originally used. The past is never very far away and those who came before us live on through us. Someone once said that as long as your name is spoken you never really die. Enjoy your continued search, Liane
Ida Bilodeau said,
August 15, 2010 at 1:01 pm
Damas Rancourt is my grandfather.In that picture Damas with his first wife Eleonore Sylvain.they were married July 9,1916 in Hull Quebec Eleonore was the dauhgther of Joseph Sylvain and Marie D’amour.Eleonore was born in 1876 deceased June 9,1916. Damas Rancourt born May19,1867 deceased March 7 1944. He was the son of Francois Rancourt and Venerance Methot.(second marriage)Damas married Valentine Oullette in 1918 Valentine was the daughter of Michel Oullette and Elisabeth Beaudry.Valentine was born Oct.26,1893 deceased Feb.20.1966. Damas and Eleonore had 4 children 1. Philogene born 1900 married to Julie Guillemtte (both deceased in Timmins 2.Deneiges Sept.27,1903-Feb.12.1987.married to Andre GuillemetteSet.18 1900-Jan.25 1972.3.Armance bornApril25 1907-June 3 1960 married to Louis Clement Oct.11893-Oct.8 1954 4.Mazella 1913-1973 married to Cora Chartrand deceased 1945.
(second marriage)
In 1918 Damas married Valentine Oullette. They had 5 children I. Evangeline born Dec 22 1919 married to Pierre Bilodeau Mars 25,1912-Oct. 9 1978(my parents) 2.Daniel Dec 12 1920-AUG.25 1972 married Noella Perron born Aug.18,1923. 3.Paul Jan.19 1925-July 28 2010 married to Phillis hunt born Feb.28 1935. 4.Therese July 11 1929-Dec.5 1997 married to Alexendre Gauthier deceased in 1985. 5.Cecile born Jan.29 1932 married to Basil Boucher born April 15 1928
Carole said,
August 16, 2010 at 10:29 am
Ida,
Thank you so much for all the updates. Wow! I remember visiting my great-grandmother (Desneiges) Guillemette in North Bay when I was very young. I guess that makes us distant step-cousins?
I’ll have to point this out to my dad. He’s got a encyclopedic memory when it comes to family generations.