For years I have searched from my grandfather Damien LeBlanc's death and burial record. Burial records for Sacred Heart Cemetery were searched but nothing was found. Death records for Lawrence, Massachusetts yielded nothing. After years of searching, I began to wonder if I would ever find his death record but I was determined to never give up. However, I kept wondering whether or not his death record might be forever lost to me.. or not?
Something I had found in U.S. Census records kept coming back to me. Every time I found my grandfather in a census record, he was listed as "Daniel" LeBlanc. I found these on Ancestry.com and added the "correction" of Damien.
No search in any vitals for Massachusetts ever turned up a death record for Damien. I had copied all of the LeBlanc deaths in Lawrence from the index cards in the City Clerk's office in Lawrence and would go over all of them from time to time never seeing my grandfather's death was on that list. Suddenly one night as I was going to sleep it was like a huge light went on. I sat up straight in bed and remembered that my grandfather Damien no longer showed up in Lawrence City Directories for 1913. Of course, he had always been listed as Damien in those directories so why would I expect to find him under anything but Damien I would ask myself. But when this light went on, I remembered that in my notes I had recorded a Daniel LeBlanc who had died in 1913. Hmmmm.. It was late so I decided to go to sleep and check my notes in the morning.
First thing next morning I took out my notes, went to the Mormon familysearch.org pilot site, typed in the name of Daniel LeBlanc with the death date I had before me and *bingo*!!! There was my grandfather's death record. Now how could I be sure this was my grandfather? Fortunately, a Mrs. Pierre LeBlanc gave the information that he was a widower and that his parents were Sylvin LeBlanc and Dometilde Arsenault. Those were indeed the names of my great grandparents and my grandmother Odille Doiron had preceded him in death at the young age of 42.
To top it off, I later learned that many Acadian men whose names are Damien often change their names to Daniel. This was something unknown to me.
This is proof once again that we should never give up the search no matter what. For years I had my grandfather's death date and place in my notes but didn't even know it. At some point all of the data I had seen over the years, like those census records, converged in my mind and I could finally put this part of my search to rest. Yes, I did the happy dance!
As is quite typical in genealogy research, this mystery has been solved but now I have another mystery? Who was Mrs. Pierre LeBlanc?
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Lucie's Legacy
Lucie LeBlanc Consentino
2010-Present
5 comments:
Thanks for the encouragement Lucy. Thanks for the encouragement Lucie, I am going through something similar with the couple Joseph Herbert and Hermine Daigneau. Their names have been spelled so many different ways. Hebert has been spelled ebert ,abert, Herbert, Herbertt. I eventually sorted him out and what I found was so surprising. His father and uncle had been killed in the Patriot Rebellion and he wound up in Vermont, perhaps having fled with a member of his family from Quebec. Hermine is another story, both her first and last name have been spelled differently almost each time. Hermine, Harmine, Armine, Almine, Daignault, Diagneau, Dagnou, Daigneault, dagneau, ect. I still have not been able to sort her out, but I think she belonged to one of two families from Quebec. Both of these families are Daigneau dit Laprise so somewhere not so far back in time, these two families may intersect . Maybe their grandfathers were brothers or maybe the fathers of these two families were brothers. Hermine married Joseph Hebert in Chester, Vermont when she was 15 and he was about 28. It made me wonder if her father was in the Rebellion. I am still not giving up the search for the parents of Hermine Daigneau.
In another case I think I may have finally found the family of Charles C Perry. That family from Lawrence that you so kindly took pictures of the home for me. I am not sure yet, but I am working on gathering supporting evidence for what I found. A Charles C Perry who matched mine was listed in a petition for a war pension from the American Revolution War. It was kind of a sad story that I managed to gather up from the Family Search site. If this is his family, his grandfather, Zebedee Cushman, was a patriot in the American Revolution who I also saw listed as a descendant from Mayflower families, but there was no document sor genealogy to support this point.
Zebedee was only 16 years old and 5 feet 5 inches tall and a soldier in the Continental Army. He had, according to an affidavit with the petition, been a servant since a young boy and his employer had talked him into to joining the Army. The affidavit was made by the employer’s wife. After not only fighting this war, but also helping construct Oxford, Maine from the ground up, he died in poverty. Two of his children died before him, one of his daughter’s was blind, another feeble, and another too sickly to take care of herself. His wife could not read or write. His only daughter that was well died as youngish mother leaving behind about five children as orphans as their father had already passed on. I also found that this Charles C Perry’s uncle, Benjamin F Perry, committed suicide at the age of 71 in Revere, MA. I was heartbroken for this family, be it my Charles C Perry’s family or not.
Oddly enough, the descendants of these two couples, Joseph Hebert and Hermine Daigneau, and Charles C Perry who married Hannah Hurd, intersect in Massachusetts and marry. One of them also becomes an orphan, this is my grandmother, Elizabeth Hanley. Apparently her mother, Eula Malo, was in such a horrible marriage that she divorced her spouse and put her children in an orphanage, unable to care for them, Eula disappears. My grandmother gets out of the orphanage at the age of 18 and shortly afterwards get married to a man, Francis Richards, who is about 30. They divorce and my grandmother quickly remarried. My mom and dad’s family histories can both be described as being heavy with sadness. They connect in more than just this history of sadness though as my mom and dad are 10th cousins via a Boucher connection. In my dad’s case, he picks up this connection through the same Joseph Hebert! Here I am with all of this history, trying to sort it out and make sense of it and how events that occurred generations ago impact on my life today. I think my ancestors are smiling on me today because they are happy that I have uncovered their lives, shared some of their sadness and joys, and reflected on how I hold them dear.
More to the point Lucie, not all records are lost
Thanks for the encouragement Lucie. I am going through something similar with the couple Joseph Herbert and Hermine Daigneau. Their names have been spelled so many different ways. Hebert has been spelled ebert ,abert, Herbert, etc. I eventually sorted him out and what I found was so surprising. His father and uncle had been killed in the Patriot Rebellion and he wound up in Vermont, perhaps having fled there. Hermine is another story, both her first and last name have been spelled differently almost each time. Hermine, Harmine, Armine, Almine, Daignault, Diagneau, Dagnou, Daigneault, Dagneau, ect. I still have not been able to sort her out, but I think she belonged to one of two families from Quebec. Both of these families are Daigneau dit Laprise so somewhere not so far back in time, these two families may intersect . Maybe their grandfathers were brothers or maybe the fathers of these two families were brothers. Hermine married Joseph Hebert in Chester, Vermont when she was 15 and he was about 28. It made me wonder if her father was in the Rebellion. I am still not giving up the search for the parents of Hermine Daigneau.
In another case I think I may have finally found the family of Charles C Perry. That family from Lawrence that you so kindly took pictures of the home for me. I am not sure yet, but I am working on gathering supporting evidence for what I found. A Charles C Perry who matched mine was listed in a petition for a war pension from the American Revolution War. It was kind of a sad story that I managed to gather up from the Family Search site. If this is his family, his grandfather, Zebedee Cushman, was a patriot in the American Revolution who I also saw listed as a descendant from Mayflower families, but there was no document sor genealogy to support this point.
Zebedee was only 16 years old and 5 feet 5 inches tall and a soldier in the Continental Army. He had, according to an affidavit with the petition, been a servant since a young boy and his employer had talked him into to joining the Army. The affidavit was made by the employer’s wife. After not only fighting this war, but also helping construct Oxford, Maine from the ground up, he died in poverty. Two of his children died before him, one of his daughter’s was blind, another feeble, and another too sickly to take care of herself. His wife could not read or write. His only daughter that was well died as youngish mother leaving behind about five children as orphans as their father had already passed on. I also found that this Charles C Perry’s uncle, Benjamin F Perry, committed suicide at the age of 71 in Revere, MA. I was heartbroken for this family, be it my Charles C Perry’s family or not.
Oddly enough, the descendants of these two couples, Joseph Hebert and Hermine Daigneau, and Charles C Perry who married Hannah Hurd, intersect in Massachusetts and marry. One of them also becomes an orphan, this is my grandmother, Elizabeth Hanley. Apparently her mother, Eula Malo, was in such a horrible marriage that she divorced her spouse and put her children in an orphanage, unable to care for them, Eula disappears. My grandmother gets out of the orphanage at the age of 18 and shortly afterwards get married to a man, Francis Richards, who is about 30. They divorce and my grandmother quickly remarried. My mom and dad’s family histories can both be described as being heavy with sadness. They connect in more than just this history of sadness though as my mom and dad are 10th cousins via a Boucher connection. In my dad’s case, he picks up this connection through the same Joseph Hebert! Here I am with all of this history, trying to sort it out and make sense of it and how events that occurred generations ago impact on my life today. I think my ancestors are smiling on me today because they are happy that I have uncovered their lives, shared some of their sadness and joys, and reflected on how I hold them dear.
More to the point Lucie, it is true records may not be lost.
Lucie,
Good post! One mystery solved, and another to take it's place. But isn't it fun looking?
Hi Bill.. I always believe the fun is in the hunt. It is great to solve a mystery but we learn a great deal along the way as we try to solve it.
Lucie
Hello,
This is from Cowgirl1049@yahoo.com.
I am the great-great granddaughter of Jospeh and Hermine. They ended up in Voluntown/Griswold , Connecticut. The name Hebert was changed to Herbert when my GGrandfather owned a general store in Voluntown and they suppliers would misinterpret the accent mark and put an r. I have pictures of the graves of Joseph and Hermine and have their death certificates. Write back if interested.
Jan
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