Week 27, Extended Family: Who Are the Greenville Vaillancourts?

Extended Family is the theme for week 27 of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge. One of my goals when when I inherited Grampy Phil’s genealogy binders was to try my best to finish what he started, even if it meant following all the little rabbit trails to find the answers. He left research notes in his binders of paths to follow up on and tasks to complete. He had a large collection of family photos, and while he identified the majority of relatives, there are some mystery people he was unable to identify. Some of these mystery relatives are “the Vaillancourts from Greenville, NH.” I found that label on the back of a group of pictures taken in 1925 which feature my great-grandmother Bernadette with some known and unknown family members. Who were the Greenville Vaillancourts, and how were they related to my family?

One of the 1925 pictures labeled "Vaillancourts from Greenville, NH" L-R possibly Camilla (Thibault) Vaillancourt, my step great-great grandma Emilia (Thibault) Barr holding my grandfather Phil LaViolet, my great-grandma's half-sister Alice Barr, and my great-grandmother Bernadette (Barr) Laviolette, 1925, Westbrook, Maine

Well, to start with, I quickly discovered they weren’t actually Vaillancourts (though we do have some through blood and marriage in that branch) but Thibaults. By tracing my great-grandmother’s family lines, I came across a Thibault/Dube branch in Greenville, NH. A corresponding Ancestry tree had a nice, clear family portrait, and some of the faces looked an awful lot like the “Greenville Vaillancourts” in our 1925 pictures.

The Thibault Family of Greenville, NH. Back L-R Adelard Thibault, Marie Clara Azilda (Dube) Thibault, Elie Thibault, Joseph Thibault Center Row L-R: Maria Louise Thibault, Mary Jane Azilda Thibault, Camilla Thibault, Angelina Thibault Front Row L-R: Ernest Thibault, Emile Thibault, and Ernestine Thibault. Photo taken from Ancestry

The patriarch and matriarch of this branch are Elie Thibault and Marie Clara Azilda Dube. The Dube and Thibault branches intermarried. If I figured this out correctly, a brother and sister from the Thibaults married a brother and sister from the Dubes. They were my great-grandmother Bernadette Barr’s grandaunt and granduncle twice over, and she was related to them both by blood. Elie Thibault was the brother of Bernadette’s grandmother, Valerie Thibault. Azilda Dube was the sister of Bernadette’s grandfather, Louis Odilon Dube. Louis Odilon Dube married Valerie Thibault and they had my great-great grandmother, Camilla Dube, the mother of Bernadette.

Confusing? You bet! I had to reference my family tree multiple times to figure out the connections correctly.

One of the Greenville Thibaults -- maybe Ernest or Emile, and my great-grandmother, Bernadette, 1925.

If that wasn’t confusing enough, Elie Thibault and Azilda Dube were more closely related to my step great-great-grandmother, Emilia (Thibault) Barr, who is also pictured. Emilia was not only Bernadette’s stepmother, but her mother’s first cousin. After her mother died, Bernadette’s father, Charles Barr, stayed with his deceased wife Camilla’s family in Massachusetts. He eventually fell in love with Camilla Dube’s cousin, Emilia Thibault, married her, and had a daughter named Alice. Elie Thibault was Emilia’s uncle; he was the brother of Emilia’s father, Bernard Thibault. She was not related by blood to Azilda Dube, but all Elie and Azilda’s children pictured in the Thibault family picture are Emilia’s first cousins. They were my great-great grandmother Camilla (Dube) Barr's double-first-cousins.

Bernadette (Barr) Laviolette, a Thibault relative from Greenville (probably Emile or Ernest) and Alice Barr, 1925, Brackett St., Westbrook, Maine

I’m still not 100% sure which Greenville cousins came to visit because the Thibault picture was taken probably about 10 years or so before their 1925 trip to Westbrook, Maine, but if I had to guess based on their faces, I’d say they are all Thibault siblings. Best guess, the woman is Camilla (Thibault) Vaillancourt, the older man is Joseph Thibault, and the two younger men are Ernest and Emile Thibault. Ernest and Emile were quite a bit younger than Camilla and Joseph.

My family with the Thibaults from Greenville, NH. L-R, possibly Ernest or Emile Thibault, Bernadette (Barr) Laviolette, Emilia (Thibault) Barr holding Philip LaViolet, possibly Camilla Thibault, Charles Barr, possibly Joseph Thibault Front L-R: possibly Ernest or Emile Thibault, and unidentified little boy, 1925, Westbrook, Maine

I haven’t yet reached out to this branch of the family on Ancestry, but I plan to. I’d love to connect with them and see if anyone can positively identify my Greenville Thibaults. While I don’t have all the answers yet, I’m a small step closer, and I’d like to believe that would please Grampy Phil.