Week 9 of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge is Gone Too Soon. My favorite census is the 1900 United States Census because of two questions: “Mother of how many children?” and “Number of these children still living?” I wish these questions were on every census because they’re so helpful. From my grandfather’s notes, I learned that my great-great grandmother, Marie Louise (St. Andre) had four daughters with her husband, Lazare Laviolette, Jr. For a French-Canadian couple married in 1875, that was a tiny family. Marie was one of eleven children. Lazare had a whopping thirteen full-siblings and six half-siblings. Thanks to those two important questions on the 1900 census, I know why their family was so small. Marie actually had ten children, only four of whom were still living in 1900. Who were the six unnamed children? Where and when were they born?
I started with what I knew – the four living daughters.
Their eldest living daughter, Alphonsine, was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on April 22, 1877, proven true by her baptismal records from Ste-Cunegonde Church.
The next child mentioned in my grandfather’s notes was Albina, known as “Bi.” She was born about 1888 in Maine, according to various census records. I’ve been unable to locate any birth or baptismal records for her.
The third child, Marie “May” was born in 1890 in Canada. As with Bi, May’s birth can be proven with census records.
The final living Laviolette daughter was Laura, my great-grandmother. She was born in Westbrook, Maine on July 25, 1894. I’ve found her birth record, though the name on it appears as “Marie Rosie Violette.” French-Canadian Catholics gave their kids long names, so it’s probable that her baptismal name was “Marie Rose Laura Laviolette.” Laura also appears on census records with her family.
I was able to find records for four of the six missing Laviolette children. A son, Joseph Arthur, was born on April 28, 1878, in Montreal, proven by church records. A year later on April 1, 1879, a daughter named Emiliana was born in York, Ontario, Canada, as proven by birth records. She was baptized on April 20th of that year in Toronto. As neither of these children appear on the 1881 Canada Census, I assume they died prior to that date.
I did find another child on the 1881 Canada Census – a son named Honore. The census listed him as four months old, and church records show he was baptized in October of 1880 in Toronto. Again, I was unable to find a death record for Honore, but as he wasn’t on the 1900 United States Census, he probably died before that.
The final child located was Joseph Victor, who was baptized in Montreal in 1882, and died in Montreal in 1883, as proven through church records.
You may wonder why I care about these dead and forgotten babies. As siblings of my great-grandmother, they’re not my direct line, and all of them died before they could marry and have children. Why do they matter? If your genealogy goal is a tree full of names and dates, focused on your direct line only, these babies probably don’t matter, but if you care about your ancestors’ stories, their short lives are important. While infant mortality rates were high in the 1800s, losing a child was still a traumatic experience. Lazare and Marie lost more than half of their babies. How did that shape them or change their view of the world? What impact did it have on how they raised their remaining children?
The brief lives of these children also directly impact the timeline. Something I found interesting was how the family’s movement can be tracked through their children’s records. Like many French-Canadians, the Laviolettes came to America to find work in the factories. If I only looked at documentation for their living children, I would have assumed that the family lived in Montreal until 1888 when Albina was born in Maine. Learning that they spent at least a year in the province of Ontario gives me another location to explore for records. What drew them to Ontario? According to Emiliana's birth record, Lazare was a weaver living in York township . He likely moved there for the work, and perhaps the experience he gained there resulted in his later job in Westbrook, Maine at the Dana Warp Mill. If I dismissed these children as unimportant, I wouldn't have this valuable piece of information. Though these babies were gone too soon, it's still important to have them on our trees.
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