My Grandfather ~ Alphee Hubal Desmarais

My earliest memories of my grandfather begin with the weekly drives, travelling down a winding, narrow, two-lane road, to the nursing home where he resided in his final years. My mother, nervously navigating our trip, would reach her hand across the front seat, the forerunner of a seatbelt, at every sudden stop, protecting me from hitting the solid wooden dashboard.  I remember anxiously staring out the car window, counting telephone poles and practicing my newly learned reading skills with every passing road sign.

My mother, brother, and grandfather

My grandfather was descended from Renee Abraham dit Desmarais, my seventh great- grandfather, who settled in Quebec sometime before 1671, when he married his first wife Jeanne Blondeau. Renee Abraham dit Desmarais married his second wife, my seventh great-grandmother, Marguerite Girard in 1690 in St. Francois du Lac.

 At that time, the Desmarais name was a dit name, an alias tagged onto the family name, Abraham. To understand the meaning of a dit name, I suggest you read the following explanation, which I found to be straightforward and easy to follow:

 Understanding Dit Names

Alphee Hubul Joseph Desmarais was born 126 years ago today on November 12, 1886 in St. Francois du Lac, Canada. He was the fifth child of Gustave Desmarais and Marie Plandomon, their only child born in Canada; their other children, Elise, Gustave Henry, Wilrod, and Joseph were born in New Hampshire. Upon close analysis of a variety of records including, census records, city directories, and baptismal records, it becomes evident that the Gustave Desmarais family moved back and forth between Manchester, New Hampshire, where Alphee’s siblings were born, and St. Francois du Lac between the years 1876 and at least 1886, the year when Alphee was born. 

Gustave and Marie were living in Manchester, New Hampshire as early as 1876 when their daughter Elise was born and baptized at St. Augustin Church. According to the city directory, by the time, Alphee was born ten years later in Canada; his father was still living in Manchester and working at a paper mill.

By 1893, Marie Desmarais shows up in Lowell, listed as Mrs. Gustave Desmarais in the city directory, but there is no listing for her husband, Gustave.  In subsequent years, the city directory lists Marie Desmarais as a widow.  While exploring Alphee’s early years, I often questioned what ever happened to Gustave and wonder if my grandfather ever actually knew his father. 

My grandfather grew up in Lowell, Massachusetts and in 1900 when Alphee was 14, the federal census lists him as living with his mother Mary and siblings and attending school.  In the 1910 federal census, Alphee’s occupation is a machinist and four years later, on June 29, 1914 at the age of 28, Alphee and my grandmother Blanche Smith were married in Lowell. On the Lowell marriage registration their occupations are recorded, Alphee as a clerk, and Blanche as a looper.  

Marriages Registered in the city of Lowell, 1914

When Alphee filled out his World War I draft registration card in 1917, he was 31 years old and stated that he was a married man with a wife who depended on him.  On his registration, he also recorded his occupation as a Reclaiming Agent for the Saco Lowell Shops.

In 1920, Alphee and Blanche were still living with his mother Mary on Pawtucket Avenue in Lowell along with his sister Elise and his brother Arthur.  Alphee and Blanche both worked in 1920, Alphee was a foreman in a machine shop and Blanche worked as a stitcher in a shoe shop. 

In 1921, Gilbert Desmarais, the first child of Alphee and Blanche, was born in Lowell, likely named after Blanche’s deceased father, Gilbert Smith.  

Gilbert died at a young age, the story I have always been told is that he fell down a flight of stairs when he was a child and died years later because of complications from his injuries. Two more children were born in Lowell before the family moved to Pawtucket, Rhode Island in 1932.  Two more children were born in Pawtucket, where the family settled and raised their children in the Darlington section of the city. 

 

By the year 1940, my grandfather was working as a mechanic in a textile mill and according to his WWII draft registration card; in 1942 he was working at the Lincoln Machine Company located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.  When I asked my mother what she could remember about her father, one thing she did mention is that he worked for a Works Progress Administration  project that made bullets for the war.

The Desmarais family continued to live in Darlington, where my grandmother died in 1955.  By the early 1960’s my grandfather was living in the nursing home, the only place I remember visiting him, he passed away there in March of 1967.

My mother, grandfather, and me

Here is a link to a post describing my journey to the cemetery to visit my grandparents.

Tombstone Tuesday-My Grandparents

Citations

Ancestry.com, 1910 United States Federal Census (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.Original data - Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910 (NARA microfilm publication T624, 1,178 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Was), Ancestry.com,

Ancestry.com, 1920 United States Federal Census (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.Original data - Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. (NARA microfilm publication T625, 2076 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Reco), Ancestry.com,

Ancestry.com, 1930 United States Federal Census (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002.Original data - United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626,),

Ancestry.com, 1940 United States Federal Census (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.Original data - United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627),

Ancestry.com, Social Security Death Index (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010.Original data - Social Security Administration. Social Security Death Index, Master File. Social Security Administration.Original data: Social Security Administration. Social Security D), Ancestry.com, http://www.Ancestry.com,

"Canada Census, 1881," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MVNT-LNC : accessed 11 Nov 2012), Gustave Desmarais in household of Gustave Desmarais, St-François, Yamaska, Quebec, Canada.

 

"Massachusetts, Marriages, 1841-1915," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/N4X9-64W : accessed 11 Nov 2012), Gustave Desmarais in entry for Alpha H Desmarais and Blanche Smith, 1914.

"New Hampshire, Birth Records, Early to 1900," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/FLLV-TQG : accessed 12 Nov 2012), Desmarais, 07 Oct 1883.

"United States Census, 1900," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/M9T4-S58 : accessed 12 Nov 2012), Elise Desmarais in household of Marie Desmaraix, ED 810 Lowell city Ward 7, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; citing sheet 28A, family 464, NARA microfilm publication T623, FHL microfilm 1240661.

"United States, World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/KZN9-6NN : accessed 11 Nov 2012), Joseph Hubal Alphee Desmarais, 

"United States, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/V1VD-1C1 : accessed 11 Nov 2012), Alphee Hubal Desmarais, 1942; citing NARA microfilm publications M1939, M1936, and M1937; FHL microfilm 2368319.