52 Ancestors Week 45: Stormy Weather

 The theme for Week 45 is "Stormy Weather." What storms did an ancestor have to weather? Take it literally or figuratively!

Was so tempted to use Storm of the X-Men as a banner.

    In every life a little rain must fall. Every decision you make could have consequences for you, your significant other and your entire family. One event in particular reminds of this quote from Doctor Who:

“Every great decision creates ripples, like a huge boulder dropped in a lake. The ripples merge, rebound off the banks in unforeseeable ways. The heavier the decision, the larger the waves, the more uncertain the consequences.” --7th Doctor, Sylvester McCoy in "Remembrance of the Daleks".

      Fans of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" might recognize the barista in that clip! =D Back on topic.

You missed so much, Antoine.

    The reason why the quote resonates with me is mainly because of my second great-grandfather, Antoine Legault. He was born in 1851 and died relatively young by today's standards at the age of forty-nine. I can't help but wonder if he knew how much of an impact his death would have had on his wife and many children.

    Let's be clear on one thing before I continue. I'm fairly certain he didn't plan on dying. No decision was made here. He died in 1901 from phthisis pubim aka tuberculosis. How he contracted it remains a mystery. However, in the 1900 census he was listed as a factory worker in a shoe factory. So, let's put two and two together. Inhalation of the fumes may have been a contributing factor. If he didn't work in the factory, he probably wouldn't have died and his family wouldn't have been split up. That's just conjecture on my part. However, I think by the end of this week's blog you're going to see just how much of an impact the death of one man can have on a family of twelve.

    The first thought on everyone's mind is probably what happened to Lucie after the death of her husband. She had just given birth to their last child Oliver a couple of months before Antoine passed away. As you can imagine, she was probably grief-stricken. She was a widow for seventeen years until she met and married a man named Paul Lahaye in 1917. Up until that point she raised Oliver all by herself with the help of her older children, of course.

    In the 1910 census, she was living on Lewis Street in Haverhill, Mass with her daughters: Henrietta, Clara, Blanche and her son Oliver. She was basically raising a bunch of teenagers and one eight year old all by herself. I don't think I need to tell anyone how crazy that is. In any century, that can be rough. Stormy weather, indeed!  Luckily she had two lodgers who more than likely helped with the children. At least I hope they did. You can't assume anything. For all I know they went to work and paid Mrs. Legault when the rent was due. The rest of the children had scattered all over the valley by this point as they had lives of their own.

Austin and Henrietta at their 50th anniversary in 1963!

  By 1920, my great-grandmother had already married my great-grandfather, Austin Felker. Lucie appeared in the census twice. I first found her with Paul, her daughter Blanche and her first husband, Frank Paradis. She appeared with just Paul the second time I found her.

    The last time she would be in the US census was in 1930 and again she was living with Paul. She passed away seven years later and three decades after Antoine passed away.

    The one silver lining from this is that she got to see her children get married and see quite a few grandchildren including my own grandmother born. That's always a good thing! I can't help but wonder if Lucie thought about Antoine during those weddings and births in the family. I suppose I'll never know.

    It should be noted that at the time of Antoine's death, several of their children were already married. Lucy married John Bourneuf in 1891. Malvina married Hector Lambert in 1897. Delphine married Ovila David in 1899. The last wedding he likely went to was for his namesake, Anthony Peter who married Mary Erwin in September of 1901. Antoine died less than a month later. The rest of the children unfortunately didn't have their father around to walk them down the aisle and so I would wager Lucie thought of him at every wedding from 1901 to 1936 and trust me there were a LOT!

Blanche in the late '70s/early '80s.

        I'm not about to focus on every child and list what happened to each of them. The blog would be incredibly long because of how many children there were. So, let's focus on the youngest Legault, Oliver. We last saw him living with his mother in the 1910 census. What happened to him afterward?

    Well, to be honest I only have bits and pieces to go on. Fear not, readers. I do have a story to tell. All isn't completely lost! I was able to find him in the 1930 census living with his sister, Matilda, her husband Clayton Rowell and their son, Hilliard. They were all living in Brooklyn! This isn't a surprise to me because my mother often told me about how Matilda and Blanche lived in Connecticut and New York while she was growing up. They saw each other often and when the sisters visited their sister in Haverhill they would talk to each other in French in front of my mother and her siblings! I honestly think that was what made her study French in school!

    Apparently Oliver didn't stay with his sisters for very long as he ventured to upstate New York where he spent the rest of his life. Over the course of his life, he had two wives. He married Myrtle Harding in 1920 and Agnes Germann in 1936. I have several DNA matches who descend from Oliver as he had quite a few children.  Oliver did okay for himself in upstate New York. After he passed away in 1950, his daughter Myrtle kept in contact with the family back in the Merrimack valley. In fact, she was one of the many Legaults who were invited to my parents' wedding! She didn't actually go. Matilda, Blanche and Henrietta were there, though as the rest of the siblings had all passed by 1971.

Lucie is buried with her daughter, Mary Adelaide.

    So, how is all of this stormy weather? Did the Legault children not get along with Paul? Was he good to the Legault kids? Were they okay with their new step-father? It's hard to say. That's a question that will also never really be answered. I don't really feel good about putting words in peoples' mouths--especially if they've been gone for so long. That's bad karma.

    According to my mother, Henrietta didn't really talk much about Paul. I'm not sure if he was a decent man or not. I honestly hope he was because he came in and took care of the family after Antoine passed away. Still, you have to wonder what the relationship was like since many of the children moved away and didn't really speak of him. It might be a good idea not to pull at that thread.

    Regardless of what may or may not have happened in the wake of Antoine's death, I think it is clear that it had a tremendous impact on his family. Oliver grew up never knowing his father and most of the daughters didn't have him walking down the aisle with them. It's very sad and I can't help but wonder what life would have been like had he not worked at the factory if that really was the cause of his tuberculosis. 

    One of the oddest things I have found is that Lucie wasn't buried with Paul. Lucie was instead buried with her daughter, Mary Adelaide and her husband, Oliver Gariepy. Paul passed away in 1932. Perhaps they didn't have the money to have them buried in the same plot? Draw your own conclusions there. We could theorize all day and still not come up with a satisfying answer!

    Still, it's clear that stormy weather was caused by Antoine's death. I would wager that if Antoine hadn't died when he did, Oliver would have known his father for sure. That's the only given I am willing to put forth. Who knows when he would have passed away had he not worked in the factory and thus didn't die at that point in time? If you subscribe to the theory of there being a multiverse out there, perhaps there is a reality where he lived a full life. And perhaps my hair is green in that reality. Or my eyes are just a slightly different color.

    Stormy weather can come in all forms and fate can change in an instant. Who knows what really would have happened. Life got a little stormy after the death of the Legault patriarch. The family went their separate ways and came back together every once in a while to celebrate various family events. While that's cool and all, I still can't help but ponder the question....

"What if....?"

See ya next time!