52 Ancestors Week 31: Flew the Coop

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 31

The theme for Week 31 is "Flew the Coop." The phrase "flew the coop" means to have escaped or run away. It can also refer to someone when they leave their parents' home. Or it can be chickens. Take your pick.

Why is that eastern line so short? Oh, right...the ocean.

    Back in the day it seemed like once someone reached that coveted milestone of their eighteenth birthday, the person would invariably pick up their belongings and set out on their own out in the cold, cruel world. Man, was that ever a fantasy. I don't think I've ever seen that on my genealogical adventure. No one was ever kicked out of the house once they turned eighteen and everyone stayed within driving distance of each other. In fact, it often took a literal act of God to split a family up! How's that for a segue?!

    I may have talked about this on more than a few occasions in this blog. But, it bears repeating since I recently came into contact with another long-lost second cousin once removed. The death of  my 2nd great-grandfather Antoine Legault in 1901 rocked the Legault family to the core as not long afterward, his many children left the city of Haverhill to parts unknown.

    Wow. That makes it seem a lot more epic than it seems, right? I'm sure his wife Lucie kept tabs on everyone in the family. I've pretty much accounted for the whereabouts of their thirteen children as many of them stayed reasonably close to home with some exceptions like Oliver who ended up in upstate New York.

    Oliver is actually the only son I know the most about. He went from family member to family member as evidenced by the 1930 census where he was seen living with his sister Matilda and her family in Brooklyn, New York. Oliver married his second wife, Agnes in 1936 and they moved to Holland, New York. The rest as they say is history. I just wish the same could be said for his brothers, Philip and Anthony.

    Anthony was clearly named after his father and while I do have many sources which indicate where he went and everything, I'm missed a few crucial bits of information here because some hints on Ancestry for the brothers have just been flat out strange to me.

    Let's get the weird hint out of the way because this is really out there. According to Ancestry, Philip Legault was in the 1900 US Census living in an insitution in New York. In 1900, he was about sixteen years old at the time, too. I have yet to confirm that it was in fact him. However, his birthplace of Massachusetts was listed and so was his birth year of 1884.  Could that be the same Philip? I have no idea. I have asked my genealogist friends for help on this issue and sadly the institution's records are kind of sparse.

 Meanwhile, it's not all bad news for Anthony.  Eventually, he got married in September of 1901 and again in 1913. He passed away at the age of fifty-four in Salem, Mass. I honestly have no idea if he had children and I have yet to find any DNA matches who connect with him. Everyone seems to connect with the sisters and Oliver. Records for Anthony seem to have flown the coop. See what I did there? =D Sufficed it to say, I put that hint for Philip on the backburner and I might revisit it. Then again I might not because it seems like such a longshot to me because of all the questions I have about the logistics and everything.

   Why was he sent to that institution? Was the kid in the 1900 census really him? It seems odd that Antoine and Lucie would send their son all the way to New York like that. That's one question I'd like to have answered. Did Philip really fly the coop and end up in an institution?

     At least with Philip I have a somewhat relatively good idea of what happened to him after the trip to New York. He married Lea Lefebvre   in the 1910s and had at least one child with her. He was a veteran of both World Wars and seemingly lived in Haverhill all of his life. He had a ton of grandchildren as well. Not too bad, right? Well, yeah. I can't fault you all for wondering why I'd bring this up.

    The real issue for Philip is that while I have a ton of information on him and his descendants, I don't seem to have his exact date of death. I also don't have any DNA matches who descend from him that I know of. Information about this branch of the Legault tree seemed to have also flown the coop on a genetic genealogy level. While I do have the info, I don't have the contact with the descendants who could potentially give me more information and pictures. Would they know if Philip was sent to New York or not?

       Hopefully, one of the descendants of Philip contacts me in the near future and sheds some light on a few questions I have. I'm not sure even how to best ask that question about New York. No one has to take a DNA test if they don't want to or anything. I'm just curious about a few dates and if there are pictures of the family somewhere. Legault family photographs are pretty rare. Those are the things I want the most. I can only hope that someone from that  family line contacts me just as I was contacted by one of Mary Adelaide's descendants this week.

    It is interesting to me that the Legault sisters and their families all kept in touch and yet no one seems to know much about what happened to the brothers save for Oliver. Did everyone focus on him because the poor guy's father passed away while he was very young? That's a distinct possibility. He was the youngest after all.  Who can say? I just hope there's a reasonable explanation for why Philip seemingly appeared in the 1900 census in an institution in New York. It just doesn't seem to make sense and you guys know me. I like things to make sense!

    The answer is out there and sooner or later I'll find out more about what happened to the Legault brothers. I just need to be patient!

See ya next time!

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