While on vacation in Ogunquit, Maine, I remembered an old inside joke which provided its share of fun.
Here we are in Ogunquit for a long late-spring weekend. While my brother-in-law Yvon, my sister Danielle and I are browsing in a used book’s shop, Danielle turns around and shows me this book from a well-known French youth collection La Bibliothèque verte, looking somewhat incongruous among the tons of English literary works for adults. We are giggling uncontrollably. The subject would keep popping up during the following year resulting in the usual hilarity. Why didn’t I buy it, asked my sister? The following spring, back at the library, Danielle and I are running through the store—as the first one who’ll grab it will own it. We are flabbergasted, it’s not there anymore! Seriously, who bought it?!
The upcoming Christmas, I can’t help making jokes: “Can’t wait to receive the clown book.” Three weeks later, as the family gathered for my birthday—I thought I had opened all my presents—Yvon, suddenly all smiles, handed me a small gift saying, “Here is the last one.” Before even opening it, I shouted: Ma vie de clown! My sister then looked at me, kind of perplexed. And there it was—Danielle couldn’t believe it! And Yvon went on telling how he ran before us to buy the book, hide it in the car while we were trying to get over our disappointment and that he kept that secret for eight months. Funny guy, our Yvon!
Statistics
Letter Y: Less than 1% for the Hubou-Tourvilles’ first names.
Only one Yvette and two Yvonne!
The 2016 ChallengeAZ is proposed by Sophie Boudarel of La Gazette des ancêtres
I am kind of lucky to have one picture for someone whose first name starts with the letter V (there are only six—even if I am cheating again). Valérie Rose was born in 1850 and she and Alphonse Tourville were only 17 years old when they married in 1867. Around 1879, they left Montréal to settle in Chicago. Rose gave birth to twelve children: five were born in Montréal, four in Chicago and three in Nebraska. She is the grandmother of Blanche and the mother of Frederick, featured in this series. Valérie died in 1931 in Nebraska.
There, you have it, the only member of the Hubou-Tourville family whose first name starts with the letter U: Ulric Tourville, born and baptized on April 23, 1867, at Notre-Dame Church in Montréal. Son of Louis Tourville and Suzanne Bélec, he emigrated to Chicago around 1880. In the United States, he will be known as Fred Ulrich. In 1893, he married Amanda Adams in Chicago’s Notre-Dame parish. He was a carpenter, just like his father, but later on was a millwright. Around 1925, he left Chicago to settle in Syracuse, NY, where he died in 1947.
You probably knew I couldn’t resist writing about the Missouri line… again! Recently, I was wondering if Toussaint was baptized under this name because he was born on November 1st (All Saints’ Day = Toussaint in French). Well, this was not the case since he was born in July. He was named after his godfather, Toussaint Vaudry. Toussaint named his second son the same. Sadly enough, both will die from the cholera disease on the same day. The son of Toussaint Jr, born a posthumous child, was baptized Joseph Toussaint and was later known under the name of Joseph T.
When one adds a new name to its family tree, it can be a solemn time just like in this case when I entered the data concerning Sophie, my grandniece (information corroborated by my genealogy software), on her birth date, only two weeks ago. Her ID number is 9934. She will be one of those people born just a few weeks after the 2016 Canadian Census and in a few centuries from now, somebody will say this about it : “Gee, I wonder how come I cannot find her in it, she was supposedly 10 in 2026!”
René did not go to school beyond the third grade, but nonetheless, he managed to become an aircraft mechanic for an aviation company. I still remember when we visited the airport hangar at Dorval and nothing reminds me more of my childhood than the smell of tires! Not so long ago, my brother Mario told me that I was the one who inherited the most from our father, like his intellectual curiosity, his interest in history and travel as well as his passion for reading. But, please, tell me, Dad, how come am I so afraid to fly?!
A few years ago, Dennis Tourville (now deceased) made me so happy when he sent me this picture of Pascal Lewis Tourville, born in 1839, in Florissant, Missouri. Pascal is the first cousin once removed of Jesse Herndon Tourville and the grandson of Toussaint Tourville who left Lachenaie around 1790 to settle near St. Louis, Missouri. I’m not sure that picture is a photograph. Is it an illustration or a photo that was colorized or something? No matter what, I am really glad to know what Pascal Lewis looked like!