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!
Statistics
Letter P: almost 3% for the Hubou-Tourvilles’ first names.
Pascal was very popular for the Missouri line. Lots of Peter! And we have Prosper, Philibert and few Pierre. For the women, Philomène is in first place followed by Pamela, Perpétue, Pierrette and Priscilla.
Kind of Funny
Perpétue is not my favorite.
The 2016 ChallengeAZ is proposed by Sophie Boudarel of La Gazette des ancêtres
Definitely my favorite picture! The lady holding the baby is 
While entering a child’s baptism date on my genealogy database only to realize a few minutes later that the burial date is so close, I can’t help thinking about Normand, the big brother I never had the chance to know. And thinking about some women who lived during the eighteen and nineteen centuries and who had 10 children, or even 15 in some cases, and that so many of them never made it to adulthood, I wonder how these mothers could cope with their grief. Did they become resigned? An era in which it was heartbreaking being a mother.
I’m cheating again since dealing with the letter K is difficult, especially in French! Kathryn Hoban—from Wilkes-Bare, Pennsylvania—was the wife of Jesse Herndon Tourville—from St. Louis, Missouri—a very colourful man who was a palmist. Married in Niagara Falls in 1905, the couple’s life was so astonishing that I could easily write a novel about it. Kathryn is the first person for whom I have discovered a picture in a newspaper. I would have never thought old newspapers would prove so helpful to get to know what a person looked like except, of course, for recent obituaries.
Very recently, I found this picture of John Trowville. You may remember that I went to South Hero, Vermont, just a few weeks ago. Born about 1838 in the same town, he lived there most of his life, except for the years he was a private in the Civil War, having fought with the Vermont 13th Infantry Regiment, Company H. I do not have that many pictures of Civil War soldiers so I’m glad I got this one! John reminds me of a famous French actor that you may or may not know, Jean Rochefort.
I was a bit disappointed when I realized I had no picture of Isabelle Tourville. And then I remembered that I had seen a picture of her in Hanover, New Hampshire, a book of the Images of America series—a collection that I just love. These books feature photos telling the story of little towns or neighborhoods across the United States. I cannot post her picture, but same can be viewed by clicking on the book link 
Isn’t it a wonderful picture? I am still amazed that I have the chance to actually discover the face of someone born in 1821! But let me do proper introductions first. This is Hyacinthe Tourville. To help you understand how you may be related to him, Hyacinthe is the grandson of Michel Tourville and Catherine Marié as well as the nephew of Charles Tourville and Sophie Arpajou. He lived his whole life in Saint-François-de-Sales—he was even buried in the parish cemetery. Married twice, he lost his first wife after only four years of marriage.
Graziella Tourville was born in 1891, in Saint-François-de-Sales. She is the granddaughter of Hyacinthe Tourville and Marguerite Meunier. Her first name is really typical of the end of the 19th century’s trend when practically all female first names ended with the letter “A”, like Gratia, Rosa, Ida, Priscilla, Georgiana, Florida and so many others. How old do you think she is in this picture? Probably not more than twenty years old. As she got married at 22, I believe that this picture was taken well before that.