Definitely my favorite picture! The lady holding the baby is Doralice who was featured in a post on June 4. I can easily imagine that on a beautiful Sunday morning of September 1908, relatives dropped by after church. It seems like Doralice was asked to leave the kitchen to take this picture in house’s yard, on Amherst Street, in Montréal. The old lady beside her can only be her sister Olivine, who died in 1917, as she is the spitting image of her sister Elmire…
Statistics
Letter O: Less than 1% for the Hubou-Tourvilles’ first names.
Well, Olivine, Olive, Oliver, Ovila and Oswald.
Kind of Funny
Oswald is not very trendy these days, right?
The 2016 ChallengeAZ is proposed by Sophie Boudarel of La Gazette des ancêtres
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.
While doing my genealogical research, I couldn’t help notice that among the characters who have fascinated me over the years, were several Étienne. The first that comes to mind is Étienne Tourville, also known as Peter Stephen, who lived in Vergennes, VT, and Chateaugay, NY (pictured above). Then my 4X great-grandfather who died at 95 years old! How could I forget Étienne Arpajou, a.k.a. Peter Parish, that I have sought after for so long? And Étienne Brunet, of Saint-Sorlin, my friend