Last December I introduced you to my 4^th great-grandparents; Joseph and Rosalie were 2 of those sixteen 4^th great-grandparents.  They were the parents of my 3^rd great-grandmother, Rosalie Deguire dite Derosiers who was the mother of my 2^nd great-grandmother Marie Rose Delima Peltier who was the mother of my great-grandmother Celestine Peltier who was my grandmother Ellen (Peltier) Vadnais’ mother.

Joseph and Rosalie led a simple farm life.  They were both born in 1802 in the Yamaska area of Quebec and surprisingly they both died in 1882 in the same area, with Joseph passing away 6 months before Rosalie.

It is unusual for the period of time they lived, but not unheard of, to have photographs of everyday people; during that time photography was mostly for the wealthy.  For over 20 years I unknowingly had 2 pictures of Joseph and Rosalie and since I couldn’t identify them because of faded typing, I had totally forgotten about them.  It wasn’t until another cousin (thank you Mike E.) sent me the same 2 pictures, that I remembered I already had both of those pictures.  Luckily, the typing on one of his pictures was legible.  It was time to unravel the mystery of the people in the picture and all the names on the back of it.

Identifying the people seems simple, but none of the dates are correct for any known Derosier ancestor.  Furthermore, the person who typed this up refers to “Grandma and Grandpa” and then uses “Mr. and Mrs. J.,”neither of which hold a lot of meaning for me.  Then there is a reference to Grandma and Grandpa’s children “Joe and Rose,” and information about a Rose Peltier and a Grandpa Peltier.  It is all followed by a list of 7 more people at the bottom.  The only thing I am certain of is it that the picture is of Mr. and Mrs. J. Derosier, but there are many of them in my family tree; I know of at least 7 with that particular spelling of the Derosier surname.

To start, I picked out one of the more unusual surnames, Godbout, from the list at the bottom.  I looked it up in my tree and found only 2 people: Mary Arabella and Andre.  Elisabeth Godbout is not Mary Arabella Godbout, so maybe Elisabeth is married to Andre Godbout.  Looking further I found that Elisabeth Deguire dite Desrosiers was married to Andre Godbout and her parents are given as Joseph Deguire dit Derosier and Marie Rosalie Lienard dite Mondor.¹ 

So, are the other people listed with Elisabeth her siblings? After doing the research to confirm all the baptismal records of Joseph and Rosalie’s children, it turns out that the other 6 people listed with Elisabeth Godbout are her siblings: Rose [Rosalie] DeRosier (my 3^rd great-grandmother), Joseph DeRosier, Hilaire DeRosier, Emerance DeRosier who was married to Honore Hebert, Aman [Amand] DeRosier and Delvina Derosier who was married to Michel Heroux dit Boisclair.^{2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10}

It should be noted that there were 3 more siblings, but they all died in childhood: Napolean (1834-36), Philomene (1839-1840) and Napolean (1841-1848).^11,12,13

So far the information is pointing to one family.  Next I looked at what was provided above the 7 siblings.  It says that “Rose Peltier died Sept. 1, 1847, age 21,” and that “Grandpa Peltier died May 1893, age 81.”  It seemed safe to assume that the Rose Peltier referred to here is the Rose [Rosalie] DeRosier listed just below the line as one of the siblings.  Rosalie was 21 years old when she died, but the date of her death should read August 31, 1846 instead of September 1, 1847.^14,15  Grandpa Peltier is her husband, Paul Peltier (my 3^rd great-grandfather).  He lived to be 78 years old and died on May 7, 1899.¹⁶  Neither his age nor death date is correct.

I’ve racked my brain to come up with a reason why the person who typed this information added the line “Children, Joe and Rose.” Possibly it could be that they are saying that the information that follows is about the children of Joseph (Joe) and Rosalie (Rose).

These 7 children point to just one set of parents, Joseph Deguire dit Derosier and Marie Rosalie Lienard dite Mondor, Mr. and Mrs. J. Derosier.  However, if I had based my choice of couples on the information given about them, they wouldn’t be the right couple.  Rosalie was born on January 27, 1802 and died on September 19, 1882 at 80 years old, as opposed to being born in 1794 and dying November 1883 at 89 years old and Joseph was born on November 1, 1802 and died on March 25, 1882 at 79 years old, as opposed to being born in 1795 and dying March 25, 2883 at 87 years old.^17,18,19,20

The title “Great Grandparents” leads me to believe that the information was typed by one of my grandmother Ellen (Peltier) Vadnais’ first cousins.  Regardless of most of the details being incorrect, I am thankful that they provided what they did.  Without their information, the couple would have been relegated to the unknown relatives pile.

It is so unusual that this and the other photograph shown below have survived.  The pictures had to have been taken in Quebec and eventually brought, or sent, to Minnesota where they would have been a cherished remembrance of loved ones that would never be seen again.  They then survived being passed down through generations for us to look at some 150 years later.  I suspect that my 2^nd great-grandmother Rose Delima Peltier was the original owner of the pictures because she had lived with her grandparents, Joseph and Rosalie; Antoine, her only brother, had immigrated to Minnesota with their father Paul around 1855.

Enumerated in the census record are Joseph and Rosalie along with 3 of their children: Emerance, Amant [Amand] and Delvina.  Highlighted in the bottom row, as also living with them, is my 2^nd great-grandmother, [Rose] Delima Peltier.  She is listed as a servant and “Etrangers a la famille” which is “strangers to the family;” I’m not sure how to interpret either of those pieces of information. 

Thanks for visiting, come back soon,
Cynthia

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Footnotes for Joseph Deguire dit Desrosier and Marie Rosalie Lienard dite Mondor post