Clarifying the Albert Line

In an earlier post (Connecting Canada to France), the Albert's earliest ancestor was known to be Pierre Albert based on a genealogy book written by Gabriel Drouin. I have since discovered that information is apparently a mistake. As I trace the ancestry back from Ferdinand Albert (Auguste Albert's father), I see the line to be represented in the following graphic:

The Albert book written by Mr. Drouin did not include sources so I cannot confirm the lineage that he suggested. What I have confirmed is that Gabriel Albert did have a son named Pierre but the Drouin book references another Pierre Albert who came from Lucon area of France. I have seen no linkage of this Pierre Albert to our Ferdinand Albert. The Pierre Albert line described and highlighted in the Drouin book derived from the Kamouraska area of Canada, but we know that Ferdinand's ascendants (our correct lineage shown above) came from Normandy in France and Caraquet in Canada. What I believe is the spot in the Drouin book where the mistake begins is shown circled in red.

Source: Acadiensis, Vol VII, 1907, David Russell Jack, ed.

Gabriel Albert's first son was Pierre and they both were among the founding families of Caraquet who received land grants from the British government. The image above shows an early map of Caraquet with the Albert names among the founding families of the town. The map also shows Caraquet Island where Gabriel moved his family to after the turmoil of the Acadian expulsion in 1755. Gabriel's second son was Jean Baptiste (see green arrow below) whose descendants included Ferdinand, Auguste, myself and the other Albert recipients of this blog.

A Life of Devotion and Education

     Thanks to the documents provided by the Presentation of Mary Manchester Province Archives, we can know much more about the life of Rebecca Albert (1908-1996). As her grand nephew, I called her Aunt Rebecca but most people called her Sister Rebecca due to her chosen profession and service to the church. Her death and burial records recorded her name as "Sr. Rebecca Albert". She lived to the ripe old age of eighty-eight.  

Rebecca Albert in 1930

     Rebecca's childhood included a tragic life event - the loss of her mother to cancer. Like her siblings, she was raised by different relatives. In a recent conversation with her nephew, Roland Albert, he recalls that Rebecca lived with the family of an her aunt after the death of her mother. Upon graduating from grammar school at St. Hyacinths in Westbrook, she was sent to a girls boarding school in New Hampshire. The Diocese of Portland apparently provided financing for orphaned children to receive a Catholic education. Other Albert girls were sent to boarding schools in New Hampshire as well, including my mother, but only one went on to become a nun. In February 1933, Rebecca received her Profession of Vows and chose the religious name of "Sister Wilfrid-Marie" presumably to honor her brother-priest, Wilfrid Albert, whom she had a special affinity for. She took her final vows in the Order of the Presentation of Mary on August 15, 1938. 

St. Marie Parish in Manchester, NH

     The other lifelong passion of Rebecca's was teaching. Her teaching assignments detailed in the archive document shows she taught at nine different elementary and high schools from 1933 to 1987 which allays my concern of the numbers of schools I have taught at. Most years she taught at St. Marie High School in Manchester, NH. The subjects she taught were English, Writing and Art. She also taught writing skills to her fellow sisters in a college extension program. 

     In 1987, Rebecca retired to St. Marie Residence in Manchester, NH. She passed on March 23, 1996. Her life was devoted to God and education. Although I have not been able to confirm that she received a college degree, an obituary printed in the Portland Press Herald of March 26, 1996 reported that she obtained a bachelor of arts degree from the University of New Hampshire. In a call to the UNH Alumni office, she was not listed in the database.

Notes:  Much of the information in this post was taken from a short biography written by Sister Gabrielle Messier, and the source of the Manchester picture came from Susan Bailey's website.

Westbrook Memories

1912 Postcard of Bridge Street

What comes to mind when you think of the town that the Alberts and Gagnons decided to raise their families?  Both these families were deeply rooted in the very traditions that shaped the city to what it is today - industry and businesses. The Alberts created one of Westbrooks longest and most successful businesses, the Men's Shop, Inc., of which I intend to write a longer story about. The Gagnons worked the mills and bettered their families in the process. Westbrook can also be remembered by its buildings. Remember the Star Theatre shown here and the old classic and westerns that were shown on its stage?

...and before my time, the theater had another history:

The Star Theater was built on the corner of Main and Central Streets in 1912. It hosted stage and minstrel shows until the advent of motion pictures when a large screen was built over the stage and movies were shown. Many a Westbrook child spent his or her Saturday afternoons at the Theater. Hubert Prior Vallee, later known as Rudy Vallee, worked as an usher here before going on to star in the movies himself.

Photo and text courtesy of Westbrook Historical Society and  Mike Sanphy.

If you ever wanted to know the stories of the people of Westbrook's past, pick up a copy of "Remembering Westbrook" by Andrea Vasquez. I purchased a copy on Amazon. The book's cover is shown here.

The stories comprise many of the names that bare locations and businesses in the city today. For example, the man who founded the Dana Warp Mill, Woodbury K. Dana (1840-1924), overcame learning disabilities to finish school and also served in the Civil War. This man could have served as a mentor to my grandfather who would become a successful businessman in his own right. A picture of the Dana Warp Mill and Falls is shown below. The first school I attended in Westbrook, the Warren School, was named after Cornelia L. Warren (1857-1921). A woman born into money, she became very educated and influenced Westbrook by her philanthropy. An advocate of recreation, she even financed tennis courts for the city maybe even the ones I played on as a youth.

Dana Warp Mill

 Source: epodunk.com

Westbrook became its own town in 1814 after breaking away from the area that was called Falmouth. The name originated from an early settler, Thomas Westbrook, who was also a mill worker matching the lasting image that the mills would provide for the town over the years. In 1871, the town's size was reduced by the formation of Deering which later became part of Portland. Finally in 1891, Westbrook became incorporated as a city. 

The city seal of Westbrook above shows a ship said to be a rough sketch of the boat Colonel Westbrook used to travel to Maine. The armored boot on the top is copied from the Westbrook family crest of England.

Source of Bridge Street postcard image: Wikipedia

"Pepere Gagnon" 1863-1961

His affectionate name was "Pepere Gagnon". His given name was Pierre or Peter. Like a number of Albert and Gagnon family members, he lived to a ripe old age. See a photo of Mr. Gagnon with one of his daughters in the May 31, 2010 post on this blog. It was my discovery of a newspaper article at the Walker Library in Westbrook this year that interested me in writing this post. The article printed in the Westbrook American (page 9) on July 1, 1953 was entitled "Peter Gagnon Honored On His 90th Birthday". There was a picture of Mr. Gagnon holding a pet but I am not showing it here because its photo clarity was so bad. The caption said "Peter Gagnon with Freidi". I am assuming Frieda was one of Aunt Jo's cats. Mr. Gagnon's birthday party in 1953 was described as an open house at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Auguste Albert, of Oceanside Drive in Kinney Shores. Other information given was he was born in Canada on June 28, 1863 and moved to Westbrook in 1878.

The town in Quebec where Pepere Gagnon was born is called L'Islet-sur-Mer, a tourist village according to a website entitled quebecvacances. They also decribe the village as having its "lands caressed by the tides". This map provided by Google shows its proximity to northern Maine. Shown to the right is an image of the Notre-Dame-de-Bonsecours Church in the town as it looks today. Pepere Gagnon may well have attended this church as a child.

The article goes on to say that Mr. Gagnon worked on the railroad for nearly fifty years. In a taped recording from 1990, his daughter, Bernadette, recalled that he was gone so often that he was like a guest in the house. She remembered as a child that he would bring gifts home such as tubs of butter or bars of maple syrup. In the 1926 Westbrook City Directory (pg. 127), he was listed as a foreman for the Portland Terminal Company. On Wikipedia, the Portland Terminal Company is listed as a terminal railroad and was known for its control of switching activity for the Maine Central Railroad. PTM's activities were vital to Portland's role as a winter seaport receiving Canadian products for shipments to Europe.

In doing my research for this article, I found a really cool 1930 map (above) showing all the railroad lines in New England. Mr. Gagnon worked on the Rochester, NH to Portland segment for five years according to the Westbrook American article. In a recent conversation with his grandson, Roland Albert said that he held a pretty important well-paying position for someone without an education.

Roland described the position of "track foreman" as one which led a team of about twenty men. These men worked on the section of the Maine Central Railroad between Portland and Standish. Hand cars were used by his men to maintain the integrity of the rail line.The last twenty years of his life he lived with his daughter, Josephine, at Kinney Shores in Saco. He was remembered as always being dressed formally, but my mother tells of times when he must have looked very informal: "He liked walking along the beach picking up logs of driftwood. He would then cut and prepare them for use as logs on the fire," thus the reason I posted a driftwood scene to open the piece.

Other guests who attended Mr. Gagnon's 90th birthday party included four daughters and two sons: Mrs. Ovide Harvey, Mrs. Albert, Mrs. Rocheleau, Armand Gagnon all from Westbrook, Mrs. Leon Casey from Philadelphia, and Edward Gagnon from Lewiston. Also in attendence: 35 grandchildren and 29 great grandchildren!

Source of the map: http://trainguy.dyn.dhs.org/bmrrhs/archives/system_map_c1930.gif.
Source of the hand car image: http://www.hobbylinc.com/~hobbylinc/htm/idm/idm1008202.htm.

Sister Rebecca Albert (1908-1996)

Pepere’s younger sister was a devout, educated and artistic person. In 1930, she was living with Pepere on Bridge Street in Westbrook as shown on the 1930 US Census. That same year in September, an article appeared in a local paper announcing she was to enter the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary in St. Hyacinthe, Canada to continue her studies to become a nun.  She was 22 at the time. Before living with Pepere, she lived with his sister, Mrs. Emmanuel Gallant (Antoinette Albert) on King Street in Westbrook.
Did you know there was a town in Quebec called St. Hyacinthe? It is located due northwest of Montreal. Below is an image of the town and its park taken from Wikipedia.

Sister Rebecca would later be transferred to Manchester, NH to continue her vows, teach and practice her art. She painted many pictures including a few images hanging over the piano at the home of Roland and Janet Albert in Westbrook. One of these paintings is shown in the Family Treasures post on this blog. The newspaper article goes on to say that she was trained in art at Coaticook High School in Canada where she graduated in 1929 as valedictorian. Later she attended the University of New Hampshire which was a real accomplishment considering that it was uncommon at that time for women to work on advanced degrees.

If you are an older Albert, what do you remember about Sister Rebecca? I remember visiting her with my family on regular visits to New Hampshire. For an older, seemingly sedentary person, she also had an animated quality about her.  She was always asking me questions about my lessons and somehow she knew I’d become a teacher. Sometime around the age of ten, she gave me a book on Longfellow poems as a birthday present. 
Note regarding source of the newspaper article: 
The article was clipped and attached to a handwritten letter but did not include the date or the name of the paper. Since she was living in Westbrook at the time, I assumed it was a local paper - either the Westbrook American or the Portland Press Herald.

Family Visit to Maine - Part 2

With the help of MaryAnn Albert, many pictures were taken during my recent trip to Maine of the former homes of the Albert and Gagnon ancestors in Westbrook.

These two families both moved to Westbrook from Canada in the early 1900's to work in the mills. Their residences were in close proximity to the mills for obvious reasons of having easy walking assess to their jobs.

Why did our ancestors emigrate to Maine?  The best answer to this question would have come from our great grandparents of course, but we hardly remember what they look like let alone what they ever said about their lives. To get a sense why French Canadian families left their homeland, I studied a document from a website on Quebec history. There I found a paper called "French Canadian Emigration to the United States1840-1930" written by Claude Bélanger. He points out that many families left a traditional rural society and "entered an industrial world, alien to them by virtue of its way of life, language and religion".

What pulled people to move away from their traditional roots were the chances of more prosperity than what they currently had. Their traditional ways of life and religion were not left behind. Besides a strong work ethic, French Canadian culture of Westbrook centered around the St. Hyacinth Catholic Church and most of the children attended the Catholic school across the street until grade eight (shown above). Classes were held in French in the mornings and English in the afternoons.

According to Mr. Belanger, the population of Quebec surged in the time period from 1784 and 1844 creating a deficit of farmland. Even before the population growth, agricultural success was limited by other factors such as a short growing season and distant access to major markets. Surely working class families, like the Gagnons of St. Malo, also must have experienced the same economic downturn causing them to look to the growing industrialism in the states.

Genealogy involves research and even though it was not a priority on my trip, I did get to search for records, pictures and newspaper articles with Mary Ann at the Walker library and at the Cumberland County Courthouse land records office. Here she is locating a map in the Plats room of a Pine Point property that Auguste and Bernadette Albert transferred to Jeanne and Ray Lebel in 1959. Auguste Albert had so many properties bought and sold over the years that we grew tired from writing a list of the transactions.

Family Visit to Maine - Part 1

This year I visited Maine in May which is a sweet time to go there - a little rain, a lot of sun and no muggy hot days!  Besides spending time with family, I accomplished four 'family history' related tasks: hosting a picture party, interviewing two family members, taking pictures of ancestor's former residences and researching land records at the county courthouse.In this post, I will cover the first two accomplishments.

The picture party in which some of the Albert cousins were waiting to share family pictures -older than the 1980's- was a great success. They brought the family pictures to the home of Paul Albert in Westbrook, and here is where we hugged and laughed and reminisced about the fun times we all used to have together. Usually these experiences had a beach theme since our grandfather used to own two properties near Old Orchard Beach. If you go back farther to my mother's youth, many stories and memories center around properties my grandfather owned at another water location - Crescent Lake near Casco.The picture above is my mother Pauline as a young child sitting in front of the lake cottage.

The summers really stand out as special times for all the Alberts. Above is a comparison of the Pine Point cottage from yesteryear and the way it looks today. We are talking several renovations here.

Besides his family, there was nothing more important to my grandfather than his business, The Men's Shop.  He started the store in 1923 with two other men (named in the caption below) and it lasted for nearly seventy-five years. This is a story I wanted to tell in more detail so I decided to do some research and interview his son, Roland, and his grandson, Peter, who both chose to carry on the business and together served some sixty years at its helm.

End note: Thanks to Claudia, Nancy and Pauline for providing numerous pictures for scanning and sharing with everyone.I highly recommend a picture party event for other historians and genealogists to try with their families.