Lorraine Albert Johnley (1924-1970)

Lorraine Albert, the oldest child of Gus and Bernadette, married Gerald (Joe) Johnley at St. Hyacinthe Church in Westbrook, Maine on April 28, 1948. Her maid of honor was her sister, Jeanne and best man was her brother, Roland.  

Wedding Day - April 28, 1948

Another family member played a key role in the wedding; Lorraine’s uncle, Reverend Wilfred Albert, officiated. The bride’s attire was a Navy suit with matching accessories and a panama straw hat trimmed with a Navy ribbon, and she wore a corsage of white roses. The maid of honor wore a corsage of pink roses. Her husband to be had just served two and a half years in the Navy in the Pacific. He was employed as a chef at the time of his marriage.

In addition to raising three children and being a devoted wife, Lorraine strived to pursue a career in the medical field. Her passion to be a nurse began before her marriage and family. As the record below shows, she entered the United States Cadet Nurses Corp in 1944 while WWII was still raging on. I believe her membership in the Corp at Mercy Hospital in Portland, Maine was where Lorraine received her medical training. As seen on the card, her date of graduation was September 14, 1947. The 1951 Portland City Directory showed Lorraine working as an Registered Nurse at Mercy Hospital. She later worked at the Osteopathic Hospital in Portland.

Lorraine was a special aunt to me.  I remember she gave me special attention as one of her many nephews.  Something that stands out to me even today is that she did not treat me like I was a child therefore I feel I bonded with her in a different way than with my other aunts and uncles. She really was like a second mother to me. This is a bold statement to make because I truly loved all my aunts and uncles. 

Baby Diane in Dec 1950

Struck with breast cancer at such an early age, Lorraine passed away from the illness on May 10, 1970 at the age of 44. The event was a tragic loss for the Albert family. Her giving spirit and devotion to family and others will live on forever.

Credits: Thanks to Diane Bell for providing the photos for this post.
Source of the Cadet Nurse Corp record: ancestry.com

DNA Test Confirms the Albert's Connections to the Gaspe Peninsula

To date, I have taken two DNA tests; one from Family Tree DNA and one from Ancestry DNA. I urge other Alberts to take their DNA test also. Cheers to Susan Young for having tested already. In the image below, she appears on the top of my results page as my first cousin.

With the more delineated breakdown of the "Ethnicity Estimate" that Ancestry DNA provides, it shows that I have ancestors from the Gaspe region. This estimate aligns well with research I have done in this area and others represented in the red circle on the image above.

Fishing boats on the Gaspe around 1900

Our immigrant ancestor, Gabriel Albert, moved from France to the Gaspe region in the mid-18th century surely attracted by the rich industry of cod fishing. What lured fishermen like Albert away from their homeland in France?  According to GaspeCured, a modern day processing plant, the old tradition of curing cod dates back to 1755. "The region's perfect weather conditions, a cold and dry climate, make it the ideal place to salt and dry the cod." Seemingly, those conditions have not changed from Gabriel Albert's time.

The map with description above shows the closeness of the DNA report to my actual French Canadian heritage.  Two of my family lines immigrated from areas where the line emanates from (France).  Of course, one of these families is the Alberts. 

Creative Commons image of an English Silk Mill

One of the Albert descended sons, Ferdinand, decided to change the course of our family history and move to Southern Maine sometime before 1895.  Just as Gabriel had started a new life spurred on by the promise of a new industry, so had Ferdinand. The focus of our family's sustenance changed from an agricultural context to an industrial one as Ferdinand learned the craft of silk weaving in the growing French Canadian mill town of Westbrook, Maine.


Image Sources:
1. Fishing boats: 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/museemccordmuseum/5352062700/
2. Silk mill: 
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Silk_Mill_AJKeene.jpg