Family Treasures

Three family treasures have already been mentioned in earlier posts: the Wilfrid Genealogy Book from 1948, the Brookfield Clothing Award (a gold statue) won by Pepere around 1960, and the 1990 audio recording of Memere and Aunt Jo.  By family members responding to this post, we can create an inventory of other valued family possessions. Two books in my own library were signed by Wilfrid Albert and passed on to me by Sister Rebecca:
The Poems of Longfellow, signed by Wilfrid on July 16. 1959, and
The Reader's Digest of Books by Helen Rex Keller, signed by Wilfrid in 1941.

Here are some additional family heirlooms:

1. A vase given to Memere as a gift from Wilfrid in the 1940's.

2. Painting by Sister Rebecca

3. A boudoir bench to hold dolls from Pauline's youth.

4. These hand carved statues were owned by Wilfrid Albert. Paul Albert provides some information about them:

One was sculpted in Switzerland from a famous school of sculpture and depicts a farmer representing one of his grandfathers. The other was carved in a famous carving school in Quebec and depicts a fisherman representing his other grandfather.

For family history purposes, the two items of most value by far are the Genealogy book of Wilfrid Albert and the audio recording done by Becky in 1990.  Thank goodness we have a librarian in the family who took an early interest to preserve something like the voices of our elders.  What else do we have out there to enrich our family's legacy!?

Wilfrid - Brother and Priest

Last summer I visited and joined the Westbrook Historical Society located on the 2nd floor of the American Legion Hall on Dunn Street. I only spent a few hours in the society room but surely there are other family finds I have yet to discover there.  Diane and Byron Dyer helped me search the files for any records from my family lines who lived in Westbrook: Albert and Gagnon. About a month ago, I decided to check out the WHS web site and was amazed to find an early picture of Pepere's brother, Wilfrid. I immediately recognized that Albert face. It was the society's highlighted photo of the month-a graduation picture of the 8th grade class from St. Hyacinth School circa 1918. Check out the photo archives on the Westbrook's Historical Society's web site and you will see other neat pictures from Westbrook's past. The pictures come with explanations on such institutions as the Haskell Silk Mill, the Westbrook Fire Department in the 1800's, a comprehensive look at the Westbrook School buildings and how many of you remember the Star Movie Theater on Main Street!? Feel free to share what you remember about growing up in Westbrook. The archive photos may stir up some memories.

This picture of the class of 1918 is in the photo album ‘Graduations, St. Hyacinth School, 1899 – 1963’ courtesy of Westbrook Historical Society, Westbrook, Maine. Pictured: Wilfrid Albert, Agnés Moreau, Marie-Antoinette Giboin, Léo Fortin, Albanie Carignan, Eva Bergeron.

Back to the Albert family...
did you know that Pepere was named after his uncle (his father's  brother was named Auguste) and that he was the middle child of five kids?  Wilfrid was a couple of years younger than Pepere and became a priest at a young age. He actually married my parents on June 16, 1952. One of the Albert family treasures is a genealogy book, "Genealogy of Joseph-Wilfrid Albert - Priest", written in 1948 by Gabriel Drouin of the Drouin Institute in Montreal. The book is held in the special care of his nephew, Roland Albert, in Westbrook, Maine. On a later date, I will provide a detailed look at this book. What memories either real or told-about do you have of Wilfrid?