Thursday Morning – Déjà Vu…

What’s next on Our Ancestors?

Familiar faces!

There were some familiar faces in Dennis Lagasse’s negatives I turned into positives…

This is one of the most interesting positives I have made from the negatives sent by Dennis. The man on the left is Joseph Louie Combe. He is with his wife Sylvia Elizabeth Bleau.

Here is Louie Combe again on a photo shared by another reader in 2011…

Here is Sylvia Marie Combe with her parents Louie Combe and Sylvia Bleau.

Although the caption says Aunt Mary, this is not Aunt Mary but Amelia Alexandre.

But that’s another story…

What is interesting is that Sylvia Elizabeth Bleau is the granddaughter of Philomene Lagasse seen here on this montage made by a professional photographer more than 100 years ago.

Philomene Lagasse in the center was my great-grandaunt, my great-grandfather’s sister. Sylvia’s mother would be at 10 o’clock.

The photo was taken in front of Dennis Lagassey III and Amanda Ménard’s house probably on the corner of Lake Street and Dewey Avenue in East Bristol.

Joseph Louie and Sylvia Elizabeth were married on April 19, 1917.

This next photo negative turned into a positive is also interesting as the man looks at lot like Harry Bleau, Sylvia Elizabeth Bleau’s brother.

This is Harry Bleau again with the same necktie… Odna Lagasse is on the left.

Why would Harry and his sister Sylvia who were Odna’s first cousins had visited that part of their family?

On another note…

In 1910 Dennis Lagassey III and his brother Anthony were neighbors. What is strange is that there are no photos of Anthony at all in the photos shared by Dennis.

Unless there are some of his children that I have not yet identified…

On this final note…

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wednesday Morning – Montage

I like to create montages with old pictures people have shared.

It has helped me identifying people and sometimes finding when and where photos were taken.

This is a montage I did a few years ago.

These six photos were part of Lionel Lagasse’s collection of old photos. His father Levi Napoleon is featured in all of them making it easy to identify him. Others were more difficult to identify.

Some people are yet to be identified. Lately Levi Napoleon’s grandson has been scanning his grandfather’s negatives.

Although most are of poor quality they are nevertheless precious like this one which I just realized was scanned in reverse.

How do I know this?

So simple…

By comparing it with this one shared by Odna’s granddaughter.

Tuesday Morning – Odna or Blandine?

This is again Blandine Lamothe and Joseph Louis Dubé’s wedding picture that was shared by their granddaughter several months ago.

Why am I posting this wedding picture again? Simply because this is how I was able to correctly identify Blandine Lamothe on some old photos and who was the baby girl.

Blandine Lamothe is seen here on this positive I have made from a 90 year-old negative scanned by Dennis. The other woman is his sister-in-law Ida Lagasse. Ida is a familiar feature on this blog as her husband Hector Philias Lamothe who was Blandine’s brother.

How do I know this negative turned into a positive is 90 years? Blandine is wearing the same dress and baby Lucille was born in May 1929. On this photo Blandine Lamothe has to be with her first child Lucille.

I often go out on a limb to date old photos and identify who’s who on old pictures like the young woman who was sitting on a car fender.

Little by little I was able to identify people I could not identified back in 2011. The more photos were shared by Dennis, the more I could validate who was who. Bertha Lagasse was the young woman on the car fender around 1917 in Connecticut, and my paternal grandfather’s three sisters were also there posing for posterity…

Lillie Lagasse, Malvina Lagasse, and their older sister Marguerite Lagasse were with Bertha and Bertha’s sister Mary behind the wheel.

On this next negative-positive I am certain Blandine Lamothe is on the right. I am almost sure her sister-in-law Irene Margaret Dubé is on the left.

The young woman in the center is still a mystery.

Here is another positive photo taken at the same time as the other one only that the people have switched places.

Blandine is in the back on the left. Irene Margaret is in the center, and Claire Lamothe is on the right. Below are two unknown young women with Ida Lagasse in the middle. I am still looking to identify those two.

Finally, on this next negative-positive, could this be Blandine Lamothe once again or is it Odna Lagasse?

Sunday Morning – Notes

These are the notes I had kept a few years ago about Lillian Dubé. I had found out she was married to William Jennings Odlum.

I had found this on the Internet and I had kept these notes.

---

588.

William Jennings Odlum-10 (Richard L.-9, George-8, Richard G.-7, George-6, Elizabeth-5, Richard-4, Thomas-3, Richard-2, Thomas-1) was born on 04 Dec 1896 in Connecticut.

He died on 18 Jan 1973 in Bristol, Conn..

Notes for William Jennings Odlum:

General Notes:

1920 census has his father born in Scotland…incorrect

Mary Lily Dube was born in 1898. She died on 15 Feb 1968 in Bristol, Conn..

William Jennings Odlum and Mary Lily Dube married. They had the following children:

i. Norman W. Odlum.

ii. Vera Odlum.

---

At that time I knew nothing more about Lillian even though I had the mystery family photo.

This family was a mystery. It was part of a small collection of old pictures someone had shared and whom I scared away. I guess that’s the price you have to pay when researching other people’s ancestors. Sometimes people can’t understand why you are doing all this if not for profit.

I profit a lot from sharing because people keep on sharing…

My guess is that someone will be sharing something about these two strangers which will lead me to identify who were all these people…

Ida Lagasse on the right is the only one I can positively identify. Could the others be Dubés? Could Lillian be there with her sisters? That would make a lot of sense since Lagacés and Dubés were birds of a feather…

If so, the mysterious young woman in black would be finally unmasked!

Opening a New Chapter: Lillie Lagasse (1873- ?)

I wrote this post in 2012…

I always like to go back in time and see what I wrote and sometimes find out I was completely wrong with my hypothesis.

---

I wish I knew more about Lillie. Lillie Lagasse was my grandfather’s sister. Back in 2007, I knew nothing about my Lagacé lineage. I knew of course about André Mignier dit L’Agacé, but I could not link up with him.

Soldier of the Régiment Carignan-Salières

Illustrator Francis Back

Now five years later I am quite skillful at finding other people’s ancestors since I have been able to find almost all about my grandfather’s parents and his siblings.

This was quite a challenge because my paternal grandfather was never married to my grandmother since he was already married in 1912.

Lilie, Lillie or Lillian, is the also the sister of Anthony Lagasse and Stanislas Lagassey who are both buried in St. Joseph cemetery. I don’t know where Lillie is buried though. What I know is that she was married to Eugène Dubé.

Last week I knew not that much about her and her husband. Judy was a great help without ever realizing it when she posted this comment.

Not sure if I can help.
Jules Moquin was my great-grandfather. He was born in Canada, married Marie Dube.
I believe there are Lagaces somewhere in the family line, but I’m not sure where. Can you, or anyone else offer any insights on Jules and Marie?

Jules Moquin, her ancestor, was marrried to Marie Dubé.

While looking for Marie Dubé I found she was the sister of Eugène, Napoléon and Pierre.

Remember Birds of a feather stick together.

Well, I was stuck (pun intended) with Eugène’s and Napoléon’s parents. The only clue I had was the given name of their father: George.

Not much to go on hey…

Remember Birds of a feather stick together.

Ingraham factory in Bristol, CT

Come back next time I have a lot to show you thanks to Frank.

---

This is a photo of Lillie and Eugène.

They are seen with two children. I had a hard time identifying these two children. First I thought we had a girl and a boy, but it did not fit the time frame at all. Lillie looks to be in her mid-20s so I could not imagine a family picture leaving out children born after Lillian and Anna were born.

So I believe Lillian Dubé and Anna Dubé are with their parents which can be quite exciting because one of Lillian’s descendants just wrote me about Lillian Dubé Odlum. What is also exciting is that I can date this photo around 1900, and my grandaunt Lillie Lagasse is pregnant with little Henry Anthony Dubé.

To be continued…?

Mystery Family

This is how I had named this picture in 2010.

Searching for ancestors is sometimes finding yourself at a dead end like this old picture shared in 2009 by someone who decided after that he must have found a crazy distant relative obsessed with dead people.

People would be deter to continue searching for lost ancestors, but I am not. I think I finally found who were the two children with my grandaunt Lillie Lagassé (Lagacé) and her husband Eugene Dube (Dubé).

To be continued…

Special Edition – Preserving the Past

Our Ancestors is all about preserving the past…

That’s what this baby boy did later in life even though he did not know it in 1931.

I would be logical that this baby boy is young Lionel Lagasse seen here with his mother Marie-Louise Dubé.

Dennis had shared that photo with Lionel and his mother a few years back. His father Lionel has saved all of his father Napoleon Levi’s photos. Dennis has been sharing all of them since 2011.

This is another photo shared a few years ago.

Dennis Lagasse IV is on a mission to preserve the past as you can see here. These are a few of more than 200 negatives I have converted to positives.

 

Some faces are hard to identify because some negatives were of very poor quality.

 

This one was not that bad, but I don’t have a clue who this family is.

We will probably never find out, but that’s beside the point isn’t?

Getting back to the positive side of this article, this is what I think is Blandine Lamothe in the rear on the left.

Now Blandine is in front.

Four out of five women are positively identified… Blandine Lamothe and her sister Claire, Ida Lagasse and Irene Margaret Dubé. Claire Lamothe is seen again here with Ida on the right.

The young woman in the black dress is still unidentified and is taunting us to find who she is.

She still appears here with three other young women who seem to be related…

Sisters?

Someday we will find out.

About the two men?

So many unanswered questions…

At least we know where the photo was taken…

Monday Morning – Odna and Ida?

Sherlock Holmes was not always right.

I had written this about Odna and Ida Lagasse back in 2018, but you don’t have to read it. I was using photos Dennis Lagasse had sent me.

That was before I had this photo shared by a descendant of Blandine Lamothe and Joseph Louis Dubé.

At first I thought I had correctly identified Odna on some old photos.

I was right about Ida Lagasse of course, but I was so wrong about her sister Odna.
Blandine Lamothe was most probably with her first child Lucille born in 1929.

This is probably Odna with her first child Helena on this wedding photo taken in November 1921.

Her sister Ida Lagasse was also on that group picture on the right with her daughter holding on to her skirt. In the back was Dennis Lagasse II holding a cigar. The woman on the left might have been his daughter Marguerite who was the widow of Joseph Dubé. Next to Marguerite Lagasse might have been Eugene Dubé and his wife Lillie Lagasse. On the right was probably Alice D. Myers with baby Rhea Lagasse and her daughter Flora Lagasse in front. Behind the groom and the maid was the maid’s father Dennis Lagassey III who was holding a grandchildren.
About the bride we all knew in 2018 who the bride was of course…

Bertha Lagasse

Bertha Lagasse married William Edward Austin on November 16, 1921.

Bertha appears on many old pictures from Lionel Lagasse’s collection.
This one is my favorite photo about a car and people having taunting me to identify them in 2011.

Little by little I was able to identify people I could not identified in 2011. The more photos Dennis shared, the more I could validate who was who.

I think I know who were in that car with Bertha Lagasse around 1917 in Connecticut.

My grandfather’s three sisters… Lillie, Malvina, and Marguerite with Bertha and her sister Mary.

To be continued next Monday morning…

Anticipation…

Hi Pierre,

I have looked, clicked, open, closed, and tried everything I could think of with my software and can’t find a way to change these negatives to positives. You are making these look amazing and I have been staring at them all day. I scanned more negatives today and seem to only be half way through the cigar box. I could see motorcycles, cars, airplanes, a zeppelin, soldiers, tons of smiling faces, a parade, Pine Lake, and inside an old factory on this bunch of scans.

On another positive note…

More anticipation?

Anna Campbell

At first yesterday I was wondering who were these two women.

I knew the photo was taken at Dennis Lagassey III’s house in East Bristol, Connecticut.

Then I saw the light!

Anna Campbell!

Anna Campbell and her husband Harry Lagasse

I have written a lot about Anna Campbell and her husband Harry Lagasse on Our Ancestors. Harry is seen here with his son Gerard, his father Dennis Lagassey III, and his grandfather Dennis Lagasse II.

It might be hard to find all that was written about them on this blog which has almost reached its 3 gigabyte upload limit.

Will there be an Our Ancestors II?

Victor Philippe Lagasse, Alice D. Myers, Anna Campbell, Harry Lagasse