BessenaireFamilyTree

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Dear Bessenaire Uncles, Aunts, and Cousins,

Last year, Stu and I were talking and I told him I was going to start working on my family’s genealogy again. I had done quite a bit of it in the 1980’s, but hadn’t really done much with it since then. He told me he would like to do some research on his family, also. He said there was a lot of mystery surrounding Pepé’s father, etc. I had done a lot of research in Salt Lake City before Stu and I were married – or even met in real life and found quite a bit of information from parish records in Rhode Island on the Pinsonneault and Bessenaire family there – marriages, births, etc. and we cannot seem to find those records I sent to him in Connecticut, so we had to start afresh. I spent some time yesterday researching the O’Keefe side and found a great deal of information on that side which would only be of interest to Ray and Judy. After that, I decided to see if I could penetrate the great cloud of mystery surrounding Pepé – at least it was mysterious to Stu. I was able to puzzle out a lot of information on an internet search. Some of the information came from records of the census and other information came from other records I was able to find online at Ancestry.com where my friends have a membership and they allowed me to use their access yesterday. Still other information – the information that broke the barrier came from an online search on the internet of Ulysses Bessenaire’s name. It was in this way that I found the Sauvé family trees. They have done massive amounts of research on their family name and I was able to find Pepé’s mom’s maiden name and lots of other information. I will detail what I have found below:

Pepé’s mom was born Victoria Messier to Narcisse and Charlotte (unknown maiden name) Messier. The Sauvé website states she was born in Mechanic, Massachusetts. Her parents were born in Ontario. I have been unable to confirm the birth record in the online records of Massachusetts. I was able, however, to find a Victoria Messier in the 1881 Canadian census as a daughter to a Narcisse and Charlotte Messier. It shows her as a 9-year-old girl who was born in Quebec, living with her parents and three brothers: François (16), Antherine (13), and Edouard (8). I think it may be likely that this is the right person, despite what was on the Sauvé website since I was completely unable to find a birth certificate for her in the Massachusetts state birth index online.

Victoria was married on 11 Jun 1888 at the age of 17 to Hermidas Sauvé (Parents Louis and Philemon Sauvé) in New Bedford, Massachusetts. (NOTE: the surname Sauvé is found spelled in various manners throughout the history of Grandmemé’s genealogy – Souvé, Souvie, etc. – this is due, in part, to the incorrect recording of the name by census workers – there is a relative in Massachusetts who is a granddaughter of the only living child of this union who writes her name Souvé instead of Sauvé). The children of this union have a very sad history. Their first born child, Victoria Sauvé was born on 5 Feb 1890 and died at the age of 15 days. I also saw evidence of a second child, a female, named Amelia P. Saué born in 5 Feb 1890 (these girls must have been twins – apparently Amelia also died, but I found no record of her death anywhere). Their next child, a boy, was born on 18 Mar 1891, lived only one day. Victoria then had a miscarriage, apparently, because there is an interment notice pasted onto the website:

Translation: On the 19th of Aug 1893 the body of an infant born dead of the Sauvés, Hormisdas Sauvé and Victoria Messier, has been interred in the “Anonymous” cemetery.

Finally, Grandmemé gave birth to a live born male infant, Joseph Narcisse Sauvé, born June 6 1894 in Tilbury, Essex, Ontario, and they pasted his evidence of his baptism on the 14th July 1894 into the record, too. Apparently, Grandmemé had moved back to Canada for some reason after the miscarriage and before the birth of Joseph Narcisse (later the name was changed to Nelson Joseph when they came back to the US. Sadly (but not for us!), Hormisdas died in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1897 according to the records they found. Grandmemé is found living as a boarder in the 1900 Massachusetts census as a widow with four children, one living. This may be because she did not “count” the miscarriage. On the website it states that she was married in April 1901 to Paul Regis “Bisnaire”. Of note, I found the death notice for Paul Bisnaire showing his birth date of “1874” in Ashton, RI. It also shows his marital status as “divorced”. He died on 24 Apr 1908 in Gardner, MA. Of note, his father’s name was listed as Paul Bisnaire, also, and his mother was Rose Sauvé. I thought that was very interesting and it is possible that his mother was an aunt or cousin of Grandmemé’s first husband, Hormidas Sauvé. I will have to research this. It may be how Paul met Victoria in the first place, he may have been her husband’s cousin. I do not know when Paul and Victoria divorced, but I do know that Pepé was born on 24 March 1903 in Rhode Island. For some reason, I cannot find the record online except for in the SS Death Index. The next time we find Victoria, she is living with Nelson Joseph and Ulysses (but you would never guess it from the way they spelled it) and her new husband, James H. Pickett, on the 1910 US Federal Census for Central Falls, RI. In 1920, she is listed as a boarder on the Central Falls, RI Census and is “divorced” for her Central Falls marriage status. Neither child is with her at that point. This brings up my next discovery, which was finding Pepé in the 1920 Census. At first I was unable to find him there, but I found that he was listed on the census taken in 1920 as a private in the Navy. So that confirmed the fact that Stu’s remembrance of Pepé being in the military was confirmed. The next time I found Pepé was in the 1925 Rhode Island Census in Pawtucket Ward 04, E.D. 164, Providence, Rhode Island, living with his mother, Victoria, his half-brother Nelson J. Souvé (note the last name’s spelling has changed here) and Nelson’s wife, Ethel Harrabin. Interestingly enough, Pepé is listed as a “boarder” and not half-brother to the head of household, Nelson J. Sauvé. Also, this is the first reference to Pepé with his name spelled the way we all know it: Ulysses S. Bessenaire. Oddly enough, it shows Victoria’s place of birth as being Connecticut. I can’t find anything for CT for her online.The last reference I saw yesterday was to the 1930 Rhode Island Federal Census. There Pepé is listed as the head of household with his wife, Evelyn M., and his daughter, Theresa (2), and son Ray (1). Whoa! Hold the phone! I just found that Pepé had a brother, Joseph “Bezner” who died on 25 Nov 1901, son of Paul Bezner and Victoria Sauvi (I think that the confusion in these records spellings is due to the fact that the person transcribing the record only speaks English and they misinterpret the letter “é” in French as “I”). He is listed as being “0” years old. So, Pepé had a real brother, too!Victoria Sauvé died on 1 Dec 1925 in Pawtucket, RI. She is listed as Souvé In that record and the transcriptionist or the original recorder of the record listed Nelson as her husband, not her son. I’ll tell you, people can really get things messed up.Although we cannot really know how Grandmemé felt in full, knowing she suffered the death of one husband and five children, two divorces, and raised her two living sons essentially without fathers, we can only imagine the depth of her trials and appreciate her life. When I think of Pepé growing up without a father in his life (probably he didn’t even remember him because he was only 5 when his dad died and his mom and dad were divorced sometime after he was born (not sure when exactly), he must have had a hard life, too, having to grow into a man without a father to counsel him. This should give us all compassion for him and his life. I know the depth of the sorrow that Stu feels, even now, for the loss of his father at the tender age of 12. He tells me that sometimes he has to look at a picture of his dad, Ray, to remember what he looked like.God bless you all and your families,Phyllis Bessenaire