A Maternal Mystery Sunday, March 21, 2010

Due to March being Women's History Month and my participation in the Burbank-based French-Canadian Heritage Society of California's (FCHSC) meeting today at the Southern California Genealogical Society (SCGS) Library ... one particular 2nd great grandmother is on my mind. She is proving to be elusive.

Her first name is Flore or Flora as confirmed by both family lore and US Census entries (i.e., 1900, 1910, 1920). She was born in August of 1854 or 1855 somewhere in French Canada but came to the US circa 1870. She then married Antoine Gamache in 1871 in Oconto, Oconto, Wisconsin. The couple later moved to Escanaba, Delta County, Michigan and that is where Flore died in 1923.

Some time ago, I requested a copy of her marriage certificate from the Wisconsin Historical Society with the hopes of learning the names of her parents. Unfortunately, when the copy of the marriage record arrived - her father's name (Jean Courtois) was listed, but her mother's name was not. In addition, the name of the bride on the copy looked more like "Clare Wartoiz".

It was with these facts that I approached the expert French-Canadian researchers for assistance.

I learned about the comprehensive French-Canadian collection on-hand at the SCGS Library - from the Loiselle Marriage Index microfiche to dictionaries of dit names to historical sketches of Quebec's famous families in the mid-1600s. I also learned that the FCHSC maintains a database of about 35,000 French-Canadian related ancestral names, relationships, vitals, and King's daughters and Carignan Soldiers annotations.

With many sources to pursue, I look forward to my next visit to the SCGS library. With the aid of the French-Canadian Research Team, I am confident that the mystery of Flore will one day be solved.