..
..
....Joseph H. LESPERANCE Jr. ; My great-grandfather ; b 25 June1869 ; d 19 Aug 1941 Keeseville, Clinton co, NY ; buried in St. John the Baptist Cemetery, Keeseville ; married Exelda (Exilda) YOUNG circa 1892 ; she born 1874 and died 1944 ; she was the daughter of Pierre and Henriette (BIRON) YOUNG. All buried in St. John the Baptist Cemetery, Keeseville, NY. Joseph was baptized "Joseph Irenee"; see Young family for more info on Exelda and her family
(Italics = new info from Jerry.)
Children of Joseph and Exelda (YOUNG) LESPERANCE:
1 . Marie Beatrice ; My Grandmother ; was born in Keeseville, Clinton, NY on 28 Oct 1901, on West Pleasant Street to be exact. She married Ernest McGEE on 28 Dec 1919 in Plattsburgh, Clinton, NY at St. Peter's Catholic Church. He was born in 1887? in Peru, Clinton, NY, the son of William I. McGEE and Josephine Seraphina? (Phia) SIBLEY. Josephine was reported to be an Indian Princess?; Marie Beatrice died at age 98 in Southington, CT in winter of 2000.
2 . Roy ; born 11 Oct 1896; died ?? ; m 26 Apr 1920 Antoinette Rose Seguir (Signor) in Keeseville ; 1 daughter Antoinette. (Roy was born 11 Oct 1896 and baptized at St J-B 18 Oct...he married Rose Seguir (slightly different spelling than on your page)26 April 1920 probably at St J-B.) (see below)
3 . Lena ; born ?? ; died ?? ; married ?? ; John MITCHELL in Keeseville ; no children known (Lena was baptized Lea Agnes (can't find her baptismal certificate at the moment so I don't know the date) and she married John Baptist Mitchell ("John Baptist" suggests that he is French, so the "Mitchell" must be a variation of a French name) on 6 Nov 1911 (I don't have the place recorded but it was likely St John the Baptist Church in Keeseville.))
4 . Napolean
; Uncle "Poli" ; born 16 Mar 1899
Keeseville, NY; died _ Jan 1975 Mount Vernon, NY; m Merlida Willett ;
5. Merilda Clemence, b 16 Aug 1904
; d __ 1953 ; m Isadore F. Boisseau (1909-1953) unknown date; (gravestone)
(Merilda
Clemence born 16 Aug 1904, baptized 21 Aug 1904. I knew
Isadore as Uncle Busch in the late 40's and early 50's before
they died....ROD I have new information
on Merilda below:
Note:
From: Donnie Hamilton dhamilto@eclipse.net
Sent: Sunday, February 28, 1999 11:12 AM
Subject: Lesperance (Antoine
& Roy)
I checked with my Mom about the relationship between Antoine and
Roy...all
she knows is that they were somehow related. You're right,
Antoine
and Emma had no children. They lived next door to us all my
life...
until their deaths in the early 1960s.
Roy was in business with a Victor (I think) Laporte. They owned
a grocery Store called Laporte & Lesperance(and delivered your
called-in
order right to your door!). The store was located on the west
side
of Front Street next door to the Methodist (or maybe it's the
Episcople??)
church at the foot of the Irish Church Hill. The building is
still
there, but was taken over by the church probably about 30+/- years ago,
and they have changed the facade so fit in with that of the church, so
it no longer looks like a store at all. Roy was a contemporary of
Antoine's (1890-1960), so was probably born in the late 1800s.
His
wife's name was Nettie (probably Annette), and they had one daughter
also
named Annette who was born sometime in the early 1930s... she is
enough older that I am that we were not in school at the same time, and
my earliest recollection of her is as a
teenager.
Donnie
My name is Shawn Hathaway. My mother is Donna (Lesperance) Hathaway
b. 1951. My grandparents are Lloyd G. Lesperance and
Doris(Boynton)Lesperance.
In talking to them recently my grandfather would like to know more
about
his family, so I told him I would look into it. He told me that my
ggrandparents(his
parents) were Eugene and Alice Lesperance. Unfortunetly that was all
that
he could tell me at that time. I noticed that you had a Eugene
Lesperance
that had five children and that one was named Eugene also. If you could
please contact me I would like to know if these are the same. Oh, my
grandparents
now live in Attleboro, Mass. My e-mail address is stella1@gateway.net.
Thanks, and hope you can help. Shawn
From: lesperance [SMTP:lesperanj001@hawaii.rr.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 1999 10:41 AM
To: 'stella1'
Subject: RE: Eugene and Alice
Lesperance
Aloha Shawn,
I have not been able to
make a connection between my line and your ggrandparents Eugene &
Alice
L. Let me give you some suggestions. Ask your grandfather for the date
and place of the death of his father (Eugene). Then write to city
(or county) officials of that place for a copy of his death certificate
and write to the newspaper of that place for a copy of his obituary.
These
may tell when and where Eugene was born.
You can also work on the
trying to get either the civil or church record of the marriage of
Eugene
and Alice. One way to start is to ask your grandfather where and when
he
was born. Ask him if it is logical that his parents were married a year
or two before his birth and if they were married in the same city as
where
he was born. The civil marriage record would be great because it would
tell the names of the parents of Eugene and Alice.
There is an excellent
French-Canadian
genealogical society in Pawtucket, RI (not far from Attleboro). Go
to
http://users.ids.net/~afgs/afgshome.html to learn
more
about this society. For a small fee they will be able to help you
if
your ggreatparents were from that area.
In my research I have come
to the conclusion that most of the Lesperance's can trace their
ancestry
back to France through Quebec. But very few, possibly none, of our
Lesperance
lines were originally "Lesperance". For instance, mine was Landie (with
an accent over the "e") in France, then Landie dit (also known as)
Lesperance
in Quebec, and finally Lesperance in the US. I have found that there
are
other Lesperances in the USA who are not related to me because their
ancestry
started with a name other than "Landie". "Lesperance" is French
for
the the word "hope" so it was a nice name to use if somebody wanted to
add to or change their name.
Message me if you need ideas
where to search. Also along about August or early September tell
me where you are in your search. I live in Hawaii but I will be making
my annual genealogy research trip to New England and Quebec the last
half
of September 1999
Jerry
While doing some research on my family on the web, I came across
your
web site. My great grandmother was Emma Lesperance and so I guess
you and I are related somehow! Emma's daughter Lillian married
Leo
Mahoney and one of their daughters was my mother, Helen. I live in Salt
Lake City with my husband Don Lebar (from Rock Springs, Wy) and
children
Bill (14) and Anna (10). I read that one of your sons lives in
SLC
and went to Utah State. Don graduated from U. of Wyoming
(mechanical
engineering) in 1971. He works as an engineer at Questar Pipeline
(27 years) I grew up in the mid-west and met Don when I was
finishing
school at U. of Utah (Human Resources). I worked for several years in
Human
Resources at Snowbird, and am doing consulting nowl. Just wanted
to say hello.
I also communicated with Gerald Lesperance. I dabbled in
genealogy
several years ago and am just now getting back into it. Best wishes-- Nancy
Corrigan
I don't know how often
you
get to see Gagy and other Lesperance's of her generation but several
stories
that I would be pleased if you could follow up on are:
1. Apparently Joseph and
his parents and siblings lived in a cabin near Pok-O-Moonshine at one
time.
This in itself would be a great story. Was the cabin a log cabin? Was
it
when Narcisse and Sophie first came to NY wth their family? When did
they
move into town? I realize that nobody living today was around when
these
events happened but maybe there
is some oral history there.
2. About 1929 my
mother
made her first and only visit to Keeseville with my father. She
recalled
(she died a few years ago) that the Lesperance's had a hotel or large
rooming
house near the river in Keeseville. Any truth
to that?
3. Also Clyde Robideau
(spelling??; lives near me in HI;his son was/is mayor of Plattsburgh)
told
me he used to go to a Lesperance Tavern in the Keeseville area in the
1920's
or 1930's. Anybody know anything about that? Best, Jerry
More: 1/25/99
Thanks for sharing the Lesperance Bulletin Board with me. I would like
to, with your okay, respond to 3 people: the lady who wrote in French
(I
can handle the French language); the Lesperance form Ogdensburg; and
the
guy with Chippewa Indian blood. I will copy you on any messages that I
send to them. I can tell you now that I doubt if any are from our
Lesperance
branch, i.e. descendants of Corporal Jean Landier dit Lesperance
from
France.
I really wanted to start
a Lesperance Bulletin Board and/or Web Page going. I have accumulated a
bookful of stuff on our branch and I have also looked into some other
Lesperance
branches. In fact I asked the Gen Forum people
(http://genforum.familytreemaker.com)
several months ago to set up a Lesperance page but they haven't done so
yet. I recall that their instructions say that it would be several
months
before a family page is set after one is requested. If one is set up, I
would like to coordinate with you so that a reader on either page
(yours
or GenForum's) knows of the other. (YES-YES)
I don't have the computer
skills to set up a page by myself. So I would be pleased to work (as
Lesperance
technical expert) with you on your page.
Gagy is my first cousin,
once removed: my grandfather Oliver is her uncle. Gagy has some
Lesperance's
of her generation still living: Lillian Lesperance Calkins in
Keeseville,
a 1st cousin; Bernadette Lesperance in Keeseville, a 2nd cousin, I
believe;
and Eugenia Lesperance Finnegan in western NY, a 1st cousin. Ms
Finnegan
is in a few years younger than Gagy but the others are in their
70's/80's.
I have never met Ms Finnegan.
I'll have to recheck my
sources but some information on the family of Joseph Lesperance and
Exilda
Young that you may not have is: Joseph was baptized "Joseph Irenee";
Lena
was baptized Lea Agnes (can't find her baptismal certificate at the
moment
so I don't know the date) and she married John Baptist Mitchell ("John
Baptist" suggests that he is French, so the "Mitchell" must be a
variation
of a French name) on 6 Nov 1911 (I don't have the place recorded but it
was likely St John the Baptist Church in Keeseville.); Roy was born 11
Oct 1896 and baptized at St J-B 18 Oct...he married Rose Seguir
(slightly
different spelling than on your page) 26 April 1920 probably at St J-B.
I believe I have a 5th child of this couple... Merilda Clemence born 16
Aug 1904, baptized 21 Aug. I have no further information on Merilda so
it is likely she died young.
I continue to receive
information
on our ancestors. There is a Lesperance believed to be a descendant of
Corporal Jean living near Montreal in Canada. I have a Canadian
genealogist
chasing this one down. This genealogist was interested in the
descendants
of the Corporal in the U.S. and was overwhelmed with what I sent him.
Also
I recently started communicating with a distant cousin (how I ran into
this guy is in itself an interesting story) who last week sent me a
census
that shows that Sophie Barnabe (Narcisse's wife..the first couple in
Keeseville)
was still living with the family of one of her sons, Eugene (also
called
James), in Essex County, NY in this century.
More from Jerry:
I am very sure that Joseph Albert
Lesperance
is not of the same Lesperance family that is discussed on the Bigelow
pages.
I say this for two reasons. I have accounted for all of the
Lesperance's
in our branch who were living in the U.S. in the 1880's. The name
Joseph
Albert Lesperance was not one of them. My other reason is more
important.
I have traced our Lesperance line back to France in the early 1600's.
There
were no Indians in the line.
It is kind of interesting. I have been doing
French-Canadian
genealogy for 6 years. Practically every person of F-C ancestry has
heard
that there is an Indian (usually a full-blooded Indian and quite often
a chief) in his or her ancestry. My mother told me absolutely that her
maternal grandfather was the son of a Chippewa chief. Adding substance
to this was that her mother (my grandmother) looked more Indian than
Caucasian.
Even after I traced my mother's line back to France and absolutely did
not find her Indian, she said I was wrong.
If I were you I would try to find the marriage certificate of your
great-grandfather. That should give the names of his parents. If you
don't
know where and when he was married, try to get the date and place of
birth
of his son/daughter who is your ancestor. Then assume that Joseph
Albert
was married the same place a few years before that birth. Then search
the
web for the place where the vital records for that city are kept.
Usually
if you search for "vital records (State)" you can get the answer.
Or message me and I'll get the address for the appropriate vital
records
office for you.
The first Lesperance's in Canada married in L'Assomption, a nice
town about an hour's drive from downtown Montreal. Also Montreal has my
favorite French-Canadian genealogy library...Salle Gagnon at the
Montreal
Central Library on Sherbrooke Street East. There is a lot of material
in
that room about our Lesperance ancestors. I had made a tentative hookup
of William Lesperance and Ida Provost when I found their headstone at
St
John's cemetery several years ago. I have a William Oliver Lesperance
born
5 Dec, baptized at St John's 14 Dec, 1879. I had no further information
on him. I have no other Williams of that vintage. So I made a note to
myself
that it must be the William who married Ida Provost. This William is
the
son of Charles Lesperance and Henriette Brion or Brien. Charles is the
brother of your great-great-grandfather Joseph who married Emilie
Latourelle.
Incidentally, I have done what I believe to be original research on
Emilie
Latourelle and the ancestors of her parents Henri Latourelle and Emilie
Levasseur (Vasseur).
This is Gerald O. LESPERANCE,
grandson of Oliver LESPERANCE , who is
willing to provide family members with the latest information on his
Lesperance
research. Contact Jerry Lesperance. E-mail lesperanj001@hawaii.rr.com
.
Generation No. 1
1. ANTOINE L'ESPERANCE. He married MARIE BRAIS in Longueil, PQ Canada
Children of ANTOINE L'ESPERANCE and MARIE BRAIS are:
i. MELINA LESPERANCE.
2. ii. FRANCIS L'ESPERANCE, b.Abt. 1840, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Generation No. 2
2. FRANCIS L'ESPERANCE (ANTOINE ) was born Abt. 1840 in Montreal,
Quebec,
Canada.
He married LOUISE FARLEY 18 Aug 1866 in Notre Dame, Ogdensburg, NY,
daughter of AMIABLE FARLEY and MARIE LAROSE.
Children of FRANCIS L'ESPERANCE and LOUISE FARLEY are:
3. i. FRANK LESPERANCE, b. Jul 1865, NY; d. Abt. 1915.
ii. JOSEPHINE LAESPERANCE, b. Abt. 1869, NY.
iii. ALFRED LAESPERANCE, b.Abt. 1871, NY.
iv. CHARLES LAESPERANCE, b. Abt. 1873, NY.
v. JULIUS? LAESPERANCE, b. Abt. 1875, NY.
vi. HENRY LAESPERANCE, b. Abt. 1877, NY.
vii. WILLIAM LAESPERANCE, b. Mar 1880, NY.
Generation No. 3
3. FRANK LESPERANCE (FRANCIS L'ESPERANCE, ANTOINE) was bom (Jul 1865
in NY, and died Abt. 1915.
He married MARIE ANNA "ANNIE" WARD 01 Dec 1890 in Notre Dame,
Ogdensburg,
NY, daughter of JULIEN WARD and MARIE BOUGIE.
Children of FRANK LESPERANCE and MARIE WARD are:
i. FRANK J. "FRANKIE'"* LESPERANCE, b. 25 Jan 1893, Ogdensburg, NY; d. 15 Oct 1970, Canandaigua, NY.
ii. EUGENE LESPERANCE, b. Sep 1895, Ogdensburg, NY.
4. iii. LEO BENOIT LESPERANCE, b. 09 Apr 1898, Ogdensburg, NY; d. 05 Feb 1989, Ogdensburg, NY.
iv. EPHRAM LESPERANCE, b. May 1900, Ogdensburg, NY.
v. ANNABELLE "BELLA" LESPERANCE, b. Abt. 1905, Ogdensburg, NY; m.
MITCH
LAFAVE.
My name is Lynda Wray and I was reading up on your family history of
the Lesperance Family. I have been trying to locate my great
grandfather's
line without luck. His name was Joseph Albert Lesperance and he
was
born about 1881, we believe in the Eastern US. He was a
full
blooded Chippewa Indian. Do you have any Indians in your
tree?
We have not been able to find any info on this man at all. He
died
in Montreal in 1948 under a different name so we haven't even been able
to trace him that way.
Your tree is very interesting. I have been working on mine for
about 5 years and I have found very little on that part of the family.
Good luck with your continued search. Lynda Wray
lynda.dyson@sympatico.ca
Children:
1. Charles, baptised 8 Jun 1874 (B-51)
2. Pierre E., born & baptised 5 Nov 1875 (B-107/108),
died 1959 (gravestone), Keeseville
3. Marguerite, born 18 April 1878, baptised 6 May 1878
(B-37)
4. William Olivier, born 5 Dec 1879, baptised 14 Dec 1879
(B-129)
5. Marie Agatha, born 23 April 1882, baptised 27 May 1882
(B-38)
6. Henrietta Elizabeth, baptised 28 Jun 1884 (B-51 note:
parents and godparents were reversed in this entry. Godparents
were
Cyrille Brion and Emma Bracormier)
7. Louis Andre, baptised 7 Feb 1886 (B-11)
8. Joseph Narcisse, born 25 Feb 1888, baptised 28 Apr 1888
(B-16)
9. Anne, baptised 2 Mar 1890 (B-10)
10. Thomas, baptised 7 Feb 1892 (B-7)
11. Mary Anne Helene, baptised 16 Jul 1893 (B-36)
12. Lulicite Esther, baptised 21 Oct 1894 (B-48)
13. Marie Ellen, born 15 Oct 1896, baptised 3 Nov 1896 (B-50)
14. Agnes Denise, baptised 23 Jun 1902 (B-34)
All data was taken from the LDS Family History Microfilm # 1450721
except
where indicated. Information in ( ) is the number of the event
for
that particular year, ie. B-50 for Marie Ellen is the 50th baptism for
1896.
I hope this will be of some benefit to you. If you ever run
across
marriage data for Joseph Brion and Marie Angelique Fontaine I
hope
you will drop me a line. This is my largest brickwall. They
were both born in Canada but I believe they were married in NY
state.
I believe they were living in Peru, NY about 1842 and then moved to
Chesterfield.
They went to
church in Keeseville. Both last names were corrupted many times
in the microfilm mentioned above. Brien, Brault, Brillon, Breau,
Brisson and Fountain, LaFontaine, LaFountain, etc. My last
name is the Massachusetts version of Brion. What a puzzle!!
rodbigelow@netzero.net 
