Hi everyone,
I'm happy to report that the 2nd Livingston Family book, The Livingston Family: Living Well, has been published. It's 250 pages and documents the children and ancestors of Ulric and Helen Livingston.
I have a few copies if you're interested.
The book is $45 and $25 for postage.
Marie Marguerite Helen Langevin was born to parents Joseph Langevin and Clara Ann Lafreniere on October 6, 1897, but we'll discuss her parents momentarily.
Helen was born in 1897, wed Ulric in 1917 and died in 1984 (some of the information can be found in earlier blog posts as well as the Livingston Family book published in 2013).
A wonderful family photo of Ulric and Helen Livingston and the Langevin family in December 1920.
Helen and Ulric moved to Oak Lake, Manitoba (near Brandon) before 1921 where they were recorded in the Canada Census.
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| (from The Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History ed.by Helen Hornbeck Tanner) |
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| Antoine Lafrenière and his wife Madeleine |
St. Leon was a small place located near a round lake founded in 1870. This town had a unique start in that it was initially built at the south end of the lake, but it disappeared a decade after the arrival of early settlers. The town was moved to north side of the lake for reasons unknown, but perhaps due to flooding.
Sex: F Birth: ABT. 2 JUL 1792 in St. Ignace, Mackinac Co. NATI: Metis Note: Godparents were Antoine Adhemar St. Martin and Genevieve Blondeau. August 15, 1799, by us the undersigned priest, the ceremonies of Baptism were supplied to Genevieve, privately baptized by Laurent Bertrand, born July 2, 1792, of Jacques Vasseur and of Madeleine, an Outawa, his lawful wife. The father was present and signed with us. The godfather was Antoine Adhemar St. Martin; and the godmother Genevieve Blondeau, his wife, who signed with us. Gabriel Richard, priest.
Jacquess Vasseur; Bd. adhemar; adhemar St Martin
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| Histoire des Canadiens-Francais, 1608-1880 |
This post has been written and posted upon this day to commemorate the anniversary of the death of my Great Grandfather Ulric Michael "Nellie" Livingston. He was a wonderful, fun-loving man who cherished his family.
This post is my attempt to uncover the ancestors of Ulric Livingston, husband of Hellen Langevin. Ulric was born in 1890, wed Hellen in 1917 and died in 1977 (some of the information in this blog post may be found in 2012 blog posts as well as the Livingston Family book published in 2013).
After some in depth research, I have uncovered Ulric's ancestors as far back as the 1600's and I will reveal new records. None of the information posted can be shared without mentioning the wonderful work carried out my Great Auntie Doreen and Great Uncle Bernie (Helen and Ulric's kids) - we would be so lost without your guidance, encouragement, and enthusiasm!
After much consideration, Dad gave up his job in Flin Flon, MB and purchased a fruit farm in the Okanagan at a town called Vernon.
The day of our departure, October 14, 1936, dawned dull, dreary, and raining, thus adding to sorrow of leaving our good friends in Flin Flon. Despite this, we left in high anticipation as to what the future holds in store for us in the fruit lands of sunny Okanagan.
The morning after our departure, we arrived in Dauphin where we spent a four hour wait for the bus. We looked up an old friend, thus passing the time more quickly (Alice Sumpter, an old friend from the convent). Leaving Dauphin at noon, we reached Brandon at the home of our aunt late that afternoon. We spent a weeks visit there and thinking we would leave for Vernon soon, our decision was to charter a bus to Oak Lake and spent the remainder of our time at the farm home of another aunt and uncle.
The supposed short visit on the farm was extended from October 20th until December 5th, the delay being spent patiently and otherwise. Thanks to the "neighbours" and other friends in town our long stay was brightened considerably by many kind invitations and visit from them.
Dad and mother went to Winnipeg November 28th and spent a week with relatives. They purchased a 1934 Chevrolet and after interviewing our agent, Mr. Vezina, they returned to Oak Lake December 1st.
Late Friday night December 4th, we received a phone call from Pierre Vezina telling us to leave as soon as possible. Consequently, we busied ourselves making hasty last minute preparations, intending to make an early start the following morning.
We were delayed however by the extreme cold. The thermometer registered 35 below zero. In spite of a few hours delay in starting the car, we finally bid farewell to our relatives and friends in Oak Lake and started on our long journey.
We travelled south to West Hope, North Dakota and arrived there shortly after noon. On discovering we were to be delayed until Monday, we made ourselves at home at the Gateway Motel and became acquainted with several nice people there. We met a very good friend the parish priest of West Hope who entertained us, helping the time go faster. Monday afternoon, December 7th, we again gathered our belongings and after bidding adieu to our newly made friends, started on our way. The weather was slightly warmer than the previous days and traveling was more pleasant.
Shortly before arriving in Minot, North Dakota, we experienced our first slight mishap - a blow out which took a half hours time to repair. We arrived there at 4:30 pm however and while going through the city commented on the beauty of the place nestled in the hills. At 6:30, we drove into a place and remarked on its likeness to Minot, because although it was quite dark, the way the city lights shone, indicated that it was situated among the hills. We stopped at the nearest filling station and inquired as to our whereabouts. Imagine our surprise and chagrin to discover we were again in Minot. We had travelled over 80 miles in a circle!
We dined in Minot Café and decided in spite of this delay to get to Williston as we had previously planned. This new situation gave us a good idea of the monotony and danger of travelling at night. We arrived at Williston, North Dakota after midnight and welcomed the comfort of the Great Northern Hotel. The following morning we attended mass At St. Josephs Church, as Tuesday December 8th was a holy day. After breakfasting in the Great Northern Café, we started out again.
A few hours travelling brought us to Montana and we welcomed the change of scenery as we travelled westward. Our first stop was Glasgow where we stopped for lunch. Again on our way, we travelled as quickly as possible, as we were very much afraid of the weather. On arriving in Havre Montana, we were informed that the day before they had had an 18 [inch?] snowfall. We were advised to change highways here from No.2 to No.29 as No.2 westward was closed. At the Up and Up Cafe, we ate our supper in Havre as our intentions were to make Great Falls without stopping again. The roads were quite slippery from the recent snowfall thus progress was quite slow.
After getting stuck climbing a hill, we finally got some chains, thus easing the high tensions of our nerves as we were very much afraid of slipping in some ditch or over a cliff. Being at night our imaginations were in full working order. However we again travelled until after midnight and the Hotel Stevens in Great Falls put up a bunch of very weary wanderers that night.
As early as possible Wednesday morning December 9th, we left Great Falls, and still going south we took highway 91 which took us to Helena. Here we again changed highways taking number 10 westward on which our first stop was Missoula, Montana. Here I blush with shame remembering Missoula where we experienced something very humiliating which I shall not relate here but at some future time when the memory is less fresh in our minds, we may tell it to anyone and laugh it off. (A later date: After eating, we discovered to our dismay, we had lunch in a saloon!) After eating this hearty meal in Missoula felt more like continuing our journey.
Shortly after dark, we met a large truck, the driver not dimming his lights blinded Dad, who was at the wheel. We struck something dangling on the side of the truck but we both kept on going. At our next stop, we noticed two foot long cuts in the fender. However, we kept on travelling. We were in the state of Idaho and in a few hours arrived in the state of Washington.
On nearing Spokane Washington as we travelled through the mountains, we observed many airport beacon lights. We noticed a small grey sack which looked very much like a hornet's nest falling to the ground and Archie said that it was a flare bomb used by airplanes travelling at night. We felt a sharp impact as it hit the ground directly behind the car. Dad and Archie jumped out and found the packsack tied to the back of the car ablaze! We were thankful we escaped with only a few of our blankets and pillows burned, as the flare could have struck the gas tank which was only a few feet from where the packsack was tied. We were very lucky to have even noticed the thing.
We arrived at Spokane about 2:00 am and put up at the Pedicord Hotel, the largest hotel we had been in, but it was very comfortable. There were individual telephones in each room, and not knowing how they operated, Frances lifted the receiver and immediately a clerk answered. she put it back as quickly as she could not saying anything.
When we went to the garage to get our car, the attendant told us of the abdication etc. We were very much ashamed of Edward the 8th and considered it a disgrace to have been informed by a Yankee.
We left Pedicord as soon as possible Thursday December 10th and tried to travel as fast as we could. We were delayed by the slippery roads and found we were barely able to move along at a crawl. We also had trouble with the chains as the set we bought were singles and broke easily on the paved roads. We even had to borrow a piece of fencing along the road to wire them up.
At 4:30 pm, we arrived back in Canada. Here we all breathed a sigh of relief to be in our country again. We struck Canada at Grand Forks, B.C. - the wrong place of course and we had to travel several miles on a trail (after travelling almost 1000 miles on paved roads). We finally got to the road and found it as bad as the road we had just left, as it was mostly washboard.
Several miles from Penticton, we got stuck in the middle of the road and Dad told us that the small clock for registering oil showed us that we didn't have any and that he could smell the motor burning. Finally, a car came along and shoved our car, also offering to help us out of our difficulty, but fortunately for us, a truck drove up and offered to tow us. Now we understand what towing is, as we were towed for over eight miles. We did sit at high tensions then expecting the bumper to be jerked off at any minute. We again smelled that burning odor and finally discovered it to be the brakes getting too warm as we were travelling down hill so much and around hairpin turns and being at night, we were unaware of it. However, we stopped at the nearest garage for oil and discovered that we had plenty and the towing was unnecessary.
Arriving at Penticton, we learned that the ferry at Kelowna only ran in the daytime, so we took rooms at the Three Gables Hotel, after our day experiences slept like logs.
It was our luck to travel the rest of the journey in the daytime so we saw what the country around home was like as Penticton is only 70 miles from Vernon. At Kelowna, we had to wait almost an hour for the ferry, but we enjoyed the wait as we spent our time looking around us. At noon, we arrived in Vernon and we were thankful to say "all present." The eight of us in a five passenger car after our winter trip of 1600 miles. We then awaited the arrival of mother and the three youngest who arrived by train a week later. All home at last.
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1015 London Street, New Westminster, BC |
We know what remains for us to see in the Perigort region, thanks to a French family who befriended us shortly after our arrival in Periguex. And, we have it in mind to spend six months in Europe our next time there, so we can have an in depth study of that beautiful and historical region. Mr. Le Cerf has promised to assist me in my genealogical studies. We didn't meet owing this to his leaving Paris the following day on which we rang him. I'm elated by his generous response and have written, at his request, giving him a clear picture of where he can research on our behalf. I had only one hour in the Periguex Archives where (Leonard's) the records of Razac of 300 years ago are now. Holding the original records and thrilling experience for me - (the dust made my nose run though). There's a record of every soldier who left the Perigord region for Canada.
of | LEONARD Libersan LAVIOLETTE Father: GUILLAUME Libersan Mother: MARIE LOUISE MADELEINE | and | MARIE JEANNE BEAUDRY LEPINETTE Father: ANTOINE BEAUDRY LEPINETTE Mother: CATHERINE GUYARD |
Sex | Birth | Marriage | Death | First name of the child |
Place | Place | Place | Name of the spouse | |
m | 1704-10-27 | 1731-07-09 | 1779-11-15 | ANTOINE |
Montreal | St Lawrence | Ste-Genevieve (Pierrefonds) | ANNE MARIE JEANNE with DEVOYAUX LAFRAMBOISE | |
m | 1706-06-28 | 1706-07-13 | CHARLES | |
Montreal | Montreal | |||
m | 1707-07-13 | 1730-10-30 | FRANCOIS MARIE | |
Montreal | St Lawrence | with MARY MAGDALENE RICHER LOUVETAU | ||
m | 1709-03-06 | 1733-02-05 | CHARLES | |
Montreal | St Lawrence | |||
f | 1711-02-05 | 1731-10-08 | 1795-03-11 | ELIZABETH MARIE ISABELLE |
Montreal | St Lawrence | The Cedars | with JEAN BAPTISTE LEROUX ROUSSON | |
m | 1713-03-07 | 1713-03-11 | LEONARD | |
Montreal | Montreal | |||
x | 1713-03-07 | 1713-03-08 | ANONYMOUS | |
Montreal | Montreal | |||
f | 1714-04-03 | 1788-06-01 | Marie Josephe | |
Montreal | Montreal General Hospital | |||
f | 1716-05-16 | 1716-07-03 | ANNE MARIE | |
Montreal | Montreal |
