Tag Archives: Switzerland

genealogy, Germany

Stuck in Europe: Still Travelling Alone

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After travelling in Europe for a week by myself, I decided to go home. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the money for a one-way ticket, so I was stuck in Europe for another three weeks. My return ticket, subsidized by the Canadian German Exchange Society, only cost $135, so I couldn’t think of paying 1800 DM ($680) for a one-way ticket. I never thought to call my parents and ask for money. In 1973, people weren’t connected all the time; there were no cell phones, no internet, few credit cards and no online banking.

With the decision made, I needed to stay in better places and at the top of my list were Youth Hostels. I took a train from Frankfurt to Mannheim and there, looked for the Youth Hostel (Jungen Heberge).“Bought a membership to the Youth Hostel for 30 DM today in Mannheim. After three days I will be saving money.” I also hoped to meet other travellers and not spend all my evenings alone in a hotel room.

Water Tower in Mannheim

I then travelled south to Karlsruhe and subsequently to Freiburg. There I met Brenda, a girl from the exchange group, whom I had sat beside on the plane to Europe. She had been working in a hospital and didn’t want to travel alone. A German woman she worked with had a week’s holiday, so they were travelling together. Too bad we didn’t know we were both alone earlier, but she planned to continue working until our group meet-up in Frankfurt.

I looked forward to visiting Switzerland, the birthplace of my paternal grandfather. It never occurred to me to look up any relatives, as this was before genealogy became interesting. I didn’t even go to Fleurier, my grandfather’s hometown.

In Lausanne, I met a girl Joyda, from Halifax. She was hitchhiking around Europe and wanted me to join her. I tried sending my suitcase back to Frankfurt but without a train ticket it would go as merchandise and take two weeks. So we were on the road, Joyda with her backpack and me with my suitcase and other bags! It took us five rides to get to Thun. The last in a milk truck. We took a boat up the lake to Oberhofen and spent two nights in a hostel there. “Found some swings in a park, the first I have seen in Europe, and swung!” The next day we hitchhiked to Bern. We got a ride with a middle aged man who invited us to his house for lunch. Joyda was anxious to get to Bern for a train to Basel so he drove us to the Bern train station even though he wasn’t going there, just putting mile on his new car. There, Joyda and I parted ways. I had enjoyed having a companion.

After Bern, I took a train to Zurich. They had a brand new youth hostel with quilts instead of dirty blankets, solid bunks and hot water showers with a dressing cubicle. This earned a two-night stay. I counted down the days to Frankfurt.

Zurich

“I was going to spend the day shopping in Zurich, but I only bought a charm. Met a Canadian from Thompson, Manitoba on a bridge (he must have seen the flag on my jeans). Bought me tea, a hotdog for lunch, beer in the afternoon, chicken and beer for supper and more beer! Plus, we went rowing on the lake. The only problem was, he was an illiterate bum and very difficult to understand. Wants to marry me after he goes to Alaska and makes twenty thousand a year and I have finished school!”

After escaping marriage in Zurich, I travelled back into Germany, to Munich. There I met a girl in the youth hostel whom I had met two weeks earlier. It was like finding my best friend, so I had fun in Munich. I only had two more days until meeting up with the group. My last train trip was five hours to Frankfurt with only old people in the compartment.

I spent my last night alone in Frankfurt at a hotel where the porter actually took my suitcase up to my room. The next morning, I walked to the train station and met all the kids from the group. It was a relief to be told what to do. We took buses to the airport, got rid of most of our luggage and drove east toward Berlin. We stopped for lunch at Kirschheim and then waited an hour and a half at the East German border. We were told we couldn’t stop anywhere in East Germany before Berlin, but thankfully made a bathroom stop.

“We arrived in Berlin at 10:30. Took 45 minutes to find the hotel. The bus driver was U-turning all over Berlin, asking instructions from drunks. We finally arrived at the hotel and no supper! Went hungry to bed.”

In the morning we had a bus tour of Berlin which included a stop at the Wall separating east and west. We climbed the lookout and looked over the border at the East German guards, fencing and barbwire. The Wall would remain there until November 9, 1989.

Looking over the Wall

“Today went into East Berlin. Had to wait almost an hour at the border. Filled out forms, had to say how much money we had and changed 5DM to East German marks.”

We were told we had to spend the 5 German Marks. We had trouble finding things to buy and I just spent some on ice cream and a bitter lemon drink. I came back with coins in my pocket.

The Berlin Wall from the West

East Germany was really depressing. Many of the bombed-out buildings still stood, while none were seen in the west. Ugly, huge apartment complexes lined the streets. Karl Marx Allee had some stores but mostly empty of merchandise. What department store in the West would have only one washer, one stove and one fridge? We visited the Pergamon Museum with its ancient artefacts and the Dom Cathedral before heading back to the west for shopping on Kurfürstendamm.

I enjoyed travelling with the group. After spending time with Brenda, I was sorry we hadn’t travelled together but I was glad I was brave enough to tour by myself, rather than spend the whole summer working on the chicken farm. We boarded the buses and travelled back to West Germany. After a night in Kassel, we arrived at Frankfurt Airport for our flight to Canada. I couldn’t wait to get home but carried loads of memories.

Notes:

I kept a notebook journal throughout the summer. I also kept track of my spendings. I certainly didn’t buy much food!

I had a camera with me, my first. A small viewfinder one. I wasn’t used to taking pictures and was shy about photographing people. There were only three pictures of people. I only took slide film and mailed it to Kodak in Canada to be developed.

I arrived back in Montreal with 170.35 DM, which was $64.00 in 1973.

Stories about the first part of the Summer of 1973:

Travelling Alone
My Chicken Farm Summer
genealogy, Quebec

Henriette Feller

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A young Protestant widow from Switzerland came to Canada in 1835 to convert the heathens. If it wasn’t for Henriette Feller, my family might still be speaking French and attending Roman Catholic services.

Henriette Odin (1800 – 1867) was born in Montagny, a village, outside of Lausanne, Switzerland. Her Protestant ancestors had been driven out of France when Louis XIV revoked religious freedoms and many took refuge in Switzerland. Her father was the director of the Vantonal Hospital at Lausanne.

“Wisdom and love distinguished both parents and their influence on the family was of the happiest kind.”

As a teenager, Henriette began visiting in the hospital and her tender and gentle demeanour was a comfort to the patients. She learned to change dressings and considered becoming a nurse but then she had a religious awakening.

Henriette married Louis Feller, a widower, in 1822. He was the head of a prison and had a son and two daughters. Their daughter Elize died as a young child and soon after, Louis died of typhoid fever. Louis Feller left all his assets to Henriette. They both gave their lives to a Christian Evangelical sect that wanted to spread the love of Jesus Christ. If you loved Jesus, everything else would be alright. The Swiss government didn’t approve and persecuted those who espoused the evangelical faith.

At an opportune time, Monsieur Henri Olivier and his wife came to Henriette’s Church, Henri as a pastor. He held missionary prayer meetings and under the Société des Missions d’Evangeliques de Lausanne, instructed young men for missionary service.

 “Whose business is it to go to the heathen for whom we pray and give?” 

The North American Indians became their prime missionary endeavour. Soon Henri, his wife and two young men were sent to Canada to convert the indigenous population to Protestantism using the word of Jesus from the New Testament. The young men went west but the Oliviers preferred to stay in Montreal and work on converting the French Roman Catholics. Henriette corresponded regularly with Mme Olivier, who encouraged her to follow them to Canada. In 1835, Henriette and a young missionary, Louis Roussy, sailed to New York, a journey of 33 days. They then travelled up the Hudson River to Lake Champlain, on the Richelieu River to St Jean, a long tedious journey to La Prairie in an old coach and finally across the St Lawrence River in a primitive boat to be met in Montreal by the Oliviers.

Converting Catholics was hard work, with very limited success because of the strong position of the clergy in the everyday lives of the French Canadians. Henriette thought they could do more good in the rural areas south of Montreal, where the priests and the churches were far apart. Henri Olivier soon returned to Switzerland but Henriette Feller and Louis Roussy stayed.

The Levecque family, in Grand Ligne, south of Montreal, offered Henriette their attic space with a room for her to live in and another for the school. She taught the children during the day using the bible and at night, the adults climbed to her room and read and discussed the New Testament.

The Leveque family house used as Henriette’s first school

Troubles escalated with the local Catholics during the rebellion of 1837. Those at the mission were threatened and forced into exile in the United States. They found sympathy for their cause in Champlain, New York and were able to raise money and received continued support from the Americans.

When things quieted down, they returned to Grande Ligne to find the houses emptied, animals taken and crops gone. With the help of several friends of the Mission, they rebuilt. The new construction, a much larger, substantial stone building, housing the mission and the school, opened in 1840. This was the begining of the Feller Institute.

While Henriette, known as Mere (Mother), continued to teach, Louis Roussy, as a colporteur, spread the word of God through the distribution of Bibles. My family lore said that one day, he and Eloi Roy visited my great-great grand mother, Sophie Marie Prudhomme Bruneau. She was interested in what they told her and invited them to stay the night. Her husband Barnabé Bruneau then joined in the discussions and eventually, my great-great grandparents and all their 13 children converted to Protestantism.

Henriette Feller

The hard work took its toll on Henriette’s health, which was a constant source of anxiety for her close associates. She had pneumonia several times and never completely recovered, even after a trip home to Switzerland. She suffered a stroke in 1865 and although bedridden, was still the driving force for the school until her death in 1868. Henriette Feller is buried in the Grande Ligne Cemetery with many of her converts, including some of my ancestors. Most of my family is protestant to this day.

“Although Madame Feller occupied a somewhat anomalous position, for her influence was well-nigh all-powerful, and few ventured to contradict or oppose one in whom the tenderness of woman and the firmness of man were so happily united, she never overstepped apostolic limits.”

Notes:

Walter N. Wyeth, D.D. Henrietta Feller and The Grand Ligne Mission, Philadelphia, PA. 1898. printed and Bound by C.J. Krehbeil & Co. Cincinnati, Ohio.

Paul Villard M.A., M. D., D. D. Up to the Light the story of French Protestantism in Canada. 1928. Ryerson Press, Toronto, Canada.

PHILIP G.A. GRIFFIN-ALLWOOD Wesley Memorial United Church  Cramp Memoir of Madame Feller 244. Mère Henriette Feller (1800-1868) of La Grande Ligne and Ordered Ministry in Canada.

Historical Sketch of the Grande Linge Mission by the President 1893

https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2457971/saint-blaise-baptist-cemetery

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feller_College

Ensemble Feller
Ensemble Feller
genealogy, Quebec, Scotland

Throwing Rocks

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My Swiss grandfather became enthralled with curling when he came to Canada. Curling is a game invented by the Scots but my Scottish ancestors never took up the sport.

René Raguin came to Canada from Switzerland in 1910 to teach school. He knew all about winter and cold weather sports. He had skied, sledded and climbed in his homeland. Once, he cut his leg on a bobsled runner and didn’t realize the extent of the injury until until he was at the bottom of the hill. All of his trips down hill weren’t on sleds with sharp runners, some for fun were on metal trays. I am sure he thought throwing “irons” on ice would be easy when he first tried curling in Trois Rivière. 

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Rene Raguin on the right with some of his curling buddies. Well pinned!

Curling is a game played on a sheet of ice where rocks are thrown from the hack to the rings at the other end and one tries to get closer to the centre or button than one’s opponents. Lakes and ponds hosted the first games, played with granite stones which were plentiful in Scotland. The stones are now carved and polished so they glide over the ice and a twist of the handle gives the curl.

The Grand Caledonian Curling Club was formed in 1838 to regulate this ancient Scottish game. Apparently many rules were needed for throwing rocks on ice. The club later received its royal charter from Queen Victoria and became the Royal Caledonian Curling Club (RCCC), the mother club of the sport.

It is generally accepted that the 78th Fraser Highland Regiment brought curling to Canada in the mid 1700s. The soldiers melted cannonballs to make iron curling “stones” and curled in Québec City. Curling then moved to Montreal where men first played on cleared patches of ice on the St Lawrence river before it moved indoors. Quebecers continued to curl with “irons” until the early 1950s while the rest of the country played with granite.

When René moved to Montreal he didn’t give up curling. He first joined the St Laurence Curling Club, downtown on St Urbain Street and when he moved to Dixie, now part of Dorval, he joined the Lachine Curling Club. There he stayed. He played in bonspiels at clubs all over Quebec, Ontario and the North Eastern United States. Bonspiels are tournaments with many games played over a number of days and lots of drinks to celebrate the winners and the losers. Curlers collected pins from all the clubs where they played. Some would cover their their jackets or their hats with their pins. My grandfather had a coffee table that intrigued me as a child. Under its glass top sat many curling pins of all shapes and colours.

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A Squirrel Pin from The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts

He excelled at curling and skipped teams in many matches. He could easily take out his opponents stones and slide his rocks to the button. He gave back a lot to the sport which resulted in him being elected President of the Canadian Branch of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club in 1939. René was then honoured at a dinner with speeches praising his curling, his character, his tact and diplomacy with many toasts to his good health!

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He never traveled to Scotland but hosted the Scots on their curling tours of Canada. He became an honorary vice-president of the RCCC, the highest office available to a Canadian, for his promotion of all the traditions of curling and especially for the expansion of the game into the northern United States.

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The Scottish Curlers in Canada in 1950s

René enjoyed curling for the camaraderie, the skill needed and the drinks after the games. In out of town excursions he was said to be the life of the party. His son would drive him to all the area curling clubs for the New Years Levees where he would have a drink with the members and toast the coming year, “Good health and good curling.”

Notes:

https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/sports/bonspiel-history-curling-canada/Pages/curling-canada.asp

The minutes of the occasion of the election of Rene Raguin to the office of President of the Canadian branch of the Royal Caledonia Curling Club December 15, 1939 by J.J. Sophus.

The History of the Lachine Curling Club http://www.lachinecurling.com/history_en.php

Cartoon by Bill Cunningham in The Montreal Gazette in 1940.

The Heading photograph is of the Lachine Curling Club taken in 2019 by the author.

Some of Rene Raguin’s family curled a few times but I am the only family member to take up his game.

genealogy, Ontario

What is a Limonadier?

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When you are lucky enough to find original documents pertaining to your ancestors do you really read everything on them or do you just glance through them, copy them and file them for later? One thing I have recently learned is to thoroughly read all documents. What a novel tip for genealogy research!

I was sending information to a fellow writing about my grandfather, Rene Raguin. He told me that Rene’s father Marie Joseph Raguin had been a Limonadier. What kind of occupation is that I wondered? I wrote back and asked him how he knew that information. He responded that it was on my grandparent’s marriage licence.

I had never looked up their documents as I knew when and where they were married. One of my great uncles, Herbert Bruneau had done a lot of Genealogy research and I had his family tree. I was more interested in people I didn’t know and had put off confirming other’s research. The document was easy to find and there under “profession of father of husband” was “Limonadier”. There is a lot of information on Ontario, Canada marriage certificates.

What was this profession? It sounded like someone who made lemonade. The marriage was in 1912 when bottled soft drinks were not available. According to Wikipedia, a Limonadier made and sold lemonade, could also make and sell alcohol or run a cafe.

Aside from being an interesting occupation, this explained some of our family traditions. My mother had a recipe that we called “Grandfather’s Lemon Syrup”. It was a lemon syrup that when added to water made lemonade. My mother used to make it and on visits to my grandparents, we had the lemon drink in little glasses that once contained cream cheese and home-baked sugar cookies. My cousins called my aunt’s version of it, “Grannie’s Lemon Drink” but they were obviously wrong about the origin.

It is also possible that Marie Joseph did run a cafe in Fleurier, Switzerland. One story that we heard growing up was that grandfather used to take a big pan of plum pie to the bakery to have it cooked as the pan didn’t fit in their oven. Why would a family of four need such a big pie? So making it for a cafe makes sense. It was a simple dish, pie crust covered by half plums with sugar sprinkled on top, a dessert that my mother also used to make.

It is amazing how much information one can get from a single word.

Notes:

Ontario Marriages, 1869-1927,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KS8D-G3N : 10 April 2015), René Emile Raguin and Cecile Béatrice Bruneau, 09 Jul 1912; citing registration, Cornwall, Stormont, Ontario, Canada, Archives of Ontario, Toronto; FHL microfilm 1,906,765. On Feb 22, 2017.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limonadier accessed Feb 22, 2017.

genealogy, Quebec, United States

Ida Girod Bruneau

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Ismael Bruneau wanted a biblical family, one child for each of the 12 tribes of Israel. His wife Ida didn’t share that ambition, but still, they had 10. When one of her daughters was getting married she asked her mother what she could do to prevent the arrival of so many children and Ida answered, “If I knew, do you think I would have had all of you?” 

Ida herself came from a very large family. She was born in 1862 in Les Convers, Switzerland, to Gustave Girod and Sophie Balmer, the sixth of 16 children. Her favourite aunt, Celine Balmer was teaching at a private girl’s school in Baltimore, Maryland and arranged a job for Ida at the same school. In 1882 Ida sailed to the United States for the teaching position.

After a particularly bad year, with many deaths in the family, her parents decided to emigrate to America. Another son tragically died on the voyage and was buried at sea. The Girods were farmers and settled in the French community of Kankakee, Illinois. When Ida went to visit, she met the Minister, Ismael Bruneau. He was taken with her and they were soon married.

Ismael and Ida then lived in Green Bay Wisconsin where their first three children, Edgar, Beatrice and Hermonie were born. A French Protestant minister moved frequently and the next charge was in Holyoke Massachusetts, where Helvetia was born. Next was a move back to Canada. Sydney, Fernand, and Edmee were born in Quebec City and Renee, Herbert and Gerald in Montreal. All the children survived except Fernand. My Grandmother Beatrice said it was his name that killed him but we didn’t understand why as we thought the other siblings had stranger names. They played funeral with him and pulled him around in a wagon covered with flowers.

Beatrice and Ida
Beatrice Bruneau and mother Ida 1900

 

Although a minister’s salary was meagre the family survived and flourished. The first two sons went to McGill. One became a doctor and the other a lawyer. All the girls finished high school, went to Normal school and became teachers except Renee who attended Business school. The two youngest boys were still at home when their father died. There wasn’t the money to send them to university but they both became successful businessmen.

Ismael’s death was a shock to Ida. He had preached at an earlier service in Portneuf and ran uphill from the station in Quebec City, as the train was 50 minutes late. He arrived at the end of the service and died of a heart attack. Her heart was broken, “ I must realize that my dear husband of nearly 32 years has left me forever.” She moved to her daughter Helvetia’s home in Lachute, a town Ismael had felt would be a good place to retire. She went back to Switzerland because her aunt Celine had returned, but Celine was suffering from dementia and with all other friends and family gone Ida decided her life was in Canada.

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Ida Girod Bruneau Frechette 1925

 

One of her husband’s brothers-in-law, Emilien Frechette, whose wife Emilina Marie Bruneau had died, proposed that as they were both alone they get married. He had built himself a large house in Iberville south of Montreal and wanted company. My Aunt Aline remembered hating her mother’s visits to Iberville because she would come back with large baskets of gooseberries, red and black currents, which had to be cleaned for jam and pies. Aline’s other memory of her grandmother Ida was teaching her to play rummy and seven up. Aline said, “ She liked the little games they played and thought the ‘Devil’s plaything’ was a misnomer.” It was fine to play cards, just not on Sunday.

Ida developed cancer and spent her last days in the Montreal General Hospital. She was buried in Mount Royal Cemetery in the Frechette plot with Emilien’s first wife Marie. After Ida’s death in 1927, he married Emilie Beauchamp Bruneau, the widow of Napoleon Bruneau, Ismael’s brother. Emilien certainly looked after the women in the Bruneau family. My mother remembered him as a nice old man. She didn’t remember her grandmother who died when she was five but she did remember visiting Monsieur Frechette in Iberville, going to the toilet and thinking, “My grandmother sat here!”

Endnotes:

Bruneau, Ida. A Short History of the Bruneau – Girod Families. 1993.

Bruneau, Ida. letter to Mes Frere et Soeur. February 5, 1918. Quebec City, Quebec. A copy in the author’s possession.

Aline Raguin Allchurch. Letter to Mary Sutherland. 2002. Author’s possession.

Dorothy Raguin Sutherland’s Stories. Personal interview. 1998.

Ancestry.com. Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2008. Original data: Gabriel Drouin, comp. Drouin Collection. Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Institut Généalogique Drouin.

Here is a link to Ismael Bruneau, Ida’s husband.

https://wordpress.com/post/genealogyensemble.com/1237

France, genealogy, Quebec

Safe Passage

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René Emile Raguin, my grandfather, was the last of my relatives to arrive in Canada. He was the only one to return home after he emigrated. His family, originally from Doubs, France, moved to Fleurier, Switzerland soon after he was born.

He arrived in Canada aboard an Allen Line steamship, the Lake Erie and so didn’t have to endure a long voyage on a sailing ship. It was 1910 and he was 23 years old. He had been a Lieutenant in the French army. His father was French and as the son, even though he lived in Switzerland, he had to do his service. He had also trained as a teacher but there were no jobs in Switzerland, so he was fortunate to find a job at the French Protestant school in Pointes aux Trembles, Quebec.

René was a dapper little man with a full beard and moustache. He was sure he was going to be a hit with Canadian girls although his landlady told him they didn’t like men with a lot of facial hair. The morning after meeting Beatrice Bruneau and her sisters, he came downstairs with only a goatee! In later years he only had a small moustache but with a completely shaved head.

René and Beatrice were married in 1912 in Cornwall, Ontario by Beatrice’s father, Reverend Ismael P. Bruneau. Their first daughter Aline Marguerite was born in May 1913. The next summer they sailed to Europe to show off Aline to Rene’s family. Rene enjoyed the voyage, walking on deck with his little daughter, but Beatrice, pregnant with their second child Robert, suffered from seasickness and was mostly invisible. Rene was very happy chatting with all the other passengers who wondered about the little girl’s mother.

They were having a wonderful time in Fleurier, visiting Rene’s parents, Joseph Marie and Rosina Steinman Raguin and his sister Bluette, when Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated and World War I began. When England declared war on Germany on August 4, 1914, returning to Canada as quickly as possible became a priority. As Rene had become a Canadian/British citizen in 1913, they appealed to the British Government and received a document of safe passage through both France and Italy to return to England. They made a quick journey by train from Switzerland to Le Havre, France taking what they could easily carry and leaving their trunk behind.

They made it safely back to Canada where René was then the principal of De La Salle Academy in Trois Rivieres, Quebec. The school administration had been worried he wouldn’t return for the beginning of the school year. He used his story to raise money during the war, for the Canadian Patriotic Fund. 

Robert was born in December followed by Arthur, Dorothy and Madeleine. René continued teaching and finished his career as a French teacher at Baron Byng High School in Montreal. They spent summers in Dunany north of Montreal where he enjoyed golf and socializing and winters in Montreal where he curled and socialized. He and Beatrice didn’t travel very much, just one train trip to Vancouver to visit their son Robert. They never returned to Europe, never again saw any of Rene’s family or their trunk.

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Notes:

Rutherdale, Robert. Hometown Horizons: Local Responses to Canada’s Great War. Vancouver: University of British Columbia, 2004. Print.

Anecdotes personally communicated to the author by Aline Raguin Allchurch in 2003.

Passeport; original document in possession of author.

Rene’s British /Canadian Naturalization Certificate was in his possession in Europe to obtain his Passport but the document was later lost as it was replaced in 1916. Libraries and Archives Canada: Citizenship Registration Records for Montreal Circuit Court 1851-1945.

Military documents in possession of the author.

Aline in Switzerland