Infant mortality is not something that is a large part of our daily lives in this country, but our ancestors had to deal with it on a regular basis. Of course, the average adult lifespan was much shorter and epidemics were commonplace, so they lived with the expectation that death could come at any stage of life. I have recently found a number of baptismal and burial records for Provost children who died in infancy or childhood. I found them on Ancestry.com by selecting the Birth, Death and Marriage records database, leaving the first name field blank, entering Provost in the last name field, adding a start date in the events field, leaving “any event” as the default and adding “St-Pie” as the place. This is also a way to find records for ancestors who may have been baptized or appear on census records in childhood with one first name and are buried under another. Each record retrieved has to be examined in order to find names of parents, spouses, etc., and determine if it belongs to the correct family.
So far I have found evidence that Ambroise Provost and Magdeleine May Denonville had at least thirteen children. We have already discussed the descendants of Pierre Ambroise and Jean-Baptiste Désiré, and I have since found marriage records for Antoine (Marie Achsah Emma Ball, m. 15 June 1858, St-Pie), Léandre Misaél (Sophie Séraphine Morin, m. 20 September 1865) and Marie Rosalie Hermenie (Prosper Michaud, m. 4 August 1873, St-Pie). I also found a burial record for Marie Valérie, who died at the age of sixteen. I have seen Elmire, Charles and Léonore’s names on later census records. That leaves me wondering about the fate of Louis and the child baptized Désiré in 1837. I suspect that they may have died in infancy or childhood. If that is the case, eight of the thirteen children survived to adulthood.
Children of Ambroise and Magdeleine May:
Pierre Ambroise 1827-1901
Antoine 1830-
Damasse Alphred Lucien 1831-1841
Léonore 1834-
Marie Luce 1836-1836
Désiré 1837-
Léandre Misaél 1841-
Marie Valérie 1843-1859
Louis 1848-
Marie Rosalie Hermenie 1845-
Joseph Charles 1849-
Jean-Baptiste (called Désiré but not baptized Désiré) 1851-1886
Elmire 1853-
For Pierre Ambroise Provost and Tharsille Thomas (Williams), who were discussed in my last post, I have found records of four children who did not survive. Some of them were mentioned previously because I had found baptismal records for them. I have recently found their burial records. Herminie Delima, born 8 February 1863 and buried in St-Pie on 28 February 1872. Joseph Misaél, born 5 February 1861 was buried 7 July 1862. Marie Louise, born August 1870, died 25 March 1871. There is also a 5 March 1872 burial record for an unnmed infant of this couple, who died the same day he/she (gender unspecified) was born. Additional children for whom I recently discovered baptismal records who were not mentioned in my last blog post are Marie Eloise Lumina b. 1875 and Amanda b. 1878. To date, I have no information one way or the other about their fate. The 1871 Quebec census lists Désiré, Napoléon, Léandre, Emma, Gabriel, Hermenie, Louis and Valérie. Georges is probably Gabriel, I found a baptismal record for Gabriel Ambroise and a burial record for Georges that coincide with the the age listed on the census and the burial record, and since there is no Georges listed in the 1871 census when there clearly should have been, the evidence is very strong for his being called Gabriel at that time and then later assuming the name Georges. I have found marriage records for Léandre, Valérie and Emma, and if we assume that Georges is Gabriel, we can presume that at least four children grew into adulthood. We do know for certain that at least four did not.
Children of Pierre Ambroise and Tharsille:
Pierre Ambroise Désiré 1852-
Olivier Napoléon 1853-
Gabriel Ambroise 1859/1860 (possibly same as Georges 1859-1880)
Joseph Misaél 1861-1862
Hermenie Delima 1863-1872
Louis Joseph Provost 1865-
Marie Tharsille Emma 1867-
Valérie 1868-
Marie Louise 1870-1871
Unnamed infant 1872-1872
Marie Eloise Lumina 1875-
Amanda 1878-
Léandre Provost and Delphine Catudal, also mentioned in my previous post, are probably the most tragic couple of all, because Delphine’s own life was so brief. They had at least two children who died in infancy; Joseph Léandre Albert, born 27 July 1881 and died 16 August 1881 and Georges Eugene Provost, b. 22 October 1884 and was buried on 30 April 1885, both in St-Pie. I found a baptismal record for another child, Marie Emma Emmenda Provost dated 18 January 1882, but have not found any further records for her. The only child of theirs for whom I have found evidence of survival to adulthood is Joseph Arthur Provost (1880-1928). Delphine died at age 26, in June of 1885, just a month and a half after the death of her son, Georges Eugene.
Children of Léandre and Delphine:
Joseph Arthur 1880-1928
Joseph Léandre Albert 1881-1882
Marie Emma Emmenda 1883-
Georges Eugene 1884-1885
