I finally decided to take the plunge and visit St-Pie and the archives in St-Hyacinthe, so on Sunday, June 24, I boarded Megabus for a $1.00 trip to Burlington VT. After a rendez-vous with my parents, who drove up from MA, we crossed the border and stayed at a motel in St-Hyacinthe. Most of the people in the area still do not speak English, so I had the opportunity to practice communicating in French.
I’d corresponded via e-mail with personnel in both genealogy and archives at the Centre d'histoire de Saint-Hyacinthe inc. In 2010, I’d learned from Luc Cordeau, General Director at the Centre that records had been collected from the church in St-Pie in 2002, but that the collection had not yet been processed. In the archives there, I’d hoped to find any of the following: materials gathered from the church in St-Pie, including bulletins, announcements, choir attendance records, photographs of the choir, or other documents pertaining to the choir during the years 1886-1902, when Valérie Provost would have lived in St-Pie. In addition, I hoped school records might be available.
I also wrote to the genealogy area at the Centre to inquire about newspapers on microfilm that might potentially contain an obituary, and to ask about Confirmation records. Ghisaline Letarte from genealogy informed me by e-mail prior to my visit that in the newspaper Le Courier of St-Hyacinthe in 1910, there are no obituaries as such, but only a social section that mentions trips, parties, deaths and so forth. She also told me that Confirmation records are not available for legal reasons. She also informed me that I had to make an appointment with archivist Anne-Marie Charuest in order to visit the archives. So, I didn’t have to spend time looking through microfilm of Le Courier and could just focus on visiting the church in St-Pie and the archives in St-Hyacinthe.
On Tuesday, we drove to the church in St-Pie and met with Lise Martin, the parish secretary. I’d corresponded with her via e-mail prior to our arrival. In addition to seeing the church and the town, I’d hoped to find the grave site of my great-grandmother in the St-Pie cemetery. Lise checked the database and map of cemetery plots, but did not find burial plots for any members of the Provost family, even though burial records for them are inscribed in the register. Besides Valérie, there are burial records for three members of the Provost family in St-Pie; her father Désiré, her brother Wilfrid and her sister Exavérine. Lise said that most likely, they were buried in the common burial area, in which the graves are unmarked. The family must have been so impoverished that they were unable to afford burial plots or headstones. Lisa kindly agreed to call and make an appointment at the Centre in St-Hyacinthe for me, since I was unsure that I would be able to communicate very well in French over the phone. She was successful in getting me a 1:30 appointment for that afternoon. During the course of our conversation, Lise mentioned that one of her ancestors was a Catudal St-Jean from St. Paul d’Abbotsford, so we’re cousins!
The façade of L’eglise Saint-Pie was replaced in 1910 and the interior refurbished. Photos of the previous façade show only one steeple, but nevertheless, the old façade was grandiose in the context of a small town. The interior of the church is made light by the maple wood floors and pews, coated with a clear finish rather than stained, which allows the natural wood to be seen. The windows are frosted glass rather than stained glass, which also allows more light into the church. The Stations of the Cross are all painted in full color, and the unique design of the church interior can be seen in the photographs posted here. Since the renovations were done in 1910, the year Valérie Provost died, the church probably looks somewhat different from when she attended Mass there.
 L'eglise St-Pie interior from back of church facing the altar.
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| L'eglise St-Pie interior detail |
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| L'eglise St-Pie. interior to left of altar. |
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| Common burial area of the St-Pie Cemetery, where members of the Provost family are presumed to be buried. |
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| Pizzeria Dumont in St-Pie |
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| Pizzeria Dumont sign |
Except for the addition of highways and paved roads, St-Pie and the surrounding area probably hasn’t changed much since the turn of the century. Most of the region is agricultural. There were fresh strawberries for sale at every roadside stand and farmers’ market, and corn fields are abundant.
Once at the archives in St-Hyacinthe, I was allowed to view a few items, including a recently published history of St-Pie (the title and author of which, unfortunately, I neglected to note) and a Parish Council minutes book from the late 19th-early 20th c. From the minutes book, I learned that the church employed a male “chanteur” to intone responses at Masses and serve as soloist for special occasions (Roman Catholic churches still employ cantors in the US). That being the case, what opportunities would have been available for female volunteer singers during that period? If my great-grandmother ever sang as a soloist, it would probably have been under limited circumstances.
In the history of St-Pie, the choir directors and chanteurs employed since the beginning of the parish were listed, but no distinction was made regarding their roles. One of them would presumably have been the organist. During the period of interest for our research, the following choir directors/chanteurs are listed:
1883-1912 Joseph Laperte
1883-1889 Raphael Caderre
1890-1891 and 1901-[1902] Clement Hamel
1892-1897 Pierre A. Meunier
The name Raphael Caderre popped out at me because I’d seen his signature on Désiré Provost’s burial record in 1886 and he was godfather to Raphael
Louis Désiré Provost (b. 3 August 1885). I had identified him in a previous post, "A Visit to AFGS," as the wife of Elmire Provost (married 4 February 1873, St-Pie). Elmire was the sister of Désiré senior, so Raphael Caderre would have been Valérie's uncle.
