Recently, I found a Rhode Island death record on Family Search for Pierre Ambroise Provost, brother of Désiré. The record lists his parents as Ambroise Provost and Madeleine Denonville (spelled incorrectly but still recognizable), thus confirming his relationship to the family of our blog. His wife is listed as Tharsile Thomas, which raised a red flag, since I’d seen records from St-Pie for Pierre Ambroise Provost with his wife listed as Tharsille Williams. I wanted to determine if Tharsille Williams and Tharsile Thomas were the same person. I also thought that there might be descendants of this couple still living in Rhode Island or Masssachusetts, so I looked for as many census, birth and death records for the family as I could find online.
The marriage record for Pierre Ambroise Provost and Tharsille Williams (14 October 1951, St-Pie) lists Tharsille’s parents as Louis Williams and Josephete St. Charles. The name Thomas is not mentioned anywhere in the document. An 1852 (St-Pie) baptismal record for Pierre Ambroise Désiré Provost, lists the parents as Pierre Ambroise Provost and Tharsille Williams. This record is only partially digitized because it is divided between the bottom of one page and top of another, so I am not able to determine the exact date of the event. A 14 October 1855 (St-Pie) baptismal record for Léandre Provost indicates Pierre Ambroise Provost and Tharsille Thomas as the parents. Gabriel Ambroise Provost’s baptismal record (13 February 1859) also lists Pierre Ambroise Provost and Tharsille Thomas as the child’s parents. After examining the census records for this family, I am nearly certain that Tharsille Thomas is Tharsille Williams, but I have not found any connection between the names Thomas and Williams, nor have I been able to see any logic in the change from one name to the other.
St-Pie census records for 1861 list Pierre Ambroise Provost, Tharsille Williams and five of their children: Désiré, Napoléon (b.1853), Léandre, Napoléon (b. 1854) and Gabriel. The three highlighted names correspond with the abovementioned baptismal records for the children of this couple and their ages correspond to the baptismal record dates. I need to find baptismal records for Napoléon and Emma, but I do think there is already sufficient circumstantial evidence here to conclude that Tharsille used the names Williams and Thomas interchangeably.
The 1871 St-Pie census lists Ambroise and Tharsille, both under the name Provost, along with their children. By this time, three more children have been born; Herminie, b. 1864 (possibly Armenie, a name that appears in previous generations of this family), Louis, b. 1866 and Valérie, b. 1868 (another Valérie Provost, cousin of my great-grandmother). In the absence of baptismal or birth records, estimated birth years are based on calcuation from their ages given in the census.
It appears that at least three children of Tharsille and Ambroise and/or their children migrated to New England, because I have found Rhode Island and Massachusetts records for Léandre, Valérie, and Emma or their descendants.
Léandre married Delphine Catudal (another Catudal-Provost pairing) in St-Pie on 7 October 1851. I found a death record for their son, Arthur Provost, in Pawtucket, RI (19 February, 1928). So far, I have not discovered any other children of this couple, and it is possible that there are none, because Delphine died at the age of twenty-five (burial record: 15 June 1885, St-Pie). If any descendants of Arthur are reading this, we are related through both the Catudals and Provosts.
Emma Provost married George Poulette in Providence, RI on 30 Jan 1883. I have found two of their children listed in the 1900 Providence, Rhode Island census: Anna, born in Canada and Georgianna, born in Rhode Island. By this time Pierre Ambroise was widowed and also listed in the census as a member of his daughter and son-in-law’s household. 1930 Rhode Island census records also reveal that Anna Poulette married Ovila , and between 1905 and 1923, the couple had seven children: Annette, Horace (born in Canada), Ovila, Marion, Raymond, Beatrice and Irene (born in Rhode Island).
Valérie’s story is probably the most interesting, because was widowed twice and remarried each time. The marriage records are all available on FamilySearch. I have not found any records of offspring from any of the marriages, however. Her first marriage was to Nazaire Lizotte in Lincoln, RI on 17 September 1888. Valérie was 47 when she married the widower Jean-Baptiste Desgronier (later known as John B. Degrenier) on 2 January 1907 in Southbridge, MA. In 1900, Valérie was one of four female servants working at a boarding house in Southbridge, Massachusetts run by Jean-Baptiste Desgronier and his wife, Stephanie (Southbridge, MA 1900 census). Stephanie evidently died sometime between 1900 and 1907. Jean-Baptiste must have died shortly after he and Valérie were married, because she is a widow once again when she marries Julius Livernois just two years later on 18 September 1909 in Southbridge, MA.
Descendants of Pierre Ambriose Provost and Tharsille Williams/Thomas
Pierre Ambroise Désiré Provost b. 1852, St-Pie
Gabriel Ambroise Provost b. 1859, St-Pie
Léandre Provost b. 1855, St-Pie
+Delphine Catudal (1859-1879)
-Arthur Provost b. 1880, d. 19 Feb. 1928, Pawtucket, RI
Valérie Provost b. 1868
+Nazaire Lizotte m. 17 Sept. 1888, Lincoln, RI
+ Jean-Baptiste Desgronier (John B. Degrenier) m. 2 Jan. 1907, Southbridge, MA
+Julius Livernois m. 18 Sept. 1909, Southbridge, MA
Emma Provost b. 1861
+George Poulette b. 30 Jan. 1855, Providence, RI, m. 30 Jan. 1883, Providence, RI, d. 13 Jan. 1917, Providence, RI
-Anna Poulette b. 1884
+Ovila J. Dufort b. 1882
- Annette E. Dufort b. 1905, Canada
- Horace F. Dufort b. 1906, Canada
- Ovila Dufort b. 13 July 1911, d. Feb. 1978*
- Marion B. Dufort b. 1914, Rhode Island
- Raymond Dufort B. 1916, Rhode Island
- Beatrice Dufort b. 1919, Rhode Island
- Irene Dufort b. 1923, Rhode Island
* Source: Social Security death index.
Except were actual birth and death records were available, estimated birth years have been calculated from ages provided on census records.
