Unearthing the family history of my mother, Lorraine Louise Clement (1950-), has been a disappointing enterprise thus far, because even though I knew the names of her grandparents, it seemed that ever finding the names of their parents might turn out to be a losing proposition. You see, all of my mother's ancestors were of French-Canadian extraction, and none of them had unique or even particularly rare surnames. It meant that narrowing down which person with a given name was which, in order to narrow the ancestral homes of these French-Canadians (to a particular place in Canada), might be impossible.

But, some recent inquiries on Rootsweb message boards have proven fruitful.

My mother's paternal grandparents were Emmanuel Clement and Augustine Berube, of Fall River, Massachusetts. Though I don't yet know when/where Emmanuel and Augustine married, a helpful friend on the Clement message board was able to look Augustine up in the marriage records of the Notre Dame de Lourdes Catholic Church in Fall River, and find one of her re-marriages. (She married three times, was widowed each time, and died after the last of her three husbands had died. Her first marriage was to Emmanuel, but she had two afterwards: Arthur Smith and another.) This helpful researcher found the marriage to Arthur Smith. (This was probably the second marriage of Augustine, because it took place four years after the death of her first husband Emmanuel.) Importantly, this information included not only her parents names', but also her place of baptism.

Augustine Berube was the daughter of Louis Berube and Philomene Charet. She was baptised on 20 Aug 1883 in Riviere Blanche, Quebec. Her remarriage to Arthur Smith took place on 29 Dec 1934 Notre Dame Church, Fall River, Massachusetts.

That same researcher was able to locate the two marriages of my mother's maternal grandmother, Elmire Cloutier, and more about her as well.

Elmire Cloutier, daughter of Joseph Cloutier and Emma Rioux, was baptized 28 Aug 1881, in St. Gabriel de Rimouski, Quebec. She married Onesime Thibodeau, son of Paul Thibodeau and Marie Bellefleur on 11 May 1903 at Notre Dame de Lourdes, Fall River, Massachusetts.

She later married Joseph Paradis, son of Theophile Paradis and Cecile Morin (baptized 17 May 1881 in Rimouski, Quebec) on 26 Feb 1927 at Notre Dame, Fall River.

Wonderful news! Lots of information! I was also able to determine that my mother's two oldest siblings did not marry at Notre Dame, or at Blessed Sacrament, in Fall River. I knew that her third oldest sibling had married at St. Roch's in Fall River, so perhaps they might have married there or elsewhere.

Anyway, a step towards understanding some of my mother's family!

Kyle=