What was the institution in Lévis in this 1891 census entry? [closed]

+8 votes
465 views
Joseph Thériault age 12 appears in the 1891 Census of Canada in what appears to be an institution. I have tried to get information about this institution but have had little luck. Likely because of my inexperience in researching this subject.

Can anyone point me in the right direction as to the name and purpose of this institution in 1891?

Thank you, Christine
WikiTree profile: Joseph Unknown
closed with the note: Initial question has been answered
in Genealogy Help by Mama Kiki Lajeunesse G2G6 Mach 2 (26.6k points)
closed by Mama Kiki Lajeunesse

3 Answers

+9 votes
 
Best answer

Take a look at page 8 of Sadlier's Catholic Directory Almanac and Ordo for the Year of Our Lord 1876, which talks about Notre Dame de la Victoire Levis (just like the census):

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Sadliers_Catholic_Directory_Almanac_and/3ufQAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0

It talks about a School of Industry that had orphans, though it is a little earlier.

by Roger Stong G2G Astronaut (1.8m points)
selected by Mama Kiki Lajeunesse
Thank you, exactly what I was hoping for.

Christine
The information is on Page 8 of Part 2. The Catholic Church of the British Provinces in North America.
+8 votes

1881 Canada census , BAC-LAC for your use.

189 census option a Joseph Therriault aged 13 line 16 pg 51 Rimouski (1891)

1891 census, Lévis the one you think might be him

1891 census, Témiscouata pg 12 line 10, another one

1891 census, line 23 pg 7 Kamouraska, Saint-Paschal et Woodbridge another one

1891 census, pg 22 line 6, Saint-Alexis, Montcalm another one

On this note you have on his profile, I beg to differ.  If the mother died, then it would not have been unusual at all for the father to put his children with other family members, he had to work for a living and could not adequately care for them by himself then.  My own grandmother died when my mother was 14, and my mother and all her (younger) siblings were scattered among relatives.

  1. It would have been unusual for Majorique Thériault to leave his first born son with his wife's family unless the child was not his or the child had significant physical or behavioural disabilities.

by Danielle Liard G2G6 Pilot (770k points)

the 1891 census for Lévis you are looking at starts on this page for the location and was run by nuns, Soeurs de Charité, starting pg 42 line 13 and on to following pages, 

pages 44-45  has a teacher on line 11 pg 45, data scant on occupations

Roger has given you the data on that one already, fits totally, hospice, school and orphanage.

Whether this is the boy Joseph is moot, one would have to find records from that institution, they would have noted how he got there minimally.  Thériault and variants is not a rare name.

Thank you Danielle for taking an interest in the profile. I have spent the last year researching all the Joseph Thériaults I could find baptized in Québec parish records around the time of his birth, 1878, give or take a year. All of the other Joseph Thériaults in the 1891 census, born 1876-1880, including those you have pointed out, have corresponding baptismal records contemporaneously with their birth. I researched Joseph Miville/Deschenes in the census born 1877-1880 as well in case he was living with his mother's family and was misnamed in the census. I find no trace of Joseph Thériault in burial records prior to the 1881 census. All of the baptisms for a Joseph Thériault in that time frame can be found in the burial records or living with their family in 1891. I have't found him with any of his mother's siblings census entries. Which is why I postulate it this Joseph Thériault who is the child in the orphanage.

The reason I was researching him is that Joseph Morin, an adoptee, is my great grandfather. It was suggested to me that Joseph Thériault and my grandfather, Joseph Morin, are the same person. The DNA disproves any link between Joseph Morin and any Thériault or Miville/Deschenes.I was looking to find a trace of Joseph Thériault after his father left him in Québec just for completion.

Christine
I agree wholeheartedly with you Danielle about it being common for a widower to leave all of his children scatterd amongst family. Majorique Thériault did not do that. He left his eldest child with his late wife's family and took the younger children, all 4 of them, back to Chapleau. That is, in my opinion, unusual and leads me to question if there was an issue with Joseph that he was not Majorique's son or that he had special needs that Majorique could not provide that also landed Joseph in an orphanage. Just speculation on my part to explain Joseph's apparent disapearance from the records.  

Again all of this interest is generated by the hypothesis that Joseph Thériault is my ancestor.

Thank you again for the input.

Christine

Almanach ecclésiastique 1891 actually lists the locations of orphanages, there are quite a lot of them.  Which makes me wonder how come your boy would have been brought to Lévis, when he was born in Rimouski.  pg 177 (181 digital)  lists the Soeurs de la Charité with a hospice and orphanage in Rimouski itself.

Excellent point Danielle. Also it just occured to me that I have made an assumption that my mother is the granddaughter of Joseph Morin/Joseph Thériault. The DNA may be pointing to a NPE. That would explain a lot and I was not considering the possibility.

1901 census gives him a dob of 23 Aug 1878 as opposed to other census data giving him October 1876 (line 5).

This might be a wild goose chase, but there is a boy named Joseph baptised on 25 August 1878 in Saint-Bernard de Dorchester, said to have been born the day before to Antoine Béty and Marie Brochu. Drouin IGD record (membership) (father's last name subject to variations, find no other record for the couple with those names)

De BAC-LAC:

En règle générale, avant que les autorités provinciales n'interviennent dans les dossiers d'adoption, ce qui s'est fait graduellement au cours de la première moitié du XXe siècle, les enfants étaient placés chez des amis, des voisins ou des parents sans que les autorités gouvernementales ne créent de dossiers.

Pour le Québec, avant 1847, il est possible de retrouver des actes d'adoption privée dans les actes notariés. Des accords privés étaient conclus entre les autorités et les familles, et ils étaient entérinés dans un acte notarié. Ces actes s'intitulent « Engagement », « Accord » ou parfois « Adoption »

+6 votes
Thank you all for your input. I will be doing more research after an unexpected finding has radically altered the DNA information for this case.

Christine
by Mama Kiki Lajeunesse G2G6 Mach 2 (26.6k points)

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