Virginie-Poméla Bourgeois (1896 - 1976)

Born 18 Oct 1896 in St Albert, Sturgeon, Alberta, Canada

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 4 Dec 1976 at age 80 in Coon Rapids, Anoka, Minnesota, USA

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Randy Olson [send private message]

Biography

Poméla was born on October 18, 1896 in St Albert, Alberta, the youngest of 11 children of Elzéar Bourgeois and Cordélia Lefebvre, shortly after the arrival of the family in St Albert from St-Léonard d'Aston, comté Nicolet, Québec. She was baptised the following day at St Albert Catholic Church by Oblate Father Michel Mérer under the baptismal name of Virginie-Poméla Bourgeois.

Poméla received her primary education at the Bishop Grandin school in St Albert under the instruction of the Grey Nuns who also had a convent there.

Poméla's older brother, Napoléon. had a quarter-section of farmland in Legal, Alberta, where her family had settled after arriving in Alberta, that was adjacent to Franz Xavier Hoecherl, Sr. - a German immigrant from Bavaria, Germany. It was through this close proximity to the family that Poméla would become acquainted with Franz Xavier's eldest, Franz Xavier Hoecherl, Jr.

Poméla's older sisters would eventually immigrate to Minnesota and settle in Minneapolis with their families - and Poméla, seeking work, would join them there in 1921. Franz Xavier Hoecherl's had also immigrated to the Spooner, Wisconsin area about 1918 and Poméla would renew her acquaintance as they both attended Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes ((Our Lady of Lourdes) Church in St Anthony Falls just across the Mississippi River from downtown Minneapolis. They would marry there on June 22, 1922 and eventually purchase a home in Minneapolis. When the home was taken by imminent domain for the construction of interstate highway 35, the couple moved to the northern suburb of Blaine where they would purchase a home on Jackson Street, where both would live until their eventual passing.

Sources

• Baptismal record and Anoka County Death certificate in my personal posession