The genealogists
Vincent Levasseur (1923-2006)
Vincent
was born in Hull, Québec, on March 19, 1923 and was baptized in the
Notre Dame Parish. He is the eldest of a family of four, having one
brother and two sisters. He was only 14 when he left his home and
entered the novitiate of the Christian Brothers where he spent three
years. In 1940, at the age of 17 he returned home. The war had been
declared and he was called to serve in the Canadian Army. He went to
Saint Jérome Québec for his basic training and in Val Cartier where he
was assigned to the ¨Régiment des fusiliers de Mont Royal¨. His task
during the war was to prepare the material and equipment each soldier
required to go overseas.
In 1945, his father passed away and
he returned to Hull for his funeral. When he was on leave, the war
ended and the Army advised him his services were no longer required. It
was then that he met Murielle. They were married in 1947. They had
three children, Jean, Pierre and Diane and settled in Navan Ontario,
approximately 12 miles from Ottawa. Having been in the military,
Vincent was given the opportunity to study Stationary engineering at
Ryerson College in Toronto. As a Stationary Engineer, Vincent worked in
the Ottawa area with various organizations, such as, the Rideau
Convent, National Defence, Royal Bank and Carleton University.
Photography,
a hobby he enjoyed and excelled at, became a source of additional
income for Vincent and his family. Vincent spent many Saturdays
photographing weddings and ordinations to the priesthood. After
developing his films, he would return to the celebrations to sell
photos of the event to the invited guests. At the Levasseur gathering
in Québec City in 1957, Vincent took exceptional photos that were
recently found and these will become available on the Association web
site. Another of Vincent’s hobby was stamp collecting. Various members
of the clergy that he met when doing his photography became a valuable
source of stamps. Today Vincent is the proud owner of a valuable
collection of Vatican stamps that would be the envy of many
philatelists. From 1960 to 1990, camping and fishing was how Vincent
and his family spent their vacation. A passionate fishermen, one could
find the Levasseur family in some of the most remote parts of Québec
and Ontario on a lone lake enjoying the tranquility of the milieu and
catching excellent pickerel.
It was in 1980, following the death
of his last uncle, that Vincent felt the need to learn more about his
ancestors and what were his origins. Following a visit to the cemetery
in Hull, he found his great grand father’s tomb on which his birth date
was inscribed. That led him to frequent visits to the National Gallery
of Canada where census data was kept. He also became a member of «La
société de généalogie de l’Outaouais» and established links with many
organizations dedicated to genealogy research. It was while attending a
congress in Quebec City that he became aware of the work of Jean
Charles Henry Levasseur of Seattle. Jean Charles, over the years, had
accumulated data on thousands of Levasseurs, many of whom had settled
in the United States. According to Vincent, 40% of the Levasseur
ancestors reside in Quebec, 35% in the United States and 25% in other
provinces in Canada.
During the course of two years Vincent
sent more than 2000 letters inviting Levasseurs across Canada and the
USA to send information about their families. He thus began creating
the data base that led to the publications of two volumes, one on
descendants of Laurent and the other on descendants of Pierre. Today
Vincent continues to gather information on the Levasseurs of America.
His contributions to the Association are significant and incalculable
for which we are all very grateful. Vincent is proud of his
accomplishments in genealogy but his greatest satisfaction is realizing
that a support team is ensuring the continuation of the work he has
begun.
Henri-Charles-Jean Levasseur(1892-1968)
Henri-Charles-Jean
Levasseur was born July 11th, 1892 in Chicago, Illinois in St Boniface
parish. He remained single during his lifetime, and was the last of his
line. He Lived in Portland, Oregon, where he was a Deputy for
employment Claims Services and a member of the legislative assembly of
the state of Oregon. He was also an accountant and a chemist, and a
Knights of Columbus.. For 20 years, he studied the Levasseur families
of America. His manuscript has been placed in the national archives of
Quebec, and also the French Canadian Genealogical Society.
Mister Gerard Levasseur s.c., like many other Levasseurs of Quebec, corresponded with him in the early fifties. He describes him as a person with a great deal of courtesy. Henri-Charles-Jean Levasseur accumulated, with the publication of his work in mind, all of the documentation possible, (birth and marriage certificates, newspaper articles, etc.), on the Levasseurs.
J.-F.-Adrien Levasseur (1923-1995)
He was born on September 21, 1923 in Rivière-du-Loup. He is the son of Albert Levasseur and Alfreda Beaulieu. He was married to Cécile Thibault form Rivière-du-Loup on August 17, 1948. He passed away in Longueuil on December 14, 1995. Originally, from the parish St-Ludger in Rivière-du-Loup, Adrien Levasseur started at a young age to work for the Témiscouata Railways. His career began as a freight clerk in Rivière-du-Loup on March 13. 1946. In May 1947, he began a course in telegraphy at the St.-Honoré station that enabled him to become a replacement agent at the Edmunston Station in New-Brunswick and at Notre-Dame-du-Lac. He then became a telegrapher at Ste.-Rose-du-Dégelis.
In 1949 he became Station Master at St-Louis-du-Ha-Ha station in addition to being a replacement during the summer months at Cabano, St-Honoré, Rivière-du-Loup, Notre-Dame-du-Lac, Ste-Rose-du-Dégelis, Edmunston and Clairs. After the sale of the Timiscouata Railway to the Government on January 1950, he was station master at the St-Louis-du-Ha-Ha station. He worked as a station master in various locations such as Fitzpatrick, La Tuque, Lévis and finally Montréal where he ended his career in 1983 as Director, Sales programs for Via Rail Canada.
Adrien Levasseur was always interested in history and genealogy. In the early 1960 he began researshing on the genealogy of the Levasseur family and that of his wife Cécile Thibault. His laborious and many years of research enable him, after his retirement, to publish the following works: « Laurent Levasseur -1988» (Origin and history of the first generation in New-France) « Pierre Levasseur dit Lespérance- 1989» (Origin and history of the first generation in New-France), «The Témiscouata Railway» en 1994. Concerned and wanting to help amateur researchers, he also published the following: « Census of the Fraserville parish, the Témiscouata Railway, Saint-Patrice, Whitworth County and Viger, Kakouna, Saint-Arsène, Saint-Éloi, L’Isle-Verte, Trois-Pistoles, year 1851 », « Census 1861 – Témiscouata County ».
Alfred Levasseur
He
is a pioneer in the area of research pertaining to our ancestor Laurent
Levasseur and his descendants. M. Levasseur was born on January 3,
1930 at Rivière-Verte in New-Brunswick. He is Georges and Rose-Anna
Levasseur’s son., originally from the Kamouraska region (Sainte-Hélène).
During
our meeting in Sainte-Croix-de-Lotbinière, at his home overlooking the
majestic Saint Laurent River, Mr. Levasseur recounted his numerous
souvenirs of voyages in the Country of his ancestor Laurent in
Bois-Guillaume and in Normandy, France. He also showed us numerous
documents which he accumulated during these years of research.
Already
in the early 70’s his library was the source of more than 500 volumes
on topics related to history and genealogy. In 1978, for 10 days he
stayed in Rouen where he carried out research in various registers of
the city. His research in France was very beneficial since he was able
to find and bring back many photo copies of official documents. In
brief the sum of his research, carried out over a six year period
during which he gathered thousand of documents, lead to the production
of a publication on Laurent Levasseur.