..........Lorion

Our journey through time begins with the oldest of our ancestors I was able to trace: Jehan Lorion.  While the data from the early 16^th Century is quite difficult to fully validate, there is enough evidence to suggest that the data presented here is accurate.  During these turbulent times in Europe - with wars between France and England - most of the actual records of vital statistics were destroyed.  Using what information was available along with data from other family trees I have been able to piece together the beginning of our story. 



Angers, Maine et Loire, France

Jehan Lorion was most likely born in 1518 in Angers, Maine et Loire, Pays de la Loire, France.  He died in 1547 in Pays de la Loire, France.  His wife is unknown at this time, but we do know that they had a son Pierre who was born in 1543 at Angers, Maine et Loire, Pays de la Loire, France.

Pierre Lorion married Renee Gaudin in 1595 in Pays de la Loire, France.  Pierre passed away in France in 1620 at the age of 77.  Pierre and Renee gave birth to Mathurin Lorion around the year 1600 in Ste. Soulle France, a small community just outside of La Rochelle, France.

The first Lorion to arrive in North America was actually Catherine Lorion (1635-1720)  in 1653.  In fact, Catherine was the earliest arrival in North America of ANY of our ancestors.  Catherine, the daughter of Mathurin Lorion and Francoise Morin, arrived in Canada as part of the Grande Recrue.  This was the name of the initiative by the founder of Ville-Marie, Monsieur de Maisonneuve and Jeanne Mance to return to France to recruit young men to help defend the emerging colony against constant threat from the Iroquois.  The 120 men were accompanied by fifteen young women.  Around this same period of time the King of France was supporting a similar initiative called “Filles de Roi” depicted below. 

Catherine’s story is well chronicled in the article The Untold Story of Female Immigration to New France, which can be found in the exhibits section of this report as Exhibit 002.  Catherine is included as one of the 102 men and 14 women aboard the Saint Nicolas de Nantes leaving from St Nazaire on 20 June 1653.  The ship was captained by Pierre LeBesson.    

Unfortunately for Catherine, she had a particularly difficult time in those early days. The ship soon began taking on significant amounts of water and had to return to France. They waited on an island near St. Nazaire until another vessel could be located and departed again on 20 Jul 1653. Upon their arrival in Québec City on 22 Sep 1653, en route to Montreal,  their vessel hit some rocks and was stranded. After weeks of waiting, the Grand Recrue departed Québec City aboard canoes, arriving at Ville-Marie on 16 Nov 1653.  Catherine was married four times.  Her first three husbands all passed away from violent deaths: the first, Pierre Villain, perished as a result of being crushed under a fallen tree; the second, Jean Simon, drowned; and the third, Nicolas Millet, was burned to death in his house at the age of 44.  Although I have not been able to find out a lot about her first two husbands I was able to learn more details about Nicolas.  He was listed in the 1666 Census in Montreal as a master carpenter.  Nicolas Millet enlisted with the Company of Montreal as an engagé and appeared on 20 Jun 1653 at Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique) before Notary J. Bellicotte, who drew up a statement of the amounts of deniers paid to the men sent to Montreal. In this document of six pages, the notary mentions that Nicolas had received the sum of 114 livres, 10 sols, 10 deniers. The same day the group of 103 emigrants hired as engages and 19 others, including his future wife Catherine Lorion, departed from St. Nazaire aboard the St. Nicolas with its Captain Pierre LeBesson..  Nicholas Millet was a carpenter from 1657-1674. He is listed as the owner of property on the north side of Saint-Paul Street, Montreal from 1657 to 1672. This property was previously owned by Catherine's first husband Jean Simon.  Her final marriage was to Pierre Desautels dit Lapointe. 

Thanks to our cousins in Canada we also know some information about Catherine’s fourth husband Pierre and their life together.  These cousins have done a great amount of research on the Lorions in Canada and even chronicled several generations in the U.S.  They have developed a very useful and interesting website (http://nlaurion.perso.sfr.fr/).  One of them –Antonio Di Lalla - wrote a compelling history of Catherine titled “Catherine Lorion, a valorous pioneer!” which can be found as Exhibit 003.

Catherine was followed to New France by her father Mathurin Lorion in 1658.  Mathurin was born around 1600 in Ste. Soulle France.  This small town was near La Rochelle (picture at left), which was a major shipping port in the west coast of France and the location from which most of the immigrations to Canada took place.  See Exhibit 004 for a bit of history of La Rochelle.  Detailed source documents in the 1600s and before are difficult to obtain since so many were destroyed in the wars between England and France.  Mathurin died in 1683 and was buried at Pointe-aux-Trembles in Montreal.  Researchers have indicated that virtually all Lorions in Canada and the United States can trace their lineage directly to Mathurin.

Mathurin came to Canada with three daughters and his current wife Jeanne in 1658.  He was a laborer in Ste Soulle in 1647 and in Dompierre 1649.  His daughter Jeanne was baptized in 1651 in the Village of des Brandes, about 12 kilometers from La Rochelle.  He was living in La Rochelle on Rue St. Claire on 8 Dec 1657 when his daughter Renee was baptized, but was in Montreal by October 1658.  I have included a report from the Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s as Exhibit 005.  Mathurin and his family are listed in the 1666, 1667, and 1681 Canadian Census of Montreal.  A copy of the actual 1666 census can be found as Exhibit 006.  When the 1666 census was taken at the end of July, Trois-Rivières had a population of 602, Montréal 760, and Québec 2,857, for a total of 4,219 people in Canada.  Six of those people were Lorions.    

 Mathurin had three wives: Marie Barbier ( - ), Francoise Morin (1605-1648), and finally Jeanne Bizet (1623-1698).  Mathurin and Jeanne were married at St. Marguerite’s in La Rochelle on 2 May 1649.  The only male child of Mathurin’s to survive and carry on the Lorion name was Jean Lorion (1660-1739), born in Montreal on 25 Jan 1660.  Jean was baptized at Notre Dame church. 

Jean Lorion married Marie Anne Tellier (1678-1754) on the 26 Jan 1697.  The marriage was in Varannes, Ile Ste Therese, Québec, Canada.  Jean and Marie gave birth to Joseph Lorion (1708-1759) on the 19 July 1708 in Pointe-aux-Trembles, Québec, Canada.

Joseph Lorion married Marie Catherine Loiseau (1719-1751) on the 9 Feb 1739.  They were married in L’Assomption-de-la-Sainte Vierge in L’Assomption, Québec.  Joseph and Marie gave birth to Francois Lorion (1743-1812) on 26 Aug 1743 in L’Assomption, Québec, Canada.

Francois Lorion married Marie Judith Gourd (1753-1827) on 8 Jan 1770 at Saint Sulpice in L’Assomption, Québec, Canada.  Francois and Marie gave birth to Francois Lorion (1770-1832) in L’Assomption, Québec, Canada. 

Francois Lorion married Angelique Deguise Flamand (1767-1822) on 27 Jan 1794 at Saint Sulpice in L’Assomption, Québec, Canada.  Francois and Angelique gave birth to Francois Lorion (1795-1873) on October 17, 1795. 

Francois Lorion married Cecile Marie Rivest (1801-1887) on February 7, 1820 at Saint Sulpice in L’Assomption, Québec, Canada.  Francois and Cecile gave birth to Francois Xavier (1842-1910) on June 6, 1842 in L’Assomption, Québec, Canada.  According to both the 1851 and 1861 Canadian census, Francois was a cultivator.  Exhibit 007 provides a good example of the level of detail available.  It shows an image of the actual entry in the priest’s log detailing Francois Xavier’s birth/baptism in 1842.  Again, much of the important information from these “diaries” has been scanned and digitized for entry into large databases to enable easier research.  In the past, this level of data would have only been available by traveling to the actual locations where the ledgers were stored.    

Francois Xavier immigrated to the United States in 1862.  The 1851 and 1861 Canadian census places Francois Xavier with his parents in Québec.  According to the 1880 U.S. census he was living in Spencer Massachusetts by that time.  Francois was about 20 years old when he left Canada to emigrate to the U.S. in what was the beginning of a wave of French Canadian emigration to America.  These migrants would become the Franco-Americans who populated the New England states and who are such an integral part of our heritage and character.

Not all immigrated, however, and many of our relatives - including Lorions, Brodeurs, Davids and McCarthy’s - remain in the Montreal and Québec areas today.  As with other migrations throughout history, our ancestors sought new opportunities in America.   One of the things that we know from our research in a number of books and articles detailing the migration of French Canadians to America was that many of them found work in places like woolen mills and shoe factories.  The census documents for many of our early arriving ancestors support that premise.  We find them working in boot and shoe factories and foundries, with and many of the women working in the corset factories. 

By 1900, Worcester, Massachusetts had 15,300 residents of French-Canadian descent, with these Franco-Americans making up as much as 13 per cent of the city’s population.  This was the path that young Francois chose.  It is interesting to note here that arriving in the U.S. in the early 1860’s meant that he came here during the Civil War and during the presidency of Abraham Lincoln.  Imagine what courage it would have taken to move to this country during that horrific war.  Exhibit 008 does an excellent job of describing the migration of our ancestors from Canada to become the proud Franco-Americans that we are so much a part of today.

Francois Xavier married Sophronie Goodney on the 23 Feb 1871 in Notre Dame des Canadiens church in Worcester.  Sophronie’s family came from New York where we find them listed in the 1860 Census.  By 1870, they had relocated to Worcester.  The U.S. Census of 1880 shows that Francois and Sophronie were now living in Spencer, Massachusetts with four children; Frank X, Sophronia, Louisa and Amanda.  Francois is listed as working in a boot factory.  Exhibit 009 shows the actual 1880 U.S. census showing Francois and family in Spencer, MA. 

Because virtually all of the 1890 U.S. Census Records were destroyed in a fire in Washington, D.C., our next view into this family doesn’t come until the 1900 Census where they are now living in Worcester.  They are living on Douglas Street with seven of their children; Lilly, Melvina, Eva, Cora, Allen, Albert and James.  Two of their children had by now been married and were raising families of their own.  Frank X. was married in 1897 and Amanda (Aunt Manda) married Joseph Leboeuf on 9 Oct 1899.      

By 1910 they had moved to Canterbury Street where the Lorion family would reside for the next fifty years or so.  According to the 1910 census, Francois worked in a boot factory and Albert worked in a foundry, and the four girls worked in a corset factory.  That same year the census lists Albert’s future wife Eva McCarthy as also working in a corset factory.  Since the families lived in fairly close proximity to the Royal Worcester Corset Company, one can assume that most worked there.  The following is an image of what that company looked like in that time period.  See Exhibit 010 for a bit more detail.

It is interesting to follow the family from one census year to another and compare the information, tracking births, deaths, marriages, and work history from census to census.  In the case of Francois Xavier and his family, for instance, he was living with his parents in 1851 and 1861 based upon the census from Canada in those years.  We next find him living in Spencer Massachusetts in the 1880 U.S. Census (Exhibit 010).  At that time he was already married to Sophronia Goodney, and had the first four of his children. 

By 1910 the family had moved to Canterbury Street in Worcester, MA where they belonged to Holy Name of Jesus parish.  Lorion children would attend this parish school into the 1960s.  By 1910, Albert was a young man of 22.  Eva McCarthy and her family were also living in Worcester at that time and attended the same parish church.  We know this because Albert and Eva’s parish affiliation was documented in the register of Ste Victoire parish in Victoriaville, Québec Canada when they married in 1913.

Albert Joseph Lorion (1888-1944) and Eva McCarthy (1891-1918) decided to get married, doing  so in Victoriaville, Québec, Canada on 11 June 1913 even though they were members of the same local parish (Holy Name of Jesus), went to the same school, and lived in pretty much the same neighborhood. 

This raised the mystery of why they chose to marry in Québec, a mystery that was finally resolved after contacting several of the McCarthys in March 2012.  Apparently, Eva’s parents (William & Cora) decided to move back to Canada in October of 1911.  They boarded a train with their children (and their dog) bound for Victoriaville Canada where the McCarthy’s had their family roots.  They returned to Worcester two years later in September of 1913.  When Albert and Eva decided to marry, they traveled to Victoriaville for the wedding.  They very likely returned to Worcester shortly thereafter since their first child (Cecile) was born in Worcester the following year.

While I assume that their life together began happy and content, it was to be rather short lived before tragedy would occur.  Eva passed away after only about six years together.  Albert never remarried and the children were mostly raised by their aunts Aline and Melvina.  Eva perished along with thousands of others during the horrific 1918 influenza pandemic.  At times there were so many deaths taking place that the newspapers simply listed the names without much of an obituary to describe the deceased.  In our case this was a double tragedy because Eva had only a day or so previously given birth to her fifth child – a boy.  The unnamed boy survived only about a day and he and Eva are buried together in the family plot.  How tragic and difficult that must have been for the family. 

Albert and Eva’s first child, Cecile (1914), was followed by Edmond in 1915, Francis in 1916, and Lillian in 1917.  When Eva passed, Albert was a thirty-year old man with four children under five years old, having just lost his wife and infant baby boy.  More tragedy was to come for the family with the death of nine year old Francis in 1925.  Cecile, Edmond, and Lillian had now lost not only their mother but also their little brother.  

According to reports from the Worcester Telegarm, Francis was struck by an automobile outside the South Worcester playground on Wednesday August 13, 1925.  He passed away early the next morning in City Hospital from a fractured skull.  The funeral took place the following Monday at his home on Canterbury Street, followed by a solemn high mass in Holy Name of Jesus Church.  Francis had been an altar boy at Holy Name as well as a member of Holy Name of Jesus School.  As one could expect, this was a profoundly sad event.  The altar boys and fellow students from his school attended the services along with many relatives and friends.  

According to the 1920 U.S. Census (Exhibit 011), Albert was still living on Canterbury Street with his young family.  Cecile, Edmond, and Lillian shared their apartment with Albert’s sisters Lillian, Melvina, and Aline.  Also living with them was Sophronie, his 71 year old mother.  One of his other sisters Cora, her husband Norry Marcoux, and their children Oscar and Cora were living in the same building.  Oscar and his wife Loretta would be very close members of our extended family for our entire lives.  In the 1930 census, the family was still living on Canterbury Street in Worcester.  In addition to Albert were the three remaining children - Dad (Edmond), Cecile and Lillian - along with his mother Sophronie and his two sisters Melvina and Aline.  Albert was still employed as a core maker in a local foundry.  A core maker is an individual who makes sand cores for metal castings. 

Albert had registered with the U.S. Selective Service System for WWI and WWII.  While he listed his address as Canterbury Street in Worcester for WWI, by the time he registered for WWII in 1942, his address was listed as 52 Waltham Street in Boston Massachusetts and his workplace as the Waldorf Cafeteria in Roxbury.  On that form he also listed Aline Lorion of 95 Canterbury Street as his primary contact.  The question that comes to mind here is why: why was he now living in Boston and for how long?  The Worcester City Directory of 1939 lists Albert as a core maker living at 95 Canterbury street along with his mother Sophronie, sisters Aline and Melvina, and children Edmond and Lillian.  So we have him listed as a core maker living in Worcester in 1939 but a worker in a cafeteria in Boston in 1942.  He had been a core maker in a foundry for most of his life, why now did he become a worker in a cafeteria? 

Let me say here that there has been a lot of speculation about Albert after the loss of Eva in 1918.  There are some who believe that he left the family for long periods of time and turned to alcohol.  As of this writing I have found no indication of that.  There is no doubt that his mother Sophronie and sisters Malvina and Aline were living with him and his children in Worcester.  This is clearly documented in the U.S. Census reports for 1920, 1930 and 1940.  In each of these Census documents Albert is listed as living at 95 Canterbury Street and his occupation listed as Core Maker.  In fact, the 1940 Census lists his employer as Rice Barton Company on Tainter Street in Worcester.  It is interesting to note, however, that in the 1940 Census his 91 year old mother, Sophronie is listed as the head of household and not Albert, as had been the case in previous reports.    

Albert was eventually diagnosed with Tuberculosis of the Lungs in late 1943 and spent the last several months of his life in the Belmont Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts.  Information gathered from the Massachusetts Registry of Vital Records and Statistics lists his occupation as core maker and his employer as Rixbury Steel Casting Company.  His address at that time was listed as 95 Canterbury Street in Worcester.  Exhibit 012 (A,B, & C) contains several documents related to Albert, including his WWI and WWII draft registration cards as well as a copy of his death certificate. 

In addition to the mysteries surrounding Albert there are also some intriguing questions remaining about Eva’s parents and family.  Where were her parents, William McCarthy and Cora Yando, during these formative years for her children?  They lived in Worcester in 1910 and likely belonged to the same parish (Holy Name of Jesus) as the Lorion family.  The McCarthys were still living in Worcester in the 1920 census and were listed as living in Oxford Massachusetts by the 1930 census.  They lived in Oxford into the early 1950s, until they passed away in 1952 and 1953.  William and Cora were Dad’s grandparents and our great grandparents.  I do recall some contact with Clarence and Albert McCarthy - Eva’s siblings - who owned a garage on Route 20 in Oxford.  As for William and Cora, I must say that I have only the vaguest of memories of them.  How much of an influence (if any) they were on Dad as he grew up, we will never know.

This now takes us to the life of Edmond Lorion (my father).  His early years were particularly difficult with the loss of his mother and brother by the time he was ten years old.  He never talked much about his life growing up and, sadly, I never asked.  Since I had a good and happy childhood I assumed that he did too.  He attended Holy Name of Jesus School through the eighth grade.  Beyond that it gets a bit more complicated.  What I do know is that he attended school at Seminary Saint Hyacinthe High School in Montreal, Canada for two years (1930-1931 & 1931-1932), although the school does not list him as having graduated from there.  He did win a prize in 1931 at Saint Hyacinthe for excellence in English language.  The two years that he did attend would most likely have been his middle years in high school.  Holy Name did not have a high school in place until the 1940s so he could not have attended school there.  The 1940 U.S. Census does however indicate that he did indeed complete four years of high school. There is a possibility that he attended a public high school in Worcester, but I have not been able to document it at this time.  I will continue to try to determine where and when he graduated.  I’m not sure that we will ever know the reasons why he attended Saint Hyacinthe in those years but I have a vivid recollection that he would have liked one or two of his sons to attend also.  In fact, we took a family vacation to visit the area around the time I was getting ready to attend high school.  Family vacations to anywhere other than to visit Aunt Eva and Uncle Eddy in Oakland Beach, R.I. were very, very rare indeed.

After the high school years there is not much detail about what happened to young Edmond.  He was always a very hard worker and we can assume that he took a job and contributed to the family.  He was still living at 95 Canterbury Street in Worcester with his sisters Cecile and Lillian, his two aunts Melvina and Aline, and his grandmother Sophronie as late as 1939, according to the Worcester City Directory.  At this time Edmond listed his occupation as a stock clerk.  The 1940 Census lists the members of the family living at 95 Canterbury Street as Sophronie (age 91), Melvina (age 58), Aline (age 49), Albert (age 52 ), Cecile (age 25) and finally Edmond (age 25).  As of this census, Edmond listed his occupation as an assembler at Reed & Prentice Company.

My father was always close to his sisters Cecile and Lillian, and we visited with Melvina and Aline often.  In fact, Raymond and I would stay with Aunt Melvina and Aunt Aline in their Canterbury Street apartment when we were altar boys serving early mass at Holy Name of Jesus Church in the 1950s.

Edmond married my mother Irene Agnes Brodeur on 9 October 1942 at St. Joseph’s Church at 35 Hamilton Street in Worcester. 

Aunt Rita, Mom, Dad, Uncle Henry

From left to right; Oscar and Loretta Marcoux, Fred and Cecile (Lorion) Lamarche, Edmond and Irene (Brodeur) Lorion and Henry and Lillian (Lorion) Doucette 

I’m not sure when the picture to the left was taken nor do I have any idea where, but it shows Edmond and his father Albert.  It is possibly around the time that Dad and Mom got married in 1942.      

“Our” Generation

 After having traveled through time from the 1600s to the mid-1900s, it is finally time to look at “our” generation.  Our generation began with Mom and Dad’s first child: Gerry.  He was born on Christmas Day in 1943.  He was actually the only one of us to know our grandfather Albert, although there was certainly not much overlap since Albert died in April of 1944 .  I was born in April of 1945 with Raymond following in May of 1946.  Diane was born in October of 1948 and the last of our siblings, Anita, was born in April 1950.  I will make this report file available so that each of them can add their own memories and make this ‘their own” as I have.  They can freely take this family tree and continue the journey with their own unique reflections. 

So for this next section, I will concentrate on submitting the major points of my life until the present.  This is not an autobiography so it should match the level of detail that I have written for previous generations.

Francis Lorion was born on 24 Apr 1945.  At the time Mom and Dad were living in an apartment on Crystal Street in Worcester.  They would purchase a “three decker” on Vaughan Avenue several years later, where we would all be raised.  I have very fond memories of this home.  My dad worked very hard from as far back as I can recall.  He had his own business called Eagle Distributers based in Worcester.  He would leave the house very early in the morning to drive his truck into Connecticut to pick up breads and pastries from various bakeries and then return to Worcester in time to assemble “orders” for a number of men who would in turn load their small delivery trucks with these items and deliver them to homes.  As a “special treat,” Dad would let one of the boys have the pleasure of getting up at 4 a.m. to ride in the truck with him. 

Although we did not have much money, Mom and Dad made sure that we always had what we needed.  The neighborhood around Vaughan Avenue and Stearns Street was an ideal location to grow up in.  In large part this was because one of the neighbors - Walter Stearns - had acres of land and made his personal property available to the kids on the street.  This extended to his swimming pool and even his own basement recreation area.  He would even supply balls, bats, and gloves to the kids if needed.  So we had our own park and swimming pool.

Our family was a member of Holy Name of Jesus Church and we all went to Holy Name of Jesus School and its high school.  Raymond was the only exception: he attended Assumption Prep School for his high school education.  Raymond and I were altar boys at the church.  And now all these years later I have discovered that my “uncle” Francis was an altar boy at that same church many years before.  When Ray and I were scheduled to serve at the early weekday Masses, we stayed with Aunt Aline and Aunt Melvina on Canterbury Street in the same apartment that my dad was raised in.  The significance of that never occurred to me until I began this effort to document our family history.    

It was during my senior year in high school that I started to date Elaine Archambault.  She would become the love of my life and we married 8 Jul 1967.  We had our first child, Mark Francis, on 18 June 1971.  At the time we were living in a second floor apartment in the house owned by Elaine’s parents, Arthur and Lillian Archambault, on Ingleside Avenue in Worcester.  Mark was my parents’ third grandchild, having been preceeded by his cousins Jeff Lorion and Brian Rajotte.  Unfortunately my mother would pass away a short four months later.  To this day, I wonder what life would have been like if she hadn’t been taken from us at such an early age.  By the beginning of 1972 Elaine and I had purchased our first home in Millbury, MA. 

The next year marked the birth of our second child, Amy Elaine, on 26 Nov 1973.  How blessed were we to have two of the most wonderful children ever?  We enjoyed them so much over the years and continue to have so much pride in everything that they do.  Both of them have achieved advanced college degrees and have sound and happy marriages.

Mark married Cara McCauley (1973- ) in May of 2005.  The following year they gave us the greatest gift of all, our first grandchild.  Abigail Lily was born in September 2006.  Two years later, we were blessed again with our second grandchild, William Francis ,born in March 2008.  Anyone who is not a grandparent cannot truly appreciate what this means.  To have the opportunity to watch the development of these children is like having a second chance to witness all those special moments that “flew by” when we might have been too busy to notice with our own children.  As I mentioned at the very beginning of this document, these grandchildren were part of the reason that I began this journey. 

Amy married Stephen Romano  (1973- ) from New Jersey in September of 2007.  I had thought about how I would feel walking her down the aisle since she was an infant.  I must say that it was one of the happiest days of my life and I was so proud to offer her hand to Steve on that day.

 Now that both of our children are on their own and beginning the next chapter in this family history, I will leave it to them, and to Abby and Will and their descendants, to add their own memories to this family tree.