Background information-
When I was a young child
living in North Grafton, Worcester County, Massachusetts I had a friend Annie
(not her real name) Peloquin, whom my paternal grandmother stated that I was
related to, maybe a “distant cousin.” So when I started researching my paternal
family history and found the death certificate of my great grandmother Rose
Eliza (Peloquin) Vaundell[1],
married to my great grandfather Nelson Vaundell, I thought I had hit the
jackpot. It stated that she died December 7, 1933, at the age of 59 years, 5
months, 9 days (calculated to a birth date of June 28, 1874) and her parents
were Paul Peloquin, born in Canada, and Armine Beaulac, born in Montpelier,
Vermont. It also stated that she had been born in Hudson, Massachusetts. As I
searched the birth records of Hudson, the only one that came close was a Rosa
Pellican born June 29, 1874 to parents Paul Pellican and Lizzie Sake (sic)
Lake.[2]
This brought a little frustration into my search but I decided to look for
their marriage record and found that on August 5, 1889 Nelson Vaundell, age 19,
a shoemaker and Rosa Peloquin, age 17, a mill worker who was born in Hudson
were married in North Grafton.[3]
It was the first marriage for both. Her
parents were Paul & Lizzie Peloquin. His parents are Nelson Vaundell and
Nancy Clappron (sic).
Thus this is where I
started on the wrong path. I honed in on the “Peloquin” surname and tried to find
Rose (Rosa) parents’ marriage or the family on the US census or any of records.
I spent a lot of time and efforts looking up what I thought were different
spellings of the “Peloquin” surname, completely ignoring the biggest clue that
I had-which was the “pelican” surname on most likely her birth record from
Hudson, Massachusetts. I was HITTING a huge “brick wall’ so I decided to lay
aside my family search of this particular branch-Rose Peloquin and start researching
other family members.
