Saturday, January 25, 2014

Peloquin-Parental Great Granparetns




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.


[1] Death Certificate 129, Town Clerk’s office,  Grafton, 1933, Vol. 13, pg. 61.
[2] Massachusetts Vital Records 1841-1910. NEHGS, on line database.
[3] Ibid.