I Love/Hate French Records

A family friend and fellow genealogy enthusiast recently showed me that he was able to use French records in the Drouin Collection to take Mary Rose Statuto’s family back another couple generations. This has been exciting and helpful. I’ve used the Drouin Collection when researching my Goulet ancestors, but I have always found them frustrating for two main reasons. First, they are in French. Second, they are often hard to read due to the condition of the documents. Still, thanks to my friend and these records, I am now going further back into my father’s family than I have ever been able to before. 

Mary Rose Statuto’s parents were Peter Statuto and Marie Therrien. On their marriage record, Peter’s family is listed as Carmenandonio and Carminella. Marie Therrien’s parents are recorded as Hubert Therrien and Mathilda Grondin. After finding this, I immediately searched for Hubert and Mathilda in earlier Canadian records. What I found was a family on the 1881 and 1891 Canadian census for Nicolet, Quebec, Canada.

Hubert and Emilie Therrien - Nicolet, Quebec, Canada 1881

As you can see, there is a problem. Hubert Therrien was listed, even an appropriately aged Marie was listed, but Mathilda was not. I saved the records until I could know more about the family, as I did not feel secure in just claiming these people as ancestors without more evidence. That evidence was shown to me last weekend. 

A friend sent me an email showing how he had used French-Canadian baptismal and marriage records in the Drouin Collection to connect the family in the census to the Hubert Therrien I had been looking for. I had come across only some of the records my friend pointed out to me and had put them aside because I could not read the French. However, now having taken the time to look at these records more closely I can honestly say I love/hate French records. 

 I had obviously used records in the Drouin Collection when researching my Goulet line, but most of the records I needed had English translations I could find. Goulet is a very well researched surname. Therrien is also a well researched surname, but I needed to connect my Therriens to other Therrien families in order to compare research. 

 As it turns out, Emilie Therrien (nee Boisvert) is the second wife of Hubert Therrien, which I would have seen if I had not embraced laziness and actually struggled to look at the French marriage records of Hubert. 

Hubert Therrien and the interestingly named Domithilde (not Mathilda) were married in 1870 in Quebec. Domithilde died in 1874. The very next year Hubert married Emilie Boisvert, who appears in the 1881 census. On the 1875 marriage record of Hubert and Emilie, it very clearly states “Hubert Therrien, veuf de Domithilde Grondin.” The term, “veuf de,” I came to learn meant “widower of.”

Enter Hubert Therrien, widower of Domithilde Grondin . . . .

I am still working on creating a direct translation of both of Hubert’s marriage documents. They are hard. In addition, I cannot really claim this discovery as my own. My friend had made the connection already and basically showed me. I have been inspired, however, to begin translating additional documents associated with this family.

I began with Marie and Hubert Therrien’s baptismal records. Using some Spanish, some online translating, and not a small amount of patience, I was able to (I think) correctly translate a good portion of these documents. I must admit, any corrections and additions to my translations are welcome. 

Marie Therrien - Baptismal Record

My translation of the above record:
The 20th of February
One Thousand eight hundred seventy (one?) We, priest …………………………have baptized Marie Euthichienne born the same day, of the legitimate marriage of Hubert Terrien (cultivator?) and of Domithilde Grondin of this parish. The godfather was Michael Terrien cultivator, father of (the father or brother of the child?) and the godmother was Angelique Bussiere grandmother of this ………………………………………….    ……………………………………………………………………………

Hubert Therrien - Baptismal Record

My translation of the above record: 
The 19th of November, one thousand eight hundred and forty four. We, priest …………….  have baptized Hubert born the day before of the legitimate marriage of Michael Terrien (cultivator?) and of Angelique Bussiere of Saint Zepharin. …............
…………Godmother Marie Louise Therrien …………………………………   …………… ………………… ……………………………………….

If I have the translation correct, I am assuming the occupation of cultivator simply meant farmer. Also, I am unclear if the godfather of Marie was her grandfather, who was named Michael Terrien, or an uncle of the same name. 

So, as I said, I love/hate these French documents. Obviously, they are a gold mine of family information. They carefully include parent names and godparents, who were generally related in some way. They also include birth dates, which can otherwise be hard to find. However, they are very difficult to read. Not only are they in French, which is not much of a hindrance in 2014, but they are extremely difficult to make out clearly. I showed them to the French teacher at my school and he said it was impossible.

However, I have absolutely taken a lot from these records. Not only the names of the previous generation, but the siblings of Marie Therrien. In my post concerning Peter Statuto's run-ins with the law, I came across a man named Philip Terien, who had stolen a chain and had stashed it in Peter’s basement. I had noted that a man with a very similar name appeared on the 1920 Census showing Mary Rose Statuto living with her sister Amelia Gilman in Pepperell. At the time, I wondered how the man might be related. Now, based on names listed on the 1881 census I can be fairly certain that Phillipe (or Philip) Therrein was the uncle of Mary Rose. 

Though I still don’t know the paternal ancestry of my grandfather, Peter Francis Daley, tracing his mother’s family is now the closest I’ve come to learning where my own father’s family came from. In my future research, I hope to trace the Therrien family back even further using these French records. I know my Goulet line came from Normandel to New France during the Percheron Immigration. The Therrien family probably has a similar history. I aim to find out.

Peter Statuto and the Law

When I began researching my great-great grandfather, Peter Statuto, some of the most surprising things I uncovered were his seemingly frequent run-ins with law enforcement during his life. For a “fruit dealer” from Lowell, he certainly lived an adventurous life. 

Peter Statuto arrived in the US from Italy in 1880. By 1889, according to the Lowell Sun, Peter was already facing charges in Worcester. The article in the Lowell Sun does not explain much, simply stating that Peter Statuto was arrested February 1899 for embezzlement of a wagon. Apparently, he was then bailed out and taken to Worcester to face trial.

Of course, it’s difficult to know the details of his crime. Embezzlement isn’t strictly theft. Still, an article in the Lowell Sun published only few days after the first reported that the case was heard before a judge and Peter was discharged. A man named William A. Hogan appeared in his defense.

Of course, the drama with the wagon appears to continue when Peter later accused a man named Charles McCarthy with larceny of a wagon in August of the same year. This must have been some wagon. Still, Charles McCarthy later appears as one of his employees as late as 1902. So, one must wonder how the matter of the wagon was settled. 

However, Peter’s biggest involvement with law enforcement came in April of 1902, when a former employee of his struck and killed one of his current employees. According to the Sun article, a man named Joseph Seymour, who had once worked for Peter Statuto, confronted a pair of Statuto’s delivery men while the two were at a local lunch room.

One of the employees, a man named Charles Elwell (or Elwood or Elward), first argued with Seymour. Then, the two men fought. Apparently, Elwell sent Seymour packing. However, Seymour returned to Statuto’s store the next morning, when he saw Elwell he said, “I’m going to fix you this morning for what happened last night.” Elwell agreed to fight the man again.

Joseph J. Seymour

The two made plans to walk down to an adjoining street and fight it out. However, Seymour demanded they wait for a couple of his friends, as Elwell was in the company of another man named Gallagher.

Apparently, as Elwell and Gallagher were talking on the curb, Seymour jumped from the steps of Statuto’s store and struck Elwell in the back of the head. Elwell fell unconscious to the ground, his friend attempted to break up the fight, but was struck by Seymour as well, who then escaped down the street. According to the article, police believed that Seymour had used brass knuckles in the fight, but Seymour denied it. Peter Statuto, who had witnessed the attack from inside his own store, rushed outside to help Elwell. He brought the man inside and splashed water on his face, but Elwell did not recover.

Seymour was arrested for assault and pled guilty to the charge. However, Elwell never regained consciousness and died the following morning. The charge was altered to assault with the intent to kill, which Seymour denied.

As one of the primary witnesses to the crime Peter Statuto was interviewed by a reporter from the Sun, which appeared in a new article the following day. He was also required to appear at the trial of Joseph Seymour.

An article that appeared in a June 1902 edition of the Boston Globe explains what happened to Seymour. According to the Globe Seymour was sentenced to serve from 4 ½ to 7 years in a state prison. The article goes further to say that Seymour became hysterical and needed to be escorted from the court room. From there, I’m not sure what happened to Seymour.

Seymour at his trial in Lowell

Peter Statuto, however, continued his business as a fruit salesman. His name is mentioned several more times within articles in the Lowell Sun, but only one more  time in relation to crime (that I could find). 

 According to the Sun, in February of 1909 a man named Philip Therien stole a watch and a chain, valued at $15. Mr. Therein was caught and admitted the theft. He even brought the police to where he had stashed the stolen items, which was in the basement of Peter Statuto’s store.

I thought this story was interesting for a couple reasons. First, Peter Statuto’s second wife was named Marie Therrien. It is more than likely that Marie Therrien and Philip Therein are related, as I’ve noticed newspapers were not super careful about the spelling of surnames in the early 1900’s.

Second, a man named Philip Therrien appears in the 1920 census, boarding with Peter Statuto’s daughter Amelia Gilman. This is interesting to me because the other person boarding with the Gilman family in 1920 was my mysterious great grandmother, Mary Rose Statuto, who was pregnant with my grandfather at the time. How exactly Philip Therein is connected to the family is therefore of interest to me.

Who exactly is Philip Therrien?

After reading about the adventures and misdeeds of my great-great grandfather, Peter Statuto, I feel like I have a better understanding of who he was. That is one of the things I enjoy most about this type of research. Of course, one of the best things about genealogy is that every record I acquire helps to paint a clearer picture of the origins of my family. With the addition of Peter Statuto’s records, our picture is now just a bit more colorful.

Peter Statuto 1855 - 1917

Peter Statuto is one of my paternal great-great grandfathers. He is the father of Mary Rose Statuto, who is the biological mother of my grandfather, Peter Francis Daley. The name Peter continued through my family line from him, to my grandfather, to my father, to also wind up as my middle name. We never knew, but we inherited this name from our Statuto side. I only recently began to really delve into my Statuto research. When I did, I certainly learned a lot about Peter.

I was first contacted by a fellow genealogist about the Statutos in spring of 2013. This researcher believed that Mary Rose Statuto, of Lowell Ma, was the birth mother of my grandfather. Previous to this we only ever knew that his original surname had been Statuto and that he had been born in Pepperell. 

Through his connection to Mary Rose, I was also given a great amount of information about her father Peter. This information has been very valuable and has opened up many new avenues of research and a lot of questions. Some of them I have answered and some I am still working on. However, I now know quite a bit more about my Mr. Statuto than I had before. 

According to US Naturalization Record Indexes Peter Statuto was born in Italy 22 March 1855. According to marriage records, his parents were Carmenandonio and Carminella Statuto. I don’t have his full naturalization record yet, so I don’t know exactly where he came from. I also don’t have his mother’s maiden name. 

Peter arrived in New York on October 30, 1880 aboard the SS Nederland. By 1881 he appears in the City Directory of Lowell, listed as a “fruit dealer” on Middlesex Street. He remained in this business for the majority of his life and remained in Lowell until his death. He and his family appears in the 1910 census. 

Peter Statuto and daughters in 1910

Peter was married twice. His first marriage was to Marie Farrell. Together, they had one daughter named Amelia Statuto, born 1885. Unfortunately Marie Farrell seems to have died only a year later in 1886. 

In December of 1893, Peter Statuto was naturalized as a citizen of the United States.On 20 Jan 1895, Peter remarried Marie Therrien, the daughter of Hubert and Mathilda Therrien of Quebec. Together, they had four daughters:

- Mary Rose Statuto b. 1896

- Mary Lora Statuto b. 1897

- Mary Philomine Statuto b. 1898

- Mary Louisa Statuto b 1901

Peter Statuto seemed to manage a fruit distribution or grocer’s business in Lowell and appeared in the Lowell Sun several times in relation to this business. Later he obtained the license to sell ice cream as well. In some of these newspaper entries Peter appears to have been involved with or affiliated with criminal activity. I wouldn't go so far as to say that Peter was a criminal himself, so much as to say that he was several times plagued by the criminal activity of those around him. In a future post, I’ll outline some of these more interesting events in Peter’s life. 

Peter died in Lowell on 4 February 1917. His death notice was posted in the Lowell Sun. According to this notice, Peter was a member of the Court General Shields, Foresters of America. Previously Peter had also been a member and treasurer of the Christopher Columbus Italian Mutual Aid Society as well. Unfortunately, it appears that neither of these organizations have available records for this time period.  

Both Peter Statuto and my great-great grandmother Marie Therrien are buried in St. Patrick Cemetery in Lowell, Ma. I am currently planning a trip in that direction. 

I have to say it was fascinating learning about an ancestor that I never even knew I had, especially one who had a direct impact on the naming tradition of my family. Though I can only get a glimpse of what Peter Statuto might have been like through records and newspaper articles, I think it speaks volumes that his daughter named my grandfather seemingly after him. She wasn't the only one of his daughters to use the name either. 

As soon as I learn exactly where in Italy the Statuto family came from I know I’ll feel compelled to visit. I would also love to know more about the interestingly named Carmenandonio and Carminella. Until then Peter Statuto is a welcome new branch in the sometimes crooked and not quite linear family tree that has become the Daley Clan. 

Mary Rose Statuto 1896 - 1955

Since the death of my grandfather, Peter Francis Daley Sr., in 2004, I have been attempting to uncover the mysteries of his past and origins. For a man I had known since birth, I found that I knew surprisingly little about him. As I began to research his life, I quickly discovered that he had been raised as a ward of the state in the Daley family since sometime before 1930.

Although I knew his birth name was Statuto, based on the 1930 census, I had only scraps additional information. I knew his birth date of June 1920 and I knew he was born in Pepperell, Ma. Having contacted the Pepperell Town Clerk in 2004, I was informed that I was barred from accessing my grandfather’s birth record for 100 years, as he was an illegitimate birth.

The 1930 US Census showing my grandfather as Peter Statuto

Although my family and I had suspicions about his parentage, for almost nine years of genealogical research I made little progress in solving the original mystery of my family, the reason I began research at all. There were quite a few Statutos of the correct age in Massachusetts in 1920. I had a long list, but I had no idea how to narrow it down to find which one was my great grandparent. In the spring of 2013 that all changed. 

In May of 2013 I was contacted by a fellow genealogist who was related to the Statuto family of Pepperell Ma. He informed me that during 1920 the sister of one of his Statuto ancestors moved into his ancestor’s home and appeared on the 1920 census. His relative was named Amelia Statuto and the mysterious sister was named Mary Rose Statuto. In addition, he suspected that Mary Rose had been pregnant at the time.

1920 US Census showing Mary Rose Statuto

I re-examined Statuto records I had saved and saw both women on my list of potential suspects. However, I had no information about the family. In a couple emails, the other genealogist gave me a crash course on the Statuto side of his family.

Although I could not be sure, as I believed I was still forbidden access to my grandfather’s birth records, I believed I had enough circumstantial evidence to be 95% sure Mary Rose Statuto was my great grandmother. 

I once again contacted the Town Clerk where my grandfather was born and was informed that his birth certificate was now available, which was a little surprising because I had been told previously that I had to wait until 2020 to see it. However, the record did confirm that Mary Rose was the mother of my grandfather. His father’s name was still missing however. Thus began my adventure into the Statuto family of Lowell and Pepperell, Ma.

Mary Rose Statuto was born 12 November 1896 in the City of Lowell to Peter Statuto and Marie Therrien. It was the second marriage for both Peter and Marie. Peter was a recent Italian immigrant and Marie Therrien was a recent French Canadian immigrant. Peter Statuto also had an older daughter named Amelia Statuto from his previous marriage. Along with Amelia, Mary Rose had three other sisters.

- Mary Lora b. 1897

- Mary Philomene b. 1898

- Mary Louisa b. 1901

 Of course, all sisters are named Mary, but they seemed to go by their middle name in later records. 

Mary Rose appears in the 1910 census, living with her father Peter Statuto, who was a well known fruit dealer in the city. She also appears on several city directories between 1913 and 1917, all showing her occupation as “Dress Maker.”

Then in 1920 Mary Rose appears on the US Census in the household of her half sister Amelia in Pepperell. Amelia had married a man named John W Gilman. Together, he and Amelia already had a substantial family. Aside from my great grandmother, the Gilmans were also boarding a Philip Therrien, who I must assume was a relation to Mary Rose. Perhaps an uncle or cousin on her mother’s side of the family, it’s unclear as of yet.

After 1920 and the birth of my grandfather, Mary Rose and Philip both seem to disappear. I can find no trace of either on the census records for 1930 and 1940. In fact, I initially believed that Mary Rose had died soon after my grandfather’s birth. However, I was wrong. 

 Using newspaper archives in Massachusetts, I was first able to find additional information about Peter Statuto and his business in Lowell. Following this lead, I then used the archives of the Lowell Sun to find an obituary for Mary Rose Statuto in 1955. 

 This meant that Mary Rose had, for whatever reason, intentionally given up my grandfather. As far as I know my grandfather, when he supposedly found out about his parentage, was never interested in contacting his biological mother. I wonder if the same could be said for her. I’ll probably never know. 

The obituary lists several pallbearers at her funeral. Some additional research showed that Peter Gilman and Albert Clark were both members of Amelia Statuto’s family. It seems the sisters had kept in touch. I am currently trying to track down Wilfred Bouchard of Pepperell and Daniel Dwyer of Groton to see what connection they had to Mary Rose. 

According to this record it seems that Mary Rose Statuto never married and potentially never had any other children, as no other family was mentioned. I can’t help but wonder what the rest of her life was like and where she lived between 1920 and 1955. I also still wonder who my paternal great grandfather was. 

So, it only took about nine years of research to uncover half of the mystery I first set out to solve. I’m still not sure who my grandfather’s father was, but I have several new avenues of research to follow for clues.

I’m also grateful that in those nine years I’ve met and maintain contact with some awesome members of my family I had never known. I’ve been to places connected to my family which I never would have gone. I learned a lot about my grandfather and how he grew up. I was able to research and record my ancestry on my mother’s side, much more easily I might add. I’ve also continually developed my genealogical and historic research skills along the way. I now have a fairly comprehensive (and continually growing) family tree to pass on to the next generation of my family.

Even though I’ve now only solved half of the original mystery of my family, it seems that what I’ve gained along the way has been well worth the while. I just hope it doesn’t take another nine years for me to solve the second half.