Oliver Amirault - He Died Where?!? (52 Ancesters - #15)

"He died where?!?" Was my initial thoughts and maybe (ok definitely) a few chuckles. This sad tragedy got me thinking about my family whom I've always had the impression that they were perfect.  Every last one of them.  Since starting my exploration of my family history and some more reflection, I've decided that yes, indeed, my family is perfect because they are my family.  Events that happened in the past, such as unwed mothers or alcoholics, were simply hidden or not talked about in the family.  Someone who was close to the family probably didn't know what I know today as hindsight is 20/20. These same unfortunate situations now have more acceptance today as well as social support.  We are so lucky to live in today's day and age in many ways.  We are also fortunate to know the person behind these unfortunate situations was really a good person.

With all this said, my 1st cousin (x2 removed) Oliver Joseph MALONE Amirault was one of those unfortunate souls and I would like to honor him by writing his story. As you can see from his photo he looked quite distinguished and handsome.


Oliver Joseph MALONE Amirault
courtesy of Lea d'Entremont 

Oliver was born October 21st, 1894 in Pubnico, Nova Scotia. As you may recall from my previous posts, Pubnico is a very small fishing village about 25 miles from Yarmouth. It is my understanding that there were many dirt roads up that way up until the late 1920s. My mom and aunts remember visiting there many summers as children during the 1940s. Many families had their own cows, pigs and chickens.  If nature called, my mom said she would have to brave her way through the barn yard animals to get to the smelly outhouse. On Sunday one of the villagers would put wooden benches in the back of their truck and drive around the village collecting a coin to drop them safely at Immaculate Conception Church which was located on the east side of Pubnico.

Most of my Canadian family were called by their middle names, however, friends and family called Oliver by his nick name, MALONE.  In looking back at the name for that era, I'm thinking maybe he was good at playing baseball as a youngster and was named after a famous baseball player of the 1920s? 

In 1915 he traveled to the U.S., according to border-crossing documents, and lived in Boston for some time.  As of, June, 1917, he listed himself as short and slender with blue eyes and brown hair when he registered for the WWI draft.  He listed his occupation as "painter".  I'm not sure if it was while he was in the "States" or when he returned to Pubnico, that he took a liking to his moonshine. 

According to his niece, Lea d'Entremont (who helped me last week with Laurie Amirault)
"Uncle Malone was somewhat of an alcoholic and he was living in the homestead with Ernest [his brother] and Alma [his sister-in-law] and of course Alma was always growling at him because of his drinking. One day he was at a store and this lady asked about Alma and he answered "if ever she gets ill and asks for a drink, she'll be mighty thirsty before I bring her a drink!"  He drank but he was not always 'drunk' and I guess he was very comical. I just remember seeing him a couple of times before he left Pubnico. One of those times was one Easter day.  Mom looked out the window and said to dad, 'here comes Oliver and he seems to be sober.' He [Oliver] came inside and after they talked a bit dad offered him a drink!! I'll never understand that move as long as I live, to me it didn't make any sense at all and it still doesn't. I was only 4 or five at that time but I remember it very well." Lea goes on to write that "After he left Pubnico he worked in the Annapolis Valley as a painter for years and never came back home."

According to his death certificate he was missing from May 14th, 1955 until they found him on May 25th, 1955.  The excerpt below, from his death certificate states "This man disappeared May 14/55.  Found dead in a water closet May 25/55.  No evidence of external injury.  Death due to 1. coronary thrombosis [heart blockage], 2 or cerebral hemorrhage [bleed in brain], 3 or subarachnoid hemorrhage [bleed in spine?]."  Yes, my cousin died in an outhouse and was there 11 days before anyone found the chap.  Poor Oliver was brought back home to Pubnico to be buried but it was a closed casket. 

https://www.novascotiagenealogy.com/

So this is Oliver's story.  He traveled, worked, was a funny guy, never married but had lots of family as well as a sad alcohol addiction.  Oliver will be remembered and appreciated just because he was my cousin and he was perfect in my book!

NOTE: Thank you again to Lea d'Entremont for her contributions to Oliver's story and the photo of her Uncle "Malone".  Oliver never married and I wonder if he had married if maybe he would have avoided the hooch and may have been found in the outhouse sooner.  If AA was available to him maybe this unfortunate ending could have been avoided?? 

Joanne (Amirault) Sweeney (52 Ancestors - #5)

Aunt Joanne (Amirault) Sweeney was my maternal grandfather, Harry Amirault's, sister. I remember her fondly from the visits she made to Nana Amirault's home each summer). She was always happy to chat with us young ones as we passed through Nana's home on our way to play with our friends on Bartlett Street. We were glad she visited us all the way from New Hampshire! Again, family jumped in and wrote this wonderful story that we will be preserving for future generations. Let's read what my cousin, Pat (Sweeney) Cloutier has to say about her mom Joanne who was born to Laurence and Mary Alice (Boudreau) Amirault in Middle East Pubnico, Nova Scotia, Canada in 1903.

In my mother's immediate family, there were eleven children. These children were parents to fifteen children and those children had thirty seven grandchildren. My mother, Joanne, shortened from Johanna, grew up in a tiny Acadian fishing village on a beautiful deep harbor in Nova Scotia. Her father was a poor farmer and sometimes he worked on the fishing boats.

Joanne is front left (with all the hair!)

The roads were dirt and most families only owned a bicycle. There was an enterprising young man who owned a truck that was fitted with benches on either side of the covered truck bed. For ten cents he would pick up anyone needing a ride to Church. They got a ride to Church and didn't have to walk the two miles for only a dime! In my first visit to the old home in 1950 they still had those wonderful big oak telephones on the wall that had a 12 party line. They could tell by the ring who it was for and if it was a long-distance call!

Several of her siblings moved away once they were old enough. Joanne and three of her sisters became nurses. Three of them trained in NH and one in Nova Scotia. They all paid their own way through school.

Mom graduated in 1925 and continued working at the same hospital she trained in. She met her future husband there when she was taking care of his brother. They were engaged for several years due to the depression. They couldn't afford to get married. They finally did marry in 1934 and became proud parents to a little daughter in 1936. Mom stopped working and was a stay-at-home mom only that designation had not yet been used. She was always there when I walked home from school for lunch. I started school the same year that the US entered WWII. I remember going with her to get coupons for food and permits for a month's supply of sugar, five pounds. Mom was a good homemaker and managed well through the rationing.

Joanne and Ed Sweeney about 1930s

The Americans at home found that as the war progressed, more and more things were rationed. Not only did we have to make our food budget stretch, automobiles were no longer being built; gas was rationed anyway, and very difficult to find. I remember the kids who lived out in the country were asked to pick milkweed pods and bring them in to school. That was for the flyers' jackets. We didn't have butter readily available. One could buy a new substitute called margarine. I had the job of trying to mix it up. It came in a large white blob and had a little packet of powdered yellow "stuff". You mixed that into the white blob and pretended you were eating butter! They survived the war years by working hard and being creative for the products that you couldn't have.

Mom went back to nursing when I was in my teens. She hadn't been home to Nova Scotia for many years; It was at least twenty five. In those years she got married, had a baby and once the war came there were no boats from Boston any more, heading for Nova Scotia. Finally, I was working and able to "keep the home fires burning" for my father and me while she enjoyed many trips to Nova Scotia. After the boats began sailing to Nova Scotia, and airlines made trips down east, she traveled "home" every summer.

Aunt Joanne (front left) with all her siblings

In essence, my mother and her siblings had very happy growing up years on the farm. They remained close all their lives as have all the next generation. Mostly, the siblings lived a long life. My mother was 89. She had one sister who lived to 106!! One of her brothers died very young due to cancer, the other lived to almost 80 and at least three lived into their nineties. I am so happy that I had the chance to visit the old homestead and to get to know so many of my relatives. I only regret that I never knew my maternal grandparents.

Ed and Joanne on their wedding day, 4/19/34.  Because it was during the depression Joanne didn't wear a wedding gown.

Note: Pat's comment about the family is so true. Family values were instilled in me due to knowing all my great Aunts! To this day I keep in touch with many of their children, including Pat! If Aunt Joanne were alive today I would ask her what her nursing training involved back in the early 1900s. All my great Aunts who left home from their tiny village to become nurses...they were really pioneers in their own way!

Mary (Griffin) Amirault (52 Ancestors - #1)

Our family has been blessed with many many ancestors, including Mary Griffin Amirault my maternal grandmother who lived until a hardy old age of 92. Her funeral was truly a celebration of her robust life and it was difficult for her 5 daughters, 18 grandchildren and numerous friends and family to say farewell. Her life was quite a story! 

Mary Griffin as a younger gal - I'm thinking about 16 years old

I'm going to begin with the basics. She was born in "Southie" Massachusetts on a cold January day in 1905 to Michael and Elizabeth (Leggett) Griffin. She lived in the predominantly Irish projects with her many siblings. Up until age 12 she most likely had a typical life for a young girl of that era. Her typical life became tragic when her mom succumbed to pneumonia and Mary's life was forever changed.

By 1917 Buff and Gertie had moved on and other older siblings had died in infancy which sadly left Mary to take care of her other six younger siblings, her father and all the chores. According to my Aunt Judy, she alternated going to school with another sibling, but really didn't have much of an education beyond sixth grade.

Mary and Harry

In 1926 she was dating my grandfather, Harry Amirault, and another fellow. She realized one night, running between dates and falling in an alleyway, that she needed to make a decision on who she wanted to court her and she knew in her heart it was going to be Harry. Shortly after her life-changing decision in 1926 she found herself saying goodbye to Harry because he needed to sail back to Nova Scotia with his sister because his mother (Mary Alice Boudreau) had suddenly passed. Being the supportive and caring person she was, she jumped on the ship with him (no suitcase!) and humbly went to pay her respects to the mother-in-law she would never know. On their way home from the funeral Mary and Harry brought his young cousins who had been in the care of Mary Alice (because their mom had died a year earlier) back to their father in New York.

Mary and Harry dated until 1929 when they decided to wed in August of that year. Together they had one of the happiest and faithful marriages. They had five lovely and lively little girls...Joan, Geri, Mal, Harriet and Judy. Their home was often full of love, laughter and music. Mary worked hard each day to care for her girls, keep the home clean, cook, and iron. The girls were the center of her day until about 5:00 pm when she would run upstairs, bathe, put on a good dress, lipstick and a dab of perfume because Harry was on his way home from the garage where he was a mechanic. People often commented on Mary and Harry's happy marriage.

Mary and Harry's Wedding Invitation

A long happy marriage was not in the cards for Mary and Harry. Late in 1940 Harry became quite ill and succumbed to cancer of the liver. In 1941, only a short 12 years after they said "I do", Mary and her 5 little girls (age12 years to 9 months) said their tearful farewell to Harry. Years later Mary would say she never remarried because there was no one in this world as good as her Harry.

It wasn't long before Mary had a plan. She needed an income to support her family. First she altered Harriet's birth certificate and soon the 4 year old little girl would find herself in 1st grade. Judy, her two-year-old daughter, was sent to live in Southie from Monday-Friday with Mary's sister Cassie and her large family. On Friday, 12 year old Joan would set out for Southie each Friday afternoon to fetch her baby sister and journey back home on the bus. Mary found herself being "Rosie the Riveter" at the Quincy Ship Yard during WWII (she was a machinist). It was said that this was the only time that Mary was ever seen wearing pants as she loved her dresses and high heels! My Aunt Mal recalls she had to wear cover-alls plus a hat that had a net to cover all her hair. She had to buy steel toed shoes. She had lots of "dickies" that were colored collars she wore under the cover-all. Dickies were also worn under pullover sweaters. It looked like she had a colored blouse on underneath. Aunt Mal recalls Nana telling her when working at the shipyard, she was dragging a very heavy piece of steel and a man laughed. Mal was so sure he resented women working and rather than help, he laughed. "He must have been older because the women were hired to replace the men who had gone to war. Just think: the women knew they would be out of a job when the men came home." Eventually Nana worked in the shipyard offices then went to Armstrong Corp where she worked up until retirement.

The years after Harry died was not easy for Mary, but she always made sure her daughters were well cared for and clean. During summers they would travel to Nova Scotia to visit Harry's sisters Gusta, Vie, Lize, etc. Mary also had her sister-in-laws visit which brought her much joy! Mary loved company, family and food! Over the years Thanksgiving was a holiday she cherished because all her girls and their family returned to Bartlett Street to squeeze in her little house for the best stuffing and steamed pudding in America!!

Nana never just walked, she was always doing a running walk. After she had her license she would often be found driving to bingo, church (she drive like she walked) or delivering bake shop bread to the girls. She liked her heels, playing her numbers, giving us a buck and we were always a doozy! Boy there was lots to love about Mary.

Nana

Note: If Mary was alive today I would ask her about her friends. I often wonder if she had time for friends. I would also ask her more about her Griffin siblings.