Comedy and Entertaining within the family - Ancestors in 52 Weeks

This year's challenge is 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks and is run by Amy Johnson Crow.

Topic Info:
Have you found something humorous in your research? Perhaps something funny happened while you were researching? Tell the story this week.

Growing up, myself and one of my nieces, Becky, were clowns. When they moved to upstate New York, Becky kept us laughing for most of the 5 hour trip which was good after we lost radio over the mountains. We always thought she'd grow up to be a comedian, but we were wrong.

My brother and I, as I've written in an earlier blog, always told jokes to each other but they were of a "colorful nature" and we both had a really warped sense of humor. This always made us laugh especially when one of us upped the other one.

My brother and I in 2000 telling jokes. This is when he got me with one of his zingers. Credit: J. Fitzgerald

My oldest sister and I used to pick up my nieces and dance with them around the living room while trying to belt out a song. We all agreed we did not/could not sing but we kept on trying. I really stopped trying after I got pulled aside in chorus in school and asked not to sing any longer and to please just stand there and mouth the words. Yep, that bad.

My sister thought my younger nieces was very beautiful and even entered her into a beauty pageant when she was 3 or 4. She didn't win the event, it annoyed me because she didn't want to be there and my sister was boastful about her entering.After the event, I looked at my sister and told her bluntly we were never doing that again because it was awful the way people were, my niece didn't want to be there and everyone in our group was annoyed. We never did another one either. If my nieces wanted us to do something, we did try and figure out a way to do it with little to no money.

July 23 2015 Music Man Jr. In Rouses Point at the Civic Center. Credit R. Greenhaw

May 15 2017 My niece's daughter in gymnastics
Credit R. Greenhaw

2017 My niece's daughter in dance. Credit R. Greenhaw

Then when my nieces had children, they wanted to do dancing things and show business. Then one of my nieces said they always wanted to do something like this which stunned me because they never said anything. Anyhow, their children are now in plays, ice skating and stuff.

I found some of my other cousin, who live closer to where I grew up, were actually into dancing and singing too.

Newspaper articles about other Gauquie cousins who danced and went to Theatre school. Credit as above.

I didn't know about these cousins until after 2000 when I started to really research the family and was stunned they had a whole dance school, but my mother never talked about them.

Then when I continued my research, I found my 2x great grandmother's death certificate and it gave me a clue as to who else had these skills.

Florentina Van Rompaye's Death certificate which lists her husband as a cabaretier. Credit

As you can tell it's (above) in French. I only got to take beginner French in high school (it was many years ago now), so I couldn't read the entire entry. However, when I posted it in one of my Facebook groups for the Gauquie's, one of my cousins responded.

The discussion about what a cabaretier is. 

Imagine my shock to learn my 2x great grandfather liked to show off and entertain. This links into the dance school my other cousins run or used to run!

Then to also learn my cousin Chris has been in the entertainment industry was interesting and very unexpected.

Cousin Chris in 2009. Credit: Chris

2015 Cousin Chris with friends in play. Credit: Chris

2012 Chris as Madame Hortense. Credit: Chris

I'm not sure where we got it from, but the entertainment bug is definitely there. However, it's not shared by all of us. Even after getting up in front of crowds to speak over the past 8 or so years, it's not something I'm still not comfortable with, so I didn't get that gene unfortunately!

Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Out of Place

This year's challenge is 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks and is run by Amy Johnson Crow.

Topic:
Did you ever find an ancestor in an unexpected place? I recently discovered that my 3rd-great-grandmother didn't die in the county where I found her in every census. Instead, I found her living 4 counties away from there -- in the county where I currently live. She's even buried here. (I'm still trying to figure out why.) Maybe you found an ancestor in a record you didn't expect (like finding a member of a pacifist religion serving in the Civil War). Or maybe there's an ancestor who always seemed "out of place" with the rest of the family.

I have a few ancestor's which could probably fit this selection. One is my great grandparents and the other would probably be my mother's maternal side moving to Newburgh, NY. For each of these, there are questions around them, but I think I'll stick with my great grandparents.

I've mentioned before my maternal great grandparents - Jules and Anne Gauquie. Well Jules' formal name was Joannes Julius Van Rompaye Gauquie. He was born to an unwed mother, this is where the Van Rompaye comes from, but when his father found out, he married Jules' mother. I think there were many Joannes, as it was a common name among the region, which is why he was always called Jules, or that's what I've put together over time.

What area are you questioning? 
According to the topic, did I ever find them in an unexpected place, is the question to be answered. Boy, did I ever find them in a weird area. I'll explain below.

After I found my grandfather's last name, I did searches on the name and started to find family on things like the census of 1910, 1920, 1900. This lead me to Belgium, but I had a hard time to where to get started. I found a system like Ancestry, but it was for Europe called Geneanet. I posted what information I had there in hopes to find my great grandfather's family. After I had help finding Jules' birth entry in Belgium, I could then narrow down when he came to the US.

I contacted the county clerk in New York where they were apart of. I asked them if they had Jules or Annie's passport applications as I was looking for information about them. Also, it would be great to see if the applications had pictures so I could see what they looked like, but this was a bonus.

Soon after I received information on them both and she asked me if I knew an Aloyis Gauquie. This left me stunned because according to the birth entry this was Jules' father! I answered back stating he was Jules' father. Within hours I had an email with copies of all (Jules, Annie, and Aloyis!) their Naturalization Paperwork.  Most of it confirmed the information I had already from my research.

Part of Aloys Gauquie Naturalization paperwork. Credit: Orange County, NY Register 

What shocked me is when it stated Annie and Jules' got married in St. Paul's Minnesota from Annie's Declaration of Intention paperwork. As far as I knew, we had NO relatives there.

Page 1 of Annie Gauquie's Petition for Naturalization listing where she was married. Credit: Orange County, NY Register

Why St. Paul's Minnesota?
This is the question I went searching for many times. This and why did they leave their countries to come to the USA. Both of these questions have answers which are pure speculation on my part.

Where St Paul MN and NY are on a map. Credit for map: Google Earth

But come on this is the 1890s and this was no small trip. If you went straight without stopping from one circle to the other its 982 miles. For back then, this is a huge amount of area to travel and expensive.

Here's some history of Minnesota. France had come to this area in the 17th century and Europeans came here in the 19th century driving out the Indians.  Minnesota Territory was named in 1849 and became the 32nd U.S. state on May 11, 1858 (credit). So for Jules and Annie to be married there in 1896, it would have still been pretty young part of the country.

Robert Street Bridge in St Paul, MN Credit: LOC

You can see just how small and how less populated it was in this 1896 picture from the Library of Congress.

It was researching the Homestead Act in 1862 facilitated land claims by settlers which started me thinking about why they went there. Could it be they wanted to claim land there? But it could have been the railroad industry, led by the Northern Pacific Railway and Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad, advertised the many opportunities in the state and worked to get immigrants to settle in Minnesota (credit).

I could see Annie travelling there if she thought she could get work either on a farm or on the railway. However, would Jules? I know from the census I found, Jules was a farmer which put my thinking back to the Homestead Act and farming.

Then I found Jules had cousins in Minnesota named Jerome or Jerry/Gerry and Camiel Gauquie. I did some researching for the areas of Lake Benton, Ivanhoe, and Vallers area and its still about 150 miles which is a huge trip for Jules. However, maybe he came for a visit and ended up getting married on the way back.

Jules and Annie's marriage license and certificate in 1896. 

As I know by their marriage certificate I found, they did get married and stayed married in New York until Annie passes away in 1931 from pneumonia at St. Luke's Hospital, Newburgh, New York. 

Annie and Jules' resting spot in Blooming Grove, NY during my visit January 2019

I really want to know how they met and what attracted them to the other along with how they chose to go to St Paul, MN.

What we do know what is written inside Jules' wedding ring my cousin found a few years ago.

Jules' wedding ring my cousin Teri found. We had thought it lost forever.

It looks like it says 8 K gold. There are 2 suggestions for the rest.

A Loves JG (Annie loves Jules Gauquie) or it could say AL to JG which is Annie Larson to Jules Gauquie.

What do you think it says?