The Léveillée – Vézeau house?

We have been a bit obsessed about finding out more on the previous owners of the house. Since it was built nearly 150 years ago, the registers are handwritten and hard to read! But, we were still able to trace back to 1922. We wont be putting the name of the most recent owners to respect their privacy (and also its kind of irrelevant: we want to know more about the old stuff not the new one).

Example of the registry for the lot 172, were the house sits. There are several pages and it goes back to 1877.

 

Also, we were helped by a friend of mine has an expertise in finding out about stuff like this, it’s her actual job! She pointed us to the right direction to start off our research. Thanks Katherine!

Here it goes:

The person who owned the house before us bought it as a foreclosure from the bank in 2011. The two people who lost their house to the bank had previously purchased it from a Ginette Vézeau back in 2007. This is were are trail really begins:

• Ginette Vézeau inherits the house from her Godmother, Gilberte Vézeau in 1999
• Gilberte Vézeau herself got the house as an inheritance from her husband, Jean-Paul Léveillée in 1990
• Jean-Paul Léveillée bought the house in 1963 from George Simard
• George Simard bought the house in 1956 from Marcel Henri
• Marcel Henri bought the house in 1954 from Marie-Ange Renaud
• Marie-Ange Renaud got the house through a renunciation from Hélène Renaud (she gave her the house) in 1954. She sold it to Marcel Henri just 2 days later.
• Hélène Renaud had the house since at least 1922, but so far we don’t know when she bought it or who she bought it from.

Our hypotheses:

• Hélène Renaud must have inherited the house or it might be her husband’s house that then passed on to her. This because for a women to own a house in the early 1900 is just kind of rare, unless its an inheritance. We doubt she lived there alone.
• Marie-Ange Renaud is probably not Hélèene’s daughter since they share the same family name. We are thinking that, just as Gilberte gave her house to her goddaughter, Marie-Ange might be Hélèlene’s aunt!
• Thanks to Pierre, we found out that Hélène is the grand daughter of Octave Renaud who owned land near the village.
• Also, according to the 1921 census, Maire-Ange live with her widowed father, Octave Renaud

Before 1922, the lot number on which the house currently sits was a LOT larger, as this blogger says, it used to encompass a part of the town’s downtown so while we do have the registers previous to this date there is simply so many inscriptions on it, its going to take time before we retrace that particular house.

The Léveillée – Vézeau Family

Through our research of the house history we found out a couple things on this couple. They are both originally from Sainte-Anne-Des-Plaines, born and raised. They got married in 1951 (in Sainte-Anne as well) and they bought the house in 1963. Also, while they had a wedding ceremony, they didn’t get an official wedding contract. We wonder why?

Jean-Paul was a carpenter, perhaps that is why the house foundation is in such good shape? The previous owner told us she had to remove a pink jacuzzi bath that sat right in the main bedroom upstairs. Was it Jean-Paul and Gilberte’s idea?

They never had any children. When Jean-Paul died he left the house to his wife who then left it a few years before her death in 2004 to her Goddaughter.

Also, they are buried in the town’s cemetery, which is right next to the house. We might pay them a visit at some point (is this creepy?).

Jean-Paul and Gilberte’s headstone. One of the previous owners of our house is buried right next to it with his wife in the town’s cemetery.

More to come!