FILLION, MATHIAS AND FAMILY (238 ENGLISH -- 237 fran)

 MATHIAS FILLION son D'ANTOINE FILLION ET PHILOM ENE LEGAULT

 Mathias    b. 1867-10-06  St-Hermas, QC d. 1944-07-28 S-Jean-Bte
               m. 1888-04-10  St-Jean-Bte, Man. c. Cyr, Elmire
                                                                               (Alphonse)                  
                 m. 1900-02-10  St-Jean-Bte, Man. c. Bruneau, Azilda
                                                                   (Théophile )
               
 ELMIRE CYR daughter D'ALPHONSE CYR ET ELMIRE VERDON                      

 Elmire    b.  d. avant 1899-
   m. 1888-04-10  St-Jean-Bte, Man. c. Fillion, Mathias
                                                                (Antoine)
         
Mathisas Fillion and Elmire Cyr lived in St-Jean-Baptiste and had four children
     
               1. Antoine  d. 1895-

                2. Eva      d. 1893-       m.

               3. Joseph   d. 1894-       m. Mérilda Vermette

              4. Yvonne  d. 1897-       m. Alphonse Marion

               two boys and two girls - a small young family
                       all were born in St-Jean-Baptiste, Man.
                        Elmire Cyr died in 1899, after 10 yrs of  mariage

                              ----------------------------------------------

 Another couple of the parish of  Saint Jean-Baptiste, namely Joseph Bourgeois and 'Azilda Bruneau
jad two sons: Joseph and Oscar

 Joseph,sr, Bourgeois was born in Simcoe, ON of  François Bourgeois and Délima
Beaupré. He died in  St-Jean-Baptiste après onlytwo years of mariage.

       1 - Joseph  b. 1898-04-28  St-Jean-Bte, MB;  m.M-Laure Lavallée.

       2 - Oscar   b. 1899-02-30  St-Jean-Bte, MB;  m.M-Anna Marion

                                       a very small family

   Joseph Bourgeois  died in 1898, within a year of the death of Elmire Cyr spouse of Mathias Fillion.      
                       
                              -----------------------------------------------

              FILLION, MATHIAS AND FAMILY (238 ENGLISH -- 237 fran)

Things did not stay there; Mathias Fillion (widower) and Azilda Bruneau (widow) daughter of Théophile Bruneau and Philimène Marion from St. Gabriel de Brandon were married on the 10^th of February, 1900 at St. Jean Bapriste, Manitoba.

Of course, now that Mathias accepted Azelia’s two children, he now had six children since he had four already. Then other children resulted from this new union: Philomène was the eldest and she entered  the religious order of the “Sisters of the Holy Name of Jesus and Mary;” then came Aurise, Philippe, Adonias, Théophile, Napoléon , Télesphore, Adélard, André. Edouard, Marie-Flore, Hélène, Rose-Alba,  and Adéline.  If we count well, there were 14 plus the 6 to begin with on their wedding day. So now they had 20 children, plus the 2 parents, .  Now we must add Azilda’s two parents, Mr. and Mrs. Théophile Bruneau,who came to live with them, so this was a family of 24 around the table three times a day…If one stops  for two minutes, and if one estimates the size of the soup pot twice a day, the potatoes to be peeled for 24 people, it is an exhausting number!

In the article, it states that Azilda knew how to get her work done because she was an organized person.  Thank goodness because besides the food preparations for three meals a day, there is also the laundry, the sorting of clothes, the mending, the ironing, the hanging up, the floors to wash,  the changing of diapers and the supervision of the younger children’s activities, the wiping of tears, the wiping of noses, etc. In the family photo, one can see that all boys and men wore a nice white ironed  shirt  with a tie and suit.

I imagine that with a garden (rather big!) and lots of help from the children, a family this size could survive and live happily.  Yes, there can be a lot of joy and entente in a large family.

Notes taken from the history book of St. Jean Baptiste, MB