A Valentine's Day Marriage: 52 Ancestors, #59

Valentine's Day has been around for a long time, and while I don't know if it was because of that association, at least half a dozen couples in my collateral lines chose the 14th of February to get married.

The most recent of these Valentine's Day marriages (that I know of) took place 131 years ago, when my third great-granduncle Thomas (Damase) Robida took Caroline Mariage as his second wife on 14 February 1887.

Thomas was the youngest child of Jean-Baptiste Robida and Divine Louise Girardeau, born 29 Mar 1833 in Pointe-du-Lac, Quebec.¹ At 23, he married Louise Brown on 16 Sep 1856 in Saint-Micolas, Levis County.² (Two of Louise's sisters married two of Thomas's nephews, Joseph and Hubert-dit-Philibert, sons of Thomas's brother Joseph. Joseph was the oldest child, 18 years Thomas's senior.) They lived for several years in Saint-Camille, Wolfe County, Quebec, but by 1869 had moved to Stoke in Richmond County.

Thomas and Louise had seven children (at least; there's an eight-year gap between Thomas and the twins where I haven't turned up any baptisms, highly unusual for a French-Canadian Catholic family):

• Louise (b. 1857, probably d. young)
• Marie Lumina "Lumina" (1858-1914), m. Joseph BeauchËne
• Marie Louise Délinas "Délina" (b. 1860)
• Thomas Oliva "Thomas" (1861-1902), unmarried
• Martiel Alfred "Alfred" (twin, b. 1869)
• Rose Victoria "Rose" (twin, b. 1869)
• Jean Alphonse "Alphonse" (1873-1941) m. Léda Benoit

Louise died 23 Apr 1885 and was buried in Saint-Philémon-de-Stoke Parish cemetery.³

Almost two years later, Thomas remarried on Valentine's Day 1887, at Saint-Jean-Baptiste church in Sherbrooke.⁴

Marriage of Thomas Damase Robida and Caroline Mariage, "le quatorze fevrier mil huit cent quatre vingt sept"

 His second wife, Caroline Mariage, nearly 20 years his junior (and only 9 years older than her oldest step-son Thomas), immediately began providing him with a second family, giving birth to seven children over the next eight years:

• Marie Victoria Antoinette "Marie"(b. 1887), m. Zacharie St. Cyr
• Marie Rosa "Rosa" (b. 1889), m. Joseph Marchand
• Unnamed son (1890-1890)
• Marie Anne Emérance "Emérentine" (1891-1917), unmarried
• Jean-Baptiste (b. 1892), m. Alexina Robidoux
• Unnamed son (1894-1894)
• Marie Louise (b. 1895), m. Honoré "Henry" Longchamp

Thomas died, probably in Stoke, sometime between 12 Aug 1912 (when his daughter Marie Louise married, she was described as "fille mineure de Thomas Robidas" - not "feu Thomas")⁵ and 15 Oct 1917 (when his daughter Emérentine was buried and described as "fille de feu Thomas Robidas").⁶ I have been unable to find a burial record for him, but he is almost certainly buried in Saint-Philémon Parish cemetery in Stoke-Centre, with his first wife and his daughters Lumina and Emérentine.

Caroline removed to Bromptonville, Richmond County (probably with her son Jean-Baptiste), and remarried there in 1919, to Nazaire Croteau.⁷ She died 24 Jan 1937 at St. Vincent de Paul Hospital in Sherbrooke and is buried in Sainte-Praxéde-de-Brompton-Falls Parish cemetery in Bromptonville.⁸

(This post was inspired by the "Valentine" prompt for Amy Johnson Crow's 2018 "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" challenge.)

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SOURCES

1. La Visitation Parish (Pointe-du-Lac, Quebec, Canada), Parish Registers, vol. 3 (1828-1840), folio 77r, B.12, baptism of Damas Robida, 30 Mar 1833; digital images, "Quebec, Catholic Parish Registers, 1621-1979", Family Search (https://familysearch.org : accessed 20 Nov 2015) > Pointe-du-Lac > La Visitation-de-la-Pointe-du-Lac > Index, baptêmes, mariages, sépultures 1749-1825 Baptêmes, mariages, sépultures 1744-1840 > image 625 of 731.
2. Saint-Nicolas Parish (Saint-Nicolas, Quebec, Canada), Parish Registers, vol. 1856, folio 20r, unnumbered marriage of Thomas Robida and Louise Brown, 16 Sep 1856; database and images, "Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967", Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 29 Jun 2012); Saint > St-Nicolas > 1856 > image 20 of 29; citing Gabriel Drouin, comp., Drouin Collection, Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Institut Généalogique Drouin.
3. Saint-Philémon-de-Stoke Parish (Stoke Centre, Quebec, Canada), Parish Registers, vol. 1885, folio 5r, S.6, burial of Louise Brown, 25 Apr 1885; database and images, "Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967", Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 8 Feb 2018); S > Stoke > Centre > 1885 > image 5 of 15.
4. Saint-Jean-Baptiste Parish (Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada), Parish Registers, vol. 1887, folio 4v-5r, M.4, marriage of Thomas Damase Robida and Caroline Mariage, 14 Feb 1887; database and images, "Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967", Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 Dec 2014); S > Sherbrooke > St-Jean-Baptiste > 1887 > image 5 of 30.
5. Saint-Philémon-de-Stoke Parish Registers, vol. 1912, folio 10r, M.6, marriage of Honoré Longchamp and Marie Louise Robidas, 12 Aug 1912; database and images, "Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967", Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 8 Feb 2018); S > Stoke > Centre > 1912 > image 11 of 21.
6. Ibid., vol. 1917, folio 10v, S.17, burial of Emérentine Robidas, 15 Oct 1917; database and images, "Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967", Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 8 Feb 2018); S > Stoke > Centre > 1917 > image 12 of 16.
7. Sainte-Praxède-de-Brompton-Falls Parish (Bromptonville, Quebec, Canada), Parish Registers, vol. 1919, folio 10r-v, M.3, marriage of Nazaire Croteau and Caroline Mariage, 24 Mar 1919; database and images, "Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967", Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 8 Feb 2018); B > Bromptonville > St-Praxède > 1919 > images 11-12 of 46.
8. Ibid., vol. 1937, folio 2r, S.2, burial of Caroline Mariage, 27 Jan 1937; database and images, "Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967", Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 10 Feb 2018); B > Bromptonville > St-Praxède > 1937 > image 3 of 33.