alfred labrecque and florence edna brown

My Great grandfather, Alfred Napoleon Labrecque married his first wife, Florence Edna Brown, on October 4, 1906, one hundred and four years ago today. Alfred later would marry my Great grandmother Anne Ferguson.

Alfred and Florence were married in Quincy, MA by Minister Ellery C. Butler. I did a google search for Ellery to see which church he ministered, and found him listed on the website of the United First Parish Church in Quincy, MA. Ellery was at this church from 1894-1912 according to this website. I found it interesting that Alfred was married at this Unitarian church as he seem to have come from a strong Catholic background. It seems his wife Florence must have been from this church/denomination.

In 1906, when Alfred and Florence were married, they were both living in Quincy. Alfred was a reporter and 22 years old, while Florence was only 17 years old and still a student, according to their marriage record. In the 1908 Quincy Directory, they are living on Shennen Street. In the 1909 Quincy directory, Alfred is listed as Editor of the Quincy Telegram at 1382 Hancock Street, room 8, and still residing on Shennen Street, H N (which I assume stands for Houghs Neck, a section of Quincy). His father Achilles is also listed as residing in Houghs Neck, on Bay View Avenue, only 2 blocks away. Alfred's brothers, Arthur and Eugene, are listed as boarders of A N Labrecque, which could be Alfred, but most likely they are boarding at their father's Achille's house. The 1912 directory lists the house number for Alfred and Florence, at 48 Shennen Street, he still is the editor of Quincy Telegram, which now is on 10 Chestnut Street. His parents have moved to Sea Street at the corner of Albatross, still fairly close at just under 2 miles from each other. In 1914, Alfred moved to 490 Sea Street, corner of Albatross Road, the same address as his father Achille. It seems Alfred moved in with his father and siblings, as Arthur, Arthur J, Eugene and Corrine are all listed as boarders at this address also. Alfred is now the editor of the Quincy Evening Telegram, probably the same newspaper, with a slight name change at 1382 Hancock Street, room 8.

By 1916, Alfred decided to fight in WWI. He took advantage of his citizenship from Canada and enrolled in their military, as the US had not entered the war yet. This must have been a difficult decision, as he would have had to leave his wife and three children under the age of 8. On Alfred's military papers, dated April 1917, from Quebec, Canada, he states his wife Florence is living at 48 Shennen Street in Quincy, not at Sea Street as the 1914 directory states, and his parents living in Watertown, MA. This probably would have been more difficult for Florence, as she would not have the help of her children's grandparents and Aunts and Uncles, as they are now in two different cities. According to the 1900 Census of Florence's parents, she did not have any siblings to help her, and I could not locate her parents in the 1920 Census. It seems she did not have much support during this time when her husband was at war.

Sadly, Florence died while Alfred was away between the years of 1917-1919. Her name and address are crossed out and marked deceased on one of Alfred's military records as next of kin. Their son, Alfred Theodore Labrecque, is written in its place, living at 20 Westland Road, Watertown, MA, where Alfred's parents are living. Alfred was granted two leaves during his service, perhaps when his wife Florence had died. The first leave was for 14 days, granted January 27, 1918. The second leave was granted from September 28, 1918 to October 12, 1918. Alfred sailed home to Canada at the wars end in May 1919.

When Alfred comes back to the US after WWI, he changes occupations to an insurance broker. The 1920 Quincy directory has him working in the Alhambra building, and is living at 1269 Hancock Street. During this time period, Alfred was involved in a famous court case in Massachusetts. He was a character witness in the Sacco-Vanzetti case, used to challenge the credibility of the prosecution's eyewitness, Lola Andrews, as stated in the The Sacco-Vanzetti case: transcript of the record of the trial of Nicola Sacco Bartolomeo Vanzetti in the courts of Massachusetts and subsequent proceedings, 1920-7. Sacco and Vanzettie were two famous Anarchists, both found guilty and electrocuted for a robbery and murder in South Braintree, MA. Many people believe that Sacco and Vanzetti were falsely accused of this crime and that Lola Andrews gave false testimony in identifying Sacco in South Braintree.

Even though there is evidence that Alfred was in Quincy, MA around 1920, he is listed in the 1920 Census living with his parents and his siblings on Westland Road in Watertown, MA. I am not sure where Alfred's children were living, but they are not listed with him and his parents (their grandparents). Alfred's oldest child, Richard, would only have been 12 years old in 1920.

By 1922, Alfred is now married to Ann Ferguson, my great grandmother, and living at 17 Merrymount Road in Quincy. They supposedly met in the war, my great grandmother a nurse at Edinburgh, Scotland. I will write more on Alfred and his second marriage in another post.

Canadian Expeditionary Force WWI

I spent a good part of today looking into the history of the Overseas Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) to help me understand where my ancestor, Alfred N. Labrecque fought in WWI. I have been meaning to do some research on this since my trip to the Quincy Public Library in November of 2006 (yikes, over a year ago!).

At the library I found a newspaper article from the Patriot Ledger that states Alfred telegraphed to the US from Canada on Nov. 23 1916, to say he was leaving to Halifax, England to train for the war and then going to the front in France as part of the 171st regiment of the Overseas CEF.

Further research into the 171st regiment confirmed that this regiment did go to England in November, 1916. (from wikipedia) It looks like wikipedia's source of information is this book: Over the Top! The Canadian Infantry in the First World War. From this article, I also learned that the 171st regiment was absorbed into the 148th regiment (apparently most of the CEF were absorbed into other regiments - so most regiments did not fight on the front lines with their original group). The 148th regiment in turn was absorbed into the 20th Reserve battalion.

Now I needed to find out where the 20th Reserve fought. I found a website from the Canadian Expeditionary Force Study Group "The Matrix Project" that the 20th Reserve was sent in to reinforce the 13th and 42nd Battalion in France. Lots of moving around going on. I could now look into which battles the 13th and 42nd Battalion fought, but I think I will wait to see which unit Alfred was actually sent to after he was sent to England as part of the 171st Overseas CEF. In order to do this, I need to either visit the Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa, or order a copy of the documents. I probably will end up ordering the documents.

I searched the Library and Archives Canada database on WWI soldiers, and found the record for Alfred, so that I may order the entire set of service documents when I am ready. On the attestation papers that are digitized online, I found that Alfred stated he was from the 87th regiment of the Active Militia. I was surprised to see this regiment listed, as he noted earlier that he was part of the 171st CEF. This is the way I understand it after reading about the Militia from The British Empire website. Alfred joined the Canadian Army under the militia, which raised troops to join the CEF, where eventually he ended up. The only thing that seems a bit confusing to me is that according to the newspaper article mentioned above, Alfred went to England in November of 1916, and his attestation papers online are dated 1917. Hopefully the actual service documents will clear this up.

Some interesting notes on Alfred that I have discovered looking into his records. His attestation papers for the CEF state that his birth name was Louis Henry Alfred Labrecque, but he put his name as Alfred Napoleon. It seems that some French Canadians named their children after their godparents - and may not necessarily go by the first two names on their birth record. So Alfred went by Alfred, I am not sure where the Napoleon part came from. Also - on his attestation papers, he states his birth is July 4, 1884, when his birth on the parish register for Louis Henry is July 1887. I have not found a birth record for an Alfred Napoleon Labrecque for July 1884. With these differences I was not sure I had the right Labrecque in the parish register (the attestation papers state his alias as Lois Henry and birth date as 1887 at parish of St. Pierre de Becquets, so they concluded that Alfred Napoleon and Louis Henry were the same person). Either way, I know from Alfred's marriage record to Edna Brown that his parents are Achilles and Augusta - which are the same parents for Louis Henry. Perhaps Louis Henry could be a brother of Alfred's and not actually Alfred, but there is not a Louis Henry in the US 1900 census living with Achilles and his other children. So I think it is most likely that Louis Henry is indeed Alfred Napoleon - as stated in the attestation papers. Again, hopefully there will be further clarification in his actual service records.

I also found it interesting that Alfred, who migrated to the United States as an infant with his family, decided to join the military in Canada. He was one of many who did not want to wait for the United States to enter the war, so decided to go to Canada to fight.

To Do:
1. Order Alfred Napoleon Labrecques service records from Library and Archives Canada
2. Determine which regiment Alfred fought with from the service records
3. Research where Alfred's regiment fought - good place to start is Wikipedia's article on List of infantry battalions in the Canadian Expeditionary Force and Canadian Expeditionary Force Study Group"The Matrix Project"
4. Search the War Diaries at Library and Archives Canada for more information on the unit Alfred fought with

Books on Topic:
1. A call to arms : the organization and administration of Canada's military in World War One
2. Over the Top! The Canadian Infantry in the First World War
3. Official History of the Canadian Army in the First World War: Canadian Expeditionary Force 1914-1919 by Colonel G. W. L. Nicholson, C.D.