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A Wasted Jaunt through the 1920 Census

[Research Journal #7, Entry #3]

Thinking that with names like Philias, Elzyre, and Alphonse this should be a breeze, I headed off for the 1920 Census. I was in for a big surprise.

There were more Boisverts than you could shake a stick at. Philias? Alphonse? It seemed that everyone had a Philias and Alphonse in their family! I tried to find Elzyre but had no luck. I tried many variations: Elzire, Elzear, Alsire, and so forth. I came up empty.

I did some searches on the US in general, but there were way too many Boisverts to go through. I didn't have enough information about the family and might be looking in the wrong place.

Pinpointing Alphonse's Parents

[Research Journal #7, Entry #2]

Unbeknownst to me, Boisvert was a common surname on the East Coast and even more so in Canada. It wasn't going to be easy sorting them out from the other families. My brother-in-law's mother knew very little about her family. She knew that her grandfather was name Philias, but wasn't sure about her grandmother.

Since I really didn't know where to look, I decided to check the Social Security Death Index for Alphonse Boisvert. He died in New York in the 1970s, so he should have been listed.

I found an Alphones [sic] Boisvert who seemed to match. I ordered the Social Security Application form. I'd never seen one so I was curious what details it would have on it.

The card arrived and gave me something to work with. It had place of birth, residency at the time of application, employer, and parent's names. His parents were Philias Boisvert and Elzyre Duclos. The application said that he was born in Lowell, MA. However, the family didn't seem to remember this bit of information.

The Boisvert Family

[Research Journal #7, Entry #1]

My brother-in-law's mother's line was Boisvert and Murphy. I thought I'd start with Boisvert since it seemed a heck of alot easier to research than Murphy.

The family story was that Alphonse Boisvert married Katherine Murphy in Schenectady, New York around 1920. Alphonse and Katherine were born in New York, though it was unclear if their parents were natives of New York or not.

I had some tidbits about the Boisverts. They were French Canadian and came from a town called Asbestos. Alphonse's father or grandfather owned land there and may have sold it all not realizing their was an Asbestos mine waiting to be found.

In this journal we explore how to go from US records to Canadian records. It was going to be tricky since there may be a generation or two in between and I'd never worked in Canadian records before.

Research Journal #7: The Boisverts Are Lost

You've waiting a long time for the next journal. My sincere apologies! Hopefully, it was worth the wait.

Journal #7 takes us to the Boisvert family of New York who have French Canadian heritage.