Unexpected Finds
Shanna Riley February 2nd, 2008
The most rewarding graving trips are those where I set out to find something in particular and end up finding more than I'd ever even hoped for.
A case in point is a visit I made to St. Charles Catholic Church Cemetery in Godeau, Louisiana. Far from being a random graving trip, I had made the seventy-plus mile trek to search for family graves in order to verify some genealogical records.
According to my data, and family recollection, my great-great grandparents, Ernest and Alice Beauvais, were buried here. Also interred in this small, local cemetery - where that part of my family had hailed from - were Telemark and Virginia Deaville; who I remember as Uncle Tilly and Aunt Virginia. Uncle Tilly was my great-grandfather's half brother and I have fond memories of searching for eggs in their chicken coop when we'd go to visit.
My great-grandmother, Alice Ortego, was born in Avoyelles Parish and as a young woman married a man by the name of Oge' Deaville. The union produced three children - Telemark, Victoria, and Aimee. It was after the untimely death of Oge' that Alice married my great-grandfather, Ernest Beauvais; an older gentleman who was able - and willing - to help an early-widowed woman with three young children. Ernest raised his three stepchildren with the same love and attention that was paid to his own six children with Alice - Horace, my great-grandfather, Salonie, Mildred, Ernest, Hazel, and Lillian.
I found - as I had hoped to - the graves of my great-grandparents, Ernest and Alice, as well as those of Telemark and his wife, Virginia. It was as I was walking through the graves, trying to snap as many as I could to record the cemetery for Find A Grave and others, that I stopped short at a familiar name...
Valentine is a name that stands out, regardless of the time or place. It especially stood out to me as I looked down upon it etched into cold, gray stone for Ernest had a sister with that very unusual name. In fact, some of the original paperwork in my genealogy records - typed up in 1940 - was noted as being "in some papers that Aunt Valentine had." The name that stared back at me on this day was "Valentine B. Lossoir". Could this be the same Valentine - my Valentine, my family? All signs pointed to a very possible yes - the middle initial of "B" most likely stood for her maiden name of Beauvais and here she was, if it was her, buried in the same cemetery as her brother (my great-great grandfather).
I snapped some clear photographs of her headstone and the one next to it belonging to Louis Lossoir, who it appeared was her husband, and went on to photograph as much of the remaining cemetery as possible before my dying camera decided to shutter its last.
One lucky find would have been enough to please me, so I certainly wasn't expecting another when I came upon the marker for Regina Beauvais Goudeau. There was no mistaking this lady's maiden name and, yes, Ernest had another sister that was, in fact, named Regina. Yet still - as most any genealogist worth his or her salt will tell you - nothing is certain until officially verified. I snapped my photographs just as my camera died out completely.
It wasn't until arriving home and cross-checking the dates on the photographed headstones with all of my paperwork that I could, as I'd hoped and guessed, say for sure that I had found the graves of my great-great grandfather's sisters, Valentine and Regina, and their husbands. I was absolutely delighted to have come back not only with what I'd gone to find, but with even more than I could've hoped for.
- Cemetery , Personal Graves
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