52 Ancestors Challenge Week 2: "Favorite Find" - 3rd great grandpa, Damas Desjardins

I have a hard time with the word favorite. I can't ever seem to choose just one of anything out of all the things I love. My favorite book? Can't do it. Favorite movie? Too many good ones to choose from. Favorite food? Yes. Favorite color? Oh that one is easy - green. But ask me to chose a specific shade of green, forget it. So my favorite genealogical find - - can't do it. I can't just pick one.

In all honesty, my favorite finds are cousins. Living breathing people who not only share some DNA with me but who also have a common interest, like family history perhaps. Even better though is if I enjoy their company and if they have a nice comfy spot I can crash on for a few days. I've met so many in the course of my family history research; I can't just pick one.

Trying to focus this on an ancestor of mine though. I have to say I really, really LOVE when a piece of documentation solidifies an answer without doubt. For example... (I've blogged about this one before)

One of my favorite finds is the obituary of my 3rd great grandfather, Damas Desjardins. He was the grandfather of my maternal grandfather, Clarence Gardner.

Grandpa Gardner was pretty quiet about family history. I only really started researching his family tree after his death in December 2004. There is a whole lot of estrangement in his tree.

The one time I was able to get family information out of Grandpa, he mentioned that his family name had changed "from something really French." Eventually I found the name Gardner had been Anglicized from Desjardins which in French means from the garden. 

I found tons of documentation about my great grandfather, Albert Gardner listing him as Almond Desjardins, as well as Albert Desjardins and Almond Gardner with a variety of spellings. I knew it was him for sure though because of other corroborating facts like known addresses, his date of birth, parents names, etc. 

However, I can not tell you how many people have him misattributed as their relative as my great grandpa in their family trees on Ancestry. I often message them say, "Um, no. I'm sorry that can't be your Albert Gardner. My Albert Gardner was Almond Desjardins." They have all ignored me so I don't bother trying to correct them anymore.

I did not have one definitive document, though, that stated the family name had been changed formally or informally. I just had my grandfather's statement, until I found this obituary for Damas Desjardins in the Patchogue Advance from October 13, 1911. Transcription below image.

 

Damas Desjardins died at his home on Avery avenue early Monday morning in his sixtieth year of his age, after suffering for eight months with a complication from diseases. The funeral was held on Wednesday, with service in St. Francis de Sales' Roman Catholic church at 9:30 a. m. The Rev. Fr. Cronin officiating and internment was made in St. Francis cemetery. Mr. Desjardins was born in Montreal, Canada. He was a carpenter by trade and was employed for a long time in New York. He had lived with his family in Patchogue for nearly five years. Mr. Desjardins was known to his friends here by the name of Gardiner, and Anglicization of his French family name. He leaves a widow and ten children some of whom live in the city. 

You see that sentence? 

Mr. Desjardins was known to his friends here by the name of Gardiner, and Anglicization of his French family name.

What a gem. Satisfied with that, I don't need any more evidence of the family surname change.  

I did, however, want to find his burial location. This here is the Desjardins family plot in St. Francis de Sales Cemetery in Patchogue, NY.

 Above: The Desjardins Family plot

 

Above: This footstone indicates Damas Desjardins's dates of birth and death. The date of death is absolutely incorrect though. He died in 1911 for sure. I think it would have been Monday, October 2, 1911. I'm not sure how much stock to put in the correctness of the other dates engraved here.

 

 

 Above: This is the headstone for Damas

 

Above: This is the headstone for the baby Anna who also died in 1911.

 

 Above: I believe this is the headstone for Damas and Malvina Desjardins's son, Hector Desjardins, whose date of death I do not know but I know he was an epileptic who resided at the Craig Colony for Epileptics in Sonyea, New York.

I also believe Damas's wife, Malvina Ethier-Desjardins, my 3rd great grandmother, is interred in this plot but I have no confirmation of that. There is an obvious space next to Damas where Malvina's remains may be but no "M.D." for her headstone. I was unsuccessful in obtaining records from this cemetery which is located in the middle of an apartment complex. Weird.

But if I have to pick just one favorite find, that obituary will be...for today at least. If you ask me tomorrow, it might be a different find.