I know that my grandmother, Jeanne
Lagrave had relatives who migrated to Argentina. She is related to the Labrucherie family on her mother's side; her mother was a Labrucherie.
I do know that the Labrucheries who are now in
California and are descendants of people from Eysus are relatives, so I wouldn't be surprised if Artentina's Marie Labrucherie is a relative.
There's someting that's puzzling me about my great grandparents, Pierre
Lagrave and Marie Labrucherie. They got married at
Notre Dame De Victoire cathederal in San Francisco. There story in the family was that Pierre had a business partner and owned some land in San Francisco, which he sold when he returned to Eysus (he also went to Panama and bought and sold land). But what I don't know is why Marie Labrucherie, an unmarried woman from a small town in France, half a world away, was doing in San Francisco.
Was she there with her family? Why was she there, as a single woman, and how was it that she married a man, Pierre
Lagrave, from the same small town in France, half a world away in San Francisco?
I found a record of them as husband and wife in the 1870 census in San Francisco; Pierre was 28 and she was 18. If I remember correctly, from the date on the copy of their marriage certifcate that Suzanne Arnautou
Fitzpatrick send me, Pierre and Marie were married in 1869 and
Notre Dame de Victoire.
Some time later (not sure exactly when), Pierre and Marie returned to the family farm in Eysus. They had a boy, and four girls, Gracieuse, Marie, Jeanne (my grandmother, for whom I was named)and Felicee. Felicee died as a young child. Graciuse and Marie were sent to
America when they were teenagers (ages 15 and 17) to be chaperoned by their father's former business partner; Jeanne was sebt to San Francaisco in 1907 when she was 24.
Later, in 1908 or 1909, my grandmother, Jeanne
Lagrave married Pierre Regla at
Notre Dame de Victoire. Cyrille Arnautou, and my grandmother's sister Gracieuse Nouaux were the witnesses. By that time, her other sister Marie
Lagrave Arnautou had already left Cyrille Arnautou and returned home to Eysus with her three children,
Ferdinand, Emile and Maria. Marie died in 1909 at a young age (can't remember off hand what her age was, but she wasn't very old - in her 20s, maybe).
Emile and
Ferdinand would later return to their father in San Francisco as youn adults; Maria returned as a young teenager still in school.
Another thing I still have to trace - but haven't gotten around to paying for a copy - is that Marie had some property that went through probate in San Francisco after she died, which means she owned some property. I know who to contact to get a copy of whatever it was that went through probate - I just haven't done it.
The more bits and pieces of information I find, the more I realize I have yet to find! Between what my grandmother told us before she died and what I've been able to piece together, I know there's a story here, but I don't know enough about it to know exactly what it is. Marie and Cyrille Arnautu's grandchildren seem to know even less than I do...their father
Ferdinand seems to have rarely spoken of his childhood or his parents.
I'm having a hard time figuring out how to get into navagate around in Swicbms; seems to be intertiwned with Geneanet. Maybe you can help me with that.
Anyway, I should bring this post to a close before I continue going on and on and on and on....
Maybe you and Jackie would like to contacte me through my genealogy e-mail address -
jeanniealogy@yahoo.com. But if you both would like to continue to correspond here, too, that would be good because we can all read the messages and amybe others who are related or know the family would find us, too. If we take our discussion to the e-mail, we could make sure we all get the e-mails. Whichever way you both want to communicate is fine with me and I'd appreciate both of you keeping in touch.
I am finding this so interesting and ma so glad you both fou nd my thread on this message board.
Jeanne