Ancestor Research Day
This morning we drove to Lambert, MT, to see the town where Dave's great-grandparents settled after immigrating from Canada.
This grain elevator was used at the time Dave's father lived in Lambert.
We hoped to find some remnants of folks that might have remembered his grandparents or his father and siblings.
We found the current high school and were able to see his father's picture in the display of former graduates. His father, Reuben Leon Migneault, is pictured in the second row, first picture. The school also gave Dave a copy of his father's senior year school records with grades and other information. Sooooo cool.
Our next stop was the post office to see what we could find out about the city's museum. We found out that a relative, distant, would be serving a senior lunch the next day at the senior center, next to the museum. The museum was closed today, but it would be open tomorrow.
Next stop was to view the property where Dave's great-grandmother, Marie, had resided, in town.
Our final destination for the day was to scour the two graveyards in town. First stop was the Protestant graveyard to look for Antine Migneault's grave. Antine Migneault was Dave's great-grandfather. He was a lumberjack and was killed when a tree fell on him in Washington state. We know his body was shipped back to Lambert, because that was printed in the Washington newspaper. Antine had 13 surviving children and his wife, Marie, and she continued to live in Lambert quite a long time. She raised the children in Lambert and Dave's grandfather, Joseph Migneault (known as Sonny) and his wife, Sarah Thornton (Migneault), lived in Lambert as well.
Dave's father and his sibling were raised in Lambert. Dave's father, Reuben (known as Lee) and his father's brother, Clarence, (known as Pete) moved away from Lambert after graduating high school and settled in Van Nuys, California.
Lee had two other siblings, Carrol (male) and Irene. We cannot find out where they graduated from high school. We do know that the family moved away from Lambert about 1937, but we are not sure where they moved at that time. Carrol and Irene and their families eventually settled in California.
We believe that Marie Migneault (Dave's great-grandmother) continued to live in Lambert until the mid-1940s when she moved to Van Nuys and lived with Dave's parents for a very short time. He isn't sure what happened to her. It was before Dave was born.
Sonny and Sarah Migneault were killed in an automobile accident when Dave was about 2 years old.
We had hoped to find some gravesites of the Migneault family. But, we didn't find nary a one. We did find some relatives that were on his great-grandmother's side (great aunts/uncles), but none that were Dave's direct line of ancestors.
We had been warned at the Sidney Courthouse that we wouldn't find a place to eat in Lambert, so I had packed a lunch. We found a shady street and ate before we headed for the Catholic cemetery. We did not find any ancestors in this graveyard.
We drove around the area for a little bit, and then we headed back to the RV. I had prepared another crockpot meal. It was Italian meat balls in a sauce made with mushroom soup, cream cheese, and mushrooms. Served over noodles with some green veggies. Yummy. I will definitely make this one again. Easy and very tasty.
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