In 1976 / 1977 I started
my family history research while living in Marshfield, Massachusetts. This was
before computers. In 1956 our house telephone number was 743-W. At first I interviewed
relatives that were still alive. Right away I found out that the dead ones did
not have a lot to say. I also visited the National Archives in Waltham and in
Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The microfilm on the 1900 Adams Massachusetts census
was chock full of pertinent information about the Bacon family of Brown Street,
Zylonite. Thank you Chuck.
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| Bacon Family circa 1890-1900. Only known photograph of Charles Francois Bachand. |
In 1900, Charles Frank
Bacon deserted his wife (I have never have been able to find a marriage
license), Anna Agnes Boudo, and six children -- the oldest, Charles, being 15,
and the youngest, Leda Hattie, at six months. Can you imagine this? The
full story on the desertion is in one of the sons’, George Washington Bacon of
Florida, letters to Robert Francis Bacon. Hand written on both sides of unlined
paper by George, and I saved every letter. They are all on that fine crispy
type paper.
The best tip: Great
Uncle George Bacon -- one of my grandfather Frank’s brothers -- gave me was
that his father came from Saint Hyacinthe in Canada. Grampa Frank always said,
“Boys will be boys, and you boys are more trouble than all my money.” He never
had much money. Armed with this information I hired, by letter, for $12 dollars
an hour, a Mrs. John Cordeirre of Canada. She found no Charles Frank Bacon in
Saint Hyacinthe but said, “the name Bacon in Canada is pronounced Back-ON, and
did I want to spend another $12 dollars to check that out?” I did, and she
found him. Charles Francois Bachand (the “d” is silent) our real last name. Born
in August 1856 in Saint Hyacinthe, Canada. That was fairly easy.
We now have that Bachand
line all the way back to Saint Cloud, southerly outside the city of Paris in
1646. Nicholas was the first to settle in Can-a-DA. He was a French soldier,
and twenty nine years of age when he married a lass of fourteen. Now there are
four thousand of us. Most from my brother Michael Allan Bacon.
Sandy and I went to the
church in Saint Cloud (sann-CLUUD) that they more than likely attended. I
filled a church collection envelope with francs and asked for information on my
family. It took two years before a letter, written in French, was delivered to
110 Stagecoach Drive, Marshfield, Massachusetts. Our daughter Kezia had a
French teacher who deciphered it for us. Had to Google deciphered -- lo siento.
It said that all their church records were burned during the French Revolution,
but thanks for the dough. Actually the research goes back to Belgium, but
France just sounds more foreign and sexier.
Statement. The best
solid family information you can get is through personal interviews. For
instance. I was told by my Polish/American mother Nora Lemanski Bacon and her
four sisters -- my father called this group the Pentagon -- that their mother
had walked from her village in northern/west Poland on the Russian border while
pregnant with my Aunt Blanche, for two days, to Gdansk, to catch a steamship,
the White Line, to the United States. As soon as her husband knew she was safe,
he would desert the Russian army and make his way to the U.S. Up until July
2017 I told that story over and over again. Especially with Wladislaw
Lemanski’s stories of “sleeping in snow 20 degrees below zero on Russian ski
patrol.” Walter had a gold tooth on his front left side. He had a nice smile,
but I got the feeling that you would not want to cross him. His eyes were a
beautiful blue. My dad, Francis “Joe” Bacon, and our daughter, Marnie
Bacon, have them. Check it out. Why would I lie to you? The favorite movie star
of my maternal grandmother, Alexandra Zaik, was Bustom Crap. Buster Crabbe for
all you youngsters. Tarzan, etc. World-class swimmer.
Good story,
right? But was it true? No it was not. Dawn says we have Jewish blood. I
say we do not. She says she is a biology teacher and we do. OK, I guess we do.
My DNA test is hurtling towards me at this very minute.
Dawn Biagini Valenti of
Pittsfield, Massachusetts -- one of my younger brother Mike’s children, found
the United States entry reports. Alexandra Zaik probably was pregnant, but was
not married, and was traveling with her older sister, Mary. Written sideways
across the Ellis Island N.Y. report, it simply says, “Sisters.” I saw this with
my own eyes. Oh and they did not come through Gdansk, Poland -- they came
through Antwerp, Belgium. Which also explains why I could not trace my wife
Sandra’s Polish grandmother, Aniela Pater Zabek, because she also came through
Antwerp, when she was only sixteen. She did travel by herself. Can you imagine
her trip? She never did learn to speak English. Her husband was a butcher,
across from the Saint Stanislas Kostka Polish Church on the corner of Hoosac
Street and Summer Street. If you are not related, you can stop reading because
it only gets crazier.
In 19??, I received a
phone call from Mary Ann Coppens of Manitowac, Wisconsin. She is related to
John Bouda, a brother of Anna Agnes Boudo. Dawn says her last name was Boudreau,
with two official forms to prove it, but I disagree intensely. Yah, I know.
Just to confuse us, they changed the spelling for male/female. Here in the U.S.
it would be Robert or Roberta. Or even in Mexico. Someone in the family went to
Bohemia and traced that whole side of the family and Mary Ann graciously shared
all her information with me. I gave her, and her daughter Kathy, a tour of
Adams.
In 2012, purely on a
hunch, with no facts to back it up, I asked my good friend from Scituate,
Massachusetts, Barbara Sylvester, to check Rhode Island for the Charles Bachands.
Within fifteen minutes, she was back to me with her findings through
Ancestry.com. Charles Francois Bachand and his wife Rosalie and two or
three sons, two of which have the same first names as the deserted family of
Brown Street, Adams, in the 1910 census of Central Falls R.I. The factories of
Rhode Island in the 1900’s are filled with French speaking Canadians.
For seven years I try to
get more information with no luck. Out of the blue on our house phone on June
29, 2017 at 10:32 am we receive a call from Dawn Biagini Valenti, claiming to
be my niece. A likely story. Dawn B.V. -- just one of my brother’s
daughters -- finds a C.F. Bachand in Canada, married to a woman named Rosalie
in 1888? My thick Polish brain does not at this time make the connection.
So C.F. Bachand was married before he came to the U.S. and actually had two
women pregnant at the same time. This is familiar. A women in Can-a-DA, Rosalie,
and one in South Hadley Falls, Massachusetts, Annie, a domestic from Bohemia.
Charles was a canvasser, which means door-to-door salesman. Did he walk? Did he
have a car, or a horse and wagon? What did he sell? Insurance?
Furniture? Silverware? How did he get back and forth to Canada? From
Albany to Montreal is 221.1 miles. I don’t know. Why the hell did they move to
Savoy before Adams? Even today, Savoy is desolate. Low rent? Hiding out?
Early on, I somehow find
the address of the very first place that the Bacons lived after Savoy, in
Adams. The first one I did not recognize the name. It started with a “k,” but I
left Adams over 54 years ago. It was Kipper Avenue, actually. August 2017 I
receive an Adams Historical Society newsletter. In it there is a story about a
street in the Zylonite section of Adams that was changed, because of a battle
in France, where Adams men beat the Germans that they were apposing in WWI. The
name of that French town was Apremont. I grew up on Howland Avenue, only two
streets from Apremont Street. Kezia says Apremont means “at the base of the
mountain.” Apremont is currently, in fact, at the base of Mount Greylock.
ZowieBatman!
P.S. There are only
six streets in Zylonite. The first Bacons lived there (Kipper/Apremont)
initially, then Howland Avenue, a couple of times, and finally Brown Street, named
after L.L. Brown, a company in Adams.
So July 2017 -- I have
found Charles Francois Bachand living in Central Falls R.I. The 1910 and 1920
censuses say it is true. I would never lie to you, Mi Amor. For the past five
years I have somehow been collecting R.I. obits. They are piled on my desk. I
call the R.I historical number, but no one ever answers. Time to declutter. One
night I bring them down to my casita, beyond the swimming pool, where I sleep,
and start to sort through them. One page in my handwriting is the name Rosalie.
OH MY GOD! Rosalie of Canada and Rosalie of Central Falls are the same person.
Search suspended. Now I know where he went after the desertion. I think.
Monday, Labor Day -- Sandy
and I will explore Central Falls Rhode Island. We will look at the falls,
just like Charles and Rosalie did. “Walk down the same streets that your
grandparents did,” says the old travel ad. We will walk up and down Fuller
Avenue until we come to 9A. Will a Bachand answer the door? What would the
reaction be of his six children and wife in Adams to this 117-year-old mystery?
Every single abandoned child thought that someday he would return, especially
Mother. The Bacon children referred to their parents as Mother & Father.
Uncle George often said, “His father was of fine carriage.” What would
beautiful Rosalie think? We will never know. Or will we? My work
here is done, and I am moving on.
Nos vemas mas tarde.
Robert Francis Bacon, or
Robert Francois Bachand, or Roberto Francisco Tocino
August 30, 2017
I am totally confused
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