52 Ancestors: At the Cemetery

This week’s theme for the 52 Ancestors in 52 weeks is well-timed, as on May 15th, I’m participating in a cemetery clean-up for St. Francis Xavier Cemetery in Ecorse, Michigan, where some of my ancestors are buried. This may sound odd, but I’m a big fan of old cemeteries, because I think there’s something really powerful about them, and it’s always interesting to see what information you can glean from old headstones.

My connection to St. Francis Xavier Cemetery is primarily through the LeBlanc family, but as you will see if you keep reading, it’s more complicated than that. I’ve previously written about the Drouillards, and the younger Peter Drouillard was married to Anna LeBlanc for decades. They were the parents of my great grandmother Eleanor Drouillard. The Drouillards, including Anna, are buried in Mount Carmel Cemetery in Wyandotte, Michigan, but Anna’s parents and other family members are buried in St. Francis Xavier Cemetery.

Anna LeBlanc was the daughter of Thomas LeBlanc and Adeline McQuillan. (Minor note: the surname LeBlanc seems to have been spelled that way many times by the family but is also seen on some records as LaBlanc) Thomas had been married before to a woman named Eleanore, had children with his first wife, and was significantly older than Adeline when they married. In the 1870 census, the family was listed under the surname “White” (a translation of “LeBlanc” from French to English), and Thomas was 48 to Adeline’s 23. In fact, one of Thomas’s sons, Henry, was older than his new stepmother at 25. In 1880, Thomas is listed as 64 to Adeline’s 33.

Unsurprisingly given their age difference, Thomas died well before Adeline did, in 1887, and she was the executrix of his estate. There were nine beneficiaries of Thomas’s will and estate, his wife Adeline, and children Henry LeBlanc, Sarah Van Tassal (who lived in Yankton, South Dakota while the other children all lived in Ecorse), Lillie LeBlanc, Thomas LeBlanc, Selina LeBlanc, Hattie LeBlanc, Anna LeBlanc, and Matilda LeBlanc. Only Henry and Sarah were not minors at the time of Thomas’s death. Thomas’s will left $400 to each of his daughters and land to his two sons, although he left his homestead to Adeline for her usage during her lifetime. As each child reached adulthood, they signed receipts for the estate confirming they received their inheritance.

Thomas was buried in St. Francis Xavier Cemetery and given an impressive LeBlanc gravestone as well as a smaller stone with “FATHER” on top.

Adeline remarried the 25 year old Isaac Cicotte in February 1890, when she was 43. In the 1900 census she is living with Isaac Cicotte and her youngest daughter with Thomas, Matilda. Adeline died in 1915 and predeceased Isaac, who died in 1947, but interestingly Isaac, Adeline, and Thomas are all buried in a group at the cemetery. However, Isaac’s family is also buried in St. Francis Xavier, and the stones seem to have possibly been moved or shifted from damage over the years, so it’s unclear if this was the original organization of the stones. But seeing the stones so close together made me wonder if there were more connecting these three than just Adeline’s two marriages.

Left to right: Gravestones of Isaac Cicotte, Adeline (McQuillen) LeBlanc Cicotte, and Thomas LeBlanc. Photo taken by author in February 2023.

In a common circumstance among French-Canadian families, upon researching further, Isaac Cicotte’s family tree held a lot of familiar names, and although I am not descended from him and Adeline, I am related to him. Isaac’s parents were Charles Cicotte and Clara Drouillard, and Clara was the daughter of Toussaint Drouillard and Therese LeBlanc. If you’re getting confused based on all of these overlapping surnames, you’re not alone. See below for a chart explaining how these individuals within these families are interrelated.

The connections between these Drouillards, LeBlancs, and Cicottes.

Isaac Cicotte, Adeline’s second husband, was the great nephew of her first husband, Thomas LeBlanc. And Adeline’s daughter Anna LeBlanc married the first cousin of her stepfather Isaac and the great nephew of her father. The probate records for Thomas LeBlanc, Toussaint Drouillard, and Peter LeBlanc helped a lot to clarify and confirm these relationships, as all three men were successful farmers in the downriver area near Detroit who died testate (with a will in place).

The fact that both the Cicotte family and the LeBlanc family have burial plots in St. Francis Xavier Cemetery makes even more sense once these connections were uncovered. Of course, that cemetery is home to many individuals from early French-Canadian families from the area, but the connection turned out to be much deeper—and more complicated—for the Cicottes, Drouillards, and LeBlancs.