BELAND

Hello all!

Got back last night from a trip to Boston, MA doing - yep, you guessed it! - genealogy research. I started out by going to CT to meet a couple of women (one I'd already met) who are distant cousins researching the same line of the Knapp family (Daddy's side of the family through Grammy). It was a 2 1/2 hour drive to that location. Not overly eventful, but nice just the same. I was able to photograph the headstone of our 6th great grandmother, Huldah Fuller Knapp who died at the age of 33 in Willington, Tolland County, CT and was buried in the Old Storrs Cemetery on the property of the Storrs Congregational Church.

OK, so you are probably wondering....What does that have to do with Boston and the Belands? Well, nothing! But I went to CT first so I figured I'd tell you the whole story.

I decided since I was now only 1 1/2 hours from Boston as opposed to almost 3 hours if I went there from home that I'd take advantage of how much closer I was. The state archives are located in Dorchester near Boston in 2 different locations. One is on the same site as the JFK Library and the University of Boston and the other is just down the road (that's not as easy as it sounds due to the traffic in that area!! That was a nightmare and I won't bore you with that information! I decided to get a motel room and spend the night so that I could be at vital records when they opened at 9am (they are only open 3 hours per day).

Anywho - Friday morning I went to the vital records office I missed the last time I was in Boston doing research first. During my research I found a MARRIAGE certificate dated 1918 for a John B. Beland, divorced, quarryman who was born in Canada and was 45 yrs old. His father's name was also John B. Beland and his mother was listed as Mary J. Mercier. I figured Grampa's father had died about 1915 due to the fact that Amanda was listed as a widow in the 1920 census and she was listed as the head of the household in the Fall River city directory as early as 1916. But, there were alot of similar things in this document.

In 1918, Grampa's father, Jean Baptiste "John" Beland would have been about 47. He was a quarryman and was born in Canada. His father's name was Jean Baptiste Beland and his mother’s name was Eugenia Mercier. SO, aside from the fact that Mary J. Mercier and Eugenia Mercier are not the same name, I believe the since the maiden name of his mother is the same and the rest of the information is the same or so close, this has GOT to be him!

I then went to the other vital record archives location and decided to look into whether Grampa Bellanger changed his name legally or not. Although I did not find any information on that (so most likely he did not do it legally?) I did find more information that corroborated the fact that Grampa’s parents filed for divorce about 1917. The records are just entries of abbreviated information, so I am going to research this further with the judicial court for the records themselves. Just out of curiosity. I never did find a death record for great grandfather Beland, but then again I didn’t realize he was still alive after 1918 until I found the divorce records...but by then I had run out of time at the archives!

So, again….a new “secret” or “unknown fact” about the Beland family!