Teleidoscope

Wed, Dec 13, 2006

Names in the Family

Posted at 11:55 pm MST to Miscellaneous

There is something odd about naming in my family.

My father's given names were Remo Samuel, and the priest at the christening complained because neither one of them was a New Testament name. Samuel is from the Old Testament, and, while there is a Saint Remo, the name is derived from Remus. As in Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome.

My mother's father's name was James Robichaud on the birth certificate, but the baptismal record may have read Jacques, because the priest (being a good New Brunswick Acadian) disapproved of using the English form of the name. Grandpa came from Neguac, New Brunswick, or actually from Riviere du Cache, but Neguac was big enough to show up in the World Atlas.

My Mother was Janet Anne Robichaud, so her initials were JAR before her marriage and JAG after it. For some reason she was very annoyed that her initials spelled words (perhaps she was teased about it at school). She made a point of making sure that none of her children had initials that spelled anything, and that my initials after I married would not spell anything.

Despite the spelling taboo, our names did relate to other names in the family. My brother Lawrence Peter Grasso ended up with the same initials as our grandfather Louis Pasqual Grasso, and inherited a couple of pieces of monogrammed jewelry as a result.

My name was chosen while the Grasso grandparents were out of the country, and when they returned and learned that I was named Elise Marie, they said "How wonderful, you named her after two of her great aunts, Elisa and Maria." (I started using the spelling Elyse in 1977, when I got my first apartment and had to change my papers anyway, because I was tired of people -- like check printers-- transposing the letters and spelling my name Elsie).

My father's mother was christened Felicina Pasqualina Maria Morello. She was usually known as Pasqualina. Both she and my grandfather got their middle names because they were born at or near Easter.

My mother's mother was Gertrude Breault. That's pronounced "Bro", and when I get annoyed at bureaucrats and telemarketers I sometimes contemplate changing my name to Breault just to complicate things. Her mother was Honoria, who may have been born a Martine. There are Martines in the mix somewhere: I've heard them mentioned at weddings and funerals. Someone did a family tree for the Martines tracing them back to France.

I remember Greatgrandma (Honoria) a little, she lived with Grandma and Grandpa Robichaud for a while when I was very small. And I got taken to see her in the nursing home once or twice, and I attended her funeral: I still have the remembrance card with her name on it somewhere. That's actually how I learned about the Breault name and how it was spelled.

I don't know greatgrandfather Breault's given name, and tracking him might be difficult. There was apparently some useful doubt about whether he was born in Vermont or on the Canadian side of the border

We never had much contact with Grandpa's Canadian relatives. Just Christmas cards, and some of them stopped by once or twice when they were vacationing in the States.

It happened that the Roots TV series had been on not long before Grandpa Robichaud ended up in the hospital for the final time. When I visited him, I asked about his family, and I still have the notes packed away somewhere. I do remember that he said the Native American in our family background mostly came in through "Granny Scott" (or possibly Scot). Grandpa had the bone structure and hair texture of a Native American.

My Mother and brother Larry both got the hair texture from Grandpa Robichaud.

People have always told me that I looked like my mother, but I don't think that is quite accurate. I may have a Robichaud jaw, but from the mouth up I look like my Father and his Mother, but mirror-reversed (the natural hair parting is on my left, but their right). I first realized this when I was in highschool or college, and happened to see a picture taken at my father's christening, when Nonna's face was still framed by hair that was dark, not white. The face in the picture was what I was used to seeing in the mirror, except at the jawline. I was not surprised when my hair started graying early, which was a Grasso pattern.

Nonno, Louis P Grasso, had one brother, John, which was probably originally Giovanni, but everyone always referred to him as John. They came to America (from Asti) early in the 20th century with their father, whose given name I don't know. I never heard their mother mentioned at all.

Nonna (Felicina Pasqualina) had many siblings. Sisters included Teresa, Elisa and Maria and probably Virgina.

Grandma (Gertrude) also had many siblings, including a sister Germaine and a brother Roman.

I'm not sure whether Grandpa (James) had any actual siblings. There was an adoption of step-relationship involved somewhere. Tracking Robichauds in French Canada is pretty hopeless: it is a very common name.

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