Another Encounter with a Kind Librarian

I asked and Deb delivered.

Late (too late) last night, I emailed The Millicent Library asking about the procedure for requesting an obituary, and if there was a fee, could I send it electronically. I've learned from past requests to include the details of what I'm looking for. In this case it was an obituary for Alfred John Chasse.

Before noon today I had the scanned obituary in my email.

Fairhaven Star, Fairhaven, Massachusetts, 25 Jun 1964

ALFRED J. CHASSE

Funeral services for Alfred J. Chasse, 69, of 14 Harbor View avenue took place Friday morning at the Fairhaven funeral home. Mr. Chasse died June 16 at Union hospital, New Bedford.

A native of Biddeford, Me., he had lived here for the last 27 years. Prior to his retirement, he was employed by Revere Copper & Brass, Inc., New Bedford. He was a veteran of World War I.

He leaves his widow, Mrs. Sarah Jane (Anderson) Chasse; a son, John A. Chasse of this town; a daughter, Mrs. Homer Gracia, also of Fairhaven; a brother George Chasse of Staten Island, New York City; five grandchildren, and three great grandchildren.

Again I have no burial location. I've created a Find A Grave memorial for Sarah (76103139) and I requested a photo, hoping to get a shot of a double stone with Alfred. I'm assuming he was buried back in Biddeford with Sarah. I'll check with the funeral home if possible too but I haven't had much luck with that method. The other option, since I now have a complete date of death, is to look for a death certificate and see if the burial location is on it. I'll update when I find out more. 

Pitfalls of Obits with No Burials

I tracked down two more obituaries. The problem is that neither one includes a burial location so that means no Find A Grave memorial...yet. My next best bet is to write to the funeral home, which is in the obits, to see if someone there can look up where they are buried. I'll post again when I figure this out.

• Janet (Chasse) GraciaNew Bedford Standard Times, New Bedford Massachusetts, 21 Apr 1990, Page 5 B
• Homer Gracia
  New Bedford Standard Times, New Bedford, Massachusetts, 7 Sep 1993

Sarah Jane (Anderson) Chasse 1892-1979 England, Maine, Massachusetts

The McArthur Public Library in Biddeford, Maine comes through again.

BIDDEFORD--Sarah J. Chasse, 89, of 179 Hill St. died sudenly Wednesday at the Webber Hospital.

She was born in England, April 9, 1890, daughter of Joseph and Julia Pierce Anderson, and came here when she was two years old. She attended Biddeford schools.

She and her husband Albert Chasse had lived in Massachusetts for more than 40 years. Mrs. Chasse retired to Biddeford 10 years ago, after his death.

Mrs. Chesse was a member of Christ Episcopal Church.

Survivors are a son, John Chasse of Fairhaven, Mass.; a daughter, Janet Gracia of Rochester, Mass.; a brother, Richard Anderson of biddefore; two sisters, Elizabeth Anderson and Jessie Anderson, both of Biddeford; and several grandchildren.

Calling hours will be held tonight from 7 to 9 at the Dennett and Craig Funeral Home, 365 Main St., Saco.

Friday calling hours will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Fairhaven Funeral Home, 177 Main St.

Services will be held Saturday at 9 a.m. at the funeral home. Interment will be in Riverside Cemetery, Fairhaven.

Here are Sarah's details:

Sarah Jane Andersonb. 9 Apr 1892 Ashton Town, Ashton-Under-Lyne, Lacanshire, England
d. 29 Aug 1979 Biddeford, York County, Maine
m. Before 1920 (I don't have exact date or place)
Alfred John Chasse (Albert in obit but that's an error)
b. 4 Oct 1895 Biddeford, York County, Maine
d. Jun 1964 Fairhaven, Bristol County, Massachusetts

Child 1:
Janet Chasse
b. 31 Dec 1920 Biddeford, York County, Maine
d. 31 Mar 1990 New Bedford, Bristol County, Massachusetts
m. (I don't have date or place)
Homer Gracia
b. 27 Aug 1915 Where?, Massachusetts
d. 5 Sep 1993 New Bedford Bristol County, Massachusetts

Child 2:
John Anderson Chase
John and his family are still living as near as I can tell.

I've created a Find A Grave memoral for Sarah (76103139) and I requested a photo. I'm hoping she has a double stone so that I can find Alfred too. I've also started seaching for obit and buial info on Sarah's daughter and son-in-law. I'll post updates when I find out more.

Digging for Esther’s Husband

Joseph and Julia (Pierce) Anderson had a total of nine children. I’ve written about this family in this blog many times. I had tracked down info on all of them except child number two, Esther S. Anderson. In looking at the obituaries for Esther’s mother and older sister (Mary Hannah Anderson), I noticed that the list of pallbearers had a few familiar names and a few repeating names. Many other family members have obituaries but none of them include the pallbearers.

Julia’s Pallbearers (1956)

Odell Rich
John Chasse 

Gordon Eastman

Francis Marcotte

Roy Duross

Homer Garcia

Mary’s Pallbearers (1967)

Leo Machell

John Chasse

Guy Anderson

Maurice Duross

Roy Duross
Thomas Garcia

In a shot in the dark move, I decided to trace all of the pallbearers to see if any of them lead me to Esther. I knew that Esther was alive in 1912 at the time of the death of her younger brother, William Joseph Anderson. William’s obituary mentions that he is survived by three brothers and five sisters, which means he was the first of the nine children to die. In 1912, Esther was 27 and it seemed a reasonable assumption that she was married. The Maine marriage index had no marriage for her. So I began to systematically look up each of the pallbearers.

Since Roy Duross appeared on both lists, I started with him. I found that he worked at the Saco-Lowell Machine Shops, which is also where Frank Anderson worked. I assumed that Roy and Maurice Duross were family friends.

I could identify Guy Anderson as Frank’s son and John Chasse as Sarah Jane (Anderson) Chasse’s son.

I took a stab at Odell Rich and found that he was married to an Esther. But was it my Esther? I did the general survey search that every genealogist does and I found the following items:

• A New Hampshire Marriage Record for Odell C. Rich and Esther Anderson. Esther’s parents were listed as Joseph and Julia Anderson. Odell’s Esther was indeed my Esther.
• A 1920 census entry listed three children for Odell and Esther: Frances (b. Mar 1910); Odell (b. Apr 1912), and Eleanor (b. Oct 1913).
• A marriage record for Frances A. Rich to Gordon M. Eastman.  Gordon was one of Julia’s pallbearers.
• A marriage record for Eleanor E. Rich to Francis L. Marcotte. Francis was one of Julia’s pallbearers.

All circumstances point to my having tracked down Esther’s marriage. So here are all of the vitals.

Esther S. Anderson

b. Aug 1885 Ashton Under Lyne, Lancashire, England
d. Before 1943 (If you can help, I’d love to hear from ya’.)
m. 4 Jul 1909 Somersworth, Strafford County, NH
Odell Cleveland Rich
b. 26 Dec 1882 Norway, Oxford County, Maine
d. After 1943 (If you can help, I’d love to hear from ya’.)
Odell marries a second time in 1943 to Ida Dunham Sweatt. I’m assuming that Esther dies while still married to Odell.

Child 1: Frances A. Rich

b. Mar 1910 Norway, Oxford County, Maine
d. 4 Jul 1985 Bridgton, Cumberland County, Maine
m. 10 Jun 1939 Norway, Oxford County, Maine
Gordon M. Eastman
b. 15 Dec 1916 Lovell, Oxford County, Maine
d. 12 May 2006 Lovell, Oxford County, Maine

Child 2: Odell Cleveland Rich

b. 18 Apr 1912 Norway, Oxford County, Maine
d. 26 Apr 1973 Norway, Oxford County, Maine
m. 17 Dec 1938 Maine
Gertrude C. Mann
b. Oct 1918 Paris, Oxford County, Maine
d. If you can help, I’d love to hear from ya’.

Child 3: Eleanor E. Rich

b. 5 Oct 1913 Norway, Oxford County, Maine
d. 21 Feb 2001 Norway, Oxford County, Maine
m. 30 Jul 1942 Norway, Oxford County, Maine
Francis L. Marcotte
b. 17 Oct 1918  (If you know where, I’d love to hear from ya’.)
d. 13 Oct 2005 Norway, Oxford County, Maine

Future Research

I’m on the hunt for obituaries and burial locations. The Sun Journal seems to be the preferred newspaper for the obituaries. I’ll post an update when I learn more. In the meantime, if you're hunting for a wayward husband, you might want to examine the pallbearers in family obituaries to see if any of them look promising as a possible mate. 

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The Same Lesson...AGAIN!

I'm not sure exactly how many times I have to remind myself to chase down every single available census entry for every person in my database. I found another missing one. Specifically, I had missed the 1930 entry for Alfred John Chasse and his wife (my relative) Sarah Jane (Anderson) Chasse.

When I checked the 1930 census, I had too many entries under Alfred or Sarah Chasse; however, when I looked for their daughter Janet, the family popped right up. The only reason I knew about Janet was because she appears with her parents in a 1941 city directory. Janet was born 31 Dec 1920, which was after the 1920 census was taken.

In 1930, the Chasse family is living in Biddeford, Maine and they have a son. John Anderson Chasse (b. 4 May 1924 Biddeford, York County, Maine) is fairly easy to trace; however, as a researcher, I had to know he existed to look for him! Thus we have me learning yet again to pay attention to census entries and to make myself systematically track down every last one of 'em.