The Gregoire Story: 19th Century

 In the hamlet of Roux, province of Hainaut, Belgium, Octave Gregoire was born on July 7, at four o'clock in the morning.  His parents were Henri and Flore (Moreau) Grégoire.  They were 35 and 36 years old respectively.  (Note that the Belgian record shows an accent mark used in the surname;  this was dropped in the U.S. documents, and sporadically used in later Belgian records.)

Unbeknownst to Octave at this time, of course, on December 1 of this year his future wife would be born, about an hour south of Roux in Saint-Remy, Hainaut:  Laura Célinie Jamain.  

On June 6, 1891 Octave and Laure were married in Roux.  The civil record shows that at seven o'clock in the evening they appeared before the Alderman of the hamlet to be married.  (Church records in Belgium are not available as far as I understand at this time.  They are considered "private.")

Witnessing the marriage were his father Henri (his mother Flore had passed away on January 20th of that year;) Laure's mother Marie Josephine Machelart (Laure's father Lucien had died August 17 1890;)  Octave's brother Arthur, 31 years old, and Laure's two uncles Louis Machelart, 44 years old, and Alphonse Machelart, 41 years old, and Eudore Jacob, 51 years old, "friend of the groom."

      The hamlet of Roux, Hainaut, Belgium in an undated stereo-
scopic photo found on gettyimages.com.

Octave's military record was checked as part of his application to marry.  It is noted in the marriage record that he "...has complied with the laws on the national militia according to a certificate delivered by Mr. Governor of the province of Hainaut...the  twenty-second of the past month." 

The English translation of the certificate says that Octave had been "subject to the draft of 1888," and had drawn "number 101," and that this means that he fulfilled his military obligation.  I think it is saying that his number was not called up; just being in the draft was sufficient to fulfill the military obligation.

On Christmas Eve of 1892, Octave and Laure received a wonderful gift:  their son Maurice Henri Joseph Ghislain was born.  

It is interesting to note that Octave actually brought the newborn babe to the Mayor's office, as he himself had been carried there by his father.  This was common practice, a very tangible way of proving a birth.

Octave and Laure had a daughter also. Her birth record has yet to be found.  The folks at belgianancestry.weebly.com, a genealogy service in Antwerp, Belgium, did a search of the state archives for me, but found nothing.  She first shows up on the ship manifest of the SS Zeeland, when the family departed for the U.S. on Sept.28, 1907 from Antwerp.  In that record, her names is recorded as "Nelly", but in later documents such as U.S. census records, her name is usually spelled as "Nellie." And as an adult, she used the name "Helen."