Léandre Sauriol (ca 1826-1897) and Olympe Bergeron

This tintype (a photographic print on metal) of Léandre Sauriol and Olympe Bergeron was in the possession of Charles Sauriol and became part of the collection he bequeathed to Toronto Archives. It seems, judging from the clothing and their ages, to have been taken in the late 1860s or possibly 1870s, and is heavily retouched. Charles Sauriol thought, after examining the image, that Léandre might have had false teeth.

North Americans with the  family name of Sauriol are descended from Pierre Sorieul, who was born in Rennes, France on April 15, 1675, the son of Guillaume Sorieul (born about 1650) and Nicole Jourdain. He came to New France before 1701 as a soldier of the Compagnies franches de la Marine and was nicknamed "Pierre Sorieul dit Sansoucy" ("carefree"). Pierre Sorieul married Marie-Madeleine Plouf at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Montreal on August 25, 1718, and two years later took up a farm in what is now known as Côte Vertu, a district of Montreal. They had many children, and he died on April 17, 1748.

The image on the left reconstructs the outfit of a soldier of the Compagnies franche de la Marine dressed for winter about the time that Pierre Sorieul came to Canada. The more idealized one on the right dates from 1757.

Quickly tracing the connection to the Hood family, Pierre's son Louis Sauriol (1727-1805) married Marie-Josephte Couvret in 1751, in Saint-Martin, Quebec (now part of Laval), where the family lived for several generations. Their son Louis-Charles Sauriol (1753-1834) married Marie-Clémence Taillefer in 1774; they in turn had a son named Jean-Baptiste Sauriol who married Judith Cédillot Montreuil in 1804.

Incidentally, much of this information was collected by a Quebec priest named Timothée Sauriol in his Notes genéalogiques sur les familles Sauriol et Brien dit Desrochers, which is available on microfilm and in an original copy at the Toronto Reference Library. There are also print directories of vital records for the Saint-Martin area, and with the release of the Drouin Collection of Quebec records through Ancestry.com, the original birth, marriage and death records for most of these families are now universally available.

Jean-Baptiste's son Léandre Sauriol (pictured at the top of this post) was born about 1826 in Saint-Martin. He married Olympe Bergeron (born sometime after 1833) there on August 9, 1852. By 1855 the couple had moved to Williamstown, Ontario. They had a big family, and several of their sons became machinists and moved to Toronto, where they found work with the Gendron manufacturing company, which assembled electric railway cars; it also became known for its baby carriages.

The sad story is that the older couple came to Toronto to visit the younger generation in April 1897 and stayed at a rooming house or hotel on Parliament near Dundas. Not being familiar with gas lighting, they "blew out the candle" at bedtime and were both asphyxiated. They're buried at St. Michael's Cemetery at St. Clair and Yonge.

Most of the family members had nicknames, so it's difficult to match official records with verbal recollections, but it seems likely that they had 12 children, who were:

1. Herma, born about 1834, who died around the age of 24.

2. Prime (1855-1940), who married, moved to Toronto and had about six children. He made furniture.

3. Marie-Louise Josephine (1857-1943), known as Josephine, who married James (Jim) Duffy and moved to the US. She also had a large family.

4. Elisabeth (born about 1859), known as Aunt Liz, who married John Charles McKinnon in Pembroke, Ontario. She had about eight children;  however all but one apparently died in a single week during the Spanich Flu epidemic, after which she vowed to wear black for the rest of her life. She was employed at what was then called the Workman's Compensation Board, and also served as the organist at Sacré-Coeur Church for 45 years. Incidentally, her sole remaining son, Charlie, is said to have felt compelled to satisfy his mother's wish to have at least one child enter the priesthood and so dutifully went through ordination.

Here's the formidable Aunt Liz, all in black at a beach outing (perhaps in Toronto?) with Barbara and Hugh Hood, so in the early 1930s when she was in her early 70s.

Aunt Liz's son Charlie McKinnon

5. Arthur (born about 1860) may have been the one known as "Uncle Bun". In his 30s, he was a cutter at the Toronto File Company. He died relatively young.

6. Joseph (born about 1864) left home at 12 and worked as a blacksmith in Cornwall, then as a dredgeman on the Tey Canal at Perth, Ontario. He was also engineer at Gendron from about 1891 to 1924, then worked as a maintenance man at St. Mary's Hospital on Jarvis Street in Toronto, under the Soeurs de la Misericorde. His son Charles said "My father never earned more than $30 a week, and when he died he owned four houses. He owned number 11, number 13 and number 15 Munro, and 388 Leslie Street." His children were Eugene, Marie, Joseph, Marguerite, Harry, Leon and Charles.

Joseph Sauriol senior at centre with four of his sons. I think they may be (left to right) Leon, Harry, Charles and Eugene. Charles is certainly second from the right, and I believe this may be taken at his  home off Broadview at the edge of the Don Valley. Copy from a photo collection lent to me by Charles Sauriol in the 1980s and now likely with Toronto Archives.

Marie Sauriol with friends.  Copy from a photo collection lent to me by Charles Sauriol in the 1980s and now likely with Toronto Archives.

Marie Sauriol dressing up in WWI uniform (possibly her brother's kit?) on Valentine's Day, 1918.  Copy from a photo collection lent to me by Charles Sauriol in the 1980s and now likely with Toronto Archives.

Harry Sauriol home from WWI at 13 Munro Street in Toronto.  Copy from a photo collection lent to me by Charles Sauriol in the 1980s and now likely with Toronto Archives. Here's his military Attestation, by the way.

7. Léandre-Henry, who died at the age of three.

8. David Vital (1867-1930), known as "Uncle Bay”, also worked for the Gendron Co. as a carriage frame builder. In 1901 he started with the Toronto Railway Co., where he was an electrician and carpenter. He lived at 181 Erskine Street in Toronto from 1913 until at least 1924. He also married and had children.

9. Nedia or Nidina or Nydia (born in 1869), known as Aunt Need, who lived to be about 100. She married Thomas-John Hawkins, had two daughters, and moved to the US.

10. Eugenie

11. Jean-Marie (1874-1905), probably the one known as "Dolor". He was a machinist at Gendron from 1899 to 1905, but died of tuberculosis at the age of 31 and is buried close to his parents in Toronto.

12. James (born in 1877), known as Uncle Jim, worked at Gendron as a machinist until 1914, then began to work for a taxicab company. Among his children, his daughter Albina maintained a long relationship with Margaret Blagdon.

Sauriol ladies and possibly Eugene Sauriol in Toronto in the 1920s. Second from right may be Aunt Liz. It's interesting to see how the youngest woman (Marie?) is dressed in full 1920s fashion, while the older women are more or less still hanging on to the the sensibilities of the Edwardian era. Copy from a photo collection lent to me by Charles Sauriol in the 1980s and now likely with Toronto Archives.