Gramma Guy's

I'm deeply submerged in my current collage-"Gramma Guy's".  It is centered around Kathleen Murphy's sweetest childhood memory-the corner store, which sold penny candy.  She was close friends with Lise Guy whose grandmother owned the store at the corner of Ottawa and Eleanor Streets.  It was only a half block from where the Murphys lived, so they went often.  They would say "Let's go to Gramma Guys" and that would mean the shop on the corner.  She remembers two ladies, one fifty to sixty years of age, and the other an indescribable age...REALLY old.  Both ladies were very happy to see young Lise and Kathleen and no doubt gave great quantities of candy.

Because I love researching family history, I knew I couldn't depict the interior of the shop without knowing who they were.  I needed to research the family, the place.  I knew that the Murphys moved to Griffintown in 1948 so the store existed that year.   The most recent published Canadian Census is 1911 and it does have a number of Guy families.  But I wanted to find the family in the 1940's or 50's at the store.  I was thrilled to find a 1950 insurance map of the area at the Quebec National Archives website.  It is an amazing site with a wealth of information.

The image above shows the buildings surrounded by McCord, Ottawa and Eleanor Streets.  On the bottom right, the pink square ("SP") is 1231 Ottawa Street (at Eleanor).  I noticed it has the corner of the building lobbed off which made me think it must have been a store at one time.  You can see 265 McCord Street is on the left, with a "D" on it for Dwelling.  Insurance maps are great, because by studying them you can imagine the visual.  You can see where fire hydrants were!  It also reveals what materials the buildings were made from and for what purpose they were built.  The row houses on McCord were brick but some of the sheds behind were tin.

Also on the Quebec Archive site is year after year of Lovell's Directory.  I gasped out loud when I saw what they had.  For the years 1842 thru 1999, one can search Montrealers by name or address.  I looked for 1231 Ottawa Street in the year 1950.  Guess who lived there?  Mrs. Claire Guy (widow of Arm).  I figured that was short for Armand.

I now had two first names to run with!  Was Claire Gramma?  or was she Lise's Mother?  I knew it would be easier to find Armand Guy than it had been to find my ancestor John Murphy (one of my previous researching endeavours).

I consulted my favourite...Ancestry.com.  It has the Drouin Collection of Roman Catholic births, deaths and marriages.  These are the "notebooks" of parish priests.  I knew the Guy family was Catholic, or Kathleen wouldn't have befriended her at St. Ann's school!  Within minutes I had  a record before me.  I deciphered the handwriting and the French to figure it was definitely the correct Lise Guy.  She was born in the same year as Kathleen, and in the area.  I found the names of her parents, and because her father's name was so unique Onesime Louis Armand Charles Guy, I was then able to trace his parents.  It was his mother who was named Clairina St. Onge (Claire in the directory).  She was the Gramma. 

In only two hours I had uncovered so much.  I felt that I knew enough about them to start "fleshing out" the collage.  I decided to put Armand, the grandfather in the setting as well.  The 1911 Census gave me an occupation for him- a "peinture" (painter) working for a "decorateur".  How fascinating!  I am used to searching for people who are listed as "labourers".  I placed the grandfather Armand in the back of the shop seated, reading the paper.  The store has many colours and a number of different wall papers.

But, who was the REALLY old little lady behind the candy counter?  (She was very small and apparently did not need to bend over to get the candy from the lower shelves.)   I found Armand Guy, born 1888 (Claire's husband) and his family in the 1901 Census.  Armand's father is Onesime Guy married to Delina.  They were both born in 1850.  Onesime died in 1931 at the age of 82.  I haven't yet found any death information on Delina.  Is it possible that in 1950, Delina was the lady behind the counter and she was one hundred years old?

I also found Onesime's father Michel(1871 Census).  He was born in 1820 and in the Lovell's Directory it is interesting that he is a carpenter.  This is for me the "bag of candy".  You see,  Michel Guy was a carpenter, father of Onesime Guy who was a joiner(cabinet maker) and father of Armand Guy who was a painter/decorator.  It is such a pattern.

I feel I can now safely extrapolate.  I also found some great photo reference from a number of sites-stores from the 1930's to 1950's.  The collage by the way is almost complete.  I have an arm, two feet and a shelf yet to go.  The image has grown before my eyes filled with a recurring checkerboard and other enigmatic devices.

Back to work!