30 Days of Remembrance- Day 4- Arthur Duquette

In memory of
Private
Arthur Duquette
who died on November 1, 1917

Military Service:

Service Number: 1007104

Age: 22

Force: Army

Unit: Canadian Railway Troops

Division: 6th Bn.

Additional Information:

Date and Place of Birth: May 30, 1896

Son of Joseph and Emelie Duquette, of Mattawa, Ontario.

Cemetery: POTIJZE BURIAL GROUND CEMETERY, Belgium

Grave Reference: SS. 1.

Commemorated on Page 232 of the First World War Book of Remembrance.

My first look at for Arthur Duquette on Ancestry gave me a matching person who looked promising. 

Matching Person (from family trees)

Arthur Aimé Duquette

• Birth:  30 Mar 1895 - Canada
• Death:  1 Nov 1917 - Belgium
• Parents:  Joseph Toussaint Duquette, Emilie "Amelia" Céléstine Germain

The date and place of death aligned as well as the names of his parents, but the birth dates were different. So I went back to Soldiers of the First World War to find attestation papers for Arthur Duquette, and there were 4 of them listed. Only two of them had a date of birth recorded, one of which matched the May 5, 1895 date. I crosschecked the military service numbers and they also matched.

The dob on these papers clearly says May, not March 5, but everything else coincides with the Ancestry Arthur:

His birthplace of Calvin township, Ontario, near Mattawa.

His parents names, Joseph Toussaint Duquette and Emilie Céléstine Germain

His date and place of death  Nov 1, 1917 in  Belgium.

From the family tree I was able to look at Arthur's birth registration which shows a dob of March 5 1895, and also his baptism record from April 1 1895 which confirms it. 

So it appears the error is in the military documents!

Arthur Aimé Duquette was one of 12 children, all but two of which were alive in 1917 when Arthur joined the Canadian Forces. However, according to the Ancestry tree, his father Joseph had died the previous year. Arthur was 21, single and living in North Bay when he signed up on Jan 6. Not quite ten months later, he was killed in action in Belgium 

30 Days of Remembrance- Day 3 - James Sandeman Cunningham

From the website: Photo of James Cunningham – Photo taken from A Short History and Photographic Record of the 73rd Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, Royal Highlanders of Canada Page 20. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~guppyross/73rd_bat/page_20.jpg I don't think there are copyright issues with this publication

In memory of
Sergeant
James Sandeman Cunningham
who died on October 31, 1916 

Military Service:

Service Number: 132009

Age: 31

Force: Army

Unit: Canadian Infantry (Quebec Regiment)

Division: 73rd Bn.

Additional Information:

Son of James and Anna Fraser Sandeman Cunningham, of Argyll Lodge, St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland.

Cemetery:

ADANAC MILITARY CEMETERY; Somme, France

Grave Reference:

VI. D. 23.

Commemorated on Page 73 of the First World War Book of Remembrance.

Unlike the previous soldiers, there is a bit of additional information on James Cunningham's Memorial entry, including the photo. With no birth date listed however, I wasn't able to locate any additional info from Ancestry so I again used the Soldiers of the First World War to get a copy of James Cunningham's attestation papers

From this I learned that he was born in Broughty Ferry, Scotland. I used Scotland's People to find his birth registration (it cost me 6 credits, I could have tried to find it for free on Family Search but I like to have copy of the actual document).

The other useful thing I found from James' attestation papers is that he was a chartered accountant. This proved helpful in finding a record showing one James Cunningham, accountant, who crossed the Canadian border at St Albans Vermont in 1913. His address of residence is given as Montreal, Quebec. I was unable to find anything definite to show when James originally immigrated to Canada but his attestation papers show that he joined the Canadian Army on July 31, 1915, in Montreal. He was unmarried so his father James Cunningham of Argylle Lodge, St Andrews, Scotland  is listed as his next of kin.

The curious thing for me is why James opted to join the Canadian forces instead of the British other than his location at the time. There's no indication of citizen requirements on the attestation forms that I've seen, only an oath swearing allegiance to King George the 5th.

James Sandeman Cunningham was killed in action Oct 31 1916, near Somme, France.

30 Days of Remembrance- Day 2 - Joseph Marc Babineau

In memory of
Private
Joseph Marc Babineau
who died on October 30, 1918 

Military Service:

Service Number: 258335

Age: 24

Force: Army

Unit:1st Canadian Mounted Rifles (Saskatchewan Regt.)

Additional Information:

Date and Place of Birth: February 14, 1894

Cemetery: VALENCIENNES (ST. ROCH) COMMUNAL CEMETERY; Nord, France

Grave Reference: II. E. 15.

Commemorated on Page 362 of the First World War Book of Remembrance.

Joseph Marc Babineau wasn't as easily located on Ancestry. The only record I could find initially was from Canada, War Graves Registers (Circumstances of Casualty), 1914-1948.  

This gave a detailed account of his death on Oct 30, 1918: 

"Killed in Action"

While on outpost duty, this soldier was instantly killed by enemy shellfire.

I had to go to the Library and Archives Canada site and search the Soldiers of the First World War data base to locate Joseph's attestation papers.

From this document I learned that Joseph born in Quebec but was working as a labourer at a lumber camp in Prince Albert when he signed up on Mar 9 1918. He joined the Saskatchewan  Regiment of  the Canadian Mounted Rifles- perhaps he rode a horse in battle. He was 5' 5" tall with a dark complexion, hair and eyes. He wasn't married so he listed his father, a D. Babineau of Biddeford Maine, US as his next of kin. With those details I took another look at Ancestry and found a baptism for a Joseph Marc Babineau on Feb 14 1894, father Dominique Babineau and mother Flavie Patrey. Oddly the baptism lists Joseph's birth as the previous day but since baptismal records were the only record of birth in Quebec for many years perhaps the date was mistakenly recorded on his attestation papers. Or perhaps Joseph just preferred to celebrate his birthday on Valentine's day!

Like John Franklin Anderson, Joseph Babineau was killed a mere seven months after signing up and is also buried in France.