Éveline Frenette

Éveline Frenette was born June 25, 1908. She was christened three days later in the church of Sainte-Thérèse. Éveline was the eldest of the ten children in the family of Joseph Frenette & Hélène Jane Boudreau.

In his book Histoire et généalogie des Frenette d'Acadie, Gérard Desjardins mentions that the family of Joseph Frenette & Hélène Jane Boudreau was one of the first to establish themselves in Sormany. They had first lived in Bathurst.

At the age of 19, Éveline married her second cousin Léandre Comeau, son of Jean Comeau and Marie Pitre. This couple first settled in Beresford in the paternal home of Jean Comeau where their childre will grow up.

Éveline Frenette
à 18 ans

Her small stature will not stop Éveline from giving birth to 16 children between 1928 and 1948. Those years were filled with household duties to answer the needs of her growing family.

Her daily responsibilities also included tending the vegetable garden and milking the cows who provided milk and cream to make butter. During the Depression years of the 1930's, butter and eggs were a luxury that Évelyne had to sell to obtain other necessary goods for their family.

Éveline Frenette
in 1959

Éveline Frenette
at the age of 39

Religion played an important role in the life of Éveline Frenette. Her faith will help her answer the needs and the struggles of her growing family.

In 1962, Éveline lost her husband Léandre who died following a heart attack. Her youngest child was fourteen and most of the older children had already left home. A few years later, Éveline suffered from diabetes and eventually had to receive insuline shots. Later, she became paralysed following complications from the diabetes. She then transferred the family home to her youngest son Arthur and resided in an senior apartment with her daughters Cécile and Simone.

Éveline Frenette died in Beresford on July 13, 1986. She was 77.

Four generation right to left:
Hélène Jane Boudreau, Éveline Frénette,
Jeannette Comeau, Diane Pitre,
Picture taken in 1962 'chez mémère Frenette'
(born Hélène Jane Boudreau)

Hélène Jane Boudreau

Éveline rarely talked about her childhood but when she mentioned her mother Hélène Jane Boudreau, she called her a saint.

Hélène Jane Boudreau,daughter of Edouard Boudreau & Marie-Jeanne Vienneau was baptised August 7, 1883 in Petit-Rocher, N.B. At the age of 24, she married Joseph Frenette, son of Alex & Anne Pitre in Robertville in 1908.

Of her ten children, only six made it to adulthood. Her second daughter Lilia died at the age of 13. Another daughter named Odile, died as a toddler in 1914 at the age of 15 months. The following year, their son Adrien was a six-month old baby when he died in 1915. Deux ans plus tard en 1917, leur fille Ethel encore bébé, décèdera à l'âge de 8 mois.

Hélène Jane Boudreau lived until the age of 81 ans and died in 1964.

Hélène Jane Boudreau

Joseph Frenette

Joseph Frenette was 29 when he married Hélène Jane Boudreau on July 2, 1907 in Roberville. This couple would first settle in Bathurst and later in Sormany.

Joseph passed away on February 8, 1960 at the age of 72.

Alex Frenette & Anne Pitre in October 1883
                                                                                                                         Éveline and her brother Évangéliste
                                                                                                                         with their father Joseph Frenette