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My father Joseph Thomas Leo DeRoche was born in Lawrence MA 9 Feb 1917 to Thomas Joseph DeRoche and Madeleine (Doucette) Deroche. He died on 7 September 1998 in Cumberland RI.
His father, my grandfather, Thomas Joseph DeRoche was born about 1886 in Tignish PEI. He married Madeleine Doucette (or Doucet) on 1 May, 1916 - perhaps in Westbrook ME, or Lawrence MA. As a young man, Thomas is said to have worked on his father's ship in the West Indian sugar trade, but to have given up his job in favor of a brother (Manuel?) who had just gotten married. Thomas emigrated to the US sometime between 1905 and 1915. After crossing from Canada to Maine Thomas settled first in Westbrook, and worked as a logging-camp muleskinner, lumberjack, and mill worker. Later on he worked for a railroad, and also at a dairy farm. Madeleine gave him seven children (Joseph, Harold, Doris, and Irene lived to adulthood, the others died before adulthood). Thomas had at least two other children, both born out of wedlock after Madeline died: Bertha (still living), and a boy named Tommy who died very young. My own father was Joseph Thomas Leo DeRoche, the eldest of Thomas DeRoche's children known to me. I say 'known', because Thomas DeRoche was apparently quite a womanizer, and there may be some other children whom my aunts and uncles don't know about, or won't acknowledge to me. Bertha doesn't know her mother's name; her elder half-siblings Harold and Doris know who her mother was, but refuse to tell her. Thomas died in 1978 (in Lawrence or Methuen, MA or perhaps in Nashua NH).
His wife Madeline Doucette DeRoche, who died in 1926 in Lawrence MA, was from Summerside PEI, and also lived for a time in Charlottetown. Madeline's brother Thomas Doucette married Sophie DeRoche, Thomas DeRoche's sister. Madeline's mother's maiden name is thought to have been Gaudette (or Gaudet or Godet) but none of her children know her parents' given names. Madeline Doucette and her brother Thomas Doucette had at least three other siblings: Freeman (or Firmin?), Louise, and Marian.
Thomas' father was apparently also named Thomas Joseph DesRoches (spelled with the two s's) and is reputed to have been a ship captain or owner working out of Tignish in the West Indies sugar cane or molasses trade (I have not been able to verify any of this). His wife's maiden name was perhaps Poulin, according to my uncle Harold. Thomas DesRoches is reported to have had some 13 children, among them the aforementioned Thomas and Sophie, and also Manuel (who also emigrated to the US, and settled in Springfield MA, where he raised a large family of his own), Ferdinand and Caroline.
I'd very much appreciate any information you may be able to provide on my DeRoche/DesRoches ancestors from the Tignish area. The recollections of my DeRoche aunts, uncles, and cousins are very vague, and lack definite dates/places of birth, baptism, marriage, emigration, etc. I have had a hard time as well locating family papers.
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