The Children and Grandchildren of Orel Pinsonneault and Marie LeBlanc

Updated 2/4/25

These are a collection from my parents and a few other sources.... I've organized these in decade order so some people appear out of order, like my great grandparents come after my grandparents, because that's what photos I have. New technology has allowed me to restore many of these pictures to a much better state than their original scans. This is a work in progress.... If you're a family member and you also have a shoe box of old family photos, let me know... :)

Our Great, Great etc.

Our French Canadian ancestry is well documented because Catholic parishes had good notes.

1910's-1920

Our Grandparents

Orel (Aurrelle) Pinsoneault

Orel was born in Southbridge Massachusetts in 1883, son of Gedeon Pinsonneault and Alphonse (Dumais). Orel grew up on Pine Street in Southbridge where he met his future wife Marie Leblanc who also lived on Pine Street

Marie Leblanc Pinsonneault

Marie was the daughter of Narcisse Leblanc and Rosilda (Girard) also known as Exilda Girard. Marie was born in Saint Germain Quebec in 1883 and the family moved to Southbridge in 1890. Marie married in 1907 to Orel, and she died when my mother was 12 years old, in 1935.

1920's-1930

My great grandfather's family reunion

Leblanc Family Reunion

Our Pinsonneault family is presumably in this picture. LOL.

Aunt Jeanette's yearbook picture

Jeanette Pinsonneault was born in 1908, and died in 1938 of Scarlet Fever.

Aunt Viola (Vi's) High School Yearbook Picture

Aunt Vi was born in 1910 and married Zephry LaPlante, Aunt Vi died in 1995.

Lucille Ruth Pinsonneault (my Mom)

My mom was born in 1924, she married my father, William Kelly, by eloping in Baltimore in 1946 and remarried in Southbridge in 1947. Mom died in 2015. Photo from Richard LaPalnte.

Aunt Viola (Vi) and Aunt Jeanette

We don't know who is to the left and right of my two aunts and the kid is labeled nephew but we don't know who it is.

Aunt Edna

Edna Pinsonneault had a very difficult life, My mother explained to me how brilliant she was, a near photographic memory. She should have been a physician instead she was an unhappy nurse. She spent a fair amount of time in Cuba where she was rumored to have an affair with Jose Baptiste. She died in 1951. Photo from Richard LaPlante

1930's-1940's

Lucille Pinsonneault (my mom)and Richard LaPlante

My cousin Richard Laplant is the older child of Aunt Vi. Richard was born in 1935 and was Orel's first grandchild.

Aunt Roxanne

Aunt Roxy was born in 1915 in Southbridge, she married Raymond Berthuame in 1935. Roxanne died in 1968, my brothers were among her pall bearers, and I was 8 when attending her funeral. My mother loved her sister!

Raymond Berthuame

Uncle Ray and Aunt Roxy had two children, Paula and Ray. Paula is my godmother. Ray (my uncle) was born in 1914 and died in 1988.

Marriage: Viola Pinsonneault to Zephry LaPlante

Vi and Zeph were married Jan 2, 1935. Vi was the first child of Orel and Marie to marry.

Marriage: Roxanne Pinsonneault to Raymond Wilfred Berthiaume

Rox and Ray were married May 20th 1935. Photo from Paula Roy.

1940-1946 The Lead up to and execution World War II Years

My dad joined the Navy at 17 and was sent to Boston to join a newly constructed ship, the USS Boston, and my mom met him at a dance in Boston. The lead up to this time was pretty awful, everyone had some sort of hardship during the great depression, some worse than others. The Pinsonneault family was relatively financially unscathed, but the crisis of Marie's passing left a permanent scar on everyone. My father had a real hardscrabble youth, working since he was eight years old in Carbondale PA.

Lucille (Mom) met my dad at a dance in Boston. I believe that Aunt Vi covered for her to go to the dance, her father (Orel) would have never approved. My parents sent a variety of pictures to each other during the war when he was in the pacific, she kept them. And I believe she sent many photos of herself to him, some more cheesecake than others. 😄

William Leon Kelly

These were really sweet photos many with captions of "all my love".

Lucille Ruth Pinsonneault

Narcisse Leblanc, our great grandfather

In 1941 our great grandfather passed away in Woonsocket Rhode Island, he had a family compound for many years on Pine Street in Southbridge. The story that stuck in my mother's memory was that he had exiled a 20 something son, with a curse and told him to never darken his door again! This made a lasting impression on my Mom.

Rosila Girard, our great grandmother

In genealogy records she is also listed as Exilda Girard.

Jean Marie LaPlante

Jean Marie Laplante was born in 1938 and is the younger child of Vi and Zephry LaPlante

Marriage of Richard Pinsonneault and Theresa Hefner

Richard and Theresa were married in 1943.

Robert Coderre

Bob was the future husband of Georgette Pinsonneault.

Lucille and High School Friends in Southbridge

End of the 1940's, the Baby boom!

Orel and his sons

My guess is this was taken shortly after the war, Wilson served on a destroyer in the Pacific during the war, and stayed on as a Coxswain after the hostilities ended. Richard's eyesight was so poor he wasn't able to join and Donald was to young to enlist while the war was being prosecuted.

Wilson Pinsonneault

Uncle Will was born in 1918 during World War II he joined the Navy and served on a destroyer in the Pacific.

Donald Pinsonneault

Donald Pinsonneault was born in 1927 and was the youngest of Orel and Marie's children.

Pinsonneault Sisters

This is a terrible picture but it's what we have... Georgette on the left is holding Raymond Berthuame, Lucille is next, Jean Marie LaPlante, Paula Berthiaume is sitting on her mother, Roxanne Berthiaume's (Pinsonneault) lap, Viola LaPlante (Pinsonneault) is next followed by Richard's wife Theresa.

Rox and Ray Berthiaume

Paula Berthiaume

Paula is Aunt Roxy's oldest child, she was born in 1944.

Marriage: Lucille Pinsonneault to William Leon Kelly

As far as I know this is the only picture of my mother's wedding (actually her 2nd ceremony, since she eloped and was married to my father in Baltimore MD). I found out by accident about her elopement and this was something she never wanted to talk about. They were married in Notre Dame in Southbridge on January 8th, 1947.

Georgette Pinsonneault

Georgette Pinsonneault was born in 1926 and she married Bob Coderre in 1949.

Wayne Joseph Kelly

Wayne Joseph Kelly was born in 1948, he is the oldest child of Lucille and Bill Kelly.

Raymond Berthiaume

Raymond Paul Berthiaume was born in 1948.

Richard LaPlante, Raymond in Paula's lap, and Jean Marie LaPlant kneeling

Marriage: Georgette Pinsonneault to Robert Edmund Coderre

Georgette and Bob were married May 21st 1949.

The 1950s

Elaine Coderre

Elaine Coderre was born in 1950 and is the oldest daughter of Georgette and Bob Coderre.

LaPlante Family

Richard LaPlante, and (I don't know!) holding Steve, Wayne and Elaine

Kellys, Richard and Theresa Pinsonneault

The Kellys, Richard and Theresa Pinsonneault and an unidentified couple.

Marriage of Donald Pinsonneault and Jeanne Renard

Donald and Jeanne married in 1951.

Berthiaume Family

Wilson Pinsonneault

Stephen Kelly

Steve was born in in 1951. Aunt Edna assisted in his birth (she was a nurse).

Roxanne Berthiaume

Paula and Ray in the 50s

Ray and Paula probably on Millbrook st in Worcester

Ray, Paula, Marianne, and Steve on Proctor St in Worcester

Marianne Kelly

Marianne was born in 1954.

Aunt Vi and a train cake

I don't know if it was a family recipe, but my mother made one of these for my son Josh, and I have a picture of one for Wayne, this one is for Marianne.