Lacasse Family in Northside, Waterford circa 1900

The Lacasse family are ancestors of the Rivet family of Cohoes

Dedace Lacasse, one of the younger sons in the family of Ephrème Cassé and Luce Desautels-Lapointe, was probably made a wanderer by virtue of his birth order. Without a plot of his own land to farm, he was consigned to be a day worker on the farms of others. 

Portrait of woman believed to be Lucie Lapointe-Desautels, the mother of Dedace Lacasse.

Dedace and his wife Marie Louise Mireault were both born in St Jacques de L'Achigan, Quebec - Dedace in 1844 , Marie Louise in 1849. The couple married in 1867 in the church of St Alphonse de Rodriques, Quebec. In the 1881 census of Canada, the family is in Terrebonne, Quebec. In the 1891 census, they are located in Joliette, Montcalm, Quebec.  Sometime around 1898, Dedace brought his family from Quebec to New York.  They came to Northside in Waterford in 1898 to work in or around the factory mills of Cohoes and Waterford.  In the United States Census of 1900, six family members are listed: Dedace, Marie Louise his wife, Marie Ann and Marie Louise his two daughters and Edmond (Edward) and Camille, his two sons.  Marie Ann will not marry remaining at home to care for her parents, especially her widowed mother.  Marie Lousie will eventually became the second wife of Paul Emile Rivet. Edmond, naturalized a US citizen in 1912 will marry in Cohoes but after he is widowed in 1926, he will return to Québec with his children. He marries again in Rimouski, Québec.  Camille Lacasse seems to have moved to New York City but returns to Cohoes to marry.  He and his bride return to New York and raise their family in Queens.  Another son, Joseph Lacasse, not listed in the 1900 census with his parents,  marries and remains in Cohoes to raise his family.

 The Lacasse Family living at 20 Cemetery Road, Northside Waterford

Note the error - Cammile is listed as a daughter instead of son 

On May 1, 1910 Marie Edna Ann Lacasse, daughter of Joseph Lacasse and Emma Marie Fortin, granddaughter of Dedace and Marie Louise Mireault was baptized in the "French" church,  St Ann's Roman Catholic Church in Northside, Waterford where the family members were communicants.  Dedace was listed as the parrain or godfather. Below are two photographs of St Anne's Church in Northside after it was converted to Waterford Wesleyan Church.

Readers unfamiliar with Northside, Waterford and Cohoes may inquire why Northside is called "Northside" when it is actually on the south side of the town of Waterford of which it is a part.  It is my understanding that the founding fathers of Cohoes always considered Northside a part of the Cohoes community even though Northside was officially in a different town and even a different county.  Cohoes is in Albany County and Northside-Waterford in Saratoga County.  Only the waters of the Mohawk River divide the communities of Cohoes and Waterford but an early bridge connected the communities.

So the family of Dedace Lacasse and Marie Louise Mireault expanded and their descendants quickly spread across North America and back to Quebec! 

Here is a sign of Northside's French Canadian Heritage!

A home in Northside, New York displays its Roots - a flag of Quebec and a US flag!

Part 2 to follow.....