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Like every other family, ours has its share of "unsolved mysteries"; three, to be exact. So, if you're interested in giving us a hand, please read the following stories carefully (they can get a little confusing in the telling!!) and see if you can help solve a mystery!
Our first mystery concerns Helen Nolan. When I first created this page, nothing much was known about her other than she was married to a Frank Noel and had a son named Preston in 1920. As of July 2009, a couple of facts have come to light:
Helen Nolan is the daughter of Maude Noel and John Nolan. Maude is the daughter of Charles Noel and Mary Baker.
The date and place of a marriage between Helen Nolan and Frank Noel is still a mystery.
What happened to Helen Nolan and Frank Noel by 1930 is also a mystery. The 1930 Brockton, MA census enumerates a household on "L" Street consisting of Mary Noel and her grandchild Preston Noel. Preston is 8 years old. Neither a Helen Nolan nor a Helen Noel could be found in the 1930 Brockton census, with or without a Frank Noel.
Preston Noel's family has been searching for answers for years, and I'm still trying to find the answers for them.
The 1930 Brockton census enumerates the Noel family at #18 Beacon Street. The family consists of Edgar (who is listed as Edward, as he was in most records; his thick French accent may have made him difficult to understand)and his known children Russell, Hazel, Maude, and Charles. However, there is another child listed named Marion. She is listed as the daughter of Edgar, and she is scarcely a year old at the time of this census. Also living in this household but listed as the head of her own household is Annie Pelaquin, who was the mother of Joe Pelaquin. Joe Pelaquin is married to Edgar's oldest child Viola. #18 Beacon Street must have been a building with 2 apartments, as Annie also had a lodger--a man named James Finch, who was an 86 year old widower.
My father, Joseph Noel, Jr (or "Sonny" as he was called) remembers Marion--but he remembers his cousin Sonny Pelaquin (son of Joe and Viola) referring to Marion as his sister. It is unknown whose child she really is. My father believes that Marion is now deceased--he recalls Sonny telling him that a few years before he (Sonny) died. I've tried sending for her birth cetificate under both Noel and Pelaquin as last names. The only thing I got in return was the birth certificate of Hazel (whose first name was also Marion) Noel, and a birth certificate for a Marion Pelaquin that was born in 1901--too early for our Marion.
So the question remains unanswered. Who is Marion? --and who are her parents?
As mentioned on Joseph Russell and Isabelle Gibbons' page, they had a daughter named Linda. Linda's exact year of birth is unknown, only that it was after 1942.
Linda was apparently put into foster care shortly after her birth. Isabelle would never consent to Linda being adopted by her foster family, so it is assumed that she continued to have the last name Noel.
My parents can remember that Isabelle would visit Linda when she was young; my father went on at least one of those visits when he was a young boy. He has pictures of himself and baby Linda on that occasion. He can also remember a time when Linda was brought to visit he and my mother when they lived in Canton, MA. I was probably born by that time, so it would have been the 1958-1959 time period. However, my parents are unable to recall the last name of the foster family that cared for Linda, or even where Linda lived (although they mentioned Randolph, MA as a possibility). It is not known how long after she reached adulthood that Isabelle stayed in touch with her. Isabelle didn't talk much about her personal business, even to family.
To this day, none of us have had any contact with Linda. We would like to find her.So there they are--our family's "unsolved mysteries." We do hope that someone can shed some light on some of these things. My e-mail address is at the bottom of the page, so please e-mail me if you have anything at all. Even a little bit of information is better than nothing. Any and all help is appreciated!!!!
This page was updated July 2009. .
Noel Family of Brockton, MA by Jolynn Noel Winland is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States LicenseWhat does this mean? .
Email: littleangeljw@yahoo.com
