Those were the days: The Soares clan, with friends & neighbors

Vintage photographs from the 1930s and beyond from the family of Victor Faria Soares, Sr. and Rose Raymond Soares of Somerset, Mass., my grandparents. These were digitized by my uncle, Arthur Faria Soares, who also provided me with many stories about my family and his experiences growing up. The children of Rose and Victor Sr. were: Victor Jr., Beatrice, Raymond (my father), and Arthur.

My mémère, Rose Raymond Soares, in front of a city hall somewhere in Québec, sometime in the early 1950s. Rose's parents, Damase Raymond and Celina Trahan Raymond, both emigrated from Québec in the late 1800s. Mémère had told me at one point that we had an "Indian princess" in our family tree. It turns out she was kind of right. Rose was a direct descendent of Marie Olivier Sylvestre Manitouabeouich through her mother. Marie, who was a Huron, is my ninth-degree grandmother. She was not a princess, but she is a big deal in Canada because she was the first native Canadian to marry a French settler, Martin Prévost, in 1644. From my understanding, she is a heroine to the Metis, who trace their ancestry to "First Nations" people and European settlers. In 1982, the Metis were recognized as one of Canada’s aboriginal people. It's entirely possible that Mémère was visiting one of the towns that her parents came from. Maybe she even did a little genealogy!