Very feminine, Florence aspired to becoming a nun: her good qualities attested to this vocation. She liked studying and learned without difficulty. More than once her parents dreamed of boarding the girl in the parish convent; but how could they deprive her mother, with very frail health, of all the support and assistance that Florence gave. There’s lots of work in running a home, and the work increases with the number of children, which now totals 14. [This was a comment made at one point in time, I believe in 1882 when Florence was 13 years old.]
In 1882, there were only 8 children, and of the few Anonymous children, if they are labeled “Anonymous”, then the Priest didn’t even want to record their gender, so those Last Rites’ records could be a dead birth, or an infant who was born too early or died within 24 hours of birth. The feeling of the day was that if the infant was dead, why even name it and make the parents sadder than they already were. When Thomas was born, he was evidently baptized before his death; therefore his Baptism record was entered in the Priest’s book, then his Last Rites’ record was written as a 2nd entry. He lived only 2 days. In some cases, the Baptism and Last Rites‘ are recorded in the same, one entry for a person, sometimes named, sometimes labeled as Anonymous.
DOB = Date of Birth.
Florence DOB 1869
Nazaire DOB 1870
Arthur DOB 1872
Anonymous 1 possible DOB 1873
Marie-Edma lived 3 days DOB 1874
Marie-Alma Elisa DOB 1875
Anonymous 2 possible DOB 1876
Marie-Eugenie Almeria DOB 1877
Anonymous 3 possible DOB 1878
Romeo DOB 1879
Gaudiose DOB 1881
Raoul DOB 1882
Marie-Elisabeth Laure DOB 1883
Marie-Philomene DOB 1885 so not born in 1882
Thomas DOB 1891 (last child born to Elisa, died on 2nd day, and so was not born yet in 1882)