Finding Staquet/Degueldre/Casimir marriage record, likely in Pennsylvania?

Question

I have information that my paternal great grandmother, Leonie Casimir (who settled in Philadelphia, PA, in the US), was married to Jean Baptiste Degueldre. Marriage took place July 30, 1881, in Meux, Namur, Belgium. They had 5 children, 2 of whom died. I was told that her husband died young and she remarried.

When Leonie came to the US (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)her name was still Degueldre. All the children had their last names changed to Staquet eventually as she had married Louis Staquet also of Namur, Belgium.

Does anyone know how I can find a death record for Jean Baptiste Degueldre. I think he died in either 1896 or 1898, possibly in Belgium or France.

Answer 1

This looked like a tricky search as I don't have worldwide access on Ancestry, just UK. But a search for Leonie Casimir/Degueldre brings up a marriage record for Leonie Casimir and Jean-Baptiste Degueldre in Namur, and also a 1900 US census record for Leonie and Louis Staquet. I assume these are the records you're referring to, but I can't actually read them.

Switching to FindMyPast, though, brings up five entries in the Pennsylvania Passenger Lists record set, from Dec 30 1889, for Leonie Degueldre (27, Wife), Alice (7), Augusta (3), Eusebe (5 mo) and Lucien (5) Degueldre. They all have a birthplace of France (not Belgium, which may be an issue) and boarded the ship "Switzerland" in Antwerp, coming to the USA as settlers.

If this is right, it suggests that Leonie was still called Degueldre when she came to the USA, and so she may have married Louis Staquet after arriving in Pennsylvania. That should at least narrow down the search scope. FMP has the census record too, and the elder three children (Alice, Lucien, Augusta) match, while Louise was born in PA in 1891 after they arrived. So the marriage may have taken place before Louise's birth in May 1891. And if it occurred before her conception, then it's likely between Jan and Aug 1890. That's quite narrow (I wonder if Leonie travelled to PA to join Louis there and marry). I haven't found any passenger record for Louis Staquet, so it's not clear if he was already there or travelled around the same time.

Jean Baptiste Degueldre was not with Leonie and the four children on this voyage - this was a party of five. This is consistent with Jean's early death, but I don't know if Leonie would still be "Wife" rather than "Widow" on the form in such a case.

Leonie's card looks like this (I can put up the others if you want them): The link, if you have an account with FindMyPast, is here.

So not an exact answer, I'm afraid, but I hope this helps narrow down the search.

Answer 2

The 1900 Philadelphia census image for this family indicates that both Louis and Leonie were born in Belgium, that they were married in 1880, had been married 20 years, and had both emigrated in 1889 (so it's possible that Louis came over first, and the rest of the family joined him shortly after). Some of these details obviously conflict with your 1883 marriage record. Leonie is listed as having had 5 children, 4 still living (4 listed in the household). The 1900 household includes 3 boarders, Arthur "Cavenir" age 25, Pierre De Graffe age 52, and Jules C. Becca age 49, all born in Belgium.

A basic search of FamilySearch's Philadelphia Marriage Index (which starts in 1885) does not seem to include any entry for Louis or Leonie, although it does list daughters Louisa (m.1909) and Augusta (m.1911). The actual index microfilms are also browsable, year-by-year (with yearly alphabetical indexes for bride and groom surnames), which can help if surnames have been badly mangled in the electronic index. Ancestry.com has their own electronic version of this index, which may be more wild-card friendly than FamilySearch's.

FamilySearch's "Pennsylvania County Marriages" has records from most counties other than Philadelphia, also starting from 1885. Some marriages registered in Philadelphia actually occurred in one of the surrounding counties (Delaware, Montgomery, Bucks or Northampton) or even Camden, NJ. Do you know the family's religious affiliation (i.e., have you tried church records)?

Ancestry.com also has Pennsylvania death certificates from 1906-1963 (images), and a few other assorted records for this Staquet family, but nothing that appears to bear on the question at hand (although it may be worth noting that in the abstract of Alice (Staquet) Supiot's SSA file, her mother's maiden name was transcribed as "Leona Musbois").