Dorothea Vandenbroecke had vóór haar huwelijk al een kind: Jean-François Vandenbroecke. Hierover ontvingen we een verhaal uit Canada vanwege Virginia Bell.
Virginia Bell wrote us the following story from Canada.
Jean-François (Joannes-Franciscus) Vandenbroecke legitimized the child of Marie-Josephe Sparla. So, Josephine Sparla (°Liège 18.04.1837), became Josephine Vandenbroecke. On June 14, 1851 the family sailed from Antwerp to New York on the American ship Mayflower. In San Andreas, California, right in the middle of the goldfields, they built a hotel. Jean-Francois Vandenbroecke now used the name 'Frank Vanderbrook'. He was a member of the first fire department in San Andreas. Marie-Josephe, or 'Josephine', as she now calls herself operated a millinery business.
After 1860 we have no record of Jean-François Vandenbroecke or his wife.
Daughter Josephine Vandenbroecke has met Louis-Constant Hautier, distiller and manufacturer of syrups and potions (herbalist) of San Fransisco. They were married December 11, 1856 in San Fransisco.
Louis Hautier was born in Belgium 12 July 1822 to François-Joseph Hautier (born in Barbençon, Belgium) and Cécile-Désirée Dubois (born in Cagnicourt, Pas de Calais-France). Louis and Josephine moved to Victoria, Vancouver's Island (British Columbia, Canada) in 1858. They first opened a confectionary store in Victoria and Louis also manufactured and sold herbal medicine (example: 'Hosteters Bitters'). In early 1860 they took their two children (Louise born 1857 San Fransisco and Alphonse born September 1859 Victoria) up the Fraser Canyon to the small settlement of Lytton. This town is at the confluence of the Fraser and Thompson Rivers and was teeming with gold prospectors at that time. These were the first white children ever to have travelled up the dangerous Fraser Canyon. The baby, Alphonse, was carried on the back of an Indian woman called Lasha.
Later, they moved to Lytton where they built a hotel. They had 7 children of whom the third was my grandmother: Marie Mathilde Hautier.
Josephine Hautier-Vandenbroecke was a well-known concert singer in San Fransisco and in Victoria. She also played the violin and taught her children music. Alphonse Hautier played violin for dances, all through the Cariboo (gold region) most of his adult life.
Josephine died 13 September 1881 at Lytton, and Louis died 6 January 1886 at Lytton.
Stamboom (genealogie/genealogy/généalogie) Lanssens-Denoo: 24.947 personen (individuals, personnes) d.d. 1 december 2024 - site: http://lanssens.be