By MICHAEL F. DWYER
Our three names under study do not bear any resemblance to their originals. The first two have in common that they are translations of French phrases. Nisun may look like a brand of car, but the first clue in deciphering it lies in its pronunciation: “nice sun.” A memorial stone in St. Mary’s Cemetery in Middlebury honors the short life of soldier Harold Nisun. We learn the circumstances of his wartime service and death through a clipping from the Burlington Free Press on August 29, 1944. Working backwards, the 1925 obituary of Harold’s grandfather, Frank Nissun, identifies him as the immigrant from Canada but does not give any clues to his exact birthplace or his parentage. Bridport’s 1900 census entry for Frank’s family reveals his mother as Cloyesupp [??] Bousely, age 101 [!]. Her age had to have been seriously exaggerated because she would not have given birth to Frank when she was in her mid-fifties. More on that momentarily. The marriage record on December 30, 1918 from St. Mary’s Church in Middlebury of Frank’s daughter Mercedes to Thomas Burns provides a key piece of evidence in the transformation of the name. The priest wrote Nisun as Beausoleil [beautiful/nice sunshine]. Throughout New England, Beausoleil often collapsed to Bousley, as we see above in the name of Frank’s mother.
Their story still conceals a mystery. A baby named Vincent, no last name, was baptized in Sherrington, Québec, on April 5, 1854, the out-of-wedlock child of Isabelle Beausoleil—father unknown. Vincent’s birth date and place line up with all the other facts concerning Frank Nisun. Moving to Vermont in the 1870s, he first went by the name Frank Bell when he worked as a farm laborer as described in Weybridge’s 1880 census. My guess is that Isabelle was Frank’s grandmother and in the concealment of a family scandal brought the child to the church for baptism.
On to Tucker, which sounds like a common American surname. An obituary from Vergennes Vermont Enterprise and Reporter in June 1913 gives an overview of 87-year-old man Joseph Tucker who lived in Addison for many years but reveals nothing about parents or specific birthplace. Around 1895, Joseph Tucker, and his wife Lena posed for a studio photograph with two of their sons, Albert and Joseph, Jr. Joseph Jr. married Nellie Parrow on January 7, 1878 as recorded in Addison. Once again, the marriage register of St. Mary’s Church in Middlebury gives us his real name: Beauparlant [smooth talker]! Yes, talker to Tucker. Joseph Sr. was baptized on March 18, 1827 in St. Elisabeth d’Autray, Québec, son of Joseph Beauparlant and Josephte Ladouceur. His ancestor, Jean Beauparlant, a soldier and tailor, came from Nevers, France, and married Josephte Moreau in Montréal on January 7, 1734.
Bunch only has in common with its original name its first letter B. Peter Bunch first shows up in Vermont in Vergennes 1860 census with his wife Mary and four children. Ten years later, Peter gets written as Joseph, Mary as Zoa, but it’s the same family! Their son Joseph Bunch married Mary Garland in Middlebury on February 28, 1881, the church record disclosing his true name as Boesierre [variant spelling], and the names of his parents Peter and Zoa. These names, Pierre Labossière and Zoe Fortin are confirmed in their marriage record from Napierville, Québec, in September 1839. It was the second marriage for each of them. In the reverse of most scenarios that we have studied wherein the greater the distance in time from Canada we see that families settled into the Americanized versions of their name. In the case of their bachelor son, Henry Bunch, who died in 1926, who is buried with his parents, their Labossière gravestone in St Peter’s Cemetery in Vergennes inscribes their names with all the correct French spellings and accent marks. Obviously, the stone dates after Henry’s death and leaves me pondering who felt strongly enough to rehabilitate the name from Bunch? I suspect that Pierre and Zoe’s grandson, Rev. Charles Leo Napoleon Pontbriand (1870-1950), a Catholic priest in the Diocese of Burlington, had a hand in this as his parents are buried in the same cemetery.
