Back in December, Laurie and I located her great grandmother, Doris (LaCasse) Morin. She is interred in St. Michael’s Cemetery in Springfield, MA. Doris’s marker has sunken into the ground considerably. Here is what it looked like before we edged it.
Doris was born in Southbridge, MA on Jan 15, 1897 and died in Springfield, MA on June 10, 1959. She was the daughter of Frank and Mary (Lavallee) LaCasse. Both Frank and Mary had migrated to the United States from French Canada in the late 19th century.
As of this writing, I am undecided on whether the Doris’s maiden name was “LaCasse” or “LaCosse”. Her obituary and census records seem to indicate “LaCasse.” However, her sister Evelyn’s headstone and the obituaries of other family members says “LaCosse.” I would speculate that it was originally “LaCasse” and changed to “LaCosse”. In the 1900 census, Doris’s parents, Frank and Mary were listed as Francois and Marie, so we know they were willing to anglicise their names. My guess is they “LaCosse” is an anglicised version of “LaCasse” as “LaCasse” in French would sound like “LaCosse.”