The Albert's of Westbrook have two distinct legacies: one related to the industrial history of the city and one related to a once-thriving and revered local business. Before these legacies came about in Westbrook, the Albert ancestors raised their families in Canada, and earlier in France.

The photo to the right shows many Albert descendents at a 2010 family gathering in Westbrook, Maine.

The industrial legacy of the Albert family began when a young man named Ferdinand Albert (1864-1929) emigrated from the province of New Brunswick, Canada to the city of Westbrook, Maine. Ferdinand was the son of Leandre Albert and Phoebee Poulin of Caraquet. Like so many other French Canadian individuals and families in the late nineteenth century, thoughts of a more prosperous life compelled Ferdinand to leave Canada. The 1881 Census of Canada listed Ferdinand as a sixteen-year-old farmer's son. A few years later, he would decide to redirect his destiny from agriculture in his homeland to industry in a new land. Descended from many generations of fishermen, and later farmers, Ferdinand made his way from Canada, c.1887*. See the relative distance between Caraquet and Portland in the map below. The trip itself must have been filled with incredible adventures and dangers.

To set the historic timeframe of Ferdinand's journey, Karl Friedrich Benz invented the first gasoline automobile in 1886. Also at this time, a new beverage came out on the market - Cola Cola.

 In 1895, Ferdinand married Georgiana Hebert in Westbrook. The image to the left may be the only picture we have of Ferdinand. He worked as a silk weaver at the Haskell Silk Mill.** 

Auguste Albert (1900-1982), known as "Gus", developed a reputation as a devoted astute businessman, and was much respected and loved by his family and loyal customers.  He inspired this writer to create a blog on the genealogy of the Albert's called August Legacy (augustlegacy.blogspot.com).

In this photograph, Auguste Albert is shown with his wife,  Bernadette (Gagnon) Albert, at Kinney Shores in Saco where they lived for many years.

Our immigrant ancestor from Europe, Gabriel Albert (c.1738-1795), emigrated from Normandy, France, to the town of Pabos (Gaspe region of Canada) to work as a fisherman. Well before Jamestown and Plymouth Rock, French fishermen were reaping the benefits of the abundant fishing grounds off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Pabos became an important fishing harbor. Gabriel married Genevieve Le Bouthillier in 1751.***

***Gallant, Les Registres de la Gaspésie in Mémoires (Montreal: Societe Genealogique Canadienne-Francaise, 1961), p. 105.

Monument to the Founders of Caraquet     
Source: Wikipedia

As a result of a northern campaign in the French and Indian War, British forces burned Pabos in 1758 causing settlers to scatter. To ascertain the whereabouts of the Acadian population after their tragic 1755 expulsion, an official from Montreal, Pierre duCalvet, went to the Gaspe Peninsula in 1761 to conduct a census. Although not Acadian, Gabriel Albert (and his wife and first son) were among the counted, and found to be living on Caraquet Island. In the Royal Proclamation of 1763, the Albert family moved to the mainland. They were among a group of families allowed to settle on uninhabited land in Caraquet proper.

Later and more famously, Gabriel and his first son, Pierre, received 400 acres of land through a royal decree in the "Great Grant of 1784". The grant brought ownership of the lands they were settling on. Thirty-two other families also received land grants, and these folks became known as the Founding Families of Caraquet. The government of Nova Scotia administered the grants because New Brunswick had not yet become a province.

The diagram below shows the Albert genealogy from Gabriel Albert to the children of Auguste Albert. Jean-Baptiste Albert (c.1760-1830) was Gabriel's second son.

Leanne Hudson of Stamford, CT wrote to us recently about her great grandparents Joseph E. and Eugenie (St. Pierre) LaBrecque.  Joe was one of 13 children of a Westbrook family. He and Eugenie were married in 1933 when Eugenie was 45 and Joseph was 36. (Their wedding picture is seen here).  Around 1945 they moved to a home beside the Stroudwater River, at 546 Spring Street, where they would live for the next 30 years.

Eugenie was an artist and the river became an inspiration for some of her paintings. Leanne sent a copy of one of Eugenie’s paintings which appears to be of the old Johnson’s Mill which sat on the river, in line with Brackett Street, around the turn of the century.  Leanne’s mother told her that years ago Warren Memorial Library exhibited Eugenie's artwork.

Joe was also an ‘artist’ but his projects were created in his workshop where his great grandchildren spent many an hour watching over him as he  made everything from whirly gigs to glider swings. And, as Eugenie signed her paintings, Joe burned his signature into a wall in his shop.  Leanne states that Joe was a wonderful unique human being…a true one of a kind.  She called him “Beautiful Joe” as in the vintage storybook that was given to her by Eugenie. Leanne still has that book and it is dated late 1800s in pencil on the inside cover which tells her that her grandmother had it as a child as well.