The gang’s all here
City, Museum of Work and Culture host a family reunion for the ages
Branches of the Pierel family tree traveled from as far as France and Texas to descend upon Rhode Island this weekend to celebrate milestone birthdays for two family matriarchs and commemorate six generations of family heritage in Woonsocket.
For Louise Williams of Williamsburg, Virginia, it was as much a reunion as it was a homecoming. Born and raised in Woonsocket, she left the city when she turned 18. With her mother as the oldest of nine children of Emile and Emma Pierel, the first generation of the family to be born in Woonsocket, Williams took it upon herself to begin researching her family's ancestry.
She combed through hundreds of boxes; pages of bulletins, newsletters, and wedding pictures; and sorted it all, saying that she “felt obligated” to share the results
of her research with her extended family.
Saturday's reunion at the Museum of Work and Culture in downtown Woonsocket served as the first attempt for Williams to unveil the family tree, which traced all the way back to France in the 1400s.
“This is unbelievable,” she said as she was greeting distant relatives. “I'm channeling my mother, this was her dream. It's just been overwhelming, that we took the time. It's pretty exciting.”
The two matriarchs being celebrated on Saturday were Viola Pierel, who turned 95 on Aug. 17, and Jeanne-Mance Soucy, wife of former Woonsocket mayor Jean-Paul Soucy, who will be turning 90 years old on Sept. 13. Soucy's husband was mayor from 1957 to 1959.
The Museum of Work and Culture also served as the perfect location to host this most significant of family events.
“I visited the museum and said 'This is our life!' It's a great background, the museum can tell you why our family came here,” Williams said.
Williams' generation of the Pierel family lineage includes 40 cousins from the nine children of Emile and Emma Pierel. The first members of the family to settle in Woonsocket were the parents of Emile and Emma, who were born in Canada but came to Woonsocket in the 1860s.
Jeanne Richardson of Pascoag, Williams' sister, said that the reunion had been in the works for a little over a year. She said that the goal was to create a venue and present the family tree and history.
“We've had reunions before but this time, we announced it well in advance to make sure everyone could make vacation plans,” Richardson said. “We've got cousins from France, some from Texas, Virginia, New Jersey … It's very heartwarming to see so many at one time. We usually only see one or two.”
Seventy-seven people from four generations were in attendance at Saturday's reunion at the Museum of Work and Culture, a location that Richardson said “perfectly aligned with our French Canadian heritage.”
In addition to reconnecting with extended family, those at the reunion were able to share ancestry information that will be culled into a database. Additionally, a Facebook page was established to allow the descendants to communicate from all corners of the globe.
In addition to touring the museum, the descendants were treated to a presentation of the family’s ancestry, tracing the Pierel's beginnings to the earliest European settlers in Canada and their migration to Woonsocket.
Saturday wasn't the only day for the family to share time with one another. It continued with a potluck picnic at Spring Lake Beach in Burrillville on Sunday.