Frustrations in Finding Essential Data thru Search in Newspaper-Archives

A major event in my life occurred at the begining of 1946 after I had started kindergarten at St-Louis Elementary School – l’Ecole Saint Louis – located in Lower-Centralville, a working-class, Lowell neighborhood, which once consisted mostly of immigrant, French Canadian, Catholic families, going back several generations, after their leaving the desperately poor farm communities of Quebec Province, Canada. Here, they had been able to, at least, start a new life.

For me, this human tragedy represented the first major loss in my, otherwise, garden-variety , day-to-day existence shared with my parents, my brother Bob, cousins, aunts and uncles plus my grand parents on the Charbonneau side of the family.

There I was, surrounded by a friendly, caring and positive group of close family members when, out of nowhere, the news of an involuntary homicide, a double manslaughter case, changed everything forever. Suddenly, the real world around me took on a new and darker meaning.

How could such a terrible thing ever occur?

A Search for Answers after 72 Years

Listed below is some excerpted material from emails that I have sent over the past 15 months that highlight the challenges faced by any evidence-seeker, who hopes to fill in some important gaps.

I had already sent the email below to a reporter for the Lowell Sun and, also,  had directed the same question to a librarian at the Lowell City Library. But, no responses, yet.

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As a former Lowell Sun newsboy from Centralville (Route 487), I have a question that you might be able to answer for me. It falls under the “human interest” category, which is one that you regularly handle in your on-line articles.

Essentially, what happened to most of the newspaper’s articles regarding the city of Lowell in 1946? The on-line source called NewspaperArchives is nearly empty of Lowell Sun articles for most of 1946, a crucial year in a memoir story, which I am writing about my youth in the city.

Do you know, perhaps, how I could obtain a digitized copy of an article that appeared in the Lowell Sun in January, February or early March of 1946?

Also, if you have a little time, please see below the related details and background information.

Thank you for any suggestions along this line.

Paul E. Bolduc, LTI graduate, Class 1961, Physics and Mathematics

Background

It was during that time period – early 1946 – that my kindergarten playmate and friend, Jacqueline Deschenes, fell victim of an involuntary homicide when her mother, Beatrice Deschenes, failed to end her own life through a coal gas poisoning but, regrettably, instead, killed her two children, Jacqueline and Francois while they slept in their bedroom located near the kitchen’s gas stove.

Apropos of this tragic event, for several years now, I have been a member of a local, Albuquerque, memoir-writers group where I have shared many, many anecdotes about my growing-up years in Spindle City along the Merrimack from 1939 to 1961.

Secretly, I have been planning to blend these personal memories regarding the city’s multi-cultural flavors found in foods, customs, languages and, also, neighborhoods like The Acre, Little Canada, Cabot and Moody Streets, the Highlands and Centralville, etc. into a readable tome of interesting, local history.

Naturally, the influence of the many textile mills played a central role on the socioeconomic factors that shaped the city, both financially and psychologically. The hopes, dreams and attitudes of the working class operatives (Greek, Irish, Franco-American, Polish, etc.) were reflected in their purchases made at Pollard’s, the Bon Marche and the Giant Store.

What daily life felt like in the city plays a central role in the text. My stories are about the ordinary people, who were trying to make a living in the city.

These low-wage workers often toiled decade after decade in dead-end jobs, which I could see happening, even as a kid, while visiting Kearney Square on Saturdays. This reality served as the major motivation in my seeking a better life through university training and professional advancement.

Thank you for any help you might provide in my getting access to the related Lowell Sun microfiche data.

Paul E. Bolduc

Note that the family name was also spelled as Deschesnes with the additional “s”.

.The following other emails and postal letters show how lonely this search became.

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