Grace Esther (Williams) Doucette

I have spent the last 10 years searching for any death information for Grace Esther Williams and today was the day she wanted to be found. (I truly believe our ancestors want to be found!) Grace Esther Williams married James Edward Doucette on 28 Dec 1913 in Melrose, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA. During the past 10 years I only knew that when James Edward Doucette got married on 25 Apr 1916 to Grace Catherine McArdle, that he was listed as a "widow." So, I knew that I had a 3-year windows to find some type of death information for Grace Williams. But she eluded me in every search I ever conducted. Until today. Newspapers.com had a free access this weekend and I decided to see what I could find if I put Grace Esther Williams or Grace Esther Doucette into the search box. And this is what it spit out at me:

Wow, I thought to myself, is this really the information I have been searching all this time for? But the newspaper article said Grace died "earlier" in the week! Now, I just needed to find the exact date of her death. Well, I went to my first go-to genealogical website: FamilySearch! I put her name in the search box and pressed enter. After reviewing several entries, I found that she died on 6 July 1914 in Belleville, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada. Which all makes sense because James Edward Doucette had family in Belleville. Grace died while being pregnant, which would have been their first child. James had to bury his wife knowing that he could have been a father in the coming months. They had only been married for 7 months. Grace was buried in Eel Brook, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada on 7 July 1914. Grace's parents are William Thomas Williams and Grace Ellen Hughes, both born in Wales.

I have to admit I expected to find Grace Esther (Williams) Doucette would have died in the Boston area and I did spend quite a bit of time searching the records in and around Boston. One of the main reasons for this assumption was because I had found James Doucette in several City Directories from 1913-1917 in the Boston area. So, this is just a reminder to think outside-the-box and realize that our ancestors didn't just stay in one place. Obviously, James and Grace travelled north to visit his family in Nova Scotia and that is where Grace fell ill and died. Lesson learned!!

Thank you, Grace Esther Williams (20 Dec 1895 - 6 Jul 1914) for wanting to be found today!

UPDATED & ADDITIONAL DETAILS (3 March 2025):

I wrote and email to the Archivist at the Argyle Township Court House & Gaol in Tusket, Nova Scotia, Canada, trying to find out if Grace Esther (Williams) Doucet(t) was actually buried in Sainte-Anne-du-Ruisseau Cemetery. After exchanging a couple of emails back and forth, the cemetery doesn't know exactly where she is buried, but the Sainte-Anne-du-Ruisseau Church burial records lists Grace being buried on 8 July 1914.

"I've been digging through our records to see if we have anything at all on Grace Esther (Williams) Doucet(te) and I'm sorry to say I've come up empty.  I found her death record online as you did, and it does say she was buried in Eel Brook.  I went through our cemetery books for the Ste Anne's cemetery, and she's not listed.  I went through the ones for the cemeteries in the surrounding areas as well, just to be sure, but also found nothing.  I also went through the Yarmouth Herald newspaper on microfilm for the months following her death and there's no death notice or obituary showing.  It's odd … I'd think that being a visitor, pregnant, then dying so young would be something that would be posted, but apparently not."

"It seems I spoke too soon!  I found this in the Ste Anne's church records.  So, she is buried there, but for some reason she wasn't recorded in the cemetery binder.  It could be that her stone is no longer legible or visible, but at least you do know that she was buried there."

Here is the entry of Grace Esther Williams Doucette's burial record from the Sainte-Anne-du-Ruisseau Church Burial Book.