Series

This series focusses on members of the Desjardins and Mathieu families. In particular, it chronicles the personal lives of Marie Louise Desjardins and Adolphe Mathieu and their relationship with their daughter Yvonne, who married Georges Ovide Leclère in 1892.

The series is composed largely of letters sent by Yvonne Mathieu to her parents in 1893 and 1894. The young woman recounts her social activities, the progress of her pregnancy, and her preparations for the upcoming birth. While she openly shares her happiness at becoming a wife, she also notes her day-to-day worries about the couple's move to Quebec City and her husband's heavy professional responsibilities as a branch manager of La Banque Jacques-Cartier. The young wife's letters are tinged with her constant anxiety about the couple's finances. Even though both young people were born into wealthy families and were members of Quebec City high society, they often felt compelled to limit their social outings. The missives also convey Yvonne's sadness at having to live far from her parents, regularly expressing her concerns about their health.

In addition, the series contains several letters sent between Marie Louise Desjardins and Adolphe Mathieu, notably when the latter visited the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. After sending a first missive recounting his exhausting, uncomfortable journey to Chicago in a Pullman car, several days later he is enchanted by what he has seen at the fair and excitedly writes to urge his wife to join him. A letter from his daughter's father-in-law, Georges Samuel Leclère, illustrates the friendship uniting Georges Ovide Leclère and Yvonne Mathieu's respective families. Several communications provide information about other Desjardins family members, including Marie Louise's brother, Rodolphe Desjardins, who lives in Memphis, Tennessee, and her cousin Berthe, who writes to her from Hull. In 1902, young Marguerite (probably the daughter of Georges Ovide Leclère and Yvonne Mathieu) sends a letter to her Mathieu grandparents.

Besides correspondence, there are several other documents associated with Marie Louise Desjardins, including a recipe for dandelion wine, a photocopy of a letter published in La Presse about her father, the Patriot F. X. Desjardins, a memorial card, and the invoice for her husband Adolphe Mathieu's gravestone. There is also the genealogy of Joseph Desjardins and several notarial documents associated with the widow of Antoine Desjardins. A grant dated January 4, 1755, between the Pauvres de l'Hôtel-Dieu de Québec and Pierre Moisan, along with an excerpt of the baptismal certificate of Micheles (Michel) Moisan, the son of Pierre Moisan and Magdeleine Mathieux born August 20, 1750, complete the series.