Fonds
The members of the Grignon and Guèvremont families covered by this fonds primarily lived in the regions of Saint-Jérôme, Sainte-Scholastique, Montreal and Sorel.
Both natives of Saint-Jérôme, VALENTINE LABELLE (1868-1932) and JOSEPH-JÉRÔME GRIGNON (1863-1930) had two daughters, Jeanne and Germaine.
In 1915, JEANNE GRIGNON (1890-?) married Benedict W. (Bill) Nyson, a journalist of Norwegian extraction. Their twin daughters, GERMAINE NYSON (1916-1984) and JEANNE NYSON (1916-19??), were born in 1916. Daughter Jeanne married Gordon Bryan Dawson in 1957.
GERMAINE GRIGNON (1893-1968) attended school in Sainte-Scholastique, Saint-Jérôme, Lachine and Toronto (Loretto Abbey), and then worked as a court reporter in Sainte-Scholastique. In 1916, she married HYACINTHE GUÈVREMONT, son of notary ALFRED GUÈVREMONT (1859-?) and OLIVE BEAUCHEMIN (1859-?). They had five children: Marthe, Louise, Jean, Lucille and Marcelle.
The family moved to Ottawa in 1916, then lived in Sorel from 1920 to 1935, and finally settled in Montreal. During their time in Sorel, Germaine Guèvremont began her career as a journalist, writing articles for The Gazette in Montreal and Le Courrier de Sorel. She also wrote for the magazines Paysana and L'oeil. In 1942, she published her first book, a short story collection entitled En pleine terre. A year later, two chapters of what would be her most famous work, Le Survenant, appeared in the magazine Gants du ciel. The novel was published in 1945 by Éditions Beauchemin, and in 1946 by Éditions Plon in Paris. It was awarded the Prix Duvernay, the Prix David and the Prix Sully-Olivier de Serres from the Académie française. Marie-Didace, the sequel to Le Survenant, came out in 1947. With this additional literary success, Germaine Guèvremont was invited to join the Académie canadienne-françasie in 1948. Additional awards and honours included the Governor General's Award in 1950 (for The Outlander, an English translation of her two novels in one volume), honourary doctorates from Université Laval (1952) and the University of Ottawa (1960), and election to the Royal Society of Canada (1962). In addition, her novels were adapted for radio (1951), television (1954-1960) and film (1957), earning her much public recognition.
Scope and Content
This fonds chronicles the lives and work of members of two Quebec families, covering the years 1892 to 1974. It is a fascinating contribution to the artistic and cultural history of Quebec, family and domestic history, military history and the history of leisure.
Much of the fonds relates to the life of author Germaine Grignon Guèvremont and various members of her immediate family, including her husband Hyacinthe Guèvremont, her parents-in-law Alfred Guèvremont and Olive Beauchemin, her mother Valentine Labelle and her father Joseph-Jérôme Grignon. Several documents are also associated with her sister Jeanne Grignon and her husband, Bill Nyson, along with their twin girls, Jeanne and Germaine Nyson.
The fonds records Germaine Guèvremont's writing career, in the form of autographed works and an invitation to receive an honourary doctorate. There are also letters exchanged with her mother Valentine and her daughter Marthe. In addition, numerous records document the relationship between Jeanne Grignon and her husband Bill Nyson, a journalist for The Montreal Star.
Among the family documents in the fonds are birth, baptismal, marriage and death certificates, declarations of transmission for estates, and two hand-written journals from the Chalet des Vignes (1915-1921). There are also a few documents about the brief professional hockey career of Hyacinthe Guèvremont, notably his stint with the Montreal Canadiens.
The fonds features several epistolary documents, including a letter from Claude-Henri Grignon to Jeanne Grignon Nyson about Germaine Guèvremont's last visit before her death, and love letters sent to Germaine Grignon Nyson from Andràs, a Hungarian immigrant imprisoned in the Ontario Reformatory. In addition, the fonds contains a large number of insurance bonds and mining securities purchased by the family.
Studio portraits of Valentine Labelle, Sheriff Pierre Guèvremont and sisters Jeanne and Germaine Guèvremont supplement the textual records. Finally, photographic media related to Germaine Guèvremont's literary output document things like the filming of the TV series "Le Survenant."
Classification Scheme
Grignon and
Guèvremont Families
P747/A Grignon Family
P747/A1 Joseph-Jérôme Grignon
P747/A2 Valentine Labelle
P747/A3 Jeanne Grignon Nyson
P747/A4 Germaine Nyson
P747/A5 Jeanne Nyson (Neyson) Dawson
P747/B Guèvremont Family
P747/B1 Genealogy
P747/B2 Olive Beauchemin Guèvremont
P747/B3 Hyacinthe Guèvremont
P747/B4 Germaine Grignon Guèvremont
P747/B4,1 Extract
from the register of baptisms
P747/B4,2 Published
Works
P747/B4,3 Correspondence
P747/B4,4 Finances
P747/B5 Other Guèvremont family members and
friends
P747/C Photographs
Physical condition: The Chalet des Vignes journals are fragile and must be handled with care.
Language: The documents are in French and English.
Last update: March 29, 2019
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This project is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Azrieli Foundation and Canadian Heritage.