Cyrille Leclerc
Submitted by Louise-Marie Leclerc, (#067), his daughter
I will begin this story of Cyrille, founder of the first association of Leclerc families, by citing one of his own quotations: "This love of our name and our past, I surely owe to my father".
From an early age, he was always fascinated to hear the stories and history recalled by his father about the accomplishments of his grandparents, his uncles and his aunts. The history lessons that he had by the age of 21 lead inevidably to genealogy.
His first Leclerc research was by means of the telephone directory (Quebec, the Lower St. Lawrence River, Montreal, ...). I believe that every Leclerc in those directories had received a call from Cyrille. Such stories, discoveries and anecdotes sprouted from these conversations that wonderful deep friendships were formed.
Then he started making numerous trips to many Quebec towns and parishes, where my father walked out of the presbytries, his arms loaded with copies of valuable documents and unforgetable memories (marriage contracts, births and burials certificates). Several times we accompanied him during his parish visits and a fifteen minute wait extended to an hour or more. The well prepared excuses with songs and stories allowed him to follow up on many leads, without forgetting the numerous stops at the various relations. My God, the relations were numerous, but, joking aside, we loved these family trips and we had our own personal tour guide.
Similarily, his research expanded to the United States where many Leclercs were living there to work and he was always able to obtain the aid of the parish priest.
After all his visits or his calls, came the time to assemble and decode all the information he obtained. What long and arduous work; as you can imagine he took the time to build the Leclerc genealogy. Whenever he met a Leclerc, they just had to tell him their father's name and Cyrille was able to name their grandparents, great grandparents and so on. Because of this, he developed an excellent memory for names.
Then, one day, he had the idea to organize a tricentennial, and he was on his way. He wanted to bridge the relations between the Leclercs of France and America. So Cyrille went to France in the summer of 1961 to research his ancestors. Over there, he met the founder of the Leclerc Store and many welcoming Leclercs. He went from parish to parish, presbytery to presbytery, and he was always well received by the cream of the clergy. Rouen was his main base, as it was there he found valuable documents on the Leclerc ancestors. He did not forget Ocqueville, the birth parish of Marie Blanquet, Jean's wife, as well as the other Leclerc ancestors that he had discovered. Unfortunately, a lot of the numerous and valuable documents (marriage contracts, births, burials) were destroyed during the 1939-1945 war. There is a place that Cyrille did not visit during his trip, and that was Rome to see the Pope.
As you may know, the tricentennial was a hugh success in the summer of 1962. As was his habit, my father did not stop there. Seeing the infatuation of the Leclercs at their reunion, in 1963 he officially founded the very first association of Leclerc Families. He was able to sell his dream to strong Leclerc allies, such as Gaston of Montreal, Rodrigue of Quebec, Robert of Islet-Verte, Jean-Robert of Quebec, Raymond of Trois-Pistoles and Roland of Texas, without forgetting all the other active menbersat the time, from all corners of Quebec. These Leclercs from everywhere carried the torch of pride and the Leclerc Family courage to assemble for a great party year after year.
As usual, Cyrille did not spare his time or his energy creating, in 1964, the first "Revue Le Clerc". He had volunteered for the humble position of Secretary of the association, and took on the positions of Editor and Administator of the Revue as well. All of our family also contributed to the production of this revue: assembling, packaging, collating ... The Association was also a family adventure, as far as appointing the Leclercs of France and the United States as godfather and godmother to two of his children.
Cyrille Leclerc did not have the chance to follow up on his dream for very long due to his death in 1971 at the age of 42. Only seven editions of the Revue Le Clerc were published, as well as a souvenir album of the Tricentennial.
His genealogical work remained on the shelves for many long, very long years after his death. Several Leclercs showed an certain interest for their own research. However, by a family agreement, we wanted to bequeath this heritage to the Leclercs of Quebec. In the mid 80's, with the assistance of Mr. Michel Langlois (National Archives of Quebec) all the genealogical data accumulated by Cyrille was donated , then copied to microfilm under the name:"Fonds d'Archives Cyrille Leclerc". Copies are available in the different branches of the National Archives of Quebec (Quebec, Montral and Ottawa) as well as at our place, the family of Cyrille.
This great passion to regroup the Leclercs was a sacred desire the whole of his short life, and we were urged that his name be allowed to give rebirth to the flame in the souls of the many Leclerc, Leclair and Leclaires.
A long life to the Association of Leclerc Families.