Ambrose Jr. Cyrette

Ambrose Jr. Cyrette
Born	1873-01-05 County of Thunder Bay
Died	1920-12-08 Fort William Reserve
Years in Thunder Bay	lifelong (1873–1920)
Occupation	labourer
Father	Ambrose Cyrette
Mother	Louise Charles
Children	Eliza Cyrette

Ambrose Jr. Cyrette ((1873-01-05)5 January 1873 – (1920-12-08)8 December 1920) was a labourer of the Fort William reserve, Ontario. He was the son of Ambrose Cyrette and Louise Charles.

The Ontario civil birth register records him as Ambroise, a male child born on 5 January 1873 in the County of Thunder Bay. His father is named Ambroise Cyrette and his mother Louise Louir (that surname is not perfectly clear on the register; the 1920 death registration writes the maiden name as Louise Charles). The entry was registered on 6 January 1873. It describes the father as "Proprietor of a tug."

The Ontario death registration (032078, entry no. 5, County of Thunder Bay) enters him as Ambrose Cyrette, a married labourer, kind of industry "Varied", age 47 years, 11 months and 3 days, born at Fort William I.R. The racial-origin field is written "Indian." It names his father as Ambrose Cyrette, born at Fort William I.R., and the maiden name of his mother as Louise Charles, also born at Fort William I.R. The informant was Frank Williams of Fort William, entered as brother-in-law. The place of burial is Fort William I.R., on 10 December 1920; the undertaker is written "Ed Gordon (Indian)", of Fort William (Ed Gordon). The cause of death is written "Tuberculosis-." Length of residence is written "always" at the place of death.

The date of death is not on the two frames of the registration that have been seen (the date-of-death line would fall below the cause of death, which is already at the edge of the image). The Fort William Daily Times-Journal death index records that he died on 8 December 1920 at Squaw Bay, age 44. Age 47 years, 11 months and 3 days counted from 5 January 1873 is 8 December 1920, which agrees with the index date. The index place Squaw Bay and the registration place Fort William I.R. are not treated as a conflict.

These ages do not all agree, and they are not reconciled here. The birth register and the death registration's stated age agree with each other. On the Fort William Band schedule of the 1901 Census of Canada, enumerated as of 31 March 1901, he is entered as Leyrette Ambrose Jr, age 25, which would imply a birth about 1875 or 1876. The newspaper index age of 44 also implies a birth about 1876. The article uses the birth-register date; the census and index figures are recorded. Leyrette is the form used for the Cyrette surname on the 1901 schedule. The schedule has no birth-date column.

1901 census

The 1901 return enters him as the head of family 344 on Book #2, page 15 (LAC reel T-6554, image 827), with wife Agnes, 18, and daughter Eliza, 3, born in Manitoba.

Treaty annuity

Cyrette was named on the Fort William paylists of the Robinson-Superior Treaty annuity payments as Cyrette Ambrose Jr, including ticket 145 in 1897, 1898 and 1899. The 1897 remarks on ticket 4 and ticket 145 are a primary statement that ticket 145 was a "Boy from no 4" and a "Girl from no 9": "No 4. boy married to girl of No 9 now 145." Ticket 4 was Ambrose Cyrette from 1889 to 1900. Together with the 1873 birth register and the 1920 death registration, both of which name the father as Ambroise or Ambrose Cyrette, he is identified as the son of that man. The remarks do not name the wife.

Son George, 1924 marriage

The Ontario marriage affidavit for George Cyrette and Clara Singleton, 16 December 1924 at the Fort William Mission, names the bridegroom's father as Ambroise Cyrette and the maiden name of the bridegroom's mother as Agnes Gordon. The identification of those parents with this man and his wife Agnes Cyrette is very strong. The names are distinctive; both the 1901 household and the 1924 marriage belong to the same Fort William / Squaw Bay community; this man died at the Fort William reserve in 1920; George, age 20 in December 1924 (born about 1904), fits a couple who were enumerated together in 1901; and no second couple of these names is known in that community. The 1924 record does not name ticket 9 or Louisa Gordon, and it does not settle whether Agnes was the "Girl from no 9" of the 1897 remarks.