French Canadian Interview Project

Lenore Duby Pallissard was born in 1915 in rural St. Anne. Her father's ancestors were from Chenille, France and migrated to North America in 1755. Her mother's family, the Boudreau's, came from Normandy, France and they, like the Duby's, settled in Canada which was then called Acadia in what is now known as Nova Scotia. Both the Duby's and the Boudreau's migrated to the United States in 1851 by way of the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes and passed through Ft. Dearborn in what is now known as Chicago. The families traveled with a Catholic priest by covered wagon to Bourbonnais and in 1852 traveled to St. Anne where they purchased land and settled.

Mrs. Pallissard's grandparents (Ralph Joseph Antoine and Marcheline Delongine) were married in 1864 and bought 80 acres of land south of St. Anne. Her other grandparents (Mr. Duby and Eloise Parady) also bought 80 acres of land southwest of St. Anne. Her father was the youngest of six children and his mother died when he was 9 years old. Her parents purchased 890 acres of land near to his parents farm. Mrs. Pallissard was one of seven children and had one sister Blanche.

When she was growing up the family often spoke in French but eventually switched to English. In 1917 a school was built and was called the Pallissard school because Edward Pallissard had donated the land for thes school. In 1932 Mrs. Pallissard graduated from school after attending school in a one-room school and graduated with one other person in her class. The following year she married Paul Pallissard and they settled in rural St. Anne.

In 1942 the family moved to Bourbonnais and in 1947-48 the house burned as a result of an electrical fire. Her 5 brothers all served in the military during WW 2 or Korea. Mrs. Pallisard's husband's great uncle, Armand Pallissard, served in the Civil War and was killed on October 5, 1862 at the Battle of Davis Bridge in Tennessee.