Allen J. Voisine collection of memorial cards

Collection

Identifier: MCC-00588-UP-588

Scope and Contents

This collection contains 51 memorial cards, often featuring the person’s name, date of birth, date of death, and photograph alongside a prayer, with religious imagery decorating the back, in French and English spanning the years 1951-2024.

Dates

Creation: 1951 - 2024

Biographical / Historical

Memorial cards, similar to obituary or prayer cards, are often created by Catholic communities to honor a recently deceased individual. In the Saint John Valley, cards may be printed farther south in Maine and New Hampshire, or north in Quebec. They are distributed to attendees at funerals, wakes, and other gatherings.

Biographical / Historical

Allen J. Voisine was born in 1960 in Fort Kent, Maine, and educated thereafter. After graduating in 1979, he attended Casco Bay College. Throughout his life, he has been fascinated by genealogy, first inspired by the 1977 tv mini-series Roots. His Grand-mère Voisine was an early mentor, sharing family stories and genealogies she remembered over the years. He hand-wrote genealogies for almost two dozen friends and family members, and, after switching to computer processors, used Lotus and VP Planner for his work. He has collaborated with other genealogists and researchers in the area, including Guy Dubay and Léon Guimond.