Info on Grandpa Joe and his family...including immigration date.

I am related to Joseph D.; he would be my great-great uncle. You have his father and mother as Louis and Marie
Billette. Marie died on May 14, 1926 in Minneapolis; we guess that Toussaint died sometime between 1900 and
1908—“on the farm” according to my grandmother. She remembers Joseph’s family, telling me last week from
memory that he had a son named Delphas. We have Joseph D.’s parents as Toussaint and Marie (nee Loiselle)
Billette. The child on the 1900 Census whom you have identified as possibly “Andy” was, in fact, named Aime.
Aime Toussaint Billette was my great grandfather; his daughter Lorraine (my grandmother) is living in California (age
91). When he became an adult, Aime used the name Emil; he died in Black Diamond, Washington, in 1937
(myocarditis from having rheumatic fever as a child). His death certificate identifies his mother as Marie Loiselle
(actually spelled “Mary Louizelle” in the document); she was born in Minnesota in 1864. His brother Mack (Maquire
on the 1900 Census) Billette also moved to Washington State; he died in Klickitat County in 1970. Arthur served in
World War I and was gassed; he was knifed to death in the hallway outside his apartment in Minneapolis in
1941—having apparently argued with someone about the war in Europe. Delvina married a man name Plante, but we
lost track of her after 1920. I think she remarried. Della is identified as a Billette in 1910, but as a Loiselle in 1920.
We’re not sure whether she’s a late child or an adopted relation. Emil Billette had gone north to work as a railroad
engineer at the Uno Mine in St. Louis County before his father’s death, so Joe (who married sooner) inherited the farm
in Wright County. Emil married Emily White in Hibbing in 1911; they had three children: Lorraine, Mardell and
Dean A. Billette. Dean served as a radioman on B-17s during World War II and died a few years ago in Missouri.
Mardell married Robert Hall and died in Colorado.
Toussaint, my great-great grandfather, appears on the city directory for Minneapolis in 1889, 1890 and 1891—living
at 1156 North Fremont Avenue. This residence stayed in the family for many years. He was in Minneapolis that because we have Aime’s baptismal certificate from St. Clothilde’s Church (Catholic, and now called St. Anne’s),
dated February 14, 1886. The French-speaking parish of St. Clothilde’s was established in 1884 to serve a large
population of francophone immigrants from Quebec. Toussaint’s answers on the 1900 Census indicate that he arrived
in the US in 1866 and that he was naturalized. I’m currently seeking the record of his naturalization, which will give
more information on his origins.

(This was an email from Scott S to Patty0802, related to us through Grandpa Joe Billette -JMB)