Monday, October 17, 2016

Real Photo Postcard of Jean Baptiste Leclerc and his Beautiful Team of Horses


Note of October 19, 2016:  Be sure to scroll down to the comments section where a reader has researched the printer of the postcard and is fairly sure the card was produced in Canada.  In addition, he identified several possibilities for Jean Baptiste Leclerc.

Real photo postcard of a man who identified himself on the reverse as Jean Baptiste Leclerc.   The postcard was found with a collection of photographs, most of them, but not all, of Maine people and scenes.

His message is written in French, which might point to Quebec or the Maritime provinces, but French was - and is - spoken in several states in the U.S. as well, including Maine.

He's wearing a cap that looks to be part of a uniform and is driving a pair of horses in a fancy harness, festooned with hearts.  Perhaps his occupation was driving for hire; or perhaps this was the harness he used for special occasions.

Sadly, there's no clue to the locale.

The photograph was purchased with a group of photographs, most of which, though not all, were from Maine.  And there just so happened to be a Jean Baptiste Leclerc born at Brunswick, Maine, on August 1, 1887, son of Guillaume Leclerc and Lena Demere Leclerc.

But I'm not sure U.S. postcards used the phrase "For Inland Postage", so the card might have been produced in Canada.


If you have a relative named Jean Baptiste Leclerc who took great pride in his team of horses, please check your family albums for a resemblance to the fellow shown on the postcard.

Thanks for stopping by!

3 comments:

  1. Sorry, I think my comments went on another post. Here they are where they belong

    I've been waiting for a puzzle you haven't solved already.

    First off, the French message is
    "This card here is my friend Jean Baptiste Leclerc is my best friend"

    There must be some punctuation but I can't see it.

    Then I noticed the odd decorations that make up the stamp box and started Googling. The distinguishing mark is the AZO Logo with the circles in each corner. AZO cards can be dated by whether they have squares, triangles, diamonds, etc., in the corner etc. Only a few evidently had circles.

    At http://www.playle.com/realphoto/photoa.php, it says this about AZO postcards:

    AZO (British/Canadian)
    Circles in corners
    1908-1911 known

    At http://histclo.com/photo/pc/type/per/pct-perc.html it says pretty much the same,
    AZO* 1908-11K
    Circles in corners

    This site has a specific example of this type of card at http://histclo.com/country/can/fam/1910/cf-nbrud01.html

    The text on that page says:

    "This is an AZO postcard. That means the company who manufactured the postcard paper. Because of differences in the design of the back of the cards, it is often possible to date these cards--especially the stamp boxes. . . The AZO stamp boxes with circles at the corners are known to date from 1908-11. This was a mark used in Britain and Canada. These are the known dates, the actual year span could be wider. Thus we can safely say that this photograph was taken about 1910."

    The image being referred to is protected by a password, but the page says it was taken in New Brunswick.


    Searching at http://automatedgenealogy.com/census for the 1901 Census of Canada, looking for Soundex matches for Leclerc and a given name of Jean, a male, gets this:

    Leclair Jean B 35 QU LAPRAIRIE & NAPIERVILLE Saint-Michel-Archange j-1 3 43
    Leclair Jean B. 27 ON CORNWALL & STORMONT Cornwall (Township/Canton) b-1 14 11
    Leclerc Jean B. 4 QU RIMOUSKI Saint-Fabien r-2 7 33
    Leclaire Jean Baptice 3 QU QUÉBEC (City/Cité) (East/Est) Quebec (City/Cité) (East/Est) Saint-Sauveur (Ward/Quartier) c-1 17 12
    Leclerc Jean Baptiste 37 MB PROVENCHER St. Boniface (Town/Ville) i-2 6 27
    Leclerc Jean Baptiste 2 mois QU LOTBINIÈRE Sainte-Emilie i 9 7
    Leclerc Jean Baptiste 67 QU RICHELIEU Sorel (City/Cité) k-1 8 14
    Leclerc Jean Baptiste 34 QU RICHELIEU Sorel (City/Cité) k-1 8 16
    Leclerc Jean Batiste 19 QU LÉVIS Lévis (City/Cité) c-11 3 43
    Leclerc Jean Bte 17 QU MAISONNEUVE Maisonneuve (Town/Ville) c-6 12 16
    Leclerc Jean Bte. 72 QU DORCHESTER Saint-Édouard-de-Frampton e-2 9 32
    Leclaire Jean Bte. 9 QU JACQUES-CARTIER Lachine (Town/Ville) d-5 8 50
    Leclaire Jean Bte. 30 QU MONTRÉAL (City/Cité)/176 Montréal (City/Cité) Saint-Jacques (Ward/Quartier) b-54 6 36

    How old is the man in the photo, which was taken in 1908-1911? I can't tell. At least 16 and not more than 50 maybe?
    So maybe we are down to these men, ages as of 1901, 6 in Quebec 1 in Ontario, 1 in Manitoba:

    Leclair Jean B 35 QU LAPRAIRIE & NAPIERVILLE Saint-Michel-Archange j-1 3 43
    Leclair Jean B. 27 ON CORNWALL & STORMONT Cornwall (Township/Canton) b-1 14 11
    Leclerc Jean Baptiste 34 QU RICHELIEU Sorel (City/Cité) k-1 8 16
    Leclerc Jean Batiste 19 QU LÉVIS Lévis (City/Cité) c-11 3 43
    Leclerc Jean Bte 17 QU MAISONNEUVE Maisonneuve (Town/Ville) c-6 12 16
    Leclaire Jean Bte. 9 QU JACQUES-CARTIER Lachine (Town/Ville) d-5 8 50
    Leclaire Jean Bte. 30 QU MONTRÉAL (City/Cité)/176 Montréal (City/Cité) Saint-Jacques (Ward/Quartier) b-54 6 36
    Leclerc Jean Baptiste 37 MB PROVENCHER St. Boniface (Town/Ville) i-2 6 27

    We might eliminate the man in a Ward of Montréal also because of the horses, cart, and scenery.

    Can we eliminate the one result from Manitoba (MB) as being too far from Maine to have a best friend there?


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  2. I should add:
    There were more men listed as J Leclerc or Jean Leclerc. The ones I listed in the last comment were only the ones named Jean B or Jean Baptiste.

    And this is the breakdown by province for the surname Leclerc and soundex matches:

    BC (2) MB (29) NB (12) ON (55) PE (50) QU (2905) Territories (42)

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for your great work, Ed! By the way, it was common for men (and women) from Maine, the Maritimes and, I assume, Quebec, to go west for work. A lot of them probably stayed in the west, married and settled down. Many of them returned, some with their families in tow. So JBL's best friend could be from anywhere across Canada.

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