For the family of Ignace Justin Monnin and Elizabeth Mary Marchal

Ignace Justin Monnin was born on 18 December 1875 in Russia, Shelby County, Ohio.  He was the son of Ignace Monnin, Sr. and Louisa Didier.  Ignace seems to me to be an unusual name.  It is apparently short for "Ignatius".   I have not found a birth record for Ignace yet, so I am not sure whether he was named "Ignatius" or "Ignace" when born.  However, he went by and signed his own name as "Ignace" and so I refer to him as such.  He was obviously named "Ignace" for his father and I believe he was named "Justin" for his father's brother.

Elizabeth Mary Marchal was born on 31 December 1880 in Patterson Township, Darke County, Ohio.  She was the daughter of George Marchal and Mary Peltier.  Sometime between 1880 and 1899, the family moved to Loramie Township.   Ignace and Elizabeth were living within the same community and probably all attended St. Remy Catholic Church and that is probably how they met.   On 17 October 1899, Ignace and Elizabeth were married at St. Remy Church in Russia, Shelby County, Ohio.

In the birth records of Shelby County, Ohio, there is a birth recorded for a son of Ignace and Elizabeth named "Henry C".  He was born on 12 March 1900.   However, by the time the census was taken just 3 months later, he was not listed with his parents.  It would seem that their first son died as an infant.  Interestingly, Ignace and Elizabeth named their next child, a son, "Clarence Henry".  In the old days, often if an infant died, the parents would name their next child the same name, or nearly the same.  This child was previously unknown to current descendants, but the facts all seem to fit together.

By the 1910 census,  Ignace and Elizabeth are listed as living in Loramie Township, Shelby County, Ohio.  Ignace is listed as a farmer, and they owned their farm, but had a mortagage.  With them are listed 5 children:    Clarence, Esther, Eveline, Wilfred, and their newest baby Irvin.

World War I started around 1917. And on 12 Sept 1918, Ignace registered for the draft at his local Shelby County board.  His full name of "Ignace Justin Monnin" was recorded as well as his birthdate of December 18, 1875.  He was listed as of medium height and medium build, with possibly blue eyes (hard to read the image) and auburn hair.  He listed his home address as Houston, Shelby County, Ohio.  He was age 42 at this time, so it is highly doubtful that he would have been drafted. 

On the 1920 census, Ignace and Elizabeth are living in Loramie Township, Shelby County, Ohio.  Ignace is listed as a farmer working on his own farm.  In their household were their 5 children,  Clarence age 18, Ester [sic] age 17, Evelyn age 15, Wolfred [sic] age 11, Ivan [sic] age 9.  By 1930, they are still living at their farm in Loramie Township, with only their youngest son Irvin age 20, still at home.

The children married and all moved away and Ignace and Elizabeth lived on their farm.  On 01 January 1934, Ignace was confirmed to have cancer of the prostate gland.  He was ill for a short time and died at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Dayton Ohio just one month later on 01 Feb 1934.

After Ignace died, Elizabeth remained on the home farm.   At some point she remarried to Pete Monnin.  Pete was the son of Francois Justin Monnin.  Pete had also been remarried before, to a woman with a maiden name of Pour.  Pete and Elizabeth married, probably in the late 1930s.  At some point she sold her farmhouse to her son Clarence.  Perhaps it was when she got remarried.   Pete died sometime between around 1940 and 1956.

One of her grandsons remembered her as being a really nice lady and that he liked her real well.  She was a typical grandmother.  She never had a pair of slacks on in her life and always wore a dress.   In the last years of her life, she would stay 2 or 3 months with each of her kids.   On 29 December 1956, she died in her sleep of a cerebral hemorrhage at her own farmhouse, which was then owned by her son Clarence.   Elizabeth had outlived two husbands.  Both Ignace and Elizabeth are buried in the St. Remy Cemetery, in Russia, Shelby County, Ohio. 

I have just begun research on this family and at the present time, do not have any other documents on them. There are 6 known children, all surname MONNIN:

  Email any comments to Jan Monnin
This web site was last updated on December 30, 2008