Boullet Tree

The Boullet / Melchoir Tree

Grandpa's side

Rev. 12/1/22

Joseph Boullet Jr. (Grandpa's Father)

This is the only photo that somewhat proves that this is him (Mr. J. Boullet). Aunt Ellen told me that she has had this nagging question in her mind about who her grandfather was. So here he is!

For quite a while, I was confused about who grandpa's dad was also. To learn more about that, Check out 'The Mystery'.

Joseph was born April 11, 1879. He was the middle child of 4 siblings born between 1876 and 1882: Rene Westly (RW), George, Mary, and Nancy, who died young in a motorcycle accident.
At 20 yrs. old, he registered for Military Service on Jan 28, 1899. He served in the Spanish American War as a foot soldier, not advancing beyond private in rank.

Joseph's Boullet's Parents

His Dad was Joseph Rene Boullet Jr. - born in Alabama and lived from 1841 to 1896 (55 years).

Joseph Rene Jr's parents were:

Joseph Rene Boullet Sr. - born 1810 in France.
Olivia Sinclair - born in New Orleans and lived from 1825 to 1883 (58 years).

His Mom was Olivia Hedden Ayers - born in Maryland and lived from 1850 to 1936 (86 years).

Olivia Hedden Ayers' parents were:

John Clarkson Ayers - Born in New Jersey and lived from 1820 to 1898 (78 years)
Maria D. Keller - Born in Maryland and lived from 1819 to 1907 (88 years).

Anna Caroline Melchior - Grandpa's Mom

We knew her as "Nana in Calistoga". In fact, she was Mom's Nana.

Anna Melchoir - Left, was born Aug. 26, 1884 in California. She died Nov 2, 1971 in Calistoga, California at 87 yrs.

Mary Melchior - Right (aka 'Mame', and 'Marie'), Anna's slightly older sister, married a man with last name Hickey and was known to us as Aunt Marie Hickey. She lived in Oakland and we would occasionally visit her. See more about her at 'The Mystery'

Anna's parents (our great-great grandparents), Johan and Caroline Melchior were both born in Denmark.

Johan was born in 1852 and immigrated in 1860. He died in 1899.

Caroline was born in 1857 and immigrated in 1880.

They married in 1881 when he was 29 and she was 24.

Together they had two daughters (Anna and Mary) and one son (John) between 1883 and 1888.

Caroline lived in Santa Cruz, California, when she was 72.

Caroline died in 1947 at 90 yrs old.

The Melchiors circa 1895

Anna is on the right.

Johan (the dad) died in 1899 at 47 yrs old.

1900 Census

Shows Annie (15) with Caroline (mom - 43), sister Mary (16) , and brother John (13). Shows she is Head of the household and (M)arried but Johan died the year before at 47.

Joseph and Anna's Story (Grandpa's parents)

Joseph and Anna's story together was VERY short - no more than 1 year.

Jan 31, 1904

They are married. He was 24, she was 19. Her sister and his brother RW were bridesmaid and groomsman. To learn more about some of the other people, you could visit his page at Ancestry.

10 months later, in Nov, 1904, their only son Rene Joseph Boullet (grandpa) was born. And that was to be the end of their story together. The rest of this page is how they spent their time separately. Anna appears to have raised Rene by herself, without the help of Joseph.

November 1904

RW throws a party for George. Anna attends, just before, or after Grandpa was born. But Joseph apparently does NOT attend. Another insight I get from this: RW seems to be a leader and has many friends. There are a lot of pictures of people below who I don't recognize. They are probably friends.

1904 Voter Registration

1904, the same year that they were married, Joseph appears to be living alone in Oakland on 16th St. His brothers, George and Rene, are living on 15th St.

If Anna were with him, she would show up here.

1906 Calif. Voter Registration

But just to confirm it, 2 yrs later he moved in with brother Rene Westly. George has moved out.

Their Uncle Henry Boullet, (their dad's brother) is living at 1408, right next door.

January 27, 1909

Five years later, this appeared in the Sacramento Bee :

My guess is that he had deserted almost immediately after they were married.

April 4, 1909

Joseph was fired from his job as brakeman on a railroad. Now a public record. How embarrassing!

1910 Census

Shows:

Anna Boullet, age 26, Head of household - now Widowed! Strange because Joseph dies in 1940. His status is temporary because later she lists her status as Divorced.
The '2' is children born! If it had lived, grandpa would have had a sibling. The '1' is children living (grandpa).
She lived on Canyon Road in Alameda County with her son Rene (5) and Marie (her sister - 27), and a boarder.
Both Anna and her sister Mame (Mary/Marie) worked as dressmaker's out of their house.

Shows:

Joseph (age 31) living with his Mom (Head), brothers RW and George, and sister Nancy (now married) at 1418 15th St. in Oakland.
This shows his occupation as 'Brakeman' with the railroad. Either he is in denial, or he found another job.
Note: Finding this record was lucky as the digitizer interpreted their last name as Bassllat.

1916 Voter Registration

Shows that she was living at #23 in Mission San Jose Precinct with 11 yr old son Rene, working as a housewife.

Anna Melchoir worked at Darrows bakery in Niles, California, iin the Mission San Jose neighborhood. Aunt Ellen has a decorator plate from Darrow's Bakery where Anna and her sister worked. Here is a vintage postcard of Darrows:

Mom told me that Anna owned a candy store at one time. It's possible that she owned this store, but I found not evidence to prove it.

And a picture of young Rene and his mom Anna with her sister Marie (center front) at the store:

1920 Census

Shows Anna:

She was living alone on San Jon Road in Alameda county, 36 yrs old. Where is 15 yr old grandpa? Maybe she didn't want to count him in the census.
She was now Divorced (no longer widowed). Her occupation is 'candy merchant'. I could find no 'San Jon Road' in Alameda County.

Shows Joseph:

Now 41, he is living with his brother RW and mother Olivia on 1809 89th Ave in Oakland, Divorced, and working as a Driller in a shipyard.

May, 1922

At age 43, Joseph files for pension with the US Civil War Pension Index. Apparently he is an invalid. He lists no dependents.

1923 City directory

Shows Anna, now 39 yrs, back to 'widowed' from 'Jos' and living at 204 San Jose Ave in SF with 18 yr. old son Rene. Grandpa and Nana were married 2 yrs later.

1930 Census

Shows Joseph, age 50, Widowed, originally married at age 24, still living with RW and now his Mom at the same address as in 1910. He is now working as a Millhand along with his brother. He is a veteran from the Spanish American (SP) war (last entry right).

1940 Census

Shows Anna, now 55, as the head of house in Fort Wayne, Indiana living with Etta Viets. This is the year that Mom visited 'Nana'. Etta was the lady with whom she traveled. See the letters.

Shows Joseph, at age 63, was a patient at the Napa State 'Insane Asylum'.

Joseph died April 2, 1940 at almost 61 yrs. old.

He is buried at the Presidio Cemetery.

See the location of his tombstone

1956 City directory

At 72 yrs, shows her in Calistoga, Ca. living alone and widowed to Joseph. This time she finally IS a widow, albeit a Divorced Widow.

Nov 2, 1971

Anna Melchior-Boullet passed away in Calistoga, California at age 87.

Myself and my older brothers would take turns spending a week or so during the summer with her. By my calculations, she was in her early 80's when she took us in. Ken tells a similar story of his family stopping by to visit on the way to, and from, a family vacation. I remember her as always being very nice to us.

But apparently Nana didn't think too highly of her Mother-in-Law. When Anna died, I drove Mom and Nana up to Calistoga to attend the funeral. During the open casket session, with about 10 onlookers, I watched Nana yell at Anna in her casket. It was finally time to tell her off!

I can find no record of where she is buried.

Next up?

The Palmer Tree (Nana's Side)

Grandpa and Nana's life together.

Old Boullet Photos

Old Melchior Photos