BONNYVILLE – Earlier this spring, Linda and Roy Friedlander were travelling in Vietnam when they saw the news on BBC that Bonnyville Reeve Barry Kalinski was stranded in Haiti. Linda was born in Haiti, and her grandfather, Alphonse Barreyre, was one of the original settlers in Bonnyville and named what many know as Barrier Lake, as well as Charlotte Lake after his wife Charlotte Barreyre.
Curious to further investigate her family's history, Linda contacted Kalinski and arranged a trip to Bonnyville during the week of Aug. 22.
“Before I even heard about Barry and his story in Haiti, I had already planned to come visit Bonnyville and it was on my bucket list to see where my grandparents settled,” said Linda.
Linda and Roy live in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, and Linda, though born in Haiti, has maintained her Canadian citizenship. Her father was born in Edmonton, during his parents’ years in Bonnyville living on section 14, north of Charlotte Lake.
Linda also spent time investigating the Bonnyville museum to see if she could find which exact quarter section her grandparents were on and gain some timeline clarity.
Alphonse and Charlotte Barreyre, despite heralding from the stately Barreyre family Chateau and vineyard in Barsac, Gironde, France, moved to Bonnyville for a stint, before the weather drove them east to Montreal.
Alphonse was a Tour de France cyclist, who took his family not only to the wild Canadian frontier, but to Brazil, and Haiti. He cycled all through different parts of South America.
Charlotte had her first child in Rio de Janeiro Brazil. They returned to France, and Charlotte had two more children in 1900 and 1904, before they moved to Bonnyville and Linda’s father Guy Barreyre was born in 1908.
“So, sometime between 1904 and 1908 my grandfather moved here [to Bonnyville] from France. We haven’t found the exact dates,” said Linda.
“All I know is that it was too cold for my grandmother, and they moved to Montreal - I can't figure out when they did that, but there is a picture of my grandmother in a big fur coat in front of a log cabin in here [in Bonnyville]. My father looked about four or five years of age... So that was taken around that time and they moved after that,” explained Linda.
“He never got far with the land. All I know is that there was a cabin,” she added.
“The Dominion Land Grants dictated that they give you land, and you had to stay on it for three years. You had to build a cabin, and you had to build a barn – indicating you probably had some livestock. You had to clear three acres – one acre per year. After those three years, if you'd done all that, the land was yours,” said Roy.
“My grandfather Alphonse seemed to be an adventurer. He was a professional cyclist, and he moved his wife down to Brazil, and he’s cycling all over Brazil, Argentina, and the Amazon... He seemed to be the type of guy who was antsy. He had to be doing something... He ended up in Port-au-Prince Haiti,” said Linda.
“My father went to business school in New York... then went back to Haiti to open a business - a general store and a car dealership where his older brother and his father, Alphonse, worked as mechanics... My father lived in Haiti for 42 years. Both grandparents, Charlotte and Alphonse, died and are buried in Haiti,” continued Linda.
“I was born in Haiti in 1949, so I only knew my grandfather for three years. I never knew my grandmother,” said Linda. Her family eventually moved to Montreal.
Both Linda and her Brother Bernie Barreyre were registered at the Canadian Embassy as Canadian Citizens in Haiti. Bernie came to Bonnyville eight years ago to visit.
“He was doing the same thing that I’m doing, but he didn’t have a Barry - a reeve helping him. He kind of came on his own,” said Linda.
“When I look around, I think of what it might have been like in 1908 and wonder what brought my grandfather here. Life must have been tough here, and considering he had such a nice life in France, I really wonder what drew him here. He must have been crazy, a real adventurer – just couldn't sit still,” Linda said, with a laugh.
Linda’s next step is to connect with an older cousin on her father's side who now lives in Texas.
“She has a very good memory, and I want to call her and try to fill in some gaps.”
