This is a book of photos of my ancestors and my memoirs of the time period that I knew them and my cousins.    I had worked on this for the past 15 years and decided that the time had come to put it in print for my children, grandchildren and a new great grandchild on the way. 

I tried to give a personal glimpse into each family as I knew them, how they lived and some even how they died.  This book is based on my father's surname: Dagenais and his mother's last name: Beloin (vs Blouin).

My grandfather, Josph Dagenais came to New Britain, Connecticut by himself and my grandmother, Victorine Celeste-Marie Beloin came with her Mother and Father,  Hilaire and Florence Gamache Beloin.  Through a city directory I learned that Joseph Dagenais boarded with the Beloin's and from that there were 6 children one, known to me as my Uncle George and the other 4 were my Aunts Laura, Anna, Isabelle, and Victoria. 

I contacted the Societe of Genealogy  for research in Canada about my e Dagenais heritage and was referred to a gentleman whom I later learned that his father was a brother of my Grandfather Hilaire Beloin.  When we first started out we were not aware of our relationship. As it turned out he not only provided details on Dagenais ancestry but more than I expected on Hilaire Beloin. 

It has been an exciting experience, finding people and having them come alive in a city directory or a census report.

There is one fictional section of my writing for a college class I was taking several years ago on the last days of my Grandfather, titled "My Joseph Story". 

There are an added 10 pages of life in the 1930s and 1940s with the Ice Man, the Rag Man, and the Victrola.