Visiting the Old Country

The two sons Alphonse and Fernand continued to work in the store during the 1920's. Eventually, they would buy or inherit (depending on who you talk to) the grocery store after the death of their mother in 1937

About 1925, Arthur L. N. Andris, seen on the left of this family picture provided by Karen Ruhloff, sailed back across the Atlantic Ocean with his and Victorine's second son, Alphonse. Their destination was the city of their birth, Binche, Belgium—Arthur in 1873 and Alphonse in 1907 or 1908, depending on which record you are reading.

The woman whose hand Arthur is holding is Louise, his first child by his first wife, Eliza Beaumez. Louise was born in 1894. The man on the bench is probably her husband, Paul Gilson. My brother, Tom, however, remembers a different name for him, so the identity of the guy on the bench is still in question. From the conversations he had when he visited Belgium, Tom also thinks that the picture was taken in Paris.

Some time in the next two years, my father, Fernand, left on a trip to Belgium with his mother, Victorine.