Seven little orphans around 1908 (ph_2634)

Orphans (boys and girls) who has lost either their mother or father were accepted at the orphanage from age four up to eighteen for the girls, and as far as thirteen for boys. For example, Madeleine Roy, born in 1898 (first to the left in the second row), lost her mother when she was two years old and lived with her grandparents in Saint-Jacques. When she was six years old, her father took her to the orphanage on April 30, 1904. The little girl in the middle of the photo, third from the right is Grace Paradis. In 1919, she married Maxime Gervais in St-Leonard-Parent. The orphans were integrated with the boarding school pupils in the summer of 1909. At times, the orphans were the protégés of benefactors who paid for their education. Otherwise, they were admitted for free.