[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Home Page |Surname List |Index of Individuals |InterneTree |Sources


View Tree for Alexander Henry Alexander Henry "Al" Genest (b. 06 Oct 1901, d. 03 Mar 1977)

Alexander Henry "Al" Genest (son of Alexis Genest, Jr. and Marie Anne Aurélie Verreault)1304 was born 06 Oct 1901 in Waterbury, CT1305, and died 03 Mar 1977 in Cheshire, New Haven Co., CT1306, 1307, 1308. He married Florence M. Hébert on 28 Sep 1926 in St. Ann's Ch., Waterbury (?), CT1309, 1310.

 Includes NotesNotes for Alexander Henry "Al" Genest:
Ken Genest says, "My Dad told me he and Al and I think Dob would ride down the road standing up on the seats [of their motorcycles]. This, he said, they did going down 'Waterbury Mountain,' an apparently long, long road hill. About a mile. :-O "
According to Rich Genest, "Uncle Al (Alexander), although primarily a self-employed auto mechanic, was also handy with carpentry tools."
Ken Genest remembers, "Al and Florence lived a very short walk up the road from Evergreen Lane, on the right as you went northwest from Evergreen Lane, about opposite where Rozum Street is now. It wasn't there then. The last house before the woods looks like his because he had a large outbuilding behind his house, northeast of it, where he had the furniture shop and did woodworking."
Ken Genest says, "We visited Al's kids probably once or twice a year. I stayed in Prospect with them one summer as a teenager when we lived in New Hampshire."
Ken Genest: "Al got into furniture design and manufacture toward the end of his non-handicapped life. I don't mean dragging one leg when he walked - he'd been in a motorcycle accident early in his life. I mean his very last years he was laid up with lung disease - cancer. I think he quit working on cars, pretty much, to do this. I never saw his furniture - I got all this from my Mom. He invented a new way to fold dining room tables and he made and, I guess, sold them. Never got a patent. I hear his furniture was very nice but I don't know who has any of it.
"I rememer their thought was to patent the ideas and start up a furniture company. I gathered at the time that he built other innovative pieces. But I never saw any."
Richard Genest: "I don't recall Uncle Al or any of my other uncles making furniture. (That doesn't mean that they didn't, of course.) Uncle Al was primarily a big-hearted auto mechanic who operated his own business out of his home and trusted everyone; many who owed him money failed to pay. He, like the rest of the Genests, was also a good carpenter. After his home burned down, he converted some of his chicken houses (some of which he connected) into living quarters for his family. Perhaps he DID make some furniture; after all, he may have HAD to because of the fire loss, which, I've been told, was not covered by insurance. It seems that, according to the family, his insurance was supposed to be automatically renewed by his agent each year. The fire occurred shortly after the renewal was supposed to take place, but didn't. Fortunately, all got out O.K."
Ken Genest remembers the fire. "It was an old house, sort of the style of your [Amy's] Hummelstown house. They built a replacement in the style of the 'fifties."
Eraine Genest Sabo tells us, "My father (Alexander Henry Genest) 'Al' was born at the farm where the family lived in Cheshire, CT. He was a carpenter and a 'jack of all trades.' I don't know of anything he couldn't do. He used to refinish station wagons when they were made of wood. He made tables, chairs, etc. His specialty was the 'leafless extension table.' We used it for our family (all eight of us) until they sold the house and moved to an apartment.
"I have this same table in my home now. You can have the table set for two or more, and if more people come in, you don't have to do anything but pull the table out as far as it will go without disturbing anything on the table. (It works like a roll-top desk)."
Eraine continues: Al "was a self taught mechanic. He worked for a place called Al's Tire Shop (no connection).
"It was when he was on his way to work on his motorcycle and was stopped at a light that a women crushed his right leg between her car and the cycle. I wasn't born yet. My Mom used to have to visit him by bus while he was in the hospital."
Dee Genest Dixon reminisces to Eraine, "I know when I was young and right before you were born, Dad worked for Goodyear, I think, because he rode a motorcycle with a sidecar and it had 'BF Goodrich' on the side. That is how he broke his leg. Then in years later in Prospect, when he got older he repaired the wood on station wagon bodies. For years he worked for Irv Anderson in Cheshire building houses (a subdivision called Honey Pot Glen, I remember). He and mom are buried in Cheshire but don't know what cemetery. Didn't you go up for any of the funerals? They were married in Waterbury I think, but don't know where. I would guess St. Ann's Church.
"St. Anne de Beaupre in Canada was known for miraculous cures. That is why he and mom went up there. Believe she was mom's patron saint. I know she became mine, due to mom's prayers I guess. Now I wish we had written things down or remembered more. Aunt Rose and Alma could have helped, but now they are gone too. So many recipes I wish I had written down, like mom's exact one for turkey dressing, apple pies, etc."
Eraine explains, "Mom was praying that my father would walk again."
Regarding the children moving to Florida, Ken Genest says, "I was out of touch at that time, away at college and then the Army."
Ken Genest explains, "I heard from my parents about St. Anne de Beaupre in Quebec. They [Ken's parents] went there around 1940. They said there were many crutches up in the front of the church, left over from people who had been healed."


More About Alexander Henry "Al" Genest:
Date born 2: 06 Oct 1901, on the farm, Cheshire, New Haven Co., CT.1311, 1312, 1313
Last residence: Cheshire, CT 06410.1314
Occupation: auto mechanic.1315
Residence: 1940, farm, Morris Rd., Prospect, New Haven Co., CT.1316
Social Security #: 045-03-9565.1317

More About Alexander Henry "Al" Genest and Florence M. Hébert:
Marriage: 28 Sep 1926, St. Ann's Ch., Waterbury (?), CT.1318, 1319

Children of Alexander Henry "Al" Genest and Florence M. Hébert are:
  1. +Dolores Beatrice "Dee" Genest.
  2. Robert Alexander "Bob" Genest.
  3. +Eraine Loretta Genest.
  4. +Edmond Harold "Ed" Genest.
  5. LeRoy Ernest Genest, b. 31 Aug 1937, Waterbury, CT1320, d. 1998, FL1321.
  6. +Paul Albert Genest.
Created with Family Tree Maker


Description | How to Order | Samples | Free Demo | Quotes and Reviews | Books
Home | User Groups | Mail List | Add-Ons | Support

© Copyright 1996-2007, The Generations Network.