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Aidez-nous à retrouver l'ascendance de George Levasseur
Nous recherchons toujours l'ascendance de notre homme fort, George Levasseur (voir notre dernier numéro). Aidez-nous à retracer les
origines de l'un de nos ancêtre. Suite à une demande sur notre Forum, nous avons reçu ces précisions de Mme Lisa Levasseur de
Chicago. Sans nous permettre de retracer son ascendance, plusieurs indications (dont la date de naissance) pourraient nous aider à
retrouver le nom de ses parents. Si une personne pouvait avoir accès aux registres de baptême de la région de Détroit, nous lui serions
reconnaissant de vérifier dans ces documents.
Bonjour!
J'ai une copie d'un article de journal portant "Levasseur the Great" -- Je crois que c'est un journal de la région de Détroit
(désolé, mais je n'ai pas de détails sur la source). Ma tante m'a donné cette photocopie voilà plusieurs années -- Je ne pense
pas qu'il fait partie de ma lignée directe). Je vous enverrai toute autre documentation si je trouve autre chose!
Voici un extrait de l'article (en anglais) :
"Mr. Levasseur, who was born April 30, 1881, in Detroit, Michigan of French-Canadian parents, at an early
age removed with his parents to Canada.
While a schoolboy he began to learn his strength. He found that no two or three boys tegether could handle
him. He began to try his powers on weight lifting and found that he could in a very short time outlift any man
with whom he competed.
In 1893, when but 12 years of age, he left home and came to this country, visitng Chicago, where at the time,
the world's fair was in progress.
Noticing, he says, the picture of Sandow, together with a list of feats he would perform, placarded in front of
a theatre, he obtained an interview with the manager of a theatre just opposite, and succeeded in getting a
situation as a strong boy, and here he remained throughout the fair. He then joined the Barnum & Bailey
circus and for five years travelled through Europe ... Returning to Amerca he followed the circus circuits
with Ringling Brothers and Forepaugh & Sells and [word not legible] drifted into vaudeville.
Mr. Levasseur is 5 feet 6 inches in height, but he weights 220 pounds...
Here is the feat. An auto truck is fastened to one elbow, and a pair of horses to the other, and then Levasseur
claspes his hands in front of him. The auto truck pulls in one direction and the horses in another, but he has
yet to encounter a combination of the kind that can budge him from this position.
Another feat performed by him is this: A horseshoe is held with one hand only, heels of the shoe up and 10
men on either side pull and tug with all their stregth but fail to move him.
Levasseur was one of thesensations of the Ringling Brothers circus when he used to lift an elephant weighing
3,845 pounds. This and the feat of lifting 20 men are performed by placing either the elephant or the men
upon the platform three feet from the floor and resting on two wooden horses. Levasseur gets under the
platform in a stooping posture he then begins to straighten up and as he does so the platform rises from the
horses, and is supported upon his broad and muscular shoulders.
He also lifts a dumbbell weighing 350 pounds straight over his head and with one finger raises 150 pounds
of iron off the platform.
These are but a few of the feats he performs, which he says no other living man can accomplish, and to make
good his statement he said he was willing to meet any man from any quarter of the globe in a test of
strength."
Kind regards,
Lisa LeVasseur - Chicago IL
Saviez-vous ... ?
2006-03-24 18:31