Marie Catherine Aubin dit Lambert Limoges: The Woman Who Outlived Almost Everyone
Imagine losing your mother before you turn two. Growing up in Quebec in the 1830s and 1840s. Marrying at 22. Crossing the border into Rhode Island with a growing family. Raising children through hard times in the mill towns. Watching your husband die in 1893. And then living on—and on—until 1929, when the local newspaper called you the oldest resident of Pawtucket and a crowd of relatives and society members lined up for your funeral.
That was Marie Catherine Aubin dit Lambert Limoges. She was not famous in the usual sense. She was a wife, a mother, an immigrant, and a quiet survivor whose long life stretched across almost a century of enormous change. If you are reading this, her endurance is part of the reason you are here.
A Difficult Start
Marie Catherine was born on October 10 or 11, 1834, in Joliette, Quebec, and baptized the next day. Her parents were Joseph Aubin dit Lambert and Hélène (Marie Hélène) Dubé Delorme. Her mother died in July 1836 when Catherine was only about a year and a half old. Her father remarried a few years later and had more children, so she grew up with both full and half-siblings, including Geneviève, Marie Lina, Léon Levi, Marie Félonise, Esther, Joseph Israël, and Adeline Délima.
Life in rural Quebec in the 1830s and 1840s was hard for many families. Losing a parent so young was not rare, but it still shaped a childhood. Catherine would carry that early loss into a life that demanded resilience.
Marriage and the Move to Rhode Island
On November 25, 1856, at age 22, she married Benjamin Limoges at St-Valentin, Quebec. Benjamin had been married once before; together they built a large family. Their children included Rosalie, Rose DeLima (born on an island in Lake Champlain), Emma, Benjamin Napoleon, Marie Marguerite, Henry (who died in infancy), Andrew, and Mary Ellen (Ellen).
Around the early 1860s the family joined the great French-Canadian migration south into New England. They appear in the Lincoln / Smithfield area of Rhode Island by 1870 and later in Pawtucket. Benjamin worked as a carpenter. Catherine kept the household running through the usual challenges of immigrant life: language, work, illness, and the constant need to adapt.
Name variations appear throughout the records—Aubin, Lambert, Limoges, Lemorge, Lamorge, and more. That is typical for French-Canadian families whose names were written down by English-speaking clerks.
Widowhood and Remarkable Longevity
Benjamin died on September 15, 1893, in Pawtucket. Catherine was left a widow in her late fifties. The 1900 census shows her living with her daughter Rosanna and son-in-law Henry Langevin. She continued to live among her children and grandchildren in the Pawtucket French-Canadian community.
She lived another 36 years after her husband’s death. In July 1929 the Pawtucket Times reported the funeral of “Mrs. Catherine (Lambert) Limorge,” describing her as the oldest resident of Pawtucket and giving her age as 101 (the exact arithmetic from her 1834 birth makes her about 94 or 95, but the community clearly regarded her as a centenarian landmark). A solemn high mass of requiem was held at St. Jean Baptiste Church. Members of Ste. Ann’s Society acted as a guard of honor. Grandsons served as bearers. She was buried in Mount St. Mary’s Cemetery—reportedly in a pauper’s grave with no marker, alongside other family members including her son Andrew.
Why Her Story Still Matters (Especially for Teens and Young Adults)
Marie Catherine’s life covers almost a full century of upheaval: the end of the old seigneurial world in Quebec, the mass migration of French Canadians into New England mills, the growth of industrial cities, World War I, and the early years of the automobile age. She experienced all of it as an ordinary woman holding a family together.
A few things stand out for younger readers:
- She survived early loss. Losing a mother at one or two years old did not define the rest of her story—she kept going.
- She made the big move. Leaving Quebec for Rhode Island meant learning a new environment while raising children and supporting a carpenter husband’s work.
- She outlived her husband by more than three decades and became a local legend simply by living so long and remaining part of the community.
- Her daughter Rose DeLima became a practical nurse, midwife, and healer who helped deliver many of the next generation—showing how skills and care were passed down.
- The “oldest resident” funeral shows that even without wealth or fame, a long life of steady presence could make someone important to an entire neighborhood.
Marie Catherine Aubin dit Lambert Limoges did not leave a famous diary or a public statue. She left a long line of descendants, a reputation for endurance, and a funeral that filled a church because people remembered her. Every time someone in the family looks at a Pawtucket census entry, a city directory, or the notes from Mount St. Mary’s, her quiet strength is still present.
That is a powerful legacy for a girl from Joliette who became the matriarch of a Rhode Island family.
This is the last of my 2nd Great-GrandParents!
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