Marie-Delphine 'Del' Thibodeau was the third of twelve children born to Napoléon and Marie-Onèsime 'Elizabeth' Savarie Thibodeau. According to census records, on which she stated her family arrived in the USA in 1884, she would have been eight years old when her family moved to northern New York.

Unlike the majority of her siblings, she had already left her parents' household before the death of their mother.

In 1892, she was living and working in Amsterdam, Montgomery county, NY; the census of that year listed her residence there, and noted her occupation as 'mill hand.' Age 17, her place of birth was noted as Canada, and her citizenship as 'alien.'

She returned to the Adirondacks, however, perhaps after the death of her mother in 1895.

She married Ashel Charles Payne, of Raquette Lake, in 1898 in a ceremony at Blue Mountain Lake, according to their family Bible... within which she kept the record of their marriage and the related births, marriages and deaths of their children. Her husband, Ashel Charles (A.C. or 'Acy') Payne was a son of William H Payne and his first wife, Sarah Jane Brooks. Altogether, Acie & Del had ten children.

Acie & Dell Payne took up residence near his family, at Sucker Brook Bay, on the back side of Raquette Lake. Their first child (son, George Harry) was born there in August of 1899... and it was also near that point in time that Del's youngest brother, Henry, came to live with them. He stayed with his sister's family until some time around 1915, when he moved to Inlet, NY.

Not long after Henry had moved to Inlet, Acy & Del followed him --- moving down to Inlet as well. Henry was called to serve in WWI from the Town of Inlet in 1917 and, upon his return from service, he married Hattie Malvina Payne (a niece of Del's husband, Acy). The siblings - Henry and Dell - continued to reside near each other for the remainder of their lives; when Henry purchased land overlooking Sixth Lake, where he & Hattie established their home and family, Del & Acie built a small house literally next door.

And it was with Del and Acy that their father, Napoléon Thibodeau, came to reside after being in a near-fatal railroad accident in Canada in 1925, which required the amputation of one of his legs. He lived with Del and Acy, and next door to Henry and Hattie, until his death in 1929.

My father (a son of Henry and Hattie) used to relate with amusement the confusion that resulted: his father, Henry, being Del's brother... always addressed Del and Acie by their first names, as it was his sister and her husband; Hattie, on the other hand, always addressed them as 'Uncle Acy' and 'Aunt Del', as it was her uncle and his wife.

Del died suddenly in 1949 of a heart attack; Acy passed away four years later, following surgery in St. Elizabeth's Hospital (in Utica, NY) in 1953. Henry, Del's brother, also died of a heart attack, in 1957... Hattie outlived them all, not passing until 1976.

Note: over the years of genealogical research, I have found Aunt Del's name recorded in eight different records; in every single one of those records, her names where spelt differently.

The photo (above, showing Acie Payne, Henry Thibodeau, and George & Del Payne) is cropped from an original which was given to me by one of Acy & Dell's daughters (Esther), who also permitted me access to her parents' family Bible. She also showed me her parents' marriage record, in which Aunt Del's name was spelled 'Dolphina Tibdio' - the name spellings I have chosen to use come from her original baptism record in Quebec, as well as the family Bible.