COUSINS

In this month's COUSINS:

• What's New

• This month's Feature:  The children of Louis PARANT (1Robert, 2Jean, 3Marie-Marguerite) and wife Marie-Louise PELLETIER

• Tanguay Says What?

• Ramblings From the Editor with special online bonus picture.

• NewsLetter info

(New Online Feature: To return to the top, click on the decorative bars)

WHAT'S NEW

The newest thing is a damned nuisance.  At a historic reenactment event during the first week of July, one of my 14 year old contract lenses fell into three pieces.  No sweat, I go to get a new pair of RGP contacts (RGP=rigid gas permeable) and the nice eye doctor lady discovers my eye pressure is too high.  Because my mother has glaucoma, I have to get checked for glaucoma.  <muttergrumble>

  At this point in time, having been seen by my mother’s eye doc, my eye pressure has been determined to be normal for me, but to rule out glaucoma—at least for this year—I need a Field Vision test.  But “no rush” says mom’s eye doc, “Just be sure to get one in the next couple months.”

  *Sigh*

  So, for one more week, I’m going to put THAT worry on a shelf and ignore it, and enjoy having contact lenses with the proper prescription

THIS MONTH'S FEATURE:  The children of Louis PARANT (1Robert, 2Jean, 3Marie-Marguerite) and wife Marie-Louise PELLETIER.

Last month we looked at the children of Louis PARANT (1RobertPepin, 2JeanPepin, 3Marie-MargueritePepin) and his wife Marie Louise MARCHAND.

This month we look at Louis' little brother Louis.  No, it's no a typo, Louis' little brother was named Louis.  Though I'm pretty sure the boys were known by other names, it's just that these other names are not to be found in the Tanguay.  Anyway...

Louis PARANT (1Robert, 2Jean, 3Marie-Marguerite), baptized 20 February 1730, is listed in the Tanguay as the 5^th of 5 children born to Marie-Marguerite PÉPIN and André PARANT

On 28 August 1758 in Québec, Louis married

Marie-Louise PELLETIER, baptized 10 August 1734, daughter of François PELLETIER and Marguerite LÉVEILLÉ.

Together Louis (1Robert,2Jean,3Marie-Marguerite) and Marie-Louise (1Pierre,2Noel,3François) had 4 children.

1.  Louise-Angélique PARANT, baptized 8 May 1759; buried 9 May 1759
2.  Pierre-Louis PARANT, baptized 30 Nov 1760, Pte-aux-Trembles
3.  Marie-Marguerite PARANT, baptized 24 November 1763; buried 11 July 1764
4.  Marguerite PARANT, baptized 1771; buried 17 February  1776 Marie-Anne TESSIER

    If you can add/subtract/change any of this, send it on via email.

TANGUAY SAYS WHAT . . . ?

I am continually intrigued by what I find in the Tanguay.  For instance: 

I’m going through the Monster Data Base and come across an entry for Antoine ST-MARC and his wife Françoise CHAPELAIN.  So I go to look him up and in Tome 1, on page 554-—where alphabetically I would expect to find St-Marc-—I find it goes from St LUC to Ste, MARGUERITE De Boyvinet.

So I go to Tome 7 and directly below ST. MARC.—Voy.  GOBELIN—GUILLET, on page 225, I find Marc-Antoine ST. MARC and 2nd wife Françoise CHAPELAIN.  The footnote for Marc Antoine reads, “(3) Voy. Gobelin, vol. IV, p 305.  The footnote for Françoise reads, “(4) Elle épouse, en 1700, Jean Braconnier.”

So on I go to Tome 4, and on page 305, directly beneath GOBELIN.—variation et surnoms: GOSSELIN, 1743—ANTHOINE—ST-MARS, I find Marc-Antoine GOBELIN, with wives André-Catherine DeBois and Françoise CHAPELAIN.  The footnote for Marc-Antoine reads “(1) Et Anthione dit St-Mars ; voy. Vol. I, pp 10-272.”

In Tome 1, on page 10, I find Marc ANTHOINE and wife Catherine De Bois-André.

And finally in Tome 1, on page 272 as Marc-Antoine GOBELIN and wife Catherine De BOISANDRÉ

Footnote for Marc-Antoine reads, “Marié sous le nom d’Anthoine.—Voy. ANTHOINE, p 10.”

My point . . . ?  If you are having trouble finding someone, take the time to check out the pages listed in the footnotes.

 RAMBLINGS FROM THE EDITOR

August is a really crazy month. 

The 1st weekend I’m at Fort Langley in British Columbia.  My research suggests that I’m not the only one of us with relatives who worked there between 1827 and 1894.  This year I was one of two camps at the fort for their Brigade Days; in past years there have been as many as 60.  Yes, 6-0 –sixty.  It’s kinda sad, really.  There are a number of explanations given for why attendance by historic reenactors has all but died.  I believe three of them, which, when put all together, come out looking like:

Pressures of Real Life made a key Parks Canada employee’s job difficult to the point the employee takes it out on the nearest innocent victim.  The innocent victim – in reality two reenactors who have been reenacting for enough years that they got their fur up (and rightly so) about being falsely accused of doing something they simply could not and would not have done, so they decided they were never going back to Fort Langley.  Friends of those two said, “Us, too!” because the employee’s Real Life difficulties were so overwhelming the employee was stepping on toes left and right in the effort to simply stay afloat, and some of those friends got stepped on pretty hard.  The third explanation has to do with September 11th and the difficulties sometimes encountered when trying to cross the boarder—either direction—with a car/truck load of canvas tents and other accoutrements particular to the mid-1800s.  Where prior to 9-11 the hang-ups mostly concerned the accoutrements particular to the mid-1800s –fur and leather clothing, big knives and wooden poles for pitching the canvas tents--and the occasional boarder guard just CERTAIN the enactor was trying to move to Canada, it has now become more common for some enactors to get turned away from the boarder and/or have parts of their “kit” (kit being defined as the canvas tent plus accoutrements particular to the mid-1800s) confiscated.  However, the boarder crossing tribulations are nothing compared to the combined explanations 1 and 2.

What’s even sadder is that Fort Langley is one of those places that should be jumping with activity.  The historic site is located where it was actually built; the current Fort Langley National Historic Site of Canada is where the 3rd Fort Langley was built, after the 1st was flooded out (circa 1830) and the 2nd one burned down (circa 1833).  Descendants abound in the area and, as the founder of the Children of Fort Langley, I know of others who might be interested in coming out once a year so the tourist can look at them and say, “Look . . . there’s another one” and then look away quickly like we were some big celebrities – but because, regardless that the Real Life Issues have been resolved, there are still enough sore toes out there, no one is really interested.  Oh, yeah, and this particular Fort Langley is where the paper work was signed making British Columbia a crown colony of Great Britain in November 1858, which ultimately lead to it becoming part of Canada and not part of the US.  Canned salmon was invented at Fort Langley, as was my great grandfather.  There were HBC people working there from 1827 through 1894.

The 2nd weekend of August I’m at Fort Nisqually, located in Point Defiance Park, in Tacoma, Washington, quite near the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.  The Tacoma Narrows is locally known as Galloping Gertie and if you’ve ever taken a college engineering course, you may have seen th films footage showing exactly how Gertie got her name; it’s probably shown as a object lesson in how NOT to build a bridge.  Like Fort Langley, Fort Nisqually was a Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) fur fort, but unlike Ft Langley, the present day location of Ft. Nisqually is NOT where it was built.  It was built in the town of Dupont—yes, the paint people—which was why it was moved during the Depression of the 1930s, as a make work project for folks with nothing else to do.  What with it being The Depression, there were plenty of people with nothing else to do.

Only one fur brigade actually came through Ft. Nisqually, in 1855, and every year, during the 2nd weekend of August, that year is relived.  We usually arrive about noon on Friday to set our tents up in the field outside the back gate.  Once the tents are set up, we wander round, visiting folks we haven’t seen since last year and help those who need it set up their tents – pretty much like it may have been back in the 1800s when the fur trappers came in from their trap lines to trade their furs for fresh supplies, to perhaps take their yearly baths, to visit with folks they hadn’t seen in a year, look for spouses either for themselves or their offspring.  Come Saturday morning at 10am, it’s Show Time.  Unlike Fort Langley, Fort Nisqually loves first person reenactment.

What’s First Person Reenactment?  It’s where one chooses a persona –in my case it’s the fictitious Mary Huston, Métisse fur trader—and from park open until park close that IS who I am.  I react to the public as if, for me, it really was 1855.  If some asks if they can take my picture, I look at them and say something like, “Ah-nah!  You don’ ‘ave to take Mary picture.  Mary she give if she have.”  Or, if the people appear to have a sense of humor, and they are dressed for warm weather –in shorts and tank tops—I will ask, “Don’you git col’ walkin’ roun in your under t’ings like dat?”  Other enactors do similar things, some showing The Public how rope was made, or how to speak a few word of the Chinook Trade Jargon, how baskets are woven from sweet grass and/or cedar and/or reeds, and basic blacksmithing.  Some enactors are trappers and traders, some are tradesmen or craftsmen, others are Gentlemen and Ladies, either those living at Ft Nisqually or those passing through enroute to Fort Langley, Fort Victoria, or what would be come New Westminster, BC.  There’s the Trappers Race, Cooking Competition, the Liars Contest, Punch and Judy shows, and the much enjoyed Contract Signing where enactors attempt to get work contracts with the HBC, the HBC being represented by the enactors portraying HBC officials.  Half the fun of the latter is trying to trip each other up with the accuracy of historical knowledge.  I really enjoy Fort Nisqually. 

Fort Langley could be like Fort Nisqually.  It could in fact be better, but the biggest stumbling block to that is that Ft Langley doesn’t do First Person Reenactment.  They like the enactors to set up camp and dress like it’s 18[fill in the blank using any number between 27 and 94], but they STRONGLY encourage enactors to simply explain to The Public about their camp and how they’re dressed, avoiding certain historical facts because, well, certain historical facts just aren’t Politically Correct.  At Fort Nisqually, they really don’t care about Politically Correct, they are more concerned with Historically Correct.

The third weekend in  August is a rest weekend, which after Langley and Nisqually is a welcome respite.

The fourth weekend is English Camp on San Juan Island in the north end of Washington state’s Puget Sound.  In 1858, it was decided that the boundary line between the US and Canada would be the 49th parallel.  This was cool, this was groovy, except … the 49th parallel put some of the San Juan Islands and a great huge swack of Vancouver Island within the US.  Great Britain wanted all of Vancouver Island.  The US wanted all of the San Juans.  For seven years the US and Great Britain jointly occupied San Juan Island.  A war was fought over a pig, the only casualty being the pig, and at long last the US and Great Britain—the latter being involved in a couple other wars at the time and not too keen on having a third—decided GB could have all of Vancouver Island and the US could have all of the San Juan Islands and a little tip of land called Point Roberts.

English Camp is 1861, Great Britain’s Royal Engineers, Royal Marine Light Infantry, and the Royal Navy are there, along with US Army soldiers, commingling as they did during the 7 year joint occupation of San Juan Island.  English Camp is a fairly new event for me, but it is the most primitive of the lot.  Drinking water is trucked in, sanitation facilities are trucked in (read sanitation facilities as portable out houses), and food is trucked in.  The hornets aren’t trucked in and I do wish they could be trucked out but research by one of our more studious reenactors have uncovered what may be a solution: hanging paper folded a certain way up in the entrance of the tent; it worked at Ft Nisqually, we’ll see if it works at English Camp.  English Camp is also one of the two most military oriented events of the year.  I leave this Thursday for English Camp and should be back at the computer by Tuesday.

  Historic reenactment, or Living History, is exhausting, time consuming, and depending upon who you chose to be, expensive, but I love it.  It’s the only hobby I know of where you can dress funny and pretend to be someone else, living in another time, at an assortment of locations without risking being fitted for an I-Love-Me jacket with buckles in the back (1 size fits all).

Your editor at Fort Nisqually, preparing to tune her drum.

NEWSLETTER INFORMATION

     If you have family you want to share this with but they don't have a computer, please feel free to print it out and share it with them.  If you have family with a computer and/or Internet access who you think might be interested in the newsletter, drop'em an e-mail and let'em know about it; feel free to pass along my e-mail address.

     Back issues of COUSINS can be found at:
http://www.fortlangley.ca/pepin/cousins.html

     This URL will take you to the COUSINS Front Desk.  Or, you can click on any of the red lions that appear on the Pepin pages and Site Directory.

      For a hard copy of the newsletter, send an email to lisa@fortlangley.ca, and if for any reason you wish to change the way you receive the newsletter -- or if you no longer wish to receive COUSINS -- drop me an e-mail at lisa@fortlangley.ca and tell me.  If you just wanted to chat, drop me an email.

COUSINS
comes out once a month -- more or less

This month's was finished
19 August 2003, 7:01 P.M. PDST