October 2004 -- Vol 5, No. 10

In this month's COUSINS:

(To return to the top, click on the decorative bars)

WHAT'S NEW

Mercy me, where DID the month go?

My month started out with the Candlelight Tour of Fort Nisqually (Oct 1 & 2), and then I went straight to house-sitting for friends for two weeks.  When I got home, I was all wound up to get my finished science-fiction/fantasy manuscript printed out so I can send it off in the hopes that the good people at Daw Books like it well enough to publish it.

But, y'know . . .

I can write a newsletter while my trusty Lexmark Z42 chugs along; it's on page 87 of 646.

Passings: Cousin Sherry's father, on Sept 24th. Our condolences.
New Arrivals: Cousin Sue became a grandmother (for the 2nd time) Oct 4. Congrats!

And someone asked me to add them to the newsletter mailing list and, for the life of me, I cannot find that request.  I may have put it in a Safe Place.  Whoever you are, please let me know and I'll add you to the list immediately upon receiving your request.  Sorry.

THIS MONTH'S FEATURE:  Recap the children of III--Charles PEPIN and wife Marie-Louise MERCEREAU

Last month we looked at Marguerite PÉPIN, and husband Joseph-Bonaventure BUISSON.

This month we recap the children of III--Charles PEPIN and wife Marie-Louise MERCEREAU.

Charles is the son and 7th child of II-Jean PÉPIN and wife Marguerite MOREAU.  He was baptized 18 Sept 1705, in Charlesbourg, Québec.

On 3 September 1731, in Montréal, he married

Marie-Louise MERCEREAU, daughter of II-Pierre MERCEREAU and wife Madeleine-Louise GUILMOT dir Lalande.  She was baptized 25Feb 1709.

According to Tanguay, they had 4 children.

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

TANGUAY SAYS WHAT . . . ?

Don't know if I've done this yet, but if I haven't I think it might be a darn handy thing to share.

When I found the Tanguay on online some years ago and went through the long and tedious process of downloading it, I made a copy of the directory that the online version had.  I have found it to be invaluable in search through Father Tanguay's 7 volume genealogy dictionary.  If you should decide to check out the online Tanguay, you WILL need the Adobe Reader, which can be found at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

So.

Here 'tis.

DICTIONNAIRE GÉNÉALOGIQUE des FAMILLES CANADIENNES depuis la fondation de la colonie jusqu'à nos jours par L'Abbé Cyprien Tanguay.  Depuis 1608 jusqu'à 1700.
Province de Québec,
Eusèbe Senécal, imprimeur - éditeur - MDCCCLXXI

aka

GENEALOGICAL DICTIONARY of FAMILIES CANADIAN since the founding of the colony until our days by the abbot Cyprien Tanguay.  From 1608 to 1700.
Province of Quebec,
Eusèbe Senécal, printer - editor - 1871

Contents are listed by file.  There are two sections of the Tanguay dealing with family data.  The first is 1-(041-148).pdf through 1-(499-631).pdf; it deals with marriages prior to 1700.  The second is 2-(035-140).pdf through 7-(612-695), and it deals with almost everybody.

HOWEVER...

In some families, it took looking in four different volumes for ALL the information.  And there are some places where Tanguay has the wrong information.

Anyway.

For example, if it says:

1-(041-148).pdf - 1 ABEL - 108 CECYRE, Claude

One might think that this means one will find pages 41 through 148 -- and one would be wrong.

What it really means is that is deals with the surnames ABEL through CECYRE, Claude CECYRE is the last CECYRE listed (in actual, usable page numbers, there are 109 pages).

If you want to see if there are CECYREs beyond Claude, you need to look in file 3-(001-138).pdf - 1 CHARBONNEAU, Olivier - 135 COSSAU, Etienne.

So, say you wanted a NORMAND who married before 1700, look in 1-(376-498).pdf first.  If you want a NORMAND who married AFTER 1700, look in 6-(162-274).pdf

-*-*-*-*-

Another file you might find handy is 192656.pdf --À travers les registres notes recueillies by Cyprien Tanguay.  There is the odd spot or two where a reference to this is made in Tanguay's Genealogy Dictionary.

Both the Dictionnaire généalogique des familles canadiennes depuis la fondation de la colonie jusqu'à nos jours and À travers les registres, can be found at http://www.bnquebec.ca/numtextes/at802.htm
 

A SPECIAL REQUEST for Cousin Joan

So, here I sat, printing out my manuscript and I get the little doo-dad in the lower right hand corner of my screen that says I Have Mail.  I looked and found the following from Cousin Joan, who said:

We believe that my ancestor Antoine Francois Pepin is in Robert's line, born Yamaska 1791.  I have a NEW birth date given by him on a MN land record as being born in Canada 9 June 1785, and arriving in MN in 1832.  His daughter married Alex Pepin, who was definitely descended from Robert.  Antoine was the blacksmith at Fort Snelling, MN and one of the earliest settlers of St. Paul MN.  Can you help please?  I want his parents or any thing you may have.  Thanks, Joan

First thing I thought was "YOIKS! I haven't done the newsletter this month", and THEN that I was pretty sure I had what Joan is looking for, so now, we get to find out if I'm right.

Kewl.

I WAS right.

But, just to be sure we're all on the same page:

The daughter is:

Marguerite Marie PEPIN
born 25 May 1840, Minnesota
died 9 Jan 1879

and she got married 31 Aug 1857, in Little Canada, MN, to

Alexandre PEPIN
Baptized 7 May 1837, St Yamaska, Québec
Buried 17 May 1875, St Paul, MN

Marguerite and Alexandre are 2nd cousins.

[Editor's note: I wrote "Del" when I meant "Des".  Sorry, Des.]

Beaucoup thanks to Cousins Des and Karyl for the following info.

Marguerite Marie is the daughter of . . .

VI-Antoine François PEPIN
Born 1790, Canada
Died 1850, St. Paul, MN

His first wife was Marie MONTAGNAISE
Together they had 4 children.

1.	Antoine born in 1820 married Marguerite DAVIS died 14 July 1858, Pembina, MN 6 children
2.	Marie-Louise PEPIN born 1815
3.	Marie-Emilie PEPIN born 1816 married Charles LANDRY
4.	Françoise PEPIN

His second wife, married 1827, was Marie-Marguerite HAMELIN, daughter of Joseph HAMELIN
Together they had 9 children (busy boy, that Antoine, takes after his great great granddaddy Jean)

1.	Etienne (aka Steven) PEPIN born 11 June 1832, MN married Françoise PAUL; died 7 March 1901 St. Paul, MN 1 known child
2.	Joseph PEPIN, born 5 May 1834, MN married Matilda MORRISETTE died 17 Jan 1896, St. Paul, MN. 17 children, but have no names or dates on these children.
3.	Olivier PEPIN born 26 Jan 1836, MN married Merance ROULEAU died 24 March 1890, St. Paul, MN
4.	Pierre PEPIN born 5 Jan 1838, MN married Louise BRUNEA married Geneviève CLOUTIER died 24 Mar 1890, MN
5.	Marguerite Marie PEPIN born 25 May 1840, MN married Alexandre PEPIN, 31 Aug 1857, Little Canada, MN died 9 Jan 1879
6.	Angélique PEPIN born 8 June 1842 died before 1850, MN
7.	Elizabeth PEPIN born 25 July 1844, Mendota, MN married Timothy CHERRIER married Nazaire LEDUC, 17 May 1858, St. Paul, MN died 7 April 1919, Pine City, MN. 2 children with Timothy 3 with Nazaire
8.	Rose Delima PEPIN born 4 Dec 1846 married Gideon LONGTIN
9.	Agathe PEPIN 12 Aug 1850, MN married François BIDON died 6 Oct 1912

VI-Antoine-François is the son of.

 

V-Antoine PEPIN
Baptised 29 April 1769
Married 10 May 1790, Yamaska county Québec
Charlotte DESROSIERS (parents currently unknown)
1 known child.

V-Antoine is the son of.

 

IV-Louis-Etienne PEPIN
Baptized 28 June 1737
Married, 25 May 1761, Hospital Chapel, Quebec City Quebec
Jeanne Marie Jennette MCCLURE, d/o John MACLURE and Jeanne FINN
10 children (the youngest of whom is my own 3rd great grandmother, Marguerite)

IV-Louis-Etienne is the son of.

 

III-Louis PEPIN
Baptised 25 July 1702, at St. Joseph
Married 30 Oct 1724, Quebec City, Quebec
Marie Madeleine MARTIN dit JOLICOEUR (dit Lachance . also, maybe), d/o
Nicolas MARTIN dit JOLICOEUR and Marie-Angélique BACON
Born 29 June 1700, Québec City, Québec
Died 14 Aug 1774, Québec City, Québec
6 children

III-Louis is the son of.

 

II-Jean PEPIN
Born 10 Sept 1675, Québec City, Québec
Baptised 11 Sept 1675, Québec City, Québec
Died 31 Dec 1752, Charlesbourg, Québec
Married 10 Oct 1695, Québec City, Québec
Marguerite MOREAU, d/o Martin MOREAU and Jeanne LECOCQ
Baptised 4 nov 1676
Buried 14 Jan 1752, Charlesbourg, Québec
16 children; 10 survived childhood and married

II-Jean is the son of. . .

 

. . . wait for it . . .

 

I-Robert PEPIN, s/o Jean PEPIN and Jeanne DUMONT
and
Marie CRÈTE, d/o Jean CRÈTE and Marguerite GOSSELIN

ADDITIONAL INFO:

Says Cousin Des:

I thought you might be interested in some info on my great, great grandfather.

Antoine Pepin: First blacksmith at Fort Snelling. Sometimes spelled Papin.

Antoine Pepin, Alexis Cloutier, and Joseph Gobin, who came from Red River together, several years previous, this year [1843] settled in the Rondo neighborhood of what is now St. Paul, MN, and made claims near the swamp on the Lake Como road.  Antoine's claim was bounded by what is now University Av, Thomas Av, Rice St & Western Ave. His home was on old Como Road (Como Ave).  This was in what was known as the Stillwater Land District until March 3, 1849 when the Territory of Minnesota was organized.

Antoine Pepin was a Canadian, and had lived at Red River several years.  He must have come from there about 1831 or 1832, as about that time he was appointed by Maj. Taliaferro of Fort Snelling, blacksmith to the Sioux.  Taliaferro says, in his journal: "He is a faithful man, hard working and honest. He is a good blacksmith." He records in another place that Pepin had worked until his hands were swelled and blistered, making traps for the poor Indian, not able to buy any.

In 1827 Antoine married Marguerite Hamelin.

In 1836 Maj. Taliaferro displaced him, because it was necessary to have some one who could repair guns, and Pepin did not understand that craft.

Pepin then settled near the fort, at Mendota, and came to St Paul, as before mentioned.  Pepin lived about 20 years after settling in St. Paul, and died in a little house on part of his old claim.

Information from Minnesota Historical Society records. Antoine Pepin, or Papin, or Pappean's claim is described in a Report made to accompany Bill S. 199 in THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES dated Feb 23, 1854.

Says Cousin Karyl, wife of Jerry Hubbard (this is Jerry's line):

Notes for ANTOINE FRANCOIS PEPIN:

Antoine Pepin was born in Canada and lived in the Red River Settlement of northern Minnesota as a young man.  He may have married, but definitely had children by, Marie Montagnaise, a full-blooded Sioux woman.  He was married to Marie Hamelin while Marie #1 was still living, which makes a legitimate marriage to Marie #1 questionable.  He was a blacksmith at Fr. Swelling about 1830-1832.  According to Major Taliaferro of the fort "he is a faithful man, hardworking and honest. He is a good blacksmith."  After about five years, Taliaferro had to replace him with a man who knew gunsmith.  Antoine moved to what is now St. Paul, after a stay in Mendota, and claimed land near the swamp on what is now Lake Como Road.  His home was on Old Como Road.  "His land was bounded by what is now University Ave., Thomas Ave. Rice St. and Western Ave.  This was in what was known as the Stillwater Land District until March 3, 1849 when the Territory of Minnesota was organized."

Source: Minnesota State Historical Society records. The claim is described in a report made to accompany Bill S.199 in the Senate of the United States, dated 2-23-1854.

Thank you Des.  Thank you Karyl.

FOR THE BIRTHDAY BOY

And this month we have a very special birthday to celebrate.

On October 27th, Jerry Hubbard will be celebrating his 70th birthday, so I would like everybody to join me in singing happy birthday to Jerry . . .

Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday, Cousin Jerry
Happy birthday to yooooooooooooooooooooooouuuuuuuuu!!!!

RAMBLINGS FROM THE EDITOR

In about 1984, I was a taxi cab driver in Seattle, Washington, working out of the primarily residential districts north of the downtown core -- had been since March 23rd 1981.  It was three years after ending a disastrous marriage (being an army wife sucked, but it was kinda cool to go to Germany on Uncle Sugar's dime).

Anyway, I digress (which I do really well).

I worked for a taxi cab company that had, at that time, 6 cabs.  Half the crew lived at the dispatch office.  Some vied for the legless couch, or for one of the two reclining chairs made from the front seats of wrecked taxi cabs.  The losers of these two nightly competitions then jockeyed for positions on the great wide shelves that ringed the room in which the dispatcher sat and did his/her job.  Those sleeping nearest the dispatcher's
chair ran the risk of being shaken awake, handed keys to a cab and an address to go fetch.  Then there was the Continental Plaza, Suites A and B . . . a 1960-something Lincoln Continental; Suite A was the front seat and Suite B was the back seat.  A block and a half from the dispatch office was
a tavern called Windy's Pub.  It no longer exists, but it was where we unwound from our 12 hour shifts.

The television show "Taxi" was kinda sorta close to what North End Taxi was like.  We *did* have our own Reverend Jim. And for the first few years it was more like a family than a business.  In 1984 it was still a family, and a good place to recover from a nasty marriage.

However, there were those days when business was so very very slow that come shift's end, we had to pool funds to buy a pitcher of beer.

So, there I was.  It was one of Those Slow Days.  I had been on duty since 4:30 AM and it was crawling slowly up on 11 AM.  There was book whose cover I could see through the drugstore window at a traffic light in the area I worked regularly.  It intrigued me enough that I found a parking spot and went in to buy it.  I figured a $1.95 paperback wasn't going to break me --provided I didn't get too crazy with lunch.  The Title was kinda
catchy, and the blurb on the back of the book got it to the checkout stand.

Family, it was The Worst book I ever read.  It went home with me at the end of the day and started a new life levelling a rickety bookshelf at home.  And . . . I was convinced I could do better.

The next day, I picked up a spiral notebook, and in between fares, I tossed ideas around I my head until I settled on something in an Alternate Universe Fantasy.  The first draft was 97 handwritten pages.  By the third draft, my youngest brother had purchased A Computer.  Top of the line.  Cutting Edge Technology.  The biggest and baddest available at the time . . . a Tandy 1000.

Jim taught me how to use it and a real spiffy little word processing program he got from a buddy of his called Professional Write.  When I was done, The Great American Fantasy Novel took up four 5 ½ inch floppy discs.  During
this time period, I went from being "just a cab driver", to being the graveyard dispatcher (where all the new drivers started out), and finally to being the bookkeeper's assistant.

In 1991 about I discovered the wonderful word of computers.  A roommate got himself a computer, and gave me access to it.  He had a phone line hooked up to it that he'd use to call a wide variety of something called a "BBS".  I followed suit and found one -ProStar- that had a group of writers.  I tied for first place in a writing competition.  The rules were:

1. The story must be less than 1500 words
2. The story must start with the line "It was a dark and stormy night.

That story was published in an eZine that no longer exists, but I have it on my website (at http://www.fortlangley.ca/pepin/twelve.html).  However, it
was also about this time that the residual effects of the wretched marriage had started to catch up with me; I got busted back down to cab driver (I got REAL flakey).  Then, in August of 1991, I was rear-ended by a yuppie in a Mercedes on a cell phone who thought I was going to run the red light at which I was stopped.  It wasn't the first accident in the cab (none of them had been my fault, and the injuries minimal), but it was the first one in which I was wearing a seat beat.  Hyper-extended my right wrist, resulting in two titanium screws holding the capitate and the lunate together because all the cartilage had been blown out between them and they were rubbing together.

In laymen's terms, these two bones rubbing together was a Bad Thing and eventually would cause a type of arthritis that would spread until it ran out of bones to effect.  Screwing the two bones together would keep them from rubbing together, saving me from this rather wretched type of arthritis.  It also left me with 24% of my original range of motion in the hand I did everything with.  The Social Security Administration had judged
me unemployable and a granted a Disability Income (yes, I took the Mercedes driver to court, and did not do well at all. Put quite coarsely, I got caught picking up the soap).

Now as nasty was this sounds, and as bummed as I was to be unable to work on my 1966 Mustang, fish, garden, wood work, watercolour, pencil sketch, play piano and guitar, it WAS a lemonade making experience (I was really really bummed, you can ask either of my brothers.  They both came through like
champs for their big sister.  Good men, those brothers of mine.  Thanks Don, Jim).

At this point the roommate with the computer had moved out.  Two of my brother cabbies pooled their spare parts from an assortment of computers and built me a 286.  I had 1200 baud modem and a CGA screen.  This was the start of many wonderful things, including the series of events that led to the
discovery that my Peppan family was part of the O! So Extensive Pepin FamilyTree.  It also gave me the time to work on my writing.  A computer of my own, with a modem, gave me access to other writers, via a FIDOnet echo called WRITING.

With the help of those good people, I have now, at last, a piece of writing that I believe is publishable.  123,000 words.  There were two bits of advice that really helped it all come together.

1. Write what you know.
2. Write like you talk.

When I started, Fantasy was a popular genre but then it went out of favour.  Now, what with the popularity of Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings movies, Fantasy has become popular again.  What's more, a publisher who writes books I like to read and books that are similar to mine-adult-flavoured science-fiction/fantasy-is accepting unsolicited manuscripts.  An unsolicited manuscript is one that is submitted by an
as-of-yet unpublished author who doesn't have an agent.  They want the whole book and what they call a cover letter.

See, I hadn't submitted it before this because most publishers want a synopsis and for the life of me I could write one shorter than 15 pages.  A cover letter I can handle (Elise, if I may, I'd like to run my cover letter past you if I may, just to be sure).

Yeah, I'm nervous.  Won't go into all the reasons why.  One of them is that I really believe this creation of mine has a chance - and I am stubborn enough to wait for a publisher who likes it well enough to pay me to publish it-- and after the rough road life had sent my way, it's a little scary.

But at this point, I've got a mighty fine pitcher of lemonade, here.  It can only get better.

For those of you curious about my Great North American Fantasy Novel, go take a peep at http://www.fortlangley.ca/SWOTRC/Index.html  Until a publisher picks it up, the only external link to this will be in the online version of this newsletter.

NEWSLETTER INFORMATION

     If you are reading this online because you no longer receive it via email, and you would like to receive via email again, drop me an email.

     If you are reading this online because you asked to receive via email and it hasn’t happened yet, drop me an email.

     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 21 October 2004, 1:41 AM PDST