Wordless Wednesday

 

IAJGS Conference, Days 3 and 4

It really is amazing how much you can cram into a conference schedule when you try.  Between speaker sessions, volunteer activities, and networking, I've been going steadily all day long every day.  But oh!, the things I'm learning!

Tuesday began with a Jewish bloggers brown bag breakfast.  It's a pleasure to meet people whose words you read in cyberspace and put faces to names.  I had a lovely time chatting with Lara Diamond (Lara's Jewnealogy), Emily Garber ([going] The Extra Yad), Israel Pickholtz (All My Foreparents), Ann Rabinowitz (JewishGen blog), Mary-Jane Roth (Memory Keeper's Notebook), Marian Wood (Climbing My Family Tree), and Barbara Zabitz (blog in progress).  Then it was off to learn more!

Well, it should have been.  In the first session I headed to, the speaker kept his head down and read directly from prepared notes, without looking up at the audience.  He also wasn't making any great revelations, so I quickly moved on and instead spent some research time in the resource room.  The second session was much better, though.  Alexander Beider spoke about the origins of Jews from North Africa.  His discussion covered the same types of linguistic and naming clues that he discussed in Monday evening's presentation, indicating origins from multiple locations in Europe and elsewhere.

From there I gave my third presentation of the conference, on where to find and how to access online Jewish historical newspapers.  I was really happy to let people know that there are now two free online OCR programs for Yiddish and that Google Translate handles Yiddish.  That makes a lot more historical Jewish newspapers much more accessible than they used to be.

On Tuesday IAJGS held a Tech Lunch, where people with technical and computer skills are asked to volunteer their skills in helping IAJGS.  It sounds as though there are plans for a Web site redesign and a desire to offer assistance to societies.  Something was said about encouraging everyone to be on Facebook also, but I still don't think that's a substitute for a good Web site.  Facebook is great for short term, but legacy material is lost.

The afternoon brought some interesting subjects.  Nicolas Coiffait has been researching the soldiers in Napoléon's armies and has identified more than 2,000 men he believes are Jewish.  He is continuing the research and trying to learn more about each man.  Eugenio Alonso spoke on how to research conversos and Anusim in the Caribbean by using documents from the National Historical Archive of Spain, many of which are available online for free.  He showed several examples that identified individuals as "judaizing", meaning that they were following Jewish practices.  He pointed out that he had even found two documents that specified the judaizers were black.  And that was the end of the day for me, because I had to head back to my room to reconstruct a presentation for later in the week (more on that in my next post).

On Wednesday I finally had the opportunity to "sleep in":  My first session didn't begin until 8:15!  (Hooray!)  And I had to be there, because I was the one speaking, on the subject of copyright and how it affects genealogy.  Unfortunately, far too many genealogists are still woefully undereducated on this subject, with significant numbers believing that if it's online it's ok to copy.  It was gratifying to have one person in the audience who understood already, but it was also good that people asked lots of questions, because that indicated they wanted to learn what they should be doing.  I'm very happy that the program committee accepted that talk for the conference.

We had a small but dedicated number who came to the JGS Newsletter Editors meeting.  Five people, including me, were there, representing four society publications.  Mostly it was another opportunity for networking, but we also did some brainstorming.  It's interesting that one group still has only a print publication, with no electronic version.

A session on the Yad Vashem Web site was supposed to show advanced ways to use other record sets besides the central database.  It didn't really deliver, but as a sample photograph the speaker used a wedding photo that accompanied a recent article in ZichronNote.  The photo is notable because even though it was for a wedding, the bride and groom, and in fact the entire wedding party, were wearing the cloth yellow Stars of David mandated by the German government.  Surprisingly, the speaker did not mention that.

Squeezed in between the end of the third morning session and the beginning of the group lunches, most of the SFBAJGS members here met for a quick photo to celebrate being at the conference.  While we had almost 50 members last year at the Seattle conference, this year we are a more modest thirteen, ten of whom came for the photo.  That isn't too bad!

San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society members in Florida

After lunch, my afternoon was spent at the IAJGS Annual Meeting.  I was the representative for my society this year, as the president was at home in California.  I've never been to the meeting before, so I wasn't sure what to expect.  I should have known — it was a standard bureaucratic meeting, including lots of reports, delays, and minor tiffs.  We did accomplish what we needed to, voting on bylaws and the next set of officers, and only ran about 15 minutes overtime.  It's unlikely that I'll be attending next year's conference in Warsaw, so someone else will have the pleasure of attending the meeting.

My day ended with one of the best parts of family history:  actually getting together with family.  I don't come out to the east coast often, so I always try to see family when I'm here.  I have cousins who live relatively nearby (75 miles away), in Daytona.  They drove out to the hotel, and we had a nice dinner together.  I even updated them on the latest research I'm doing on our grandfather.  They're as interested as I am in finding out who his biological father was.

My commentary on days 1 and 2 of the conference is here, and that for days 5 and 6 is here.

"Who Do You Think You Are?" - Chris Noth

I am still wondering why Who Do You Think You Are? did back-to-back episodes to end this "season."  I looked at the TLC schedule the next Sunday and didn't see anything I considered particularly special, but I do realize I am not the station's intended market, so I may have overlooked something.  All I know is that I was already behind, and airing two episodes on the same night just made it worse.  I've been telling myself, "Only two to go . . . ."

All of that notwithstanding, the first episode of the double header was Chris Noth, who at least is roughly my generation even if I hadn't heard of him previously.  The teaser told us that Noth would trace his father's family back to a devastating catastrophe.  He would find an Irish ancestor who suffered severe oppression before going to fight in Spain in one of the fiercest battles of all time and then becoming a war hero.

The introduction to the episode tells us that Chris Noth has enjoyed a long, distinguished career in television, film, and stage.  His first major role was as Mike Logan on Law & Order (which I used to watch, but only for Jerry Orbach), and he portrayed Mr. Big (that's a character name?) on Sex and the City (which I've still never seen, but at least I recognized Kim Cattrall's name).  He currently stars on the CBS show The Good Wife.  (I think the definition of "distinguished" is being stretched a little here.)  In 2012 he married his long-time girlfriend, Tara Wilson, and they are raising their son in Los Angeles (Noth's Wikipedia page says that Orion was born in 2008, before the marriage).

Noth's first comments are about his son.  He has come to fatherhood late but it's great.  He is always learning something new through Orion's eyes.

Thinking about his own childhood, Noth says he was born November 13, 1954 in Madison, Wisconsin to Jeanne Parr and Charles James Noth.  His father was a military man and was in the Navy in World War II, which is where he met Parr.  He served during the entire Korean War on the carrier Antietam and earned medals for his bravery.  After his military service he and Jeanne worked on raising a family.

Noth is the youngest of three boys.  His father worked for an insurance company.  He didn't love the job but did it for his family.  His mother had a successful career in broadcasting and was a popular news correspondent for CBS.  His parents separated when he was about 9–10 years old, and his father died in a car accident in 1966.

Noth wishes his father would have lived so he could have known and talked to him as an adult.  Because of his father's early death, it was like a complete separation from his father's side of the family, and he has few details on his paternal grandparents.  His grandmother was Nonna Mae, and his grandfather George was apparently a millionaire who belonged to a country club.  George died before Noth was born, but he has dim memories of Nonna Mae, whom he liked.  He saw her for two weeks once in Chicago on a family trip.  He thinks her maiden name might have been McGuire, which might make her Irish.

Noth wants to do his family history now before it's too late for himself and his son.  It's a great thing to know your roots, and it's better to learn at a young age, instead of having gaps as Noth does.

With no family members to talk to beforehand, Noth starts by going directly to Chicago, where his father's family lived.  He says he is meeting genealogist Kyle Betit (one of the stalwarts of Ancestry.com's ProGenealogists arm) at the Illinois Regional Archives Depository (IRAD), which therefore means he must be at Northeastern Illinois University.  They start by looking for information about Noth's father.  Betit suggests they might be able to find his birth certificate on the Cook County Genealogy site (wow!  how much did that product placement cost?  no comment about it being a pay site, however).  Noth thinks his father was born about 1924–1925, but somehow they manage to find him, even though he was born January 16, 1922 in the Presbyterian Hospital.  (It's nice that Charles Noth was findable in the index.  That index has tons of problems, and I often have to write to Cook County for records because I can't find someone on the site.)  Charles Noth's parents were George Joseph Noth and Mary McGuire.  Noth figures Mae easily could have come from Mary.  The birth certificate also says that George was born in Davenport, Iowa; Mary was born in Chicago; and they were living at 200 South Ellwood Avenue, Oak Park.

Emboldened by this easy success, Noth asks what else they can find.  Betit disingenuously suggests that since George was supposed to have been a prominent person, they can try looking at newspapers for a marriage announcement.  (Seriously?  This is what you propose as a logical next step?)  And then he suggests they go to an Ancestry site, Newspapers.com.  Noth searches for "George J. Noth" (gee, Betit doesn't know something's there, does he?), and of course finds an article, "The Whirl of Society."  They do not state the date or the name of the newspaper (Chicago Inter Ocean, September 21, 1910), but we are told that Mae was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C. J. McGuire and the marriage took place in the Church of Our Lady of Sorrows", about which Noth says, "What a name for a church."  (Not mentioned was that Mae's brother had died recently.)

"The Whirl of Society", Chicago Inter Ocean, September 21, 1910, page 9 (edited image)

Noth isn't subtle:  Can they find more on the McGuires?  Betit says they can look in the census.  Noth:  How?  Betit responds that "the one to use for censuses is Ancestry" (which I actually agree with; it has the most robust search pages, which sort of makes up for the lackluster transcriptions).  Of course, they don't first try looking for Mae as an adult with Charles, so they know for sure it's her and can get an idea of her age and where she and her parents were born; they just dive in and search on the general U.S. census form for C. J. McGuire in Chicago with a child named Mae.  (Do not do this at home!)  From that they manage to bring up the 1900 census, showing Charles and Jennie McGuire with their daughter May and other children, living on South Homan Avenue (116 South Homan, to be exact, which might have been an apartment building, because three families were enumerated there; Charles McGuire is listed as the owner of the building, but that isn't mentioned).  Both Charles and Jennie are shown to have been born in 1855, Charles in Canada.  This prompts a comment from Noth about how his wife, who is from Canada, will love that he has Canadian ancestors.

United Staters 1900 Federal Census, West Town, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois,
June 5, 1900, Enumeration District 345, page 5A, lines 18–28

They now show one of the floating-in-air family trees (sorry, Mr. Noth, no fancy calligraphy for you).  It's pretty basic, starting with Noth and going to his parents, Charles Noth and Jeanne Parr; then to Charles' parents, George Noth and Mary "Mae" McGuire; and ending at Mary's parents, Charles McGuire and Jennie McGuire (I wish they would just leave the woman's surname blank if they don't know, instead of using the married name).

Noth wants to know if they can go back further, and just how far they can go.  Betit says (incorrectly) that the 1890 census was completely destroyed (most of it was destroyed, but more than 6,000 names survived, and at least some of those 6,000+ individuals must be related to people living today, so don't discount that census so readily!), so they can jump back 20 years and look at 1880.  This time he has Noth search on the 1880 census page (much better).  Noth finds Charles, who is only 25 years old, in Chicago, living with his sister Agnes and brother John.  Noth asks why the three are living alone without their parents and says, "I have a bad feeling about those kids," in a tone heavy with foreboding before the cut to a commercial.  When the program returns, the two men look at some of the details on the census:  Charles was working as a teamster, and the "street" given for the homes on that census page is "Scattered houses on Prairie", which Betit has no explanation for; he's never seen an address like that.  (I don't see what the problem is here.  The enumeration district, 118, is given on the census page.  The description of that enumeration district, per Ancestry.com, is "North by the south side of Barry Point road, Van Buren sts, and Jackson, East by West side of Western Avenue, south by the north side of 12th Street, west by the east side of Crawford Ave (City limits)."  It specifically says the ED was within the city limits.  There was a Prairie Avenue in Chicago in 1880.  Couldn't the notation simply mean not many houses were on that street?  But maybe he was told to feign ignorance because it wasn't his job in the episode to talk about why there weren't many houses on the street.)

United States 1880 Federal Census, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois,
June 16, 1880, Enumeration District 118, page 57 (written)/236A (printed), lines 6–8

When Noth wants to know how long Charles and the others were in that location, Betit suggests they check the 1870 census.  Noth again searches on that specific census page.  In 1870 Charles, Agnes, and John were living with their parents, Dennis and Ann, and two more siblings.  Dennis was 40 years old and born in Ireland; Ann was 33 and born in Canada.  Noth is happy to have found an ancestor born in Ireland.  He then mulls over the names of his 2x-great-grandparents and thinks about the fact that in 1880 they were not in the census with Charles.  His theory "is that they both died."

United States 1870 Federal Census, 20th Ward, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois,
June 28, 1870, page 101 (written)/376 (printed), lines 16–22

Betit points out that in 1870 the family was living in the 20th Ward, which was in the city proper, as opposed to the location in the 1880 census, where they were "in scattered houses on the prairie" (which is not what the 1880 census said; according to the enumeration district, they were in the city proper, and I don't see any reason to discount that).  Noth feels as though a tragedy happened and that Charles stepped up and acted as the parent for his younger siblings.  He asks how they can find out what happened to Dennis and Ann.  Betit says that to learn about what happened betwen 1870 and 1880 he should go see a colleague at the Chicago History Museum and ask what local records there might fill in the gaps.  (And I hoped they would actually look at records in the museum, because all they did at IRAD was use the computer.  What was the point of being there?)

Before he leaves, Noth asks, "Can I ask you something?"  Of course Betit says yes, and Noth follows up with, "Do you think we can find out who the original McGuire was from Ireland?"  Betit says he'll do some more digging and let him know if he finds anything.  Even though Noth really did ask this, I'm surprised it wasn't edited out, because we had just seen in the 1870 census that Dennis McGuire was born in Ireland.  Doesn't that make him the original McGuire Noth is asking about?  It could be that what Noth meant was if they could find from where he came in Ireland, but that's not the question he asked, or maybe that question was edited out.

On his way toward the Chicago History Museum, Noth says he feels like something dramatic happened to the family between 1870 and 1880.  He really wants to solve the mystery.  At the museum, John Russick, the museum's Vice President of Interpretation and Education, is waiting to greet him.  He says he has pulled some relevant material and begins by showing Noth an image of Chicago as a bustling city from an 1871 issue of Harper's Weekly (to be specific, pages 984–985 in the October 21, 1871 issue).  A search in Chicago city directories had shown that the McGuire family lived on North La Salle Street in the 20th Ward, which lay along the north side of the main branch of the Chicago River in a residential area, and Russick indicates the approximate area on the image (on the right side of the river in the illustration; the perspective is from the east).  It makes sense that the McGuires would have lived there, as Dennis might have worked nearby at a warehouse, offloading items from boats.

Harper's Weekly, Volume 15, October 21, 1871, pages 984–985

Dennis McGuire was listed as a day laborer in the 1870 census, and Noth wonders if that job paid him enough to raise his family of five.  Russick explains it would have been a hard life, but lots of work was available, so it could be done.  Returning to the 1880 census, Noth asks again where Charles' parents and other two sisters were.  He says they were living in "scattered homes on the prairie", which is again not what the census says (see my comments above) and kind of illustrates the game of Telephone, where a phrase changes a little each time it is repeated.

Russick has Noth look at page 1008 in the book he is holding, which depicts the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 (this was from the Harper's Weekly of October 28, 1871).  It affected the entire city, much of which was burnt to the ground.  The center of the city was gone.  And the 20th Ward was right in the middle of it.  La Salle Street was utterly destroyed.  (The program cut to a commercial after this, and when it returned, we got to see a lovely shot of the La Salle Street Bridge.)

Harper's Weekly, Volume 15, October 28, 1871, pages 1008–1009

Noth noticed something a few pages back and says, "There's another picture here."  This one is a depiction of people fleeing from Chicago over the Randolph Street Bridge.  (Currier & Ives printed a similar image in color.)  Noth's ancestors probably ran for their lives, along with the rest of the city's residents.  The fire department was helpless, because buildings, streets, sidewalks, and bridges were all made of wood and went up in flames.  Everything burned.  The fire started on October 8 and continued through October 10.  Rain on the 10th helped put out the fire.

Harper's Weekly, Volume 15, October 28, 1871, page 1004

So were Noth's 2x-great-grandparents killed?  After all, the family was not together in the 1880 census.  Russick has another document which he says will help explain a little (but it really doesn't).  He hands Noth a printout of the funeral notice for Ann M'Guire, which appeared in the Chicago Daily Inter Ocean of March 14, 1892.  (It is also on Newspapers.com, by the way.)  So she lived through the fire!  (As did the other two sisters, who are listed in the obituary with their married names as surviving her, but they're not brought up at all.)

Chicago Daily Inter Ocean, March 14, 1892, page 7

Ann's survival, however, brings new questions.  If she was alive in 1880, why weren't her children with her?  Why did Charles have his two younger siblings living with him?  Noth doesn't get it; she was a mother, so she should have been there.  Russick suggests that she might have been injured or couldn't take care of them.  (Maybe she was living with one of her two older daughters, who were probably married by then, and that daughter was taking care of her?)  And then, of course, where did Dennis go?  Did he die in the fire?  Russick admits he couldn't find any record of Dennis, either his death or his movements after the fire.  Noth figures they'll never know what happened to him.  (So the museum was also disappointing, because all the documents we saw are available online.  Apparently nothing unique in their collection was relevant to the research?)

As he leaves the museum, Noth focuses first on the fact that they don't know what happened to Dennis.  He also didn't learn why Ann split off.  This is a haunting side of his family.  He didn't have conversations about family history growing up (maybe this history is part of the reason why?).  Before he gets too depressed about it, though, he receives an e-mail message from Betit, who has "just discovered" that Dennis' father, John McGuire (Noth's 3x-great-grandfather), was Irish but served in the British army.

-- >< -- >< -- >< -- >< --

I continued researching your McGuire family's Irish roots and found that the McGuires left Ireland for Canada in 1847, —— [I am missing a few words, which did not appear on screen] Dennis and Ann moving on to Chicago around 1864.  Like so many other Irish immigrants, the McGuires likely left Ireland to escape the Potato Famine.  Their immigration story is very typical of Irish families of the time.

During my search, I was also able to identify Dennis' father — your 3x great-grandfather — John McGuire in combing through Canadian records.  I located an 1880 record from the Ottawa area that may be helpful to you.

[John McGuire death record, page 393, Schedule C, County of Carleton, Division of Cloucester,
Registrations of Deaths, 1869-1938; Archives of Ontario (edited image)]

Unfortunately, John's death record doesn't give a location in Ireland where the McGuire family originates.  However, you may have noticed that his profession was "Pensioner."  That means John McGuire was collecting a government pension, very likely a Military Pension, at the time of his death.  In that era, Ireland and Canada were part of the United Kingdom.  So if John McGuire was collecting a pension — military or otherwise — it would have come from the British government.

To learn more about your 3x great-grandfather, John McGuire, you should go to the National Archives in London, to delve into the original British pension records.  Because the British government keeps detailed records, there's a good possibility you can find out quite a bit about the McGuire family.  This is a rare opportunity given the patchy records one usually encounters when researching Irish immigrants!

-- >< -- >< -- >< -- >< --

The information about McGuire's death is shown only briefly on screen, and Noth does not read any of it aloud.  Noth is happy to read about McGuire being a soldier, because that makes him military like his father.  Then he says it runs in the family, which is stretching it a little (ok, a lot, with more than 150 years between their service).  Since Betit says that to learn more he should visit The National Archives (yes, the Brits really do insist on that capital "T"; Betit didn't type it correctly according to their preferences) in London, that's where Noth goes next.

London is the only location where Noth does not drive himself around.  (I drove a car in London; it wasn't that bad.)  Heading to his meeting, Noth says he wants to know what John did in the army — whether he was a common soldier, where he lived, any wars he fought in.  He heads to a basement archive at TNA (in Kew, a suburban district of London), where Captain Graham Bandy, a military historian and genealogist, greets him.  Bandy has a book of pension records ready for Noth to look at.  He comments that, notwithstanding the proverb about an army marching on its stomach, "the British Army marches on paperwork."  Noth looks at a pension document for Private John McGuire, who was a foot soldier.  Noth is surprised that he is handling the actual original documents.  McGuire was born in County Cavan and enlisted in County Limerick.  His enlisted first in the 96th Infantry, on May 1, 1808, and finished with that unit on December 9, 1818.  He then went to the 44th Infantry, enlisting on December 10, 1818 and leaving on September 24, 1822.  He served for more than 14 years; the image is not shown in its entirety, but I saw "14 years one hundred."  (According to timeanddate.com, it was 14 years, 147 days.)  From this small amount of information, Noth decides that McGuire must have been a tough SOB (except he didn't use the initials).

first page of John McGuire's pension

Noth asks whether it was common for men to stay in the army as long as McGuire did.  Bandy points out that being in the army meant the men were fed and clothed and saw the world.  Noth, who apparently remembers some of his high-school history, recognizes the years as being around the time of Napoleon and wonders if McGuire might have fought during the Napoleonic Wars.  Bandy tells him to look at the other side of the document, but Noth is afraid to turn the page because of the age of the paper.  (Neither man is wearing conservator gloves.  Hooray!)  Bandy turns it over for him and then also has to read the writing, which is very small.  It mentions McGuire's Peninsula War service and that a medal was sent on May 15, 1874.  The medal was sent to Ottawa (presumably to McGuire, since he didn't die until 1880, even though that was not discussed on air).  McGuire served in the Peninsular War on the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal).  It was indeed part of the Napoleonic Wars.

The narrator explains that in 1799 Napoleon seized power in France and set out on a series of military conquests to gain control over continental Europe.  Due to the strength of the British naval forces, Napoleon didn't think he could invade the British Isles.  Instead he decided to hurt the British economy by trying to block trade through controlling access to the Mediterranean and to ports in Spain and Portugal.  In 1870 he invaded Portugal, thus beginning the Peninsular War.  To protect its allies and its economy, Britain sent thousands of troops, including McGuire, to fight.

Bandy now has an old book which turns out to be quarterly pay lists.  (Sometime around this point the producers of the program decided that Bandy was unintelligible and needed to be subtitled for the American viewing public to understand him.  That seems to say worlds about what the producers think of their audience.  I had no trouble understanding him.)  Noth has to use a magnifying glass to read the handwriting (the reading glasses he has been using off and on when looking at computer screens apparently were not up to the task).  A page titled "Infantry Abroad" indicates that McGuire was in the 97th Queen's Own, 10th Company, which Bandy says would have been a "light" company, with skirmishers and marksmen.  Bandy adds that the 97th and the 96th were really the same unit, the 96th having been renumbered.  McGuire was in a "camp near Elvas", in eastern Portugal, from March 25 to June 24, 1811.  Noth wants to know if there was a battle there and whether McGuire was involved in fighting.  Bandy tells him that to find out more, he should go to Portugal, where he can meet a military historian.  In one of those rare totally honest comments we sometimes hear on the program, Noth grins and says cheerfully, "I don't mind going to Portugal!"

As he departs TNA, Noth says McGuire was quite a soldier, spending 14 years in the army.  (Ha!  In the Sellers line, one man was in the U.S. Army 40 years, and his son was in the Navy even longer.)  In Portugal he'll find out what kind of soldier McGuire was.

Driving to meet his new expert, Noth muses that if someone had told him he would be going to Portugal to find out about his ancestry, he would have said, "You're nuts!"  Looking around at the scenery, he wonders if the olive trees were part of what McGuire saw.  Being in the army would have carried a certain amount of excitement but also included hardships.  It has become clear to Noth that if John McGuire had not survived, Noth would not be there.  He says that Peninsula War expert Mark Crathorne has looked up information on McGuire and has set up a meeting with him at La Albuera, a town about 25 miles from Elvas, just over the Spanish border.

In the middle of an open field, Noth meets military historian Crathorne of the British Historical Society of Portugal.  (Crathorne was also at one point the British Consul in Lisbon.)  Crathorne explains that where the two men are standing was where the Battle of Albuera, known as Bloody Albuera, took place.  He talks Noth through the battle sequence.  The British army here, which included McGuire, was ready to chase the French out of the Iberian Peninsula.  Everyone was involved in the battle.

The narrator pops in again, this time to say that Albuera was one of the bloodiest battles of the Peninsula War.  It involved 34,000 European allies versus 24,000 French troops  An early French assault was devastating and caused a lot of bloodshed.  Two full French regiments conducted a sneak attack and butchered a brigade of British soldiers.  After several hours the British brought in one last division, which included McGuire's company.

So McGuire was in the action, and the battle was not going well.  To the right of where Noth and Crathorne are standing, from across the crest of the hill, 200 French dragoons were coming at a full gallop.  Noth asks what a French dragoon is, and Crathorne obligingly tells him they were soldiers with heavy sabers riding on horses.  They would have been coming straight toward McGuire and his company.  Noth says that the men probably shot and ran to a different position, but Crathorne corrects him — they would have held their positions, near their companions, shoulder to shoulder, with their muskets primed and their bayonets fixed and ready.

As if that weren't bad enough, worse was to come.  Crathorne describes the sounds of battle in detail.  As the two sides moved toward each other, the question was who could fire more often.  The British could fire three volleys per minute, while the French could only manage two to two and a half in a minute.  The British had the advantage.

Crathorne says the two sides were only 20 yards away, and Noth calls out, "Hold on," and runs about that distance to get a better understanding of how close that really was.  The British lines would have been firing and moving backward, while the French fired and advanced toward them.  He feels it was almost Medieval, to see the faces of the men you were killing.  This particular engagement was the turning point of the battle.  If McGuire's division had not stood firm, the battle would have gone the other way.  But they did, and the French retreated.  The British had won, but at a cost — 10,000 men were dead.  Death was everywhere, with blood on the fields and the groans of the dying.  The Battle of Albuera was the beginning of the end for Napoleon's troops.  Noth feels this is sacred ground and takes some small stones for his son.

Map of the Battle of Albuera, from William Francis Patrick Napier,
History of the War in the Peninsula and in the
South of France: From A.D. 1807 to A.D. 1814, Volume 3, page 93

Noth is philosophical as he leaves La Albuera, talking about how the men who fought there were all brave.  McGuire appears to him to have been a very brave and talented soldier (hmm, I don't think we have enough information to make that assessment).  He had to be as tough as nails to survive.  He must have told war stories to his son Dennis.  Noth's father died young; you only get to hear the stories if the person lives long enough to share them, so Noth is getting his stories here, and "it's a whopper."  Now that he has stood on the land where McGuire fought, he wants to know who McGuire was before he was a soldier.  And so he is going to County Cavan.

In County Cavan Noth goes to the Johnston Central Library, where he meets military historian David Murphy of Maynooth University.  (Murphy is subtitled for all of his dialog.  I again had no trouble understanding him.  Maybe the producers were the ones who had problems.)  Murphy has the Cavan Regiment of Militia Adjutant's Roll to April 24, 1809.  The militia was somewhat similar to the U.S. National Guard.  It was a unit raised from local men.  Its main purpose was to protect against French invasion and rebellion (somehow I suspect they were more worried about the latter than the former).  Ireland did not have a national police force, so the militia also took care of things such as civil unrest.  Murphy says that McGuire joined the Cavan militia in November 1807.  Then he signed up for the Cavan regiment in the regular army and headed to Spain.  (But earlier we saw McGuire's pension form, which showed that he enlisted on May 1, 1808.  I don't know why there is a discrepancy in the dates.)  When the army needed manpower, recruiters would come to town and sell young men on enlisting; not much has changed during the past 200 years.

Looking down the list of men on the Adjutant's roll, Noth says, "I'm pretty good at finding his name, usually," and then does find McGuire.  His occupation had been linen weaver, which Murphy explains would have been weaving flax into linen, probably to make garments and blankets.  The work would not have been in a factory but was a small operation, likely a workshop with two or three men.  When England and Belfast started building big mills, in the early years of industrialization, small operators would have been squeezed out.  Then McGuire's options would have been few.  As a Catholic, he was not eligible for government jobs because of the Penal Laws.  These regulations also prevented Catholics (and Protestant dissenters) from owning land (they could only lease), going to university — such as Protestant-owned Trinity University in Dublin (from which Murphy received his Ph.D.) — and working as doctors and lawyers.  At first Catholics were banned from the army, but when the Crown needed soldiers, suddenly recruiters fell all over them.

Noth is Catholic (even if he's never heard of Our Lady of Sorrows) and is disturbed to hear about the laws.  He asks if McGuire would at least have had a church to go to, but no, that was restricted also.  (What Murphy doesn't say is that existing Catholic churches were taken over by the Church of Ireland, the Irish equivalent of the Church of England.)  Noth is very upset:  "They can't even have a church to go to — it makes me mad."

So McGuire went from unbelievable oppression to fighting for the British, who were the oppressors.  Murphy admits it's complicated.  He explains it was probably the first proper clothes and boots McGuire had owned.  This was the reality of the time; the only choice was to work with the status quo.  When he returned from his service in the army, things would still have been tough.  But in the 1840's McGuire left for Canada, probably influenced at least in part by the potato famine.  He had a military pension, which gave him more flexibility than most.  It also was an opportunity for him to get his family and children out of Ireland.

The researchers were unable to find any information about McGuire's parents.  There are no surviving records, and it's impossible to learn more.  (This is not uncommon with Irish research.)  Murphy tells Noth that McGuire was from just down the road in Knockbride, a "subarea" of the county of Cavan.  Noth asks if there's a graveyard, and Murphy replies that it has only one.  Noth wonders if maybe there's a McGuire in it, but Murphy says there are no markers.  Many of the ones there have worn away and are now just rocks.  It's possible that McGuire's parents and grandparents are buried in the graveyard, as it has been serving Knockbride since the 1400's.  Tombstones or not, Noth will go to the cemetery:  "That local graveyard, I think I'm gonna wanna see that."

Leaving the library, Noth says his only disappointment is that he was hoping for more personal details about John McGuire's family.  (Unfortunately, the Canadian death record didn't include parents' names.  Apparently they didn't find anything in the Drouin records?  McGuire was Catholic, after all.)  McGuire's circumstances were pretty rough; he was repressed by the political situation of the time and did what he had to do.

Noth calls the cemetery a "quintessential, quiet graveyard."  There is moss on the stones, most of which are really nothing but rock at this point.  McGuire knew this place and possibly buried his grandparents and parents here.  There's a primitive but strong bond between the people and the place; the place defined them.

Noth looked at these old tombstones in Knockbride Cemetery.
Image ©Eric Jones and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons License.

McGuire had to be tough to leave his homeland.  Noth thinks that opportunity knocked, and McGuire took advantage and left.  He was a pragmatic man with an inbred toughness to get through situations.  Noth's father was military; Noth believes that McGuire's story would have fascinated him.  He's bringing Orion stones from the battlefield where Orion's 4x-great-grandfather fought.  It's been a revelation to learn he is in a direct line to a man who overcame such things.

While I was rewatching this episode I thought about logistics from the perspective of the celebrity.  I'm guessing they're told to have an approximate number of days open.  They're probably asked to make sure their passports are up-to-date, even though the occasional celeb doesn't travel outside the U.S., such as Lea Michele.  Are they told that all the research has been done beforehand?  Or do they figure it out?  Does someone believe it when a researcher, such as Betit on this episode, says he'll continue to research and let Noth know if he finds anything else?  Is that just part of the acting?  I've done enough movie and TV gigs to know that not every shot can be accomplished in one take, so I'm sure that occasionally they have to redo a scene; that's one of the circumstances where acting will come into play, as the celebrity still pretends to be surprised/amazed/horrified/whatever emotion is appropriate.  I don't think that the celebrity is told everything up front and then just acts through the entire episode, though.

"Who Do You Think You Are?" - Melissa Etheridge

It is amazing how easy it is to fall behind on things!  But I have finally rewatched the final episode of this season of Who Do You Think You Are? enough times that I think I caught all the information I wanted to, and made enough time in my schedule to write about it.

WDYTYA closed out the season with Melissa Etheridge.  The opening voice-over tells us that she will dig into her French roots and learn about a family shaken by scandal, a turbulent relationship touched by tragedy, and a young adventurer who prospered in Colonial America.  Etheridge herself is a Grammy-winning, multiple-platinum singer with a celebrated career.  Her best known songs are "Come to My Window" and "I'm the Only One."  Her twelfth album, recently released, is This Is M.E., and she won an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2007 for "I Need to Wake Up" from An Inconvenient Truth.  She lives in Los Angeles with her wife, Linda Wallem, and four children from her previous relationships.

Etheridge tells us that she was born in Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1961; her parents are Elizabeth Williamson and John Dewey Etheridge.  She was very close to her father, who died at the age of 60, when Etheridge was 30 years old.  He grew up in a small town outside of St. Louis, Missouri, in a family of migrant farmers.  From nothing he created something, improving his lot in life to where he had a two-car garage and a house, living the American dream.  The price of achieving that dream was that the family didn't talk about what was required to get there.

Etheridge's mother did some family history research at some point in the past on her father's side of the family and had learned that his mother's line came from Québec.  Etheridge's first large concert was at a convention center in Québec, so she thinks it might be something in her blood (I hope she wasn't serious).  Because she and her father were so close, she wants to learn more about that part of his family and maybe bring a little bit of him back to share with her children.

Apparently basing her search on her mother's research (I hope she did a good job!), Etheridge begins her journey in Québec City.  She meets historian Jennifer J. Davis (of the University of Oklahoma), whom she has asked to look for anything connected to her French-Canadian ancestors (not asking for much, is she?) at the Québec National Archives.  She has brought with her a family tree printout from her mother's research 15 years ago; it looks like it came from a very old version of Family Tree Maker, so it's impressive that Mom has kept it all these years.

We see only parts of the tree, and only the direct line of Janis ancestors is discussed.  First is her paternal grandmother, Golda Martha Janis, born February 8, 1901 in Wayne County, Missouri, died April 1982 in St. Louis, Missouri.  Golda's father was James Felix Janis, born 1868 in St. Francis County, Missouri, died 1957 in Missouri.  His father was Jewell R. Janis, born 1844 in Missouri, who married Martha, born 1849 in Missouri.  Jewell's father was Pierre Antoine Janis, born October 27, 1809, died July 29, 1883.  Pierre's father was Jean Baptiste Janis, born 1759 in Randolph County, Illinois, died 1836 in St. Genevieve, Missouri; he married Marie Reine Barbeau, born 1781 in Randolph County, Illinois.  Jean's father was Nicholas Janis, born January 7, 1720 in Québec, Canada; he married Marie Louise LaSource.  Lastly, Nicholas' father — Etheridge's 6th-great-grandfather — was François Janis, born 1676 in France; he married Simone Brussant.  (A couple of other names on the tree appeared on screen.  Above Jewell's name was Sarah Loving, born 1787 in North Carolina, died October 21, 1871 in Jefferson County, Illinois.  Above Jean Baptiste was Polly Stroop, born 1757, died in St. Clair, Alabama.)  This was similar to Bill Paxton, in that the celebrity already had a good deal of information about the family history.

Etheridge deduces that since Nicholas was born in 1720 in Québec, François was probably there also, and therefore it's a good place to start her research.  Davis says they should start with the census, which has pretty good data.  She takes out a book for the 1716 census of Québec (Recensement de la ville de Québec pour 1716, available freely online, so Etheridge could have looked this up at home).  In the index, Etheridge finds Janis on what she says is page 401, but is actually family #401.  On finding the family in the book, she begins to butcher the French (for which she apologizes, but which unfortunately continues throughout the episode).  François was an aubergiste, which Davis explains was an innkeeper.  His wife was Simonne Brousseau (mispronounced horribly), which Etheridge realizes is her 6th-great-grandmother.  They had children named Charlotte, Antoine, Thérèse, Jacques, François, and Marie Aimé.  Etheridge comments that Nicholas wasn't there but realizes it's because he wasn't born until 1720.  The fact that the family had a servant is not mentioned.

Recensement de la ville de Québec pour 1716, page 50

Etheridge asks where the family lived.  Davis shows her it was on the Rue du Cul de Sac (two pages before that on which the family appears) and says that the street is still there.  (Since the census did not list house numbers, however, there is no way to tell exactly where on the street the Janis family lived.)  Etheridge wants to know where she should look to find more information about the family and is directed to a computer to search in the archives' catalog.  After entering "Francois Janis" Etheridge exclaims, "It's all in French!  Can you tell me what it says?"  Of course Davis can; the result is a short synopsis of a court case.  (Not mentioned is that the synopsis identifies François as no longer a mere innkeeper but the second chef to the governor general.)  David retrieves the file, #720.  (It is also online, in its entirety, for anyone who wants to read the fifteen pages in French.)

François had brought a case against a Jean Debreuil, accusing him of seducing and impregnating François' daughter Charlotte under false promises of marriage.  The case was heard in the ecclesiastical court, not a civil court.  The Catholic church was dominant in Québec.  Davis says, "I believe we have a translation," which was probably a good thing, because it was painful to hear Etheridge trying (and failing miserably) to pronounce French.  (Sorry, I was a French major in college.)

The case, dated October 19, 1724 (which date I could not find anywhere on the pages online), states that Debreuil, the son of the royal notary, a government position, courted Charlotte under the pretext of marrying her.  Charlotte was about 15–16 years old.  The suit was essentially asking for Debreuil to marry Charlotte or pay up.  (Not brought up is that the actual documents state that François was the chef de cuisine for the general, which doesn't sound like a slouch position.)  Etheridge and Davis discuss the fact that Charlotte's parents (actually only her father) are speaking for her and there's no way of knowing what she herself wants.  She is the center of the case but is the only one who doesn't speak.

The narrator pops in with a comment that in 18th-century France, women were the property of their fathers until marriage.  Losing one's virginity could put the family's reputation at risk.

In the court documents, Debreuil called Charlotte a streetwalker, which means he made that statement in court before the bishop.  Davis says this could have affected the reputation of François' inn, which he wouldn't want to have the reputation of a brothel.  (But since the documents say he was the chef de cuisine of the general, was he even still an innkeeper?)  The end result was that Debreuil was fined 20 livres, about what a skilled artisan might earn in a week, payable to the poor of the Hôtel Dieu.  The fine was going to the hospital or to poor relief, not to the family.  Debreuil was held responsible only for not following through on the promise of marriage.  So the settlement provided no income or marriage to poor pregnant Charlotte.

From the church suit we move to a civil suit, dated January 5, 1725.  François was again suing Jean Debreuil, this time for seduction of Charlotte and theft of her virginity.  Debreuil had effectively stolen the Janis family's ability to contract an advantageous marriage for their daughter.  François argued that it was a capital crime, meriting a death sentence (that might be a bit of an overstatement).  Davis says she doesn't know how the suit ended; there are no more documents after that.  (What an anticlimax!)

Davis does have another document to share, however.  This one is a marriage contract dated September 15, 1726 (I can't find it through the archives search), for Jean Etienne Debreuil and Marie Charlotte Janis.  About the only thing Debreuil brought to the marriage was the clothes on his back; he may have been disinherited by his family.  No mention was made of the child.  Etheridge wants to know if this means they actually were married.  Davis says she should go to Ancestry.com and check their records (9:17 into the episode).  Etheridge finds the October 25, 1726 marriage, and François was even a witness.  (I recognized the record immediately as being from the Drouin Collection.  I have no idea how they managed to find it the way that Etheridge searched, but I eventually found it myself another way.  The image I found looks worse than the one I saw on TV, though.)

Because François was a witness, Etheridge wonders if her family was supportive or if they were simply telling her what to do.  At that point, she actually brought more to the marriage than Debreuil did, so there might even have been some love between the two of them.  But what about the child that started all this?  Davis tells Etheridge she should look at the parish registry records at Notre Dame Basilica and offers to meet her there the next morning.

In the interlude Etheridge talks about how moved she is that Charlotte's father defended her in court.  She is certain that her own father would have done the same for her.  (The father-daughter dynamic explains why the show spent so much time researching a collateral line, which is unusual for them.)  She wonders whether Charlotte was really in love and what happened to the child — did it survive?  Was the child the only reason for the marriage?  What was Charlotte's relationship with Debreuil?

The next day, as promised, Etheridge meets Davis at Notre Dame Basilica in some sort of side room.  On a table is a book.  Davis tells Etheridge that the priest has asked them to wear gloves (the infamous conservator gloves) because the documents are delicate.  The book is a chronological list of baptisms in the parish.  On April 29, 1725, Anne Françoise, daughter of Jean Debreuil and Charlotte Janis, was baptized.  So when the ecclesiastical suit was started, Charlotte was about three months pregnant.  The next record Davis goes to is the burial of little Anne Françoise on May 6, 1725, saying she was buried eight days after she was born (so the baptism must have been the day after her birth).  (I found Anne Françoise's baptismal record on Ancestry but not the burial.  It should be in the Drouin Collection; maybe it's because Ancestry's index is that pathetic?)  The surprise here is that the marriage was a year and a half later, so the pregnancy couldn't have been the reason.  Maybe Debreuil actually did love Charlotte!  Maybe his family had prevented the marriage the first time.

Etheridge asks if there's anything more about Charlotte.  Davis says that she died on June 14, 1733 at 26 years of age.  The records don't show the cause of death, but a smallpox epidemic was going on at the time, and about ten percent of the population died due to the disease, so that's the most likely reason.  (I also couldn't find Charlotte's burial record on Ancestry.)

After discussing Charlotte's death, the subject suddenly reverts back to Etheridge's ancestor, Nicholas, who was about 13 years old when his sister died.  Davis said she could not find anything in the parish records for Nicholas as an adult (although showing the baptism of her ancestor apparently wasn't important, that record I managed to find on Ancestry), which indicated he had probably left Québec by that point.  Etheridge brings out the family tree her mother had created, which shows that Nicholas' son, Jean Baptiste Janis, was born in 1759 in Randolph County, Illinois.  Davis says that Randolph County will almost certainly have more records on Nicholas, because Kaskaskia (which is a city in the county, but she doesn't say that) was a social hub and economic trading center.  It sounded like a huge leap to me, but of course I hadn't read the script.

As she leaves the basilica, Etheridge talks about how she believes in love and how despite existing customs and mores love conquers all (obviously reflecting on her own life).  Now she will follow the trail of her 5th-great-grandfather.  Before she leaves Canada, however, she goes to the rue du Cul-de-sac and realizes that when she visited Québec with her father many years previously, the two of them had walked down that street together, without knowing that their family had lived there.  I find it pretty amazing that she was able to remember going down the street, but maybe I'm being cynical.

And the next stop on Etheridge's research tour is indeed Randolph County, Illinois, specifically Chester.  She heads to the county archive-museum, housed in the courthouse addition built in 1864, to meet historian Alexandre Dubé (a specialist in early French North America from Washington University in St. Louis).  And of course, she has asked him to look for any documents he can find on Nicholas.  In the museum, they look in an old-fashioned card catalog (I miss them!).  Not only are there several Janises, Nicholas has three cards with lots of references.  The name also appears as Janisse (which would give the same pronunciation in English as the name has in French with the original spelling).

Before following up on any of the references from the card catalog, Dubé shows Etheridge a 1740's map indicating that Kaskaskia was a large territory in the Midwest.  (I could find no online reference for Kaskaskia other than for the city in Illinois, not even in the David Rumsey map collection; the closest thing I found to the territory shown on the map was Illinois Country.)  Québec is at the top of the map.  They trace Nicholas' journey to the Randolph County area, following the Great Lakes and then down the Ohio River.

The narrator explains that in the first half of the 18th century Kaskaskia was a strategic trading hub in New France, which spanned territory from Hudson Bay all the way south to the Gulf of Mexico.

Then we finally get to a document, for which Dubé fortuitously has a translation ready.  Dated September 26, 1747, it relates to a business partnership between Nicholas and a man named André Roy and was witnessed by a notary.  Roy apparently was ill, and the document was "just in case" something happened to him.  (See the end of this post for the text of the translation.)  As Dubé and Etheridge are talking through the translation, Etheridge asks what the word "voyageur" means, and Dubé explains that while literally it translates to "traveler", in this context is means a long-distance trader.  (So why didn't they actually translate the word in the translation?  Just to give Dubé a chance to explain?)  They were working in the fur trade.  As a voyageur, Nicholas had some experience and skills under his belt.  He would have known what types of items could be traded with the Indians, who supplied the fur pelts.

From the items listed in the contract, Nicholas and Roy appeared to have had some sort of store.  Many things listed were quality trade items, and they seemed to have been pretty successful.  Etheridge reads "idem" as "item" for "one idem old with diamonds", and Dubé does not correct her; it most likely meant the same type of item as had previously just been mentioned, so it was a pair of diamond buckles, not just a generic old "item" with diamonds.  Nicholas was doing very well at 27 years old.  To learn more about him and his family, Dubé recommends that Etheridge look at parish records from Immaculate Conception, the parish for Kaskaskia.

As she leaves Chester to head to the next stop on her discovery tour, Etheridge talks about how much she loves the adventure she is having.  She knows more now about what Nicholas was doing in the area, and he had a great business.  But did he have any family?  Etheridge's father grew up near this area, and learning about her family is breathing life into the history she has here.

After talking about it so much, Etheridge is now finally in Kaskaskia itself, at the Church of the Immaculate Conception.  John Reda, a historian of Colonial America, is there to greet her.  They are going to see if parish records shed any light on the family life of Nicholas.  Reda shows her an entry, but of course she "can't read the fancy French", so another translation is nearby.  On April 27, 1751, Nicolas Jannice (Etheridge does notice the different spelling), son of the late François Jannice and Simone Brussant, married Marie-Louise Taumur, the daughter of Mr. Jean-Baptiste Taumur dit LaSource, a former officer with the militia, and Marie Françoise Rivart.  (We saw Marie-Louise's name on the family tree created by Etheridge's mother, with the maiden name LaSource.  "Dit" names among French-Canadians are a fascinating subject.)  Somehow, the discussion segues from the marriage to how things would be crazy soon due to the British and the upcoming war.

The narrator explains that in 1754 the Seven Years' War would begin, pitting the British against the French in a fight to control the land in North America (in the United States the conflict is commonly called the French and Indian War).  After their defeat in 1763 (yes, I know that makes it 9 years, but the 100 Years' War actually lasted 116 years, so these things aren't very precise), the French lost all their land east of the Mississippi River.

Reda points out that after 1763, the Mississippi River became an international boundary, separating Spanish territory to the west and British to the east.  Because he was on the east side of the river, Nicholas was now a British subject.  He owned a substantial amount of property, but this was a volatile period.

To learn what might have happened to Nicholas during the American Revolution, Reda says he thought of George Rogers Clark, the general who led British forces into Kaskaskia in 1778, and the diary of John Todd, the civil commandant of the area after Clark captured it.  Todd's diary shows that on May 14, 1779, Nicholas was made the captain of the 1st Company for the District of Kaskaskia (not mentioned is that "Batiste" Janis, probably Jean-Baptiste Janis, Etheridge's 4th-great-grandfather, was made an ensign on the same day).  Nicholas was not a young man — Etheridge says he was about 59 years old (another celebrity who likes to track ages) — and Reda agrees, saying that he was not going to fight but would serve as a liaison and an administrator.  He became one of the leading figures collaborating with the Americans.  This was not easy, though, because they were fighting a war for the survival of their new country.

The John-Todd Papers and John Todd Record-Book,
Part III, Early Illinois, page 164

The narrator jumps ahead to the end of the war, pointing out that residents of the Mississippi Valley were British subjects until the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783, when they became citizens of the United States by virtue of the fact that the Americans won.

Reda picks it up from there, saying that with the war over, there came a push for westward expansion.  Americans were coming into the Kaskaskia area in large numbers.  What would Nicholas do for himself and his family?  Would he move again?  Reda says he likely would go to Spanish Louisiana, across the river, but doesn't give any reason why (the only thing I could come up with is "because we found him in records there", but maybe an actual, legitimate reason was cut in editing).

He then produces a census of the Spanish territory which enumerated immigrants coming from the United States during December 1, 1787–December 1789.  Nicholas ("Nicolas") Janis is indeed on the list; his household consisted of nineteen people, fifteen of whom were slaves.

Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1945,
Volume III (Pt. II), page 290

Etheridge appears very deflated at learning this and finds it disturbing.  Reda admits it is part of our past, attempts to gloss over it by saying it was the way of the world in the 18th century, and ends by conceding it is still troubling.  He then focuses on the fact that Nicholas had moved a good-sized household to a different country, across the river, but in reality only a few miles.  Nicholas moved to Sainte Geneviève, the oldest European settlement in the Mississippi Valley on the west side of the river.  Etheridge realizes that Nicholas was living under his fourth national government — starting in Québec and moving to the Illinois Country as a Frenchman, then British rule after the French and Indian War, for a short time in the United States after the American Revolution, and then to Spanish territory.

Always wanting more, Etheridge asks Reda how she can find what happened after that.  He tells her she should go to Sainte Genevieve, where she should be able to find records for Nicholas for the late 1780's.

Leaving Kaskaskia, Etheridge is still disturbed over the revelation that her ancestor owned slaves.  She had never felt that slavery was part of her father's side of the family, and it has really thrown her.  Learning it was part of her family's past just four or five (actually seven) generations ago is eye-opening for her.

As Etheridge drives to the Sainte Genevieve County courthouse, about 15 miles from Kaskaskia, she says she has asked local historian Robert J. Mueller to help her find out what happened in Nicholas' final days.  (How does she know she's going to learn about his final days?  I thought they didn't tell the celebrities ahead of time what was coming up.  Hmmm . . . .)  Mueller says he has a couple of documents to share with her.  He has her put on conservator gloves to handle the 220-year-old paper.

On the document we see, Etheridge recognizes Nicholas' signature at the bottom.  A second signature is from François Janis.  The document is a deed dated April 20, 1796, by which Nicholas Sr. was giving his property to his son François.  Etheridge surmises that François was named for his grandfather, and Mueller agrees.  After nine years in Spanish Louisiana, Nicholas was giving his son a house, barn, stable, garden, and orchard.  Nicholas was then about 76 years old.  Mueller says that François was going to take care of Nicholas as he got older, but we weren't shown anything in the document about that.

We don't see any other document (so much for "a couple" and poor continuity editing), but Mueller says he has one more surprise for Etheridge:  The house that Nicholas deeded to François is still there.  It is the oldest in Sainte Genevieve, and some people believe it to be the oldest house in Missouri.  Mueller adds that he can arrange with the owner of the house (possibly Hilliard and Bonnie Goldman?) for Etheridge to see it.  She is obviously thrilled.

Leaving the courthouse, Etheridge seems somewhat in awe that four generations of her family helped build this part of America.  She feels as though she belongs, especially since her father was born a hundred miles from where she is.  She had believed that her father's family was always poor, but now she knows they were wealthy in the past, not just monetarily but with history.

The house is a big, old, wood building with a porch running the length of the front.  Etheridge walks around and through it, musing about her ancestors.  She used to joke about her heritage being just poor white people forever, but she can't do that now.  Nicholas had so much prosperity, but four generations later (really six) her father was in complete poverty, so wealth just comes and goes.  Now she is successful, so maybe that will last for a while.  She thinks again about how François stood up for Charlotte, because the father-daughter relationship is so important to her (even though she says the mother defended Charlotte also, of which there was no evidence), and she's looking forward to sharing all of this with her own children.

Janis House (Janis-Ziegler House or Green Tree Tavern;
site of first Masonic lodge west of the Mississippi River (slide 3);
and house used in Under These Same Stars:  The Celadon Affair)

Two things I noticed we didn't find out were when Nicholas died and what happened to his slaves.  It's easy to guess that he probably died soon after he deeded his property to his son François, because it often happened that way; when people knew they were very ill and might die soon, they suddenly made out wills and took care of that type of thing.  But since nothing else was said about the slaves, I suspect they were not freed for some time, perhaps not until 1865 and the end of the Civil War.

===

As promised, here is the text of the translation of the contract between Nicholas Janis and André Roy, or at least as much of it as I could work out:

Settlement of the partnership in case of death of André Roy or Nicolas Janisse, 26 September 2747

Today, I the undersigned notary, in presence of the undersigned witnesses, went at the request of André Roy, dangerously ill at Joseph Brassau's place, and Nicolas Janisse, partner and voyageur to the Illinois country with the said André Roy, who, considering the said illness, wanted to put their affairs in order in case God wants to take the said André Roy from this world. . . . They have asked Joseph Brasseau, Jacques Gaudefroy, and Louis Trudeau to please transport themselves along, with the said notary to the house of Widow Jean Baptiste Girard where the said partners hold shop [I]n order to draw up in writing the effects belonging to the said partnership as well as the money, pelts, and other movables, household linens, clothing, of their said partnership that they have mentioned to me in the following manner

Firstly, two pairs of buckles, one large for shoes and one for garter, one idem old with diamonds, one pair Spanish buttons marked with needlework, all in silver

Item - each a capot of cadis [wool cap], half new
Item - each a strongbox
Item - three quarts of limbourg in two pieces
Item - a bottle trunk of twelve bottles of a pint each
Item - each their gun
Item - A stoneware jar of six to seven pots
Item - 108 pounds of gunpowder
Item - a vest and velour breeches, used with gold buttons
Item - a two-point blanket of white wool
Item - a set of goat hair buttons for a complete suit and 19 skeins of goat hair
Item - an old cloth jacket
Item - a silver goblet and one of glass
Item - nine men's shirts trimmed good and bad
Item - one pair of breeches and a jacket of cotton dimity
Item - a cotton jacket embroidered in wool
Item - five pairs of silk stockings, good and bad
Item - two pairs of wool stocking
Item - two hair purses
Item - two pounds seven skeins of Rennes thread
Item - one and a half dozen fixed blade knives
Item - 165 pounds of beaver
Item - five and a half pounds of deer skins used
Item - a bear skin
Item - 20 pounds of beaver
Item - 50 pounds of plate lead
Item - 59 1/2 pounds of game shot
Item - five pairs of military shoes
Item - two iron molds for bullets
Item - a covered stockpot of around four pots in [cut off]
Item - two idem of which one is half new and the cover(?) of tin
Item - around 400 pounds of brown sugar
Item - 39 pounds of tobacco in carrot
Item - one tierçon of 56 pots of brandy
Item - a barrel of vin d'orange
Item - the sum of 226 livres in Spanish dollars and [cut off]
Item - the sum of 717 livres 15 5 deniers
Item - 130 livres owed [cut off]

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This was another episode where I found a transcript online, so if you want to read pretty close to the verbatim conversations, you can.