Some notes and to-do tasks for myself, provided as-is—they may or may not make sense, or be useful, to other people.

A Bountiful Original Document

I haven't confirmed this, but at this time of writing I think that a FamilySearch.org "Source" is a verifiable record which the genealogists there can demonstrate is legitimate via some kind of paper trail; whereas a "Memory" is a less documented, or even undocumented, source submitted by an individual outside the organization. An image from US Census data could fall into either category: the difference is the paper trail and, ultimately, the degree of confidence you can have about the conclusions you draw from the source.

The Nicolas Janis page at FamilySearch.org has an interesting genealogical record as one of its "Memories." It is bountiful in that it happens to be useful to a number of distinct lines of research:

• It is a record of marriage for which Nicolas Janis served as witness. I came across this while trying to work out the question of whether there were two Nicolas Janis covered in The Matter of Two Nicolases.
• It's the record for the marriage of Augustin AuBuchon (son of Pierre AuBuchon and Marie Bourbonnais) to Thérèse Lalumondier, who are my great-great-something grandparents. (See AuBuchon Family Tree.)
• It mentions a couple of members of the Vallée family, mostly as witnesses—but there's also a bride named Marie Louis Vallée, "born in Canada." Was she perhaps a niece of François'? Towards the end of Ekberg's biography, I recall mention of a despondent letter from his brother, who had remained behind in Quebec and who, as I recall, was asking for help. Did some of his children follow his pioneering brother to the Illinois Country?
• It includes the marriage record of some Vallée slaves. The line is hard to follow: the groom's name appears to be François Jean (perhaps the son of Thérèse), and the bride's name is Elizabeth Thérèse.

Below you'll find some other notes on the record.

On the website there is no explanation for where this image comes from, other than the name of the person who apparently uploaded it.

Description:

• Across the top it reads, "Transcribed Record of Marriages Kept in the Church of Ste. Genevieve, Ste. Genevieve, Mo." Still at the top, but much smaller, it reads, "GEO. D. BARNARD STATIONERY CO., ST. LOUIS".
• There are 11 columns whose headings are in Latin, spanning across two facing pages.
• The first three columns are for Day, Month and Year, and they run from 17 January 1773 to 27 August 1776.

So the image seems to be a handwritten transcription of Ste. Genevieve church records from the 18th century. The use of Latin in the column headings and the font suggest a date of 1880-1920.

• The entries themselves are in three languages: English, French and Latin.
  • English is the dominant language.
  • Latin is used only for the names of the months.
  • French is used only for: père (father) and fils (son), to distinguish a father and son having the same name; prêtre (priest), curé (pastor) and capucin (as in Capuchin monk) in the column headed NOMEN PAROCHI (Name of the Priest).

The original church record was very likely in French, and part of the transcriber's task was to translate the French into English. It seems to me likely that in the original the months were in Latin.

Now this is all very interesting, but what does it tell us about Nicolas Janis?

That he was a witness (in the TESTES column) for this marriage:

• Conducted on 14 June 1773.
• The MATRIMONIUM CONTRAXERUNT column is empty. The Latin is supposed to mean They contracted marriage, although this translation doesn't make sense here. The column is used in just a few cases, for notes it seems, such as to indicate that the couple were slaves of the Vallées.
• Louis Lasource was the groom, son of Jean Lasource and Marie Françoise Poivert (?).
• Marie Lasource was the bride, daughter of Jacques Lasource and Charlotte Lalande. (Marie was a not-too-close cousin of the groom, one should hope.)
• The other witness was Marie Louise Lasource (?).
• The marriage was conducted by P. (Pierre) Gibault.
• There may be some additional notes in "Book A," p. 152—but of course, since we have no definitive explanation of where these pages come from, we have no idea what that refers to.

The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents 1610 to 1791

The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents 1610 to 1791 contains links to English translations of many, many original documents related to the Jesuit missionaries in New France, originally published as Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed. The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, The Burrows Brothers Company: Cleveland, Late 1800s.

The series consists of 71 volumes. I have only gone through three, only insofar as looking for particular search terms. From what I've been able to ascertain, this is a huge collection of all the paperwork involved in the running of the Jesuit. There is nothing "important" here; it is all trivial. The publication's value is that it gives us insight into the day-to-day operations of the missions. Put together in the right way, like a puzzle, a collection of some of these quotidian details could lead to great insights.

Volume 69: All Missions 1710 to 1756

Published 1899.

Hits for search term "janis"

1. Many mentions of "janis" as owing or being owed some amount of money for a service.

• In "ACCOUNT-BOOK OF THE HURON MISSION OF DETROIT; BEGUN ON THE FEAST OF ST. JOHN, 1740."
• In "CONTINUATION OF THE BOOK OF ACCOUNTS OF THE HURON MISSION ON ÎLE AUX BOIS BLANCS FROM THE 30TH OF JULY, 1746, THE DATE OF FATHER DE LA RICHARDIE’S DEPARTURE."

2. Note 73 of the editor's notes at the end

Nicolas François Janis, born at Quebec, in 1720, a master-mason by trade, settled at Detroit. In 1745, he married Thérèse (daughter of Pierre) Méloche, then thirteen years old, by whom he had eight children. The date of his death is not recorded.

Volume 70: All Missions 1747 to 1764

Published 1899.

Hits for search term "janis"

1. Editor's Preface for the Volume

In the summer of 1751, “Niagara” Campeau cesses [sic] to work the mission farm, and is succeeded (September 1) by Nicolas F. Janis. The terms of settlement with the former, and the contract made with the latter, are given in detail. This ends the “book of accounts.”

2. Many mentions of "janis" as owing or being owed some amount of money for a service.

3. (I have reformatted the following run-on paragraph in an effort to make it easier to read.)

Janis took The farm of the huron mission of detroit on The 1st of September, 1751, on the following conditions:

Ist, that The superior of The said mission shall supply Him for The 1st year of The said lease with all The seed required for sowing The land belonging to The said mission — on condition that, at The end of the lease, The same quantity and kind of seed be returned to the said superior, Which shall be taken from The said farmer’s share.

2nd, that all The produce of The farm shall be divided between The said superior and the farmer; as regards both the seed and the animals above mentioned, the whole in equal portions.

3rd, that The said farmer shall be obliged to Put up substantial fentes around The farm of The said mission in The very 1st year of his lease; in consideration whereof The superior of the mission shall allow Him a man for The period of 2 months, to help Him in making The fences; this man shall be fed by The farmer, and be paid by The superior.

4th, that The farmer shall haul every year The firewood required for The use of The said mission, not exceeding 40 cords. That he shall, moreover, also Plow every year 3 arpents of new or other land in order that The mission may have for itself The indian corn produced by The said 3 arpents. Further, The said farmer shall be obliged to wash all The Linen belonging to The said mission, and to bake all The bread needed for the same; The soap to be supplied for washing. In consideration thereof, The superior of the mission shall pay to the said farmer The sum of 110 livres every year.

5th, The profits which The farmer may [Page 69] make by Plowing and carting, etc., with the animals of The mission, shall belong wholly to Him, without the said mission exacting any portion thereof.

6th, The original stock of animais, or Their equivalent, Delivered to the said farmer at The beginning of his lease, shall be given back by Him on leaving, in the same number and of the same value, to the superior of The said mission; and all The implements for Plowing, carting, etc., which shall be Delivered to Him shall also be given back by him in the same form, condition, and value. For this purpose, an inventory shall be made of the said implements, as well as of the said animals. The produce of the said animals shall be shared equally between The said superior and the farmer.

7th, with regard to the buildings, The said farmer shall be bound to make ordinary repairs, and to give Them back at the end of his lease in the same condition as that in which he received Them.

The lease shall terminate in 3 years unless The said farmer or The said superior wish to extend The term thereof.

Agreed and stipulated between The said superior and The said janis, this 25th of july, 1751.

Signed, Armand de La Richardie, jesuit Missionary; janis, not knowing how to write, has made a cross, +.

4. "BAPTISMS AT THE HURON MISSION, 1752-56."

This day I baptized françois, recently born of the Marriage of Louis viller and Marie josephine Marin; the sponsors were français janis and Marguerite La Durantaye . January 1, 1753.

Pierre Potier, jesuit Missionary.

Volume 71 Lower Canada Illinois 1759 to 1791

Published in 1901.

Hits for search term "janis"

No hits.

Hits for search term "kaskaskia"

Many hits.

Hits for search term "vallee" or "valée"

No hits.

The Janis Line

Green Tree Tavern, home of François Janis.

• https://www.nps.gov/people/francois-nicolas-janis.htm

Nicolas Janis

Questions for François Oulette

• Pierre or Jacques Potier?
• My tiny evidence for Nicolas going as François is A François Janis in Kaskaskia?. Has he something more definitive?
• Pronunciation of Janis: silent "s"?
• Nicolas's marriage record has his father as already dead. (See Marriage of Nicolas and Marie Louise, Note #7.)

Notes on Alvord's Kaskaskia Records (1778-1790)

Alvord, Clarence Walworth, ed. (1909). Kaskaskia Records (1778-1790) is a collection of Kaskaskia primary sources.

There's a lot here, so it's not for the casual historian, and certainly not for the casual genealogist. I myself have only skimmed the book. Perhaps one day I shall give it more attention. Until then, here is the start of some notes.

p. xv, Introduction

• Probably a must-read. Seems to cover the major themes of the documents, whose ebb and flow in the texts themselves make them difficult to follow.
• I. "Thomas Bentley and the Occupation of the Illinois Country in 1778". Alvord's summation echoes my experience doing genealogy:

• The historian pursuing that elusive idea called truth is happy when, after collecting all available material, the testimony of the sources supplement each other so completely that he can declare: "Thus must this event have happened, and not otherwise." Unfortunately in the determination of some most elemental truths of the historical science this result is not to be attained, and the historian is compelled to content himself with approximately true explanations. Often even this is not attainable; and the residue of his research yields a plausible hypothesis, or perhaps only a speculative conception. It is to be feared that the present subject under investigation can be regarded only as a matter for speculation. The very nature of the evidence adduced is such that no assertion of proved fact can be made; yet the examination of the sources is not wholly idle, since it may lead to further search, by which a truth may be ascertained; or, if such is not the result, still it may assist some future student in interpreting allied facts by pointing out the possibility of distant connections.

• II. "Father Pierre Gibault and the submission of Post Vincennes, 1778"
• III. "Ecclesiastical Affairs"
• p. xlvi: Nicolas Janis makes his first appearance, playing a central role in a dispute between French Catholic congregants and a certain Father de la Valiniere.
• p. 574: Nicolas has issues with the local Father De La Valinière. The priest wants to charge for slave marriages, and Nicolas refuses. The priest calls him names from the pulpit and threatens excommunication.
  • p. 578: It continues.
  • August Reyling's Historical Kaskaskia (see link above) is mostly an ecclesiastical history written by a priest in 1963. What does he say about De La Valinière?

p. xxiv: Before his departure GR Clark had someone in the Illinois country who was reporting to him (aka a spy):

"In this connection it is also interesting to note that Clark must have expected to find sympathizers in Kaskaskia, for he came provided with commissions for them signed by Governor Patrick Henry." (In footnote: "See post, p. 47.") - Did the commissions actually have people's names? I don't see how that would be possible.

• Another mention on p. 47: "This document is another indication of communication between Clark and the American traders previous to the former's expedition to Illinois, for it is evident from this that Clark came provided with blank forms signed by Governor Henry, because he expected to find persons sufficiently trustworthy to place in responsible positions."

p. 18

Nicolas Janis was a native of France. He married at Kaskaskia, in 1751. a daughter of Marie B. Thaumur dit Lasource. He occupied an important position in the community, being captain of militia under the British, to which position he was reappointed by Clark, and later by Todd. His influence was thrown on the side of the Americans even before the occupation of the village by them, and after that event he gave them financial assistance. His son, Jean Baptiste, accompanied Clark on the Vincennes campaign and conducted himself with great bravery. Nicolas Janis was elected justice, when the first court was inaugurated by John Todd. He was still living in Kaskaskia in 1787, according to the census of that year. (See post, p. 414 ) Members of the family settled later in Ste. Genevieve Mo. Kaskaskia MSS.; Draper MSS., 18

p. 52:

• An indication that some people might allow that Clark at least embellished his accounts: "besides this, it would have impaired somewhat the dramatic setting of his narrative, if the French people were expecting him."
• But in Alvord's Kaskaskia Records, he is pretty active that summer:
• p. 73-74: Letter from Mar, Joseph Bowman. Must have been written after his injury.
  • p. 75 has him leading an expedition that summer; I thought he was very ill.
• genealogy.jkurlandski.com/aubuchon/document/Alvord_Kaskaskia_Records_1778_1790.pdf

p. 53

• Deposition of Louis Seguin concerning capture of Vincennes,
• This is the only reference to the campaign on Vincennes that I have found in these records. (I'm only skimming and searching, not reading.)
• Another one, a declaration dated February 18, 1779:

• We, the captains and officers of militia, commanding the village of Kaskaskia and its dependencies in the country of the Illinois, by virtue of the powers that have been given us by M. George Rogers Clark, Colonel, etc. : we, the undersigned, having examined the representation of the present petition, written above and on the other page, permit the widow of the late Antoine Cottinault to enjoy, and make use of, her goods whatsoever they may be without the interference of anyone, whoever he may be, in the possession thereof until the arrival of the colonel or of any other persons in charge of the present colony.

p. 64

• Proclamation by George R. Clark, December 24, 1778.
• Wants to put an end to slaves' drinking and having parties.
• Can't go out after dark.
• Can trade goods only with permission from their masters.
• Claims to be in response to the habitants' wishes.
• Clark seems to have named a fort after himself, p. 68.

Similar proclamation on p. 117, September 6, 1779, from the Kaskaskia Court. - "Consequently the Court of this district makes express prohibition and inhibition to all persons of whatsoever quality and condition, living in this district, to sell to, or cause to be sold to, to trade in, to give to, or exchange with, the savages and negro and red slaves, any intoxicating liquors or drinks under any pretext whatsoever and in howsoever small quantities, unless the said slaves are bearers of a note from their master, under penalty, for the first offence of the transgressors of the present proclamation, of imprisonment during eight days and of payment of a fine of twenty-five livres in deerskins...." - Other provisions very similar to Clark's.

p. 80-83: long speech from Clark to the habitants of Kaskaskia. Excerpts:

• "From the time of your first declaration and attachment to the cause of the Americans until the glorious capture of the Post Vincennes, I doubted your sincerity; but at that critical moment, I received proofs of your fidelity. I was so touched by the zeal which you there displayed, that my desire at present is to make you happy, and to prove to you what sincere affection I have for the welfare and advancement of this colony in general and of each one of you in particular."
• "The young people of this country have returned from Post Vincennes covered with laurels."
• "In a short time you will know the American system which you will find, perhaps, in the beginning a little strange ; but in the course 'of time you will find so much peace and tranquillity in it, that you will bless the day that you espoused the cause of the Americans."

p. 99

• Clark having debt issues.

p. 103ff

• Cerré to Clark re all the money he gave to the American independence cause; lists some tools that were taken from his blacksmith shop, hoping for reimbursement.

p. 116

• "Sieur Janis" agreed to donate 6,000 (livres?) to an American regiment during the Revolution.

p. 143: Jefferson to Todd:

• More money issues.
• "By Col° Legras I have written to Col° Clarke fully as to the military affairs in the Western department. Among other things I have advised him to withdraw to the Eastern side of the Ohio all the forces not absolutely necessary to sustain the Spirits of the Inhabitants of the Illinois, and for their real defence."
• "This necessity has been inferred by the impossibility of our supporting an armed force where our paper money is not current. We have no hard money among us, and are not able to establish in Europe funds sufficient to cloathe and arm our soldiers. This puts it out of our power to pay hard money Debts with bills, and renders it necessary to press you to purchase nothing beyond the Ohio which can be done without, or which may be got from the Eastern side where paper money will pay for it."

p. 144ff: Jefferson to Clark:

• Re new fort/village at mouth of the Ohio River:

  • It became Fort Jefferson.
  • "The manner in which the lots of land are laid off about the French villages, I have thought very wise and worthy of imitation. Perhaps besides guarding your promises of lands to settlers with the condition above mentioned, it would be well to add also, the mode of laying them off."
    • My interpretation of this is the French way of having long plots whose fronts share the same street/road, rather than the American way of separate, isolated tracts of land.

• Mention of "Major Martin, our Cherokee agent," who seems to deal with land purchases from that tribe. I wouldn't have thought the Cherokee occupied that land.

• Assimilation of the Creoles:

  • "We approve very much of a mild conduct towards the inhabitants of the French Villages. It would be well to be introducing our Laws to their knowledge and to impress them strongly with the advantages of a free government — the training of their militia, and getting into subordination the proper officers should be particularly attended to. We wish them to consider us as brothers, and to participate with us the benefits of our rights and laws."

• Indian relations:

  • "We would have you cultivate Peace and cordial friendship with the several Tribes of Indians, (the Shawanoes Excepted) Endeavour that those who are in friendship with us live in peace also with one another, against those whom are our Enemies let loose the friendly Tribes. The Kickapoos should be encouraged against the hostile Tribes of Chickasaws and Choctaws, and the others against the Shawanoes. With the latter be cautious of the tearms of Peace you admit, an evacuation of their Country, and removal utterly out of interference with us would be the most satisfactory. Ammunition should be furnished gratis to those Warriors who go actually on expeditions against the hostile Tribes, as to the English not withstanding their base. Example, we wish not to Expose them to the inhumanities of a savage enemy. Let this reproach remain on them but for our selves we would not have our national character tarnished with such a Practice — If indeed they strike the Indians, these will have a natural right to punish the aggressions and we, none to hinder them. It will then be no act of ours — but to invite them to a Participation of the War, is what we would avoid by all possible Cleans."
    • I can't completely follow this because there is assumed knowledge and understanding here that I am not privy to.

• Financial issues, and the greater expense (and perhaps caché) of having soldiers on horseback:

  • "As to Capt. Worthington who says he has raised his men you must state to us the necessity for your having two troops, so we may lay it before the Assembly, who alone have power of giving sanction to the measure. The distress of the public Treasury will be a great obstacle, so that it will be well for you to take measures for researving to your self the benefit of Capt. Worthington's men in some other capacity, if they should be disapproved of as horsemen." - Here is a hint of why it was so import to Jean Baptiste to state and reiterate the fact that he rode a horse. The upkeep of a horse costs more—so JB spent more of his money on American independence that a soldier on foot would have.

p. 161

• Letter to Nicolas from Captain Fowler.
• p. 246: The reply. Did Nicolas write this, or a scrivener?

p. 329

• Memorial of the Inhabitants of Illinois to the Commissioners OF the State of Virginia, March i, 1783.
  • Describes how they were mistreated by the administrators sent by Virginia.

Gentlemen:

The inhabitants of Illinois had based their hopes upon the generous reception, which they gave to General Clark and his detachment upon their arrival in this country, and the sacrifices, which they have made of their revenues, both of their lands and of other provisions of war and merchandise, with a zeal which evidently proved to General Clark and to the officers who accompanied him how satisfied were the inhabitants with the worthy alliance which unites the states of America with their former sovereign, and the ardent desire which they had to attune themselves to the principles of liberty, of which, up to the present time, they do not know the mildness, in spite of the fact that there are some amongst them who have tried through the agency of individuals to bring before the sovereign tribunal the deplorable condition in which the inhabitants are on account of the horrible administration of the leaders and the troops during their stay in Illinois. [...] General Clark arrived in Illinois in 1778 with his detachment. We received him with open arms, confident of an ample protection which we had desired for a long time. The detachment was in need of every- thing and we assert that they were almost naked; but on account of the honorable bearing of General Clark and his officers, and because he assured us that he had orders to draw on M. Pollock, an agent of the State of Virginia at New Orleans, he had no difficulty in procuring all he needed in exchange for a currency in the form of paper money which he circulated in great quantities both on our shore and the Spanish at the rate of the hard piastre of Spain ; and all our goods were furnished them at that same price and on that condition. It seems, gentlemen, that you desire to have statements or accounts of the supplies furnished by us, a thing which is impossbile; for at every delivery or sale the commanders or commissaries used to pay us with that money or with receipts the commanders. Could a people who were so far distant from the sovereign tribunal and had been told of the kindness of a just government, so long desired, imagine that it would issue an imaginary money? Could they imagine, moreover, that an officer, acting according to its orders, would allow them to remain ignorant that this currency was discredited ? We have received it, nevertheless, at its face value ; but, also, this blind confidence has reduced us to the greatest poverty and has obliged us to diminish our crops by half, since we did not have the means to procure a single pound of iron with which to repair our plows.

Colonel Montgomery abandoned us to our wretched fate. His place was taken by Captain Rogers. Our sorrows commenced to cease at this change, for we were persuaded that, since the latter was a relative of General Clark, he would treat us with some regard and a sense of the duty that is due to faithful subjects. But this young officer, no doubt infatuated by the command that had been confided to him, and taking advantage of the incurable wounds with which we were suffering, thought to acquire some laurels by increasing our misfortunes to the extreme. Our country seemed like a city taken by assault and delivered over to pillage. Armed soldiers, either in our commons or in our homes, were killing our animals. He even had the audacity to send, on several occasions, detachments, of armed men with written orders to our very doors to take away by main force our firewood which was destined for our own use.

• p. 342: Reference to the literary figure of "Tartufe".

• At the same time and after he had vomited all these imprecations against us, he played his role of Tartufe and had the impudence to try to make us believe that the military which had come to take possession of our country was nothing more than a band of ruffians and thieves who came for that express purpose.

• I do not fully understand the reference in this context. As Wikipedia notes, a "tartuffe" is "a hypocrite who ostensibly and exaggeratedly feigns virtue, especially religious virtue."
• Wikipedia also notes that Molière's play was first performed in 1664, and was immediately banned, not performed in public again until 1669.
• p. 344: Janis is one of those who "violently" attacked Winston. Preceding pages mention Winston's trial, but I haven't been able to make out what the fuss was about--but it does seem to concern more French grievances against the Americans, and they threaten to move to Spanish territory across the river.
• they mention Tartuffe.

p. 345

• John Dodge to George R. Clark, March 3, 1783
• Another person trying to get Clark to make good on his purchases for the American cause.

p. 395

• John Edgar to George R. Clark, October 23, 1786

There is Nothing that I would not do to Serve General Clark, & my Country. And you may Depend on me that I will Execute your Order or any Other Orders, you may think proper to enfaire [sic] on me, to the last tittle that is in my power, the Inhabitants of these Villages is very much Disaffected to the United States, owing much to the Michlamacknac Company, which holds a large Trading House at Cahokia for the suply of the Savages.

p. 454

• Memorial by Barthelemi Tardiveau, February 28, 1788
• A letter describing the hardships imposed on the habitants by the Virginia/US administrators.

Censuses

• p. 414: Kaskaskia.
• P. 419: Prairie du Rocher.
• p. 420: Jean Baptiste Janis's "services were particularly praised by Clark".

Latest Jean Baptiste Janis Research

Jean Baptiste's Pension Application

Here I cover a couple of points re Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application File S. 15,901, for Jean Baptiste Janis, Virginia. The two most interesting documents from this web page can be found in the Jean Baptiste Janis pages of my website. They are:

• The Petition: Jean Baptiste's Petition to Congress, on the website at The Petition.
• The Affidavit: An affidavit created, it seems, when he learned that the paperwork for his application for a pension was at least temporarily lost; on the website at The Affidavit.

From what I have been able to ascertain, Jean Baptiste's Revolutionary War Pension file seems to consist of scans of a folder of documents pertaining to JB's application for a pension back in 1833. Each page is a .jpg file--which is, essentially, a photograph. So, think of a large file containing 39 pages, some of them related to one another, some of them standing alone. And picture a small manilla folder in this collection of documents, which maybe contains a three pages, but also has something written on the folder itself. Whatever was written on the folder would also have to be scanned, so altogether this folder and the pages it contains would constitute four scanned .jpg files. But you have no way of being certain that these four images belong together. Furthermore, there is no explanation for why a file has been included in the folder, which means that, sometimes, there is no apparent reason for its inclusion at all. And finally, since the .jpg files are basically photographs, you can't search on the text they contain, and if the original page is handwritten, it was written roughly 200 years ago in a script that isn't quite like the cursive writing we learned in school not nearly so long ago. The website's solution to this latter set of problems is to perform OCR on each page—that is, to send it off to a computer program to convert the pictures of words into actual words that you can search on and read, all with mixed results.

Mind you, I'm not complaining. The current state of things—in this case, 39 .jpg files, each one with its own OCR-generated .txt file—is much better than what I had a couple of years ago, which consisted only of the Southern Campaigns web page I discuss elsewhere. And that was infinitely better than nothing at all, which is all I would have had in a pre-Internet world. I describe the issues related to this 39-page treasure trove only to explain why there are a good many counterfeit coins among the handful of genuine pieces of eight.

References to specific pages refer to the filenames of the downloaded image and corresponding OCR .txt file, if you chose to download them from this page. As has already been mentioned a couple of times on my main pages, the images as presented on the web page are in the wrong order—or, at least, are as I write these words (August 2025).

The notes on these files below are from a number of different perspectives, or views.

Note to self: Do not edit the Who's Who View and the Table View in website project; edit in Obsidian project.

Who's Who View

• Bossier, John B.: President of the County Court of the County of Ste. Genevieve
• Charleville, François: Captain of the company which Jean Baptiste served in during the attack on Vincennes. JB signed an affidavit in support of Charleville's own pension application (Pension Application of François Charleville). In file 4159865_01001, it says Charleville received $600 for "sundries."
• Chatillon, Francois: constituent of Senator Linn. No apparent connection to JBJ.
• Clark: George Rogers: needs no introduction
• Draper, L. C.: mentioned in JBJ's Certificate of Pension. Probably Lyman Copeland Draper, historian (Draper Manuscripts Collection)
• Durbin (?), : clerk issuing JBJ's Certificate of Pension in a government office (in D.C.?)
• Edwards, James L: Commissioner of Pensions
• Gibson, William: attorney granted power of attorney by JBJ; a relative
• Graften, Joseph: notary public in Ste. Genevieve; clerk for the same
  • Link to some documents Graften certified, verifying that I am reading his name correctly in the handwritten documents in these files.
• Hamilton, Henry: Commander of Fort Sackville in Vincennes who surrendered to Clark.
• Handy, H. D.: clerk who was given JBJ's third commission to file with the first two
• Janis, Jean Baptiste: needs no introduction
• Janis, Peter: signed JBJ's power of attorney
• Kane, E. K.: senator from Illinois (which was not JBJ's home state at the time), given JBJ's first two commissions, which were subsequently submitted and at least temporarily lost
• Linn, Lewis F.: Senator of Missouri (JBJ's home state), who pleaded his case before the US Senate in 1836, and enquired of the pension to the Commissioner in 1840 (four years after Jean Baptiste's death).
• McArthur, John: justice of the peace in Ste. Genevieve who signed the notarial certificate for JBJ's affidavit
• McCarty, Richard: a captain in Clark's army attacking Vincennes
• St. Clair, Arthur: governor giving JBJ his third commission
• Todd, Governor: governor giving JBJ his second commission

Table View

File View

4159865_00968: Record of the Pension

This page is valuable because it tells us that Jean Baptiste Janis received his pension, when he received his pension, and how much it would come to. Here is my transcription of part of the image.

Inscribed on the Roll of Missouri 
at the rate of the 120 Dollars ~~~~ Cents per annum 
to commence on the 4th day of March, 1831. 

====================

Certificate of Pension issued the 19 day of Aug; 
                1836 and sent to Hon. L. Fr. 
            Linn, St. Genevieve, Mo

====================

Arrears to the 4th of Mar 1836          600.
Semi-an. allowance ending 4 Sept         60.
                                        ------
                                        $660.
                                        ------
                           {Revolutionary Claim, 
                            Act xxxxxxxx
                                July 2, 1836

Less valuable is the remainder of the image. It's also a can of worms.

Let's start with the my transcription of the rest of the image, which, because of the poor quality of both image and handwriting, is a little unsatisfying.

(Lefthand Page)


    ept. Let to Hon. L. Fr. Linn 
    Aug 19, 1836, Dead -- let to 
    Hon L. Fr. Linn Apl 27 1840 
1883 Oct. History to L C Draper (illegible)



(Righthand Page)

Missouri No 30,808
Jean Baptiste Janis, Sr. 
of St Louis in the State of Missouri 
who was an Ensign in the Comp 
by Captain         of the Regt 
by Col Clark in the Va  
line for

====================

It seems likely that this is a scan of a researcher's personal notes on the notes of Lyman Copeland Draper, a 19th-Century historian who focused on the people and events of that part of the Revolutionary War which took place west of the Appalacians. (See for example Draper Manuscripts Collection.) In other words, it's kind of like a nested set of Russian dolls:

• Jean Baptiste applied for a Pension.
• His application constituted a record in the Pension Bureau.
• L. C. Draper dug into all these records, came across Jean Baptiste's, and wrote notes on that record.
• Somebody came along and started digging in Draper's notes and wrote notes on those notes him- or herself—and we have a scan of part of those notes here.

What makes me believe this is, first, the name L C Draper in the image, and, second, the year 1883. Draper is not a very common name, so it seems unlikely to me that two L. C. Drapers would both be associated with Revolutionary War pensions. Moreover, why on earth would anyone in the 1830s, or even the 1860s, write "1883" down on a sheet of paper about Revolutionary War pensions in the 1830s? The only credible explanation is that these notes come from someone's reading of Draper's documents written in 1883. As the link above says, "Draper (1815-1891) was a lifelong student of early American history." He was alive and still doing history in 1883.

4159865_00970: Affidavit Oath

Immediately after JB's Affidavit (images 4159865_00970.jpg and 4159865_00971.jpg, top) comes testimony that everything he asserted in the affidavit is true (4159865_00970.jpg, bottom).

State of Missouri, County of Ste Genevieve

Personally appeared before me, a Justice of the Peace within and for the County of Ste Genevieve, aforesaid J. Baptst Janis, who is personally known to me to be the person who signed and sealed the foregoing affidavit, and he being duly sworn on the Holy Evangelist of Almighty God, on his said oath, saith, that the said affidavit or Deposition by him subscribed, contains the whole truth of his knowledge and remembrance in that behalf.

(signed)

April 15th, 1833

John McArthur, J. Peace

What I find most charming about this is the phrasing, "he being duly sworn on the Holy Evangelist of Almighty God." I thought it was a French Creole expression, for I had never heard it before and it seemed to me more Catholic (French) than Protestant (English, American). But I was mistaken: When I googled it the first link in the results came from a sworn statement made by a South Carolina slave. So it seems to be neither French nor specifically Catholic.

4159865_00974 - 4159865_00975: Power of Attorney

On the main pages of this website I make use of Jean Baptiste's signature on the power of attorney he granted to William Gibson (see Five Signatures), but I don't provide the contents of the document itself, which starts at image 4159865_00974.jpg and ends at 4159865_00975.jpg.

To all to whom these presents Shall Come

Baptiste Janis of the Town and County of St Genevieve and State of Missouri Sendeth greeting, Whereas the said Baptiste Janis is now far advanced in years and is therefore desirous of appointing a person, and of giving him Sufficient powers and authority to do and execute every act, Deed, matter and thing whatsoever, which shall be requisite and necessary to be done and executed, with respect to the entire Settlement of his claims and demands on and against the United States and the State of Virginia or either of them for Services rendered as Commission officer, under the command of Genl. George Rodgers Clark, Gv? Todd and Gov. Arther P Clair, Commanding Continental Troops in Illinois County, and Territory North West of River Ohio.

Now therefore those presents Witness, that the said Baptiste Janis hath made, constituted and appointed?, and in his place and Stead ?, and by these presents, doth make, constitute and appoint his relative William Gibson, his true and lawful Attorney for him and in his name to ask, and receive, of the United States and State of Virginia or either of them, all money or Land due him from them for Services rendered as Commissions officer during the time Served by him in the Continental Service, under Genl. Ge. Rogers Clark, Genl. Todd and Gov. Arthur St Clair, Commanding troops in the Illinois Country and Territory North West of River Ohio, and in his name generally?, to use and take such lawful ways and means for the recovering, receiving, obtaining any Lands and Money or Sums of Money and other things whatsoever, which is, are, Shall or may be, or by the United States and State of Virginia or either of them Shall be conceived or thought to be due, owing, belonging or payable unto the said Baptiste Janes, unto any person or persons [or possibly "pension or pensions"] whomsoever, as fully and effectually? to all intents and purposes, as the Said Baptiste Janis might or could do, use or take, if he was present in person, and also to receive any grant or Grants of Land, money or Sums of money from the United Stats and State of Virginia or either of them and also upon Settlement and payment for Said claims, Receipt for any Grant of Grants of Land, Money or sums of Money and in his name to make Accounts ? vouchers and give proper acquittances and discharges for same respectively: and whatsoever my Said Attorney shall do or Cause to be done, in and about the premises? ? do hereby ratify and Confirm this Same as fully, to all intents and purposes, as if I were personally present and did the same.

In Witness whereof I have hereunto Set my hand and Seal? this Tenth day of April in the year of our Lord One thousand Eight hundred and Thirty three.

(signed)

Btjanis

Witnesses (signed)

John McArthur

Peter Janis

4159865_00976: Notarization of Power of Attorney

Immediately after the power of attorney document, a notary public notarizes it (Image 4159865_00976.jpg).

State of Missouri

County of St. Genevieve

Be it remembered, that in this sixteenth day of April, Anno Domini 1833, before me, a Notary Public residing at the Town of St. Genevieve, within the County aforesaid, duly commissioned, qualified and sworn, and, as such, authorized by Law to take the acknowledgment of Power of Attorney, personally came Bte. Jonis who is personally known to me to be the person who signed and sealed the aforegoing Instrument of Writing? as having executed the same?, and acknowledged the same to be his act and Deed, hand and seal for the purposes therein mentioned.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto affixed my Notarial Seal, at St. Genevieve aforesaid, this 16th day of April A.D. 1833

Jos. Graften Notary Public

4159865_00983 - 4159865_00998: Journal of the Senate

In the 39-page file, immediately following Jean Baptiste's Petition to Congress (the last page being Image 4159865_00981.jpg), comes the first of 16 pages photocopied from the Journal of the Senate (Images 4159865_00983.jpg to 4159865_00998.jpg of the files downloaded from the website). The dates span Jan. 14 of 1836 to Jan. 31 of the same.

What's curious is that Jean Baptiste is not mentioned at all until the final page. So why are those pages in the Jean Baptiste Janis file at all? Why fill his file of 39 pages with 15 that have nothing to do with him?

When finally we get to the page of the Journal of the Senate, here's what it says:

Resolved, That the Committee on Pensions be instructed to inquire into the expediency of placing the name of John Baptiste Janis, a French inhabitant of Missouri, on the pension roll; the said Janis having served as an ensign in a company of volunteers at the siege and capture of Vincennes , in the year 1779, when said place was taken by Colonel George Rogers Clarke; or to make such other provision for him as the justice of his case would seem to demand.

Some Observations:

• Yes, it says "John" and not "Jean." (Recall that his Petition to Congress was signed as "John Baptiste Janis", and by someone other than himself. At Five Signatures, I speculate why.)
• Did you notice the gap in image numbers when I explained, above, at what point the Petition to Congress ends (Image 4159865_00981.jpg) and the Senate Journal begins (Image 4159865_00983.jpg)? In other words, what happened to Image 4159865_00982.jpg? There's one other gap in images, that one occurring near the start of the 39-page file.
• Although they do not concern Jean Baptiste, reading the preceding pages provides some insight into the historical context of the petition, the most interesting of which occurs on 4159865_00996, where there is a hint of the looming tensions over slavery:

  • The Senate resumed the consideration of the question demanded by Mr. Calhoun as to the reception of the memorial of the Society of Friends, of Pennsylvania presented to the Senate on the 11th instant in the District of Columbia, On motion by Mr. Clay, Ordered, That it be postponed until to-morrow.

  • I leave researching the import of this as an extra-credit homework assignment. Hints: Senator Calhoun believed, or at least professed to believe, that slavery benefited society as a whole; the Quakers (the Society of Friends) were one of the few Christian faiths that, early-on, took an unequivocal stance against slavery; and in the language of congressional registers, a memorial refers to a written request or communication.

4159865_01004: A Pension Balance due his Heirs?

Transcript of a 1840 letter from Senator Linn to the Commissioner of Pensions.

Washington April 24 1840

Sir  By a special Act of Congress the name of John Baptist Jannes was placed on the Pension List  for revolutionary, in 1835 I believe, he received a portion of the pension and died some time in October of the same year. I wish you to inform me whether there is not a balance due his heirs.

Respectfully
L F Linn

Mr J L Edwards 
    Comm of Pensions

Since Jean Baptiste Janis was dead by 1840, Linn must have been acting on behalf of his heirs, who would likely also have been among the Senator's constituents.

4159865_01005: Linn's Requst for Jean Baptiste's Pension Certificate

Transcript of a 1836 letter from Senator Linn to "Hon. Mr. Edward," who might have been the Commissioner of Pensions at the time, but definitely was in 1840, based on File 4159865_01004.

St? Louis 
July 29th. 1836 

Sir

A law passed? last Session of Congress granting a Pension to John Bte Janis, of Missouri.  Will you be pleased? to forward to me at the Ste. Genevieve his Pension certificate and obliged?

Your ? ?
L F Linn


Hon? Mr Edward

Original Jean Baptiste Janis Research

When I first decided to document Jean Baptiste's history, the Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application File S. 15,901, for Jean Baptiste Janis, Virginia webpage did not exist. What I found instead were some pages at Southern Campaigns' Revolutionary War Pension Statements & Rosters. (I have some Janis-specific notes on this website at Southern Campaigns' Revolutionary War Pension Statements & Rosters.)

So, on the one hand, my original research has become very outdated. On the other hand, I think some of the story behind that research is interesting, showing as it does how adventurous genealogical research can be. In this section I share part of that story.

Here are two paragraphs from my original web pages on JB Janis and his pension.

Although one can't help but be grateful for the sudden availability of all this information [suddenly available online], one might still be disappointed to find that access to this treasure trove is often limited to those who have the wherewithal to pay for it. Yes, I'm aware that there are costs involved in the process of scanning all these documents and posting them online—you'll say that that's the way the world works. But I think a little more effort should have been made to make the information available to all. We are a democracy.

In any case, in my efforts to find whether my ancestor, Jean Baptiste Janis, ever received the pension which he petitioned Congress for, I decided to eschew Ancestry.com and other websites trying to make a profit off of U.S. government records that, rightly, already belong to me. Instead I searched the Internet, where I managed to find Library of Congress records in the process of being posted online. The results of my search immediately follow. The process of the search—the adventure of the search—that is, how I managed to find what I found—is in the next section after that.

I've inserted that entire section immediately below.

The Nitty-Gritty Details

In this section I describe how I found the page in the Acts of Congress that formally lists the law concerning Jean Baptiste's pension. I fully admit that this discussion goes into an excessive amount of detail, and welcome those with too weak a constitution to skip it.

First of all, a not-so-brief aside about the different ways information can be presented online. One way is done by simply scanning a document, which is essentially taking a photograph of it. The result is an image. The advantage of images is that making them and posting them online is quick and easy. The disadvantage is that you can't search on the text an image contains. To use my own research as an example, if there's an image of the law concerning Jean Baptiste Janis somewhere on the Internet, I will not be able to find it by searching for "Jean Baptiste Janis" in Google. The image is nothing more than a photograph of the page the law is written on.

There are two ways to get the text out of an image. The first is by using OCR (optical character recognition) software. The result of OCR is a text file, often of low quality because the software frequently makes mistakes in distinguishing one character from another. For example, an image of the word little might be OCR'd as "1itt1e," where the letter "l" is replaced by the digit "1". So doing OCR on the Acts of Congress page concerning Jean Baptiste Janis might or might not result in good, searchable text—if the OCR thought the "B" in the word Baptiste was the digit "8," I'd be out of luck. That's the bad thing about OCR. The good thing about OCR is that it's almost as quick and easy as posting images online. The second way to get text out of an image is for a human being to look at the image and type out what it says—the result being a transcript of the image. This is what Will Graves and C. Leon Harris have done on their Southern Campaigns website. It takes a lot of effort, and I am very grateful to them.

To find whether Jean Baptiste succeeded with his petition to Congress, I started by doing Google searches like "jean baptiste janis" and "congress janis." I forget exactly which set of search terms led me to a badly OCR'd page at http://www.legisworks.org/sal/experiments/006_statutes_at_large.html (link now broken). As you can see, the path includes a directory called "experiments," so I wouldn't be surprised if the link eventually went bad. Jean Baptiste appears to be mentioned a couple of times in the file, but the most important appearance of his name appears in this context:

CHAP. CCCXLVII.-.Iln .llc!for the relief Jean Baptiste Janis, senior, cf Missouri. July 2, 1836.

Be it enacted, qoc., That the Secretary of War be, and he hereby is,

directed to place the name of Jean Baptiste Janis, senior, of Missouri, To be plaeed

on the roll of officers and soldiers under the act entitled "An act sup- on penston roll.

plementary to 'the Act for the relief of certain surviving officers and

soldiers of the revolution,' approved the seventh June, eighteen hundred Act of June 'i,

and thirty-two," and to cause him to be paid in the same manner as the 1832, ch. 126.

persons already inscribed on said roll, at the rate of ten dollars per month, from and after the fourth day of March, eighteen hundred and thirty-one.

APPROVED, July 2, 1836.

On the one hand, the OCR here is almost impossible to read. On the other hand, it had been good enough for me to find it through Google, and legisworks.org is a volunteer, non-profit effort. So a big thanks to them for making searchable text available to all. (Author's note: By 2025 the organization seems to have ceased to exist.)

At the very top of the first page we see the title "Pnblic Statutts," which of course should be "Public Statutes." A little lower occurs the subtitle "PRIVATE ACTS OF CONGRESS." I realized a didn't know the difference between a public and a private act of Congress, so I had to do a little digging. Eventually I came to a summary of a book called Untapped Resources: Private Claims and Private Legislation in the Records of the U.S. Congress, by Charles E. Schamel. One of the author's main points is that the Congressional record could easily serve as a treasure-house for people doing genealogical and other kinds of research. The summary describes what private acts of Congress usually concern in the following way:

The courts and agencies are bound to act under authority of public laws. Public laws must be applied universally and do not make exceptions for circumstances under which their application causes hardship to individuals. A large part of the private laws passed by Congress provide compensation to individuals or small groups that have been unfairly damaged by the actions of government applying policies or laws.

We see how the petition of Jean Baptiste Janis fits into this model. On a technicality, a previous law from 1833 left him ineligible for a pension for his wartime service. A private act of Congress could remedy this.

As grateful as I was for the searchable text provided by the good folks at legisworks.org, I wanted something of better quality to be the fruit of my research. So I started playing around with the URL—that is, the link http://www.legisworks.org/sal/experiments/006_statutes_at_large.html (link now broken).

At http://www.legisworks.org/sal/experiments (link now broken), I found a directory of files, none of which appeared very interesting. So I shortened the path by one more directory, http://www.legisworks.org/sal/ (link now broken).

Scrolling down on this page I found the link whose text reads "24" on the line labeled "Volume 5 (1836-1845) (PLs: 24, 25, 26, 27, 28): Azhar Unwala." This link took me to the URL http://legisworks.org/congress/24/ (link now broken). That page shows the contents of the directory, including the a file called private-24.pdf. I opened that file and ... Eureka! Exactly what I was looking for. I downloaded this (in case these OCR experiments ever disappear from the Web), and have already presented to you the relevant page above.

I can hazard a guess as to how the creation of these files came about. Somebody named Sal worked at or for legisworks.org, and he was tasked with "digitizing" some of the private acts of Congress—that is, making the public records available on the Internet. A volunteer named Azhar Unwala began helping Sal. One of their goals was to post the images of the documents online (the easy part), but they also had the more difficult goal of making the text of the documents available online as well. They experimented with a free or, at least, very cheap OCR tool, putting the results into Sal's "experiments" directory. Probably they decided that the OCR was so bad it wasn't worth continuing. Although in one respect their efforts were a failure, in another respect their work allowed at least one person (me) to find exactly the information he was looking for.

Lost References

My original webpage had some interesting quotations from and summaries of sections of the Congressional Register/Globe which included links to their sources. Unfortunately, the links turned bad and I can no longer find sources for the quotations. I include them below.

There followed considerable debate as to whether three or six months of service in the Indian wars should be sufficient to have earned oneself a pension. Representative Mann of New York argued that awarding just three months' service would be a drain on the treasury. This prompted Congressman Boon to rise and speak at length. He said:

When I first came into Congress, some ten years since, the old Indian fighters who then stood at the bar of this House, and petitioned Congress to compensate them for services rendered in defence of their country, and for property taken and destroyed by the enemy, were then told that they might go home to live in penury and want the remaining remnant of their days, as there was a large national debt to pay, and an empty Treasury to meet it.

Now, sir, we are told that there is in the Treasury of the United States some forty or fifty millions of dollars, over and above the wants of the Government; and yet, justice is withheld by the Government from those who have fought the battles of their country, and who, from old age and other causes, are unable to make a comfortable support for themselves and their families. [...] Who, I ask, Mr. Chairman, braved the bloody tomahawk and scalping-knife of a savage foe, and gave rise to the settlement and value of your vast public domain, which now yields annually to your Treasury millions and millions of dollars? Sir, it was the citizen soldiers of the West. Sir, they are the sons and grandsons of the revolutionary heroes of the old thirteen States of the Union. And now that your Treasury is full to overflowing, shall a just reward for their patriotic services be longer withheld? I trust not, Mr. Chairman. (The Congressional Globe: Twenty-Fourth Congress, First Session, Appendix, p. 461)

Congressman Boon's rhetoric served its purpose, and the amendment was agreed to.

At this point another congressman moved to include widows of those engaged in the Indian wars, which was agreed to. Then Congressman Wardwell—who will reappear during the discussion of Jean Baptiste—moved to expand the number of those eligible for the pension to include "minute men" (the quotation marks are not mine, and nowhere does the record clarify exactly who fell into this category). After some debate this proposal was disagreed to.

Email Exchange

One of my sources for the Jean Baptiste Janis, Pt. 1 and Jean Baptiste Janis, Pt. 2 pages was the "Southern Campaigns Revolutionary War Pension Statements & Rosters" web site. Here's an email exchange between myself and Will Graves, one of the historians there. His reply did not fully satisfy all my questions, but I appreciate the time he took to reply and offer the full exchange here as a starting point to anyone wishing to pursue this inquiry further.

Sat 6/24/2017 12:57 PM

Dear Mr. Kulandski,

I’m delighted you found our pension site useful to your research.

For ease of response, I’ve interlined my answers to your inquiries in red text below.  Hopefully, these responses fully answer your questions, but, if not, feel free to email me again.

All the best,

Will Graves

revwarapps@att.net

http://www.revwarapps.org 

From: Kurlandski Jerry [mailto:jkurlandski@hotmail.com] 
Sent: Saturday, June 24, 2017 12:20 PM
To: revwarapps@att.net
Subject: question on revwarapps.org

Hello, Mr. Graves:

First of all I want to thank you for your work on the "Southern Campaigns Revolutionary War Pension Statements & Rosters" web site. I'm doing some research on an ancestor of mine, Jean Baptiste Janis, and at the start I would never have imagined that I would get as far as I have--thanks to your research and diligence, not only do I have a description of my ancestor's experience at the Battle of Vincennes, but I also have the image of his signature.

I appreciate your attention to detail and, at the top of the page for my ancestor, the painstaking description of your methodology. But there are a few questions I have about your transcription at http://revwarapps.org/s15901.pdf that I don't understand. I have gone through your FAQ's page as well as, I think, every other main page on the website, and still I can't find the answer to these questions. So I thought I would write to you, as much as I regret having to.

Basically, what I want to know is what, exactly, these are transcriptions of [The pension applications filed by Revolutionary War veterans (or their widows) with the Federal Government.  Click on ORIGINAL APPLICATIONS  at the top of our website]. I have a feeling that abbreviations such as "S15901," [file number assigned by the War Department] "f39VA," [my own coding which tells me I made the transcript from the images posted on Fold3.com; that the file contained 39 pages; and is indexed with the Virginia veterans.] and "SS" [legal abbreviation for “scilicent” Latin for “particularly” or “namely”—it has no significant bearing on the transcription—same as the abbreviation “Sct” which also appears in many applications] should mean more to me than they do. Your FAQ's page explains that "S" indicates an "application by a surviving soldier whose widow did not apply." But I don't understand the "15901" [S15901 is the file number assigned by the War Department when the application for a pension was first made]. Does it refer to a specific record somewhere? If so, where? [Again, click on ORIGINAL APPLICATIONS ]

In other words, the page referenced above has comments like "[p 12]". What I'd like to find is the document whose p. 12 you have transcribed [the reference is to the page number of the pension as posted on Fold3.com].

I'm hoping that this information might give me a better understanding of the historical context of the information you provide. For example, on http://revwarapps.org/r13147.pdf , I'm not sure what is going on here. Why is Jean Baptiste Janis attesting that he knew Francis Charleville? In the phrase "deponent [to wit: Janis] is now 76 years old and served in the same Regiment as Ensign [Janis was in the same regiment in which Charleville as a ]," who is the deponent and who is the ensign? I thought Jean Baptiste was an ensign and Charleville was his officer. ... I'm not asking you to find the answers to these questions for me; rather, I'm asking you to tell me what the original document is, so that I can do the research myself.  [If you have a subscription to either Fold3.com or Ancestry.com, you have access to the digital images of the handwritten, original applications.  If you have a library card and if your library provides online access to HeritageQuest.com, you can access the images for free on that website. Click on ORIGINAL APPLICATIONS for more details.]

Even if you are unable to help me, I want to thank you again for your work. As I've already said, what you have provided on your website is much more than I originally hoped to find.

Sincerely,

Jerry Kurlandski