Happy Easter to All Degruy Researchers, I've been a busy little genealogy bumble bee flitting from flower to flower... gathering honey-data. I made a second trip to the area of our Illinois heritage: went through the Pierre Menard Home down the hill from Fort Kaskaskia; got a list of everyone buried at Garrison Hill [didn't find any relatives on the list]; drove across the river to Kaskaskia, which now, because of the Mississippi surgical activity has isolated it from the Illinois side... It was once a peninsula and is now an island. Long trip... saw the rebuilt Immaculate Conception church where Aufrere married de la Croix....saw the Liberty Bell of the West.... but everything was locked up.. so didn't get inside. Came home and emailed Winston de Ville [Mr. De Ville is such a sweetheart and has been continually so very kind in helping] who kindly forwarded a message to great historians : Carl J. Ekberg and Robert de Berardinis. Each has responded with helpful information. de Berardinis gave me several important references to research. Ekberg, you may remember, is the person who wrote the 13 or so page article on Antoine for the Missouri Historical Review. I hope to upload that to the web site eventually. The big news is that Ekberg translated our GGGGGG???? Grandfather's journal in that article!... so we don't have to pay someone to translate all those pages I took digital copies of which are now on our website. I will try to get this translation online sometime this week. I hope you will enjoy the following forward of a correspondence between Ekberg and me. Note his suggestion that perhaps Antoine died far from home!.... Niagara! I just can conceive why his death isn't noted in some military documents. Wouldn't you think the military would have some obligation to note when an officer had died in action? Also... anyone with any political clout who could get a sign made noting our ancestor's contribution to Missouri history. I live in Missouri but am totally sans clout! Anyway... soon you will have Antoine's own words to read. [Those of you to whom I have already sent copies of this article already have this.] I've had it all along but didn't realize this was a translation of the pages I had photographed at the Illinois Historical Collection. If you haven't you really ought to take a look at our web site... over 197 primary documents and lots of other goodies. Also I have created an Illinois timeline for Degruy which traces the years he was there and the order of records about his activity there. Celine will get that uploaded soon along with some photographs of Fort de Chartres and its museum which I took on my second trip. [Thanks, Celine!] To get on the Degruy Family Collaboration Web Site: go to degruy.myfamily.com logon as degruyguest use the password verloin It's easy. Renée Renee to Dr. Ekberg: Thanks so much... I truly value the perspective of a notable historian who has researched this ancestor of ours. I am eager to share your email with "cousins." That would be quite a project: to get a sign erected along a Missouri highway. Perhaps I will "ask around" as to how this might effected. I'm also overwhelmed that you have done this translation. What a contribution. I have wills written in French script that reduce me to tears trying to translate.... :-) between the script and the early French! Degruy's penmanship is excellent compared with many others.. but working with copies - even digital ones - are a challenge, to say the least. Kudos for you for being able to accomplish this translation. Again, I appreciate your input. Renée Carl J. Ekberg wrote: > > > Renée: > > Yes, that is indeed a direct translation of de Gruy's memoir--and > I very accurate one, if I may say so! I've often thought that the > State of Missouri should have a historic marker somewhere along de > Gruy's route of exploration, for his description of that part of the > State of Missouri is the earliest--by far--that exists. Somewhere > where his route crosses what is now a Missouri highway the Department > of Highways should erect a sign, for, when one thinks a bit about it, > de Gruy was to Missouri what Lewis and Clark were to Louisiana. > > > It's been more than twenty years since I worked on de Gruy, and I > can't remember when his trial dies out in the local records of the > Illinois Country. Some men from Illinois went east and fought at the > battle of Niagara in 1759, and many of them, including officers, were > killed. That's a conceivable possibility--if it can be ascertained > that de Gruy was still alive in early 1759. I just noticed (Belting, > p. 84) that de Gruy's widow got married in February 1760, which means > this is a very real possibility. > > > Cordially, Carl Ekberg