Well, gang - at last I am attacking the precious little stack of letters obtained last December from an eBay seller by Bob and Sandy Bovie and Carol Anne Chiniquy. Hurray for those intrepid souls, who made this transaction (actually, these transactions) happen! And a thousand thanks to them for passing the letters on to me. More on all of that anon. The ink is faded, the words not always entirely legible - but I think I can fully transcribe each letter eventually. The letters are from my great great grandfather to his son Charles A. Chiniquy (brother to my great grandmother, Virginie) in the years 1880-1882. Achille, the younger brother of Fr. Charles Chiniquy and of Louis Phillipe Chiniquy (great great grandfather of Carol Anne), was born in Murray Bay, Charlevoix, Quebec on 8 April 1815. He married Luce Anastasie Fraser in Beaumont, Bellechase, Quebec, on 23 April 1838. Their son Charles A. Chiniquy was born in Quebec on 18 December 1846. To set the stage about Charles A. - I can do no better than copy for you the puff-piece in a Kankakee County book of biographies (please take with grain of salt - these write-ups were by nature much over-stated!). Transcriptions of the letters will follow in later messages. The following article was copied from HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS, and HISTORY OF KANKAKEE COUNTY (1906) pages 868 & 869 [begin quote] One of the most interesting, as well as many-sided occupations known to man, is the mercantile business. Perhaps no other furnishes such continous opportunity for studying human nature, and for enlarging one's knowledge of the world in general. The intelligent and successful merchant must be an observer, and the more he observed, the better merchant he becomes. Charles A. Chiniquy, who is catering to a large trade in St Anne, probably has as wide a range of information regarding mercantile pursuits as any man in Kankakee County. Not only has he been a merchant many years, but he has conducted stores in many parts of the county, and in the midst of widely differing environments. He is to merchandising born, and his years of practical experience have resulted in many wise observations and deductions on trade in general, which should be of inestimable benefit to the younger class of caterers to the public. In addition, he is an ex-soldier in the Civil War, an extensive traveler in the west and north, and a thirty-second degree Mason. Charles A. Chiniquy was born in the Province of Quebec, Canada, December 18, 1846, a son of Captain Achilles and Lucy Fraser-Chiniquy, natives also of Canada. Charles A. was the third oldest of nine children born to this pair. After completing his education in the public schools, Charles A. Chiniquy started a general store in St Anne in 1871. Four years later he sold out and removed to Chicago, where he was traveling salesman for the large mercantile firm. He then located in Crookston, Minnesota, and conducted a general merchandise business for ten years, and then a similar business in Seattle, Washington for six years. Returning to Chicago, he operated a general store until 1902, in which year he again settled in St Anne, and since has managed a very successful general store, having the largest and best equipped store of the kind in the town. On October 14, 1880, he was united in marriage to Estella M. Russell, a native of Chicago, and only daughter of Major Alfred Russell and Lucinde Page, the former of whom died when his daughter was an infant. Mr. Chiniquy has traveled extensively, having made four trips to California, and visited Alaska twice, on the first occasion remaining eight weeks in the frozen north, and on the second occasion five weeks. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. For many years he has been identified with the Masonic order, being a member of the Blue Lodge, Chapter, Commandery, and Consistory, and of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He has turned his many experiences to good account, has remembered what he has seen, and is a most interesting and enlightening conversationalist. Mr Chiniquy is held in high esteem by the citizens of St Anne, and his recent acquistion to the business life of the town is regarded as a distinct promise of substantial and well-merited success. [close quote] My, my - what a guy! < smile > Ginny