October 2014

When I land at the Montréal Airport in Fall 2014, my cousins and generous hosts, Lise Pepin and Jack Shostak, take me by the grocery store on the way to their home—we Pepins are always mindful of keeping some flesh in between the sandwich of skin and bone. As I get out of their car and see the sea gulls whirling about in a sparkling blue sky, I am instantly reminded that Montréal is an island—a big island, to be sure, but an island nonetheless, surrounded by many smaller islands in the midst of the flow of the great St Lawrence River, in French “Le Fleuve St-Laurent.”

I am in Montréal to do some research for upcoming work in France, but I am also hopeful to have some time to follow-up on questions I have about our family’s life in the city of Montréal, the provinces of Quebec and Ontario, and France.

On a previous visit, our cousin Jean-Guy’s son, Jean-Michel, had shared his discovery that many of our ancestors in France and French Canada spelled their names differently: Papin, as well as other variations Pepin, Pappin, Pappen.

Currently, our family spells its name Pepin but that spelling bedevils genealogical research because Pepin is a very common last name in both France and New France. (Common, but also distinguished, because of King Pepin the Short, father of Charlemagne. I have always laid claim to direct descent because I am so short but, if that were true, it would likely be to the peasants of short stature among Pepin’s feudal subjects.)

When I finish the meetings I have pre-arranged with research experts, I go to the main public library in Montréal and visit the reference room. I’ve done some preliminary searching online beforehand and there is plenty of information to be had in the library and archives, but I am not sure how long it will take me to get to anything focused on an actual family tree.

However, I have worked as a reference librarian a good quarter of my life and I have enough faith that the French Canadian reference librarians will be good that the first thing I do is to ask a reference librarian. They are not only good, they are great. Immediately one says that she is fairly sure that there is already a complete, published genealogy on the Papin/Pepin line,

and in minutes I have in my hands a reference copy—the only one in the library—on the entire tree from Pierre Papin to Paul Emile Pepin. I can hardly believe our luck.

We are doubly fortunate because the descent is primogeniture on the male line all the way through.

Papin: La Descendance de Pierre Papin & Anne Pelletier et autres lignes (notes et documents généalogiques) par Jean-Pierre-Yves Pepin was published in 1999 by the Association des Familles Pepin, Inc. It is 260 pages and astonishingly complete—especially detailed for the first generations in France and then in New France. The Association has a few copies left in its inventory and I buy several of the remaining copies.

Most of the missing details are in the latest generations. I can fix that, and I do, by working with remaining relatives in Montréal and contacting my own family in the States for details extending into the 11th generation of our Pepin/Papin Family.

* * * * *

Now, in 2017, the task before me is to convey the facts, pictures, and stories of lives lived over the course of the last 400 years while at the same time setting those lives into the context of their times—all of it in as compelling and readable a fashion as possible.

This story is by no means complete. There is much room for research to fill in the blanks, and informed, thoughtful connections beyond the facts—not to mention vigorous argument. That is fine by me. All I’ve tried to do is to make a robust start.

Separately, I’ve tried to document a 100-year timeline stretching from our father’s birth in Canada in 1911 and our mother’s death in the United States in 2011, and I’ve hung stories of our family on to that framework as best I can. There is plenty of room for additions and for alternative interpretations.

As I’ve written about the individuals and families in our tribal history, time and again I wish I’d paid more attention and asked more questions of those who could have remembered further back in time. Embroiled in everyday life and work, it is too easy to let memories go unacknowledged and slip away.

Not having children, I hope that each of my siblings share their memories with their children and grandchildren—whether they seem interested or not. They may still remember regardless.

I also hope they will someday write their own families’ history and stories. In my lifetime, I have treasured receiving family photos, letters and messages. I know our family’s children’s children will, too.

Theresa Marian Pepin

2017