[0:01] So, I'm John Vanic. I am a professional [0:04] historian and I'm working on contract [0:05] with the Little Canada Historical [0:07] Society to write a biography of Little [0:10] Canada's founding family, uh, Benjamin [0:13] Jera and Genevie Laurance. They were [0:16] also the founders of St. Paul. I am [0:18] actually a descendant of Benjamin and [0:20] Genevieve. Um, and I started this [0:22] research years ago, more than a decade [0:24] ago, just out of personal curiosity. So [0:28] it's been a a a lengthy process um from [0:32] the very beginning of research where [0:33] there was no intention of writing a book [0:35] um to now where we think this actually [0:38] will make a really big splash. There is [0:40] no biography of voyage or French [0:43] Canadian farmers because they didn't [0:45] write anything down. And what I found is [0:48] a story that's so compelling that [0:50] involves um corruption and prostitution [0:54] and epic voyages and dislocation and [0:58] debt um and you know sort of a heroic [1:01] epic moment of stability that all falls [1:04] apart at the end because no one has ever [1:06] written a fulllength biography of of [1:09] Voyajer. Uh this is really a new thing [1:12] in historical literature. The story has [1:16] been so engaging that it just keeps me [1:18] going. But I also want to help uh teach [1:22] people about some of the key moments in [1:25] especially early Minnesota history in [1:27] the relationship between Minnesota and [1:29] Quebec and Manitoba histories that I [1:31] think have been really obscured because [1:33] we don't have this missing piece of the [1:36] puzzle. There's documentary evidence [1:38] that um Benjamin Jet Jr., So, one of [1:41] Benjamin and Genevie's sons was an [1:44] oldtime fiddle player. Um, and so that's [1:47] what these are those newspaper articles [1:49] highlighting that we knew he was a [1:51] fiddle player. Um, and then the surprise [1:53] was that there was a descendant who had [1:56] old violins, old fiddles in his [1:58] possession. [2:11] The partnership with the Little Canada [2:13] Historical Society has been fantastic. [2:15] Uh, in part because they have so many [2:18] records here and so the part of the [2:20] story that takes place in Little Canada, [2:22] um, the records that are here, the [2:24] family histories, the oral histories are [2:27] uh, invaluable for telling that early [2:29] story in Little Canada. As far as the [2:31] timeline of the book project, the [2:33] research is mostly complete. I'm [2:35] wrapping that up this year in 2026. Um, [2:38] we're looking for funding for the [2:40] writing phase and aiming for publishing [2:43] in probably late 2027 or 2028. Once it's [2:47] finished, it's going to help put this [2:48] historical society and the city of [2:49] Little Canada on the map.