This is a cool video of the cemetery of St. Joseph Church at Prairie du Rocher, IL. It’s one of the oldest parishes still in existence in what was the Pays des Illinois or Upper LA (before the French lost to the British in 1763). Margaret Kimbrall Brown who is interviewed is one of the most important historians of colonial history in the Illinois country.
In the video, you can see the tomb of Fr. Gagnon who served as the Priest at the Fort de Chartres during a great part of the time that Jean Baptiste Lapaise de Vedrines was there. He was the Priest who baptized the child of a slave of Charles Filibot (a fellow Marine) in February of 1752 (a year after JBLV’s arrival) which Jean Baptiste Lapaise de Vedrines served as godfather of.

 

 

This is the entry in the Baptismal Register of St. Ann Church of the Fort de Chartres, which Jean Baptiste Lepaise de Vedrines signed:

In the year one thousand seven hundred fifty-two, the fourth of February, I the undersigned J. Gagnon, missionary priest of the parish of St. Anne, baptized a negro child, natural son of Margrite, a negress belonging to Flibot, habitant in this parish. He was given the name of Jean Baptiste; the godfather was Mr. Jean Baptiste Viterne, cadet a leguillet; the godmother Marie Joseph Riviere. The godfather signed with me; the godmother not knowing how to write, has made a cross.

Baptismal record from St. Anne de Fort Chartres, now at St. Joseph in Prairie du Rocher, IL (also found in The Village of Chartres in Colonial Illinois 1720-1765, Brown and Dean, p. 185, D-260)