Pepper DNA Project

Thomas Pepper was born ca 1796 in Barnsley, Yorkshire, England. His son Thomas was born ca 1825 in Monk Bretton, Yorkshire, England and had a son named Walter. Walter was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, England in 1856 or thereabout. The exact date is probably 1856, from the UK census data, but the family always said it was 1853. Walter emigrated to the US in 1881 and was naturalized in Oct of 1896. He married Margaret Farley in 1885 and they had 6 children: Thomas, Joseph Francis, Alice, Walter, Genevieve and Alfred. He died in St. Louis, Missouri in 1912. All were born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. Joseph Francis Pepper married Agnes Rudy. They were both employed in the shoe making business in St. Louis. They had one son, Joseph Burnett Pepper, who was born and raised in St. Louis. Joseph Francis was in the US Army in WW I and served in France. The family migrated to Los Angeles, California in 1927. He died in LA in 1947. Joseph Burnett Pepper, was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri and came to Los Angeles with his family in 1927. There he met his wife (still living) and had two children, a son and a daughter. He was an automobile mechanic. He was briefly in the US Army at the end of WW II. He contracted cancer of the throat (from smoking all his life. Ironically, he referred to cigarettes either as 'coffin nails' or 'cancer cures') and died in Torrance California in 1962.