Brother Hein Could Swim

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I thought I would talk about a few events that happened about two hundred and thirty years ago in my Hine family.  I found some information a few years ago and thought that they might make an interesting story.  Now I’ve finally gotten around to doing it.  I’ll start by tracing my line back to the aquatically gifted ancestor of mine.  I’m Van and my mother was Betty Lou Bucklin Landry.  Her father was Fred Bucklin, who was the son of Addie May Hine Bucklin.  She’s the last one in my line to carry the Hine name.  Her father was George Henry Hine.  I thought I would share a photo of him, because he’s the one furthest back that has a photo.  You’ve probably seen the photo before.  It’s a favorite of mine.

George Hine circa 1900 in Louisiana.

George was the son of John Peter Hine.  John Peter’s father was Peter Hine.  Peter had the unfortunate situation that he became a father posthumously.  He died at the age of 24 on July 22, 1819.  His only child was John Peter, who was born on September 3, 1819.  Of all of my maternal ancestors that I am familiar with, Peter Hine had the shortest lifespan.  He was the youngest son of Johannes John Hein, who was an immigrant from Dillenberg, Germany.  The documents from the 1700s show his name spelled as Johannes or John Hein.  Only later generations adopted the Hine spelling that we use today.

John Hein arrived in Wachovia, NC.

Johannes was my 5x great grandfather.  He came to North America with his father Johannes Jacob Hein and his stepmother in 1753.  They originally settled in the Broad Bay, Maine, area.  They were part of a religious group called the Moravians.  The Heins then moved to Friedland, North Carolina, at some point.  That sets the story up for the few pages of information I found. On page 811 of “The Records of the Moravians in North Carolina” there is an entry that talks about some of the new members that have found their way to Wachovia around 1774.

Hein could swim on July 5, 1775.

John Hein is listed separately from his father and the rest of his family.  I don’t know if the others were there before or after him, but they were all at the same place later on.  On other pages they talk about the wagons coming into town with prospective new citizens.  There were less than 300 people in the town at that point.  There is talk about building roads and bridges to make life more convenient and appealing to people.  Then one night they must have had a big rainfall.  On the morning of July 5 (1775), they woke up to higher water than they had ever seen in the area.

It says something about the mill sending for help.  I’m sure they didn’t send a text!    Somehow, they got a message, and they needed to cross the creek.  There had been discussion about needing a bridge across Muddy Creek and I’m not sure this is the same place.  But they needed to cross the water and all they had was a shabby canoe.  The older, more sensible people probably didn’t want them to use such an unsteady vessel, but the young men insisted.  One of them was our John Hein.  He went along with Kremser and Schaub.  They ran into a strong current, which caused the canoe to leak and then sink.  Fortunately for all involved, John Hein knew how to swim.  From the look of it, he saved the other two young men’s lives.  I think that is pretty commendable.  I like seeing stories like that about my ancestors.

1777 – Banns to be published

The last thing I wanted to show was from July 17, 1777.  John was almost thirty years old, so it was time for him to start a family of his own.  The girl that caught his eye was Juliana Catharina Schneider.  She was a few years younger than him, and she had been born in Broad Bay, Maine.  She was the daughter of another German immigrant Melchior Schneider.  He and his wife Jacobina Doerflinger were married in 1742 on the ship carrying them across the Atlantic Ocean.

John and Juliana were not so dramatic.  John went to Br. Graff with his future father-in-law Michael (aka Melchior) Schneider to request the marriage of John and Juliana.  They wished the Banns of marriage to be published, which was promised to them.  The young couple was married August 19, 1777.

My Dad and His Siblings in 1975

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I like to be able to find photos from 50 years ago for some type of family event.  It’s a good even number.  I like bigger numbers like 60, 70, or 80.  A photo from exactly 100 years ago is not easy to find, so when I find one it is really special.  I hope there isn’t one for today, because I am not aware of it.  It’s so easy to overlook those types of anniversaries when there is so much history to look over.  That’s why I decided on the 50-year anniversary of the Fourth of July Celebration from 1975 for my dad’s family.

The Landry family of Lake Charles, Louisiana, on July 4, 1975.

The Landry family get togethers were always so enjoyable.  There were so many people, and the numbers seemed to grow every year.  Cousins were marrying and having children everywhere you turned.  There were usually photos of large groups, and I have one from 1975.  It’s one of my least-favorite photos of myself.  I thought about being brave and posting it but decided against it.  It was really just a matter of opting for this one instead.

Because even though there were always large family photos, my dad and his siblings had a tradition of taking a photo of just the eight of them.  They were the children of Robert Joseph “Rob” Landry, Sr. and Germaine Erie Patureau Landry.  They were better known as Mama and Papa to these eight, and they were known as Mee Maw and Pee Paw to all of us grandchildren.

In 1975, neither Mee Maw nor Pee Paw were alive.  Pee Paw died in 1957 at the age of 64.  I recently reached the age he was at his death.  It will take a while longer for me to pass up Mee Maw.  She died in 1973 just a month short of her 79th birthday.  This photo was just two years after her death.  The siblings must have decided to keep the family get togethers going after their mother’s passing.  I wonder if they discussed that at all, or it was just what everyone wanted.  Whatever it was, it sure did endure.  Those siblings continued getting the family together for about 40 years.  Not without the help of their children, of course.  It has stopped, because one by one they have all passed away.  This is the first July 4th without any of those Landry siblings.

The photo was taken at The First’s home.  That would be the home of cousin Shirley and her husband Dudley.  She is my godmother.  We had the Fourth of July celebration there for many years.  I don’t know when it started, and I don’t know when it stopped.  I also don’t remember what the family did for the Fourth when Mee Maw was still alive.  But I know we got together in 1975, because I have this photo to prove it!  Photos are such good assistance to our memory.  Thankfully, I can still remember the name of everyone in the photo.  I thought I would share that with you. 

I’ll start on the left with Marie in her so very patriotic red, white, and blue blouse.  It’s the main thing that stood out when I restored the colors to the photo.  That and the green grass.  Marie was the oldest sister and she’s standing next to the youngest sister Frances.  Frances is standing somewhat behind Germaine, who is in a mint green outfit.  Not as patriotic as her big sister but still looking spiffy.  Next is Hubert, the father of The First.  To the right of him is my dad Bob.  The family called him Bobbie, but many of his friends called him Pluto.  Next to him is Wana.  She almost got the patriotic colors correct, she’s just missing a bit of red.  You can barely see A. J. next to her, because Johnny is in front of him.  He may have got in that habit when they were young.  A. J. was the oldest boy, and Johnny – the youngest – could have stood in front of him without blocking him at some point.  It was not the case in 1975.

I hope you all have a wonderful Fourth with friends, family, and/or loved ones.

The Keys of Chipping Ongar

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The most recent immigrant in my family tree is my maternal grandmother’s mother Daisy Henrietta Martha Keys Phenice.  She came to America with her family in July of 1887 from London, England.  They settled in southern Louisiana, and she and her siblings went on to marry and have children, grandchildren, and so on.  They are all over the place now.  I’m not going to explore all of those places now.  I’m going to look back further in time to see the family of Daisy’s father Henry Keys.  He died before the family moved from England.  It was his brave wife who brought their five children across an ocean to start a new life.  I’ve written more about her since she was the one that made it to Louisiana.  I’ve even taken a selfie with her grave.

Henry Keys circa 1880.

I thought I’d start the story with Henry’s parents.  They’re the ones that had all of those Keys children in Chipping Ongar.  Chipping Ongar is a market town in the Epping Forest district, which is in the county of Essex in England.  It’s where George Keys from Wethersfield and Elizabeth Crouchman from Moreton (both places are in Essex County) set up a home and started a family.  They were married in Chipping Ongar on October 21, 1807, at the St. Martin of Tours Church of England.

There are no photos of George and Elizabeth that I know of.  I have said that about other great, great, great grandparents of mine and have later found them.  George and Elizabeth lived until the 1860s, so it is a possibility that there are photos of them.  We can only hope.  But I do have a few details about the way they looked.  George is said to have tan hair, blue eyes, and very fair skin.  I’ve never heard anyone use the color tan to describe hair, but I would assume it would be light brown.  I’m sure my sister Karen would have agreed with me when I say that ‘tan’ is a better description of light brown hair than ‘mousy brown.’

Elizabeth, on the other hand, had black hair, blue eyes, and very fair skin.  They were English, so I’m sure they did have fair skin.  At least it wasn’t described as pale or pasty.  From the photo/painting of their son Henry, it looks like he also has fair skin.  His hair looks very dark, so he probably got that from his mother.  No mousy brown hair for him!  If both of his parents had blue eyes, it’s likely that he had blue or light eyes as well.  That’s always difficult to tell from old photos unless they are distinctly light in the photo.

George and Elizabeth’s first child was born in 1809.  Eliza Keys would later marry John Reading, and they stayed in England.  George James Keys was born in 1812.  He married Elizabeth Jane Rose, and they immigrated to Ontario, Canada.  I’m glad they moved away, because this George and Elizabeth (Rose) Keys would easily be confused with his parents if they stayed in the same area.  Elizabeth Keys was born in 1814.  She married George Little, and they immigrated to Victoria, Australia.  Amelia Keys was born in 1816.  Nothing more is known about her.  Jane Keys was born in 1818.  She married George Bedford, and they stayed in England.

The next two children born to George and Elizabeth were James and Henry Keys.  They were born in 1822, and they were identical twins.  We all know that Henry married Martha Ann Cook and their children came to America.  James was never married and had no children.  The last child of George and Elizabeth was William Keys, who was born in 1824.  I’ve written about him before because he was married to Martha Cook’s younger sister Henrietta.  They stayed in England.  A few of their children immigrated to the U. S.  

My main impetus for choosing the topic of this post was a new DNA match that showed up this week.  The matching DNA was attributed to our common ancestors.  Ancestry showed that we had common ancestors of George Keys and Elizabeth Crouchman.  But they were wrong.  I definitely have ancestors by the name of George Keys and Elizabeth Crouchman, and so does the DNA match.  But it is not the same George Keys and Elizabeth Crouchman!  And they lived in the same area.

I had seen this before.  It was very confusing at first until I realized that there were two couples with the same name from the same area.  With the help of the records from my mom’s cousin Edith Keys Segraves, and with input from more distant cousins still in England, we were able to figure it out.  In case you didn’t know, the names George and Elizabeth were very common names in England at that time.  It had to do with royalty or something.  It seems like every generation of those English families repeated the names.  That’s how it ended up with cousins with the same names.

In this situation, our George Keys, who was born in 1780, had a nephew with the name of George Keys born in 1812.  Our Elizabeth Crouchman, who was born in 1781, had a first cousin by the name of John Griffith Crouchman.  His first daughter was born in 1810, and she was named Elizabeth.  And sure enough, George (1812) Keys married Elizabeth (1810) Crouchman.  And to make things even more confusing, let’s look at the names of their first few children.  As you’ve seen from our George and Elizabeth, their first three children were Eliza, George (who married an Elizabeth), and Elizabeth (who married a George).  Then George (1812) and Elizabeth (1810) had children by the names of George (married an Anne – had a son named Henry) and Elizabeth (who married a George).  Way too many common names!

So those of you who are related to me through this couple, remember that you come from the original George Keys and Elizabeth Crouchman, not from the copycats!

Outliving Pee Paw

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Robert Joseph “Rob” Landry, Sr. circa 1950

Yesterday I was the age that my paternal grandfather Robert Joseph Landry, Jr. was on the day he died.  I’ve planned on writing this post today for a while.  When it got closer, I calculated the exact day that would match the age of Pee Paw when he died.  I knew that it was approaching, but I didn’t even think about it yesterday.  I only thought about it earlier today when I started to think about what I’d write today.  

I never knew my grandfather.  He died before I was born.  He was born on January 9, 1893, in Westlake, Louisiana.  He was the youngest child of Simon Alcide Landry and Marie Celeste Leveque.  He married Germaine Erie Patureau in 1921 in Lafayette, Louisiana, and they spent the rest of their lives in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  I think the area they lived in was called Goosport.  It looks like it would be pronounced like Goose-port, but it actually sounds more like Goss-port.  My dad was Robert J. Jr and they called him Bobbie.  He was better known as Bob or Pluto.  He married Betty Lou Bucklin in 1952, and they had me in 1960.  I was the fifth child, too.

Being a later born child in a family kind of stretches the generations out in a family tree.  And when you have a string of them, it makes it more pronounced.  Pee Paw was the youngest of ten children.  Simon Alcide was the youngest of eight.  One of the common factors in my Landry line was the none of us knew our paternal grandfathers.  Now I don’t know about those that came before me, but it meant to me that my grandfather had been really old.  Pee Paw was 64 years 7 months and 19 days old when he died on August 28, 1957.  Even since I was a kid, I knew that was old – even without the months and days added on.

But it doesn’t seem so old anymore.  I guess on some days it does, but for the most part it doesn’t.  I’m not the only one that has outlived our grandfather.  I’ve got lots of older cousins and siblings who have paved the way.  My godmother did it first.  Of course, she did.  That’s why Shirley is called The First.  And slowly but surely, we’re passing that marker.  But not all of us.  My older sisters Jodie and Karen didn’t make it that far.  And neither did our cousins Marla and Mark.  I hope the rest of us make it as well.

About the photo.  This is a picture of Pee Paw showing off his catch of the day.  He was an avid fisherman.  It’s not the best of photos, but I like it because he had been doing what he loved.  He’s also dressed very casually for him.  It seems like most photos of him show him with a tie on.  I’m not exactly sure when the photo was taken.  There’s not a date on it.  All that I can really be sure of is that he was younger than I am when the photo was taken.

V. M. Patureau

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VMP with friend and family circa 1924 in Lafayette, Louisiana.

I thought I would keep it simple today.  I don’t have a lot to say.  Sure there have been some interesting things happening, particularly with the Patureau family.  I’m not ready to say more about some of it yet.  But there have been lots of cousins commenting on old Patureau posts the last few days.  So Patureau has been on my mind lately.

For some reason this old photo of my great grandfather with three other people has always caught my attention.  I had an old copy of it from my dad for a few years.  It was just these four people standing in a field.  I always thought it was a cropped photo.  I imagined that someone cropped the bottom part of the photo, and I always wanted to be able to see their lower legs and feet.

So when this photo showed up in Box 301 last year, I was a little surprised.  I was correct about it being cropped, but wrong about what part was cropped off.  Instead of their feet showing, lots more sky can be seen.  I kinda like it.  I was very pleased that it was labeled with everyone’s name.  That is always so helpful with photos from 100 years ago.

On the left in the suit is my great grandfather Vincent Maximilian Patureau.  He was born in Matamoras, Mexico, in 1865 to French and Acadian parents.  His father was from France and his mother was from Louisiana with Acadian ancestry (with a little bit of French thrown in there).  Standing next to him is Mrs. Broussard.  Not very helpful, but it is better than nothing.  There can’t be that many Mrs. Broussards in the Lafayette area, right?  To the right of her is my grand uncle Louis Landry.  My grandparents were Erie Patureau and Rob Landry.  Erie was the daughter of Grampa Max, and Rob was the younger brother of Uncle Louie.  On the right is Aunt Lorena, another daughter of Grampa Max.

The photo looked so empty with that huge amount of sky above their heads.  I thought maybe I would put the word Patureau up in the air in an interesting font.  But then I decided that a signature would be better.  Since the Box 301 Collection included a document with Grampa Max’s signature, it was an easy thing to add to the photo.  The signature was from 1905.  

There, that’s simple enough.

The Stanbrough Family of Westfield

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Susan G. Stanbrough Hine circa 1890.

In case you don’t know, Westfield is in Indiana.  My connection to the place is through my mom.  My mom was Betty Lou Bucklin and she was born in Hathaway, Louisiana, on May 20, 1933.  She was born just 52 days after her great grandmother Susan G. Stanbrough Hine died.  My mom’s dad was Fred D. Bucklin, the son of Susan G.’s daughter Addie May Hine Bucklin.  But Susan was better known as Sue.  Her siblings called her that, her niblings called her Aunt Sue, so I always refer to her as Grandma Sue.

Brother Joseph

Sue was born on October 3, 1851, to John Stanbrough and Lydia Mills Stanbrough in Westfield, Indiana.  She was the sixth of twelve children to be born to this couple.  She had an older half-brother by her father and his first wife.  Albert was born in 1839 to John and Lydia Hunt Stanbrough.  Lydia Hunt Stanbrough died in 1842 at just 21 years of age.  John’s father Evan James Stanbrough had died earlier that year, so that year started out rough.  In addition to those deaths, he also had two sisters and a brother that died in 1842.  The oldest sibling that died was only 28 years old.  I had never noted this fact before.  That was definitely a tough year for my ancestor.

Sister Etta

He remarried the next year to Lydia Mills, and children soon followed.  Nelson was born in 1844, Joseph in 1845, Julietta “Etta” in 1847, Mary Etta “Mollie” in 1848, James Evan “Jim” in 1850, and our Sue in 1851.  Those were followed by Anna Jane in 1853 and Lucius in 1854.  Lucius lived for less than three weeks.  He was the only one of these twelve children that had a short lifespan.  Following those, there was Sarah Eliza “Ida” in 1856, Elisha “Ell” in 1857, Nathan Oliver “Oll” in 1860, and Charles Romanzo “Man” in 1863.  All of the children were born in Westfield, though sometimes I’ve seen that the property was located in Eagletown.  Eagletown is now an unincorporated area around Westfield.

Sister Mollie

John himself was from a large family.  He was the fifth of thirteen children, and he had been born in Ohio in 1820.  The first nine children were born Ohio, and then the family moved to Indiana around 1830.  His family was Quaker with a pretty long history in the United States.  The Quakers kept lots of records, which is very helpful for genealogists and those interested in family history.

Sue and her older siblings had their parents and their remaining grandparents for a few years.  Her older half-brother Albert died in July of 1854 at the age of 15.  Just a few days later her mom’s mother Elizabeth Brown Mills died at the age of 61.  I was thinking she was so much older, but she was younger than I am now.  Those two deaths happened just a few months before the birth and death of little Lucius, so that must have been a difficult time period for the family as well.

They lost their paternal grandmother Elizabeth Frances Hester Stanbrough in 1861 and their maternal grandfather James Mills in 1869.  By this time Sue was practically an adult and ready to be out on her own.   Her mother died in March of 1873.  Lydia Mills Stanbrough was only 49 years old at the time of her death.  Her youngest child Man was only 9 years old at the time of her death.  I’m sure some of the older siblings helped their father care for the younger ones.  Others were getting married and starting families of their own.  Grandma Sue was one of the latter.

Sue Stanbrough married George Hine on October 12, 1873, probably in Westfield.  In 1876 my great grandmother Addie was born in Noblesville, Indiana.  That’s not too far from Westfield.  I’m sure she was in close contact with the rest of the family then and in 1877 when her father John died as a result of poisoning himself with morphine.  He had remarried a woman with six children of her own and they were having difficulties.  He was also having financial problems.  On top of that it looks like he was suffering terribly from painful symptoms of malaria.  It was another tragic time for the Stanbrough family.

Brothers Oll, Man, and Ell in Westfield in 1944.

Sue and George stayed in Indiana and added five sons to their family.  They then moved south to Louisiana in 1894.  According to a newspaper article in 1926, Grandma Sue never returned even to visit Indiana.  Several of her siblings lived out their lives there.  Others of them moved to different states.  Joseph ended up in New Mexico, Mollie in Michigan (with her daughter), Ida in West Virginia, and brother Jim lived in Louisiana with Sue’s family. 

Even though the family was spread out, it seems like they stayed close.  I have copies of letters and photos that they sent each other through the years. That’s how I learned some interesting details about their lives.  It’s also how I got these interesting photos of the Stanbrough family.  They represent cherished memories of Sue’s family back in Westfield.  That’s why they’ve lasted through the years.

Bob and Betty – Two Would Never Do

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It was difficult today to come up with a topic.  It’s time for the Landry side of my family, but the only thing I could think of was so similar to what I shared last month.  I guess that’s to be expected, I’m rotating between four different grandparents.  Plus Pee Paw – my paternal grandfather Robert Joseph Landry, Sr. – has the fewest photos for his ancestors.  Thankfully there are several photos of his mother – Marie Celeste Leveque, but there are only two for his father – Simon Alcide Landry.  What’s even more limiting is that there are no photos of Alcide’s parents – Narcisse Landry and Marie Carmelite Hebert.

Jodie, Bob, Rob, and Betty Landry in Albuquerque.

I decided to change my search scope and went to look for the first color photo of my dad.  Last week I shared the first color photo of my mom from 1954.  That one was pretty blurry, but it came out pretty good when I sharpened it.  The first color photo of my dad was even worse.  There’s no way I could use it.  I kept looking for something good.  Then I found it.  It’s not a color photo, but it was a photo from exactly 70 years ago.  I’ve covered several events in the lives of my parents on their 70th anniversary.  Why not one more?!

The 70th anniversary photos started when young Betty Lou Bucklin was brought home by Bob Landry to meet his family.  Then there were engagement notices and letters followed by their wedding.  Not too long later, there was their first child – Jodie Lou Landry.  You remember her.  She showed up in that first color photo of mom last week.  She was also in a 70th anniversary Valentine post in February.

And now my older brother Rob has joined the happy little family.  Look how cute they all look!  The photo was taken on May 29, 1955, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on the occasion of Rob’s baptism.  This photo reminds me of when our family was celebrating my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary in 2002.  I had to doublecheck that date.  It’s hard to believe it was that long ago.  It was almost in the 1900s!  Anyway, when we were preparing for that big event, I decided to write a song about their fifty years together. 

The song starts out with “More than fifty years ago is when their love began” and continues on to tell about their meeting and getting married.  Then I have the part that goes “So began their joined lives and along came Jodie Lou.”  This is when I choked up because of thinking of her death in 1989.  My siblings started singing along with the next part – “With Rob it became a pair, but two would never do.”  That’s where I got the title for this post.

If I keep doing these posts for the next seven years, I’ll have to make sure to add to the 70th anniversary collection.  Because as many of you know, there were four more children that made their appearance.  And since Mama and Daddy were such musical individuals, “they had enough for a family band!”

The First Color Photo of Betty Lou

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Betty Lou Bucklin Landry and daughter Jodie Lou Landry in California in 1954.

When I was thinking about my blog earlier today, I decided that I would post the first color photo from my mom’s side of the family.  I didn’t know what that would be, but I was sure that it would be interesting.  At least it would be interesting enough.  After I got home and watched a few chateau videos on YouTube, I decided it was time to look for the photo matching the requirements I had set.

I found a photo of my great great grandfather Samuel Phenice from 1939, but I don’t have a good copy of it yet.  It’s got too much glare on it.  Plus, I am not sure if it is an actual color photo.  It could be a color tinted photo from around 1939.  It has to be from that year or earlier because that was the year Samuel died.  So I ruled that one out.  There is still a chance that I will share it at a later date.  I also found some color photos of my mom’s maternal side of her family.  They were of her grandmother Addie May Hine Bucklin.  I like those photos, but I already shared those photos before and have said everything I wanted to about them.

I decided to look at the photos of my mom.  I was kind of surprised that the first color photo of her was from 1954.  None of her childhood photos were in color.  Color photography was around during that time, but it was not as easily available and was more expensive.  I have some photos of mom and her family that have been colored in various ways, but they weren’t originally color photos.  

My mom and dad (Betty Lou Bucklin Landry and Robert Joseph Landry, Jr. – Betty and Bob to most people) must have splurged and gotten some color film back in 1954.  It was color slide film.  I know that because I scanned this from an old slide.  I used to use slide film when I was younger because it was cheaper than having all of those photos processed.  I would take slide photos and then have prints made from the better photos.  Photography has evolved quite a bit since then.

One of the drawbacks of those old color photos is that they are all extremely blurry.  I’m not sure of the reason why.  The black and white photos that they took before and after are very clear, so I don’t think it would be human error.  I would think that they would be using the same camera, too.  Whatever caused it, it wasn’t good.  So I used a program or two to clean up the scratches and sharpen it.  My mom doesn’t look quite right.  It’s the best you can get at this point without an AI program studying all of the photos of a person and filling in the missing details from accumulated data.  That will probably happen later.

I’m still using the photo because it is a cute photo.  I like that my mom and my sister Jodie are surrounded by flowers.  I can make out zinnias in the foreground and I think those are morning glories behind my mom’s head.  I’ve been enjoying the flowers around our garden this time of the year, so I thought it was appropriate.  I think the photo was taken in August of 1954.  I’m thinking it was in California just before they moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico.  My dad was in the Air Force at the time.

Slide 19 taken in 1954 in an Albuquerque, New Mexico, park.

While I’m posting this photo of my mom, I thought I would go ahead and post another photo from the same time.  Like all of the other color photos from my mom and dad at that time, it is blurry.  If you know me well, you might know that I like blurry photos – especially landscapes.  Sometimes I intentionally move my camera as I’m taking a photo to get different effects. 

This photo was taken a few months later at a park in Albuquerque.  It’s blurry, but not too blurry.  Just blurry enough to make it interesting!  And the colors are great.  This might have been the first time my mom saw fall colors this beautiful.  Louisiana does not have great fall colors.  She would have appreciated this scene.  I’m surprised she never painted it.  I hope you enjoy it, too.

Erie and the Gang Having Some Fun

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I’ve shared a few photos of my paternal grandmother Erie Patureau (Known to her grandchildren as Mee Maw) and this group of people.  The first one I shared of this little group was in 2016.  The back of that photo was really helpful because it named all of the people and also gave a general date (summer 1912).  Then in 2018 I shared a photo of Erie by herself that was taken on the same day.  It is a sweet photo of her.  It wasn’t until 2020 that I made the connection that these photos were taken around the time that she must have gotten engaged.  I posted a more formal photo from around the same time.  Those photos were from my dad and from the Tin Can Collection.  The Tin Can Collection was from my Aunt Wana’s attic.  It was the first collection from that attic.

Last year when some cousins got together after a funeral, we got to see the second collection from Aunt Wana’s attic.  Those photos were in a box labeled Box 301.  I was happy to see few more photos from the same days as the other informal photos.  I actually used one of them as the into for the Box 301 Collection.  Today I’m sharing another one.  I’m sure you are very happy to be hearing that.  I would be if I were you!  I decided to use this photo at work today, so when I got home, I did some editing on it.  It was a bit rough looking with age spots and scratches.  That’s normal when you have photos from 100 years ago.

Erie and the gang in Lafayette, Louisiana, in the summer of 1921.

I’m still not exactly sure where these photos are taken, though I am pretty sure they were taken in Lafayette, Louisiana.  That’s where she and her sister were living at the time and it looks like it could be from there.  Actually, many places in southern Louisiana look like the settings.  They could have driven around to find interesting places for photos.  There’s really no way to know.

But like I said, we know the date and the actors.  It was the summer of 1921, so I usually say it was the July of 1921.  Erie would marry Rob Landry (Robert Joseph Landry, Sr.) on November 12th of that year.  In case you aren’t aware yet, Erie is the young woman in the white dress.  The young woman on the right of her is her younger sister Zita Patureau.  They were both young schoolteachers in Lafayette at the time.  I don’t recall ever meeting her, but surely I must have.  She was alive when Mee Maw died, so she would have been at the funeral.  She would have been at get togethers for the family before then.  But I have no memory of her.

The young boy on the left in the photo is Henry Louis Landry.  He is related to both Rob and Erie.  He is Rob’s nephew and Erie’s half first cousin.  H. L. was the third son in a Landry family of three boys and three girls – like me.  He grew up in Lafayette.  The young man on the left is Clifford Clements.  I have not found any relation to him.  He must have been just a friend.  The young man between Clifford and Erie is Erie and Zita’s first cousin on the Patureau side of the family.  Joseph Earnest Cropper was born in White Castle, Louisiana, but lived in Beaumont, Texas, the rest of his life.

The gang looks like they’re doing a bit of gambling!  Clifford, Earnest, and Zita all have some cash in their hands.  Clifford and Zita look like they have each cast a die and are looking expectantly for the outcome.  The tension is palpable!  The dice have not settled and look like random spots on the photo.  I almost deleted one accidentally!  That would have ruined the whole photo.  I think this might be a bit staged.  Erie doesn’t look too concerned about any outcome.  She’s just happily smiling for the photographer as she makes sure her engagement ring can be seen.  I think she had love on her mind.

Maternal Ancestors in 3D in 1926

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Bucklin, Hine, Phenice, Keys, and Stanbrough ancestors show up in this photo from 1926 in Elton, Louisiana. If you cross your eyes slightly and bring the two images together, you will see a 3D view of the gathering.

I thought I would write a post about my mom’s family in honor of Mother’s Day this weekend.  I thought I should write something about how wonderful she was, but I think I’ve already done that.  Of course, you can never really say enough about a wonderful mother and capture that essence on the page.  It transcends words.  So you write what you can and hope that people can relate to some of the things you express.  What I’m trying to say is that I can’t write about her every time.  I feel like I’m trying to defend my decision not to write about her.  And what’s funny about that is that she wouldn’t have been concerned in the least.  All she ever wanted was to be treated kindly and with respect.

So I’m writing about her ancestors.  When I decided that, I started thinking about finding a photo with the biggest number of her maternal ancestors in it.  I’m talking about grandmothers, great grandmothers, or great great grandmothers.  They didn’t have to necessarily be on my mom’s maternal side.  It didn’t take me long to figure out which photo that was.  I’ve posted a few photos from this gathering in 1926 before.  My mom and her cousins worked at identifying as many of the people in the photo that they could.  That was very helpful, being that there were so many.  (This is a cropped photo.  There are 86 people in the original photo.)  What I was always amazed at was the number of relatives in the photo.

The photo was taken on October 3, 1926, in Elton, Louisiana, at the joint birthday celebration of my great great grandmother Susan G. “Sue” Stanbrough Hine and her good friend Edessa Jane “Jennie” Welton Havenar.  My Grandma Sue is the older woman in a dark dress on the far right of the photo.  In the exact center of this grouping is my grandmother Myrtle Sylvia Phenice.  She was almost twenty years old at the time and still single.  You can only see her head in this photo.  To the left of her is a girl with glasses and a long tie.  To the left of this girl are my grandmother’s parents.  That would be Harry Clifton Phenice and Daisy Henrietta Martha Keys Phenice.

1926 – Addie Hine Bucklin with her mother Sue Stanbrough Hine.

There are three maternal ancestors in that first photo – Sue, Myrtle, and Daisy.  But there was another of my maternal ancestors present at this event.  That would be Addie May Hine Bucklin.  Or course she would be there, the gathering was to celebrate her mom’s birthday.  I don’t know why she wasn’t in the large group photo.  That would have been even better.

But I also have some paternal ancestors in the group.  You know that already because I mentioned H. C. Phenice.  He was the husband of Daisy and the father of Myrtle.  On the far left of the first photo is my grandfather Fred D. Bucklin.  He takes after his grandmother Sue.  They both have a middle initial that doesn’t stand for anything.  Fred’s father Louis Charles Bucklin was still alive at the time and lived in the area, but he didn’t come to this event.  He’s not in photos as a rule, but there was also a newspaper article about this event.  It named all those present and it named Addie Bucklin by herself.

Now that I think about it, H. C.’s father was also alive at the time!  Samuel Charles Phenice lived up north in Nebraska and was 80 years old at the time.  Grandma Sue was only 75 years old.  Samuel’s granddaughter Mary Bucklin had married Sue’s grandson Sylvan Phenice earlier in 1926.  I wonder if Samuel came down for that?  Samuel and Sue could have met.  They had both lost their spouses six years earlier.  Things that make you wonder.

About the photo I posted.  There were several photos taken on that long ago day in 1926.  I found two of them that were taken at almost exactly the same time from two different photographers.  I say this because when you bring the two photos together, you get a 3D effect.  This happens when you have two eyes looking at the same thing.  Or two camera lenses in this situation.  So I combined the two photos to make this one image.  To see the 3D effect, get a comfortable distance from the screen.  While looking at the image, slightly cross your eyes and bring the two images together.  It helps to focus on a certain person and bring their images together.  It’s not a perfect 3D image, because it wasn’t taken at the exact same time.  But it was close, and it happened unintentionally.

I am a big fan of the 3D photos.  I am an even bigger fan of old family photos.  It’s great to have an old family photo that shows five of my ancestors in it AND it is a 3D photo.  How can you ask for more?  Happy Mother’s Day to all of you!

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