Maman Emma Was a Beauty

I know I have been posting a lot of things about the Patureau family recently, but sometimes information comes to me from one family group more than from others.  And it seems lately that most of it has been Patureau related.  The main thing was the nice collection of Patureau information that was started by Victorine Patureau Cropper in the late 1800s and was continued by her daughter Kitty Cropper Rush until her death in 1997.  Kitty’s daughter inherited the information and decided to ensure that it was preserved by donating it to the Tyrrell Historical Library.  I called this Patureau cousin last week to thank her for making sure the information was taken care of and available for viewing by all of us cousins.

The photo that I’m sharing this week comes from that collection.  It is a crop of Emma Landry Patureau from a larger Patureau family portrait from around 1864.  The original photo was the photo that I was most excited to see when I went through the THLPFP Collection.  The only copy I had before was a Xerox copy from 20 or 30 years ago.  I didn’t even know if the original photo still existed.  So when I saw the original in the collection, I was elated.  There are actually two copies of the same sitting, though one of them was bigger and better than the other.  That’s what I used for this edit.

My father was Bob Landry.  His mother was Germaine Erie Patureau.  Her parents were Vincent Maximilian Patureau (Grampa Max) and Marie Therese Landry.  Grampa Max was the son of Ferdinand Pierre Patureau and Marie Emma Landry.  So Ferdinand and Emma were my great great grandparents.  I am only one of several hundred people who can make that claim.  There are a lot of Patureau family members out there!

But I’m going to talk about the Landry side of the family since the photo is of Emma.  The photo actually had a Landry reference written on the back of it.  Besides having the information of the photographic studio, it also had the words “Pour Mme. Sosthene” written on it.  They were French after all.  Ferdinand and his parents immigrated from La Roche Chalais, France, which was in the Dordogne department.  Emma was mostly from Acadian ancestors.  They also spoke French, but more likely a Cajun French from the south Louisiana area.  So you end up with “For Mrs. Sosthene” when you translate the writing on the reverse of the photo.

That may not tell you that it was a Landry reference, but it was a clue for me.  Emma was the daughter of Elie Onezime Landry and Jeanne Zerbine Dupuy.  They had a son before her, but when she was born in November of 1829, he had recently died or would soon die.  All I know is that little Leon Landry was born in 1826 and he died around 1829.  Onezime and Zerbine had another daughter in 1831 and she was named Henriette Zulma Landry.  She was named after her French grandmother Henriette Serrette Dupuy.  I’ve written about Henriette and her husband Magloire before.

It looks like all of my Landry families moved from St. Gabriel, Louisiana, to Brusly sometime around the 1820s or 30s.  Emma was born in St. Gabriel and her sister Zulma was born in Brusly.  Their Uncle Narcisse (Landry) and Aunt Marie Carmelite were in Brusly in 1820 and that’s where their youngest sons (my ancestors) Trasimond and Alcide were born.  Uncle Manuel (Landry) and Aunt Celeste were also in Brusly in 1820 and their youngest daughters (my ancestors) Anna Adele and Marguerite Basalite were born there.  So Emma, Zulma, and their younger siblings would have grown up around their Landry cousins in Brusly.

Emma got married to Ferdinand on February 10, 1847.  By the time that Zulma got married in 1853, Emma had already given birth to Elizabeth Zulma, Marie Aline, and Louis Leobon.  I’m not exactly sure where those first children were born.  Everything that I’ve read says that they were born in Brusly.  No mention of any other place the family lived until they moved to Plaquemine in the 1850s.  But the US Census shows the Patureau family living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1850.  It looks like other researchers missed this little bit of information.  It is understandable.  They are listed as a F. Paturo who was from France, along with the wife Emma who was born in Louisiana.  Their first two daughters are listed as Elizabeth and Ellen.  I’m sure it is them.

I haven’t found Zulma Landry in the 1850 Census.  I need to find that to clarify some confusion about the family.  It doesn’t help that Elie Onezime Landry had an older brother named Elie. I know that Emma’s sister goes by the name Zulma because that’s how she signs a letter that she wrote to Emma in 1851.  She mentions Zulma (Patureau), Aline, and Leobon by name and encourages them to be reasonable or well-behaved and not to give their maman and papa any trouble. She signs off in French with “your sister, Zulma.”   

In a later letter, she signs it with a “Zulma A.” That’s because she was married and her husband’s last name was Aillet.  When Emma had a photo made of herself with Ferdinand and the kids in 1864, of course she wanted to send a copy of it to her sister.   For some reason she didn’t write “Pour ma soeur” or “Pour Zulma A.” or even “Pour Mme. Aillet.”  No, she decided to go with Zulma’s husband’s first name Sosthene.  So there it is!  Her sister Zulma was Mme Sosthene.