Passionate for Patureau

I’ve been thinking about Patureau history this week, so I think it is appropriate to write about that line of my family this week.  It’s interesting that there have been a lot of family members who have been passionate about Patureau family history through the years.  When I was growing up, I knew about my grandmother being a Patureau and looking into family history.  Later on, I’d hear my dad talking family history and would refer to the Patureau Family Records.

In his papers about the family, those records were abbreviated as PFR.  I think they were mainly records that were gathered by my Mee Maw (Germaine Erie Patureau) and her sister Zita – Aint Zita to the family.  Or was it Aint Lorena?  (I just looked it up.  It was Aunt Lorena.)  It wasn’t until 2019 that I realized how much she had collected.  It must have been divided up in 1973 when Mee Maw died (her sister Lorena died in 1972).  But the cousins brought some of it back together and I took photos of them and have shared them on different blog posts.  The most recent thing I’ve shared was the death notice of Emma Landry Patureau, who was the wife of Ferdinand Patureau.  They were the forebears of all of the Patureau family in southern Louisiana.

I erroneously thought that she was the only one that was doing that kind of research in the Patureau family.  I’ve discovered quite a few more.  I suppose I’ll first mention those in my line – the line of Vincent Maximilian Patureau.  After Mee Maw and Lorena, there would be cousin Sis.  She is the daughter of their sister Marie Therese Patureau Schafer.  She has collected a lot of Patureau information through the years and has graciously shared it with me.  Two of the daughters of Sylvie Patureau – Melwyn and Patricia – were also interested in Patureau family history and lived in Plaquemine where the Patureau family first settled in the US.  Then there is Syvie’s son Rhett’s son Wade who has spent much time exploring the family history.  And then there’s me.

But it wasn’t just in our line.  Going back to Grampa Max’s generation, there was his younger sister Victorine Patureau Cropper (called “Aunt Beb” or “Aunt Vic” by family) who settled in Beaumont.  I just recently found out that she started collecting family history information back in the 1890s and continued until her death in 1937.  It was passed on to her daughter Kitty Rush.  Somehow, some or all of her research is now at a library in Beaumont, Texas.  I’d like to see that someday.  Max’s sister Eliza had a son named Joseph Lawrence Dupuy and I’ve heard that he also was into Patureau genealogy.  Then there is Gary G. who is a grandson of Max’s brother Abel.  He has a family tree online that was very helpful when I first started looking at Patureau history more intensely.  He has a cousin named Suzi who also shares the passion for Patureau information.

And then there is the Leobon Patureau line.  His granddaughter Linda Cansler was instrumental in bringing together Patureau cousins in the 1990s for Patureau reunions at the home of Pat and Lora Patureau.  Linda collected lots of information and photos and I heard that she was going to write a book about the family.  I don’t think that happened and I recently found out that she passed away in 2019.  I don’t know how I missed hearing about her death.  I thought I was keeping up with the goings on of the Patureau family.  Obviously I do not know it all.  I know that Misty and Dana in that family line are interested in family history, but there could be many more.  There are so many cousins out there!

In the generation before Max and his siblings, there was his father Ferdinand and Ferdinand’s sister Anne Victorine Patureau Laulom.  Max went to visit these cousins in the Brownsville and Corpus Christie areas, but for the most part the families have lost touch.  I have found a couple of them who are interested in the Patureau family history.  I don’t think there is as much of a connection to the Patureau name after so many generations without the surname present. 

And now I’m taking you back a few generations to the family of Pierre Patureau’s grandparents.  Pierre was born in 1800 in La Roche Chalais, France, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1840.  He died in 1860 and was buried in Plaquemine, Louisiana.  His father was Leobon Patureau (1768-1851), who was the son of Antoine Patureau and Marie Sicaud. 

Antoine and Marie were married Nov. 3, 1767, in Palluaud, France.  I posted their wedding record before.  It shows that Antoine was a surgeon at the time.  Nine months later Leobon was born.  That seems to be a tradition with the Patureau family.  Leobon was the first of at least eight children for Antoine and Marie.  Three of those children died as infants.

We know that Leobon has many descendants.  I know of at least a thousand from his grandson Pierre.  I would be surprised if any of his siblings had more than that.  But I do know that the next child after Leobon also has descendants.  His name was Francois Patureau Laborie (1769-1840).  The reason I know that is that one of his descendants (Nellie who lives in France) has a blog that she writes and sometimes she writes about her Patureau line.   She is a sixth cousin or so and she is interested in Patureau ancestry.  La passion!

Another interesting fact about this family is that the son Pierre Patureau (1774-1827) fought under Napoleon at the beginning of the 19th Century.  He took part in the Battle in Castel-Nuovo, Znaim, in 1809.  He was injured in both of his legs at some point and in 1814 he was awarded the Legion of Honor award.   Leobon must have been fond of his brother because he named his son after him.

One of the reasons for this post was that I just found the death record for Marie Sicaud from 1794.  She was only 64 when she died and her youngest children were just teenagers at the time.  Her son Leobon had gotten married to Jeanne Lanson in 1787 and started a family a year later.  Since Pierre was born in 1800, he never knew his Patureau grandmother.  Antoine died in 1802, so Pierre probably didn’t have any memory of him.  His Lanson grandparents had died in the 1780s, so he didn’t know them either.  He didn’t even have photos of them to see what they had looked like.  When I discover things like that, it makes me appreciate the time that I had with my own grandparents. 

So now we can return to modern day America.  But don’t forget about those we visited in the past.  You might want to think about Antoine and Marie next Wednesday.  November 3, 2021, will be the 254th anniversary of their marriage.  Oh, how the years go by.