Author: Van

Alcide, Marguerite, Sebastien, and Marie Therese Landry all lived in Brusly, Louisiana, at some point in their lives.

I don’t normally group photos together like this.  And I wouldn’t have necessarily grouped these four photos together.  But this photo grouping is part of an announcement for a special event coming up.  On July 23 there will be a West Baton Rouge Acadian Heritage Celebration in Brusly, Louisiana, and the special family name featured this year is Landry.  So when one of the organizers asked me if they could use some of my photos, I answered in the affirmative.  Why wouldn’t I want to honor some of my own Landry ancestors for the celebration?  But they are just representing the many Landry families in Brusly from back when.

And actually, one of these is not my ancestor.  That would be the handsome guy with the bow tie.  His name was Sebastien Landry.  He was an older brother of my paternal grandfather Robert Joseph Landry, Jr.  Even though Uncle Seb (That’s what my dad and his siblings called him.  It rhymes with dweeb.) was 19 years older than Rob (or Pee Paw to us grandchildren), they were very close.  Seb married his first cousin Manette Landry and they had a daughter, also named Manette.  Older Manette died shortly after giving birth, and little Manette was raised like a little sister to Rob.  The families have been close ever since that time.  When I think of my grandfather, I don’t think of him from Brusly.  That’s because he was born in Westlake, Louisiana.  So it is more appropriate for Sebastien to be in the group photo because he was born in Brusly before the family moved west.

My great grandfather (father to Rob and Seb) is the man on the left in the group photo.  He was born in Brusly in 1845.  When he was old enough, he fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War.  After the war, he married Marie Celeste Leveque.  Grandma Celeste was born in Brusly in 1847 to Joseph Auguste Leveque and Marie Marguerite “Basalite” Landry Leveque.  Basalite is the woman between the two men in the photo.  She was born in 1821 to Joseph Emmanuel “Manuel” Landry and Clarice Celeste Bruneteau Landry.  Basalite and Alcide were half first cousins.  That’s because Alcide’s father Narcisse was the half-brother of Manuel Landry.  That would make Alcide and his wife Celeste half first cousins once removed.  In case you haven’t heard this before, all four of my dad’s grandparents were related to each other through the Landry family.

The last one in the photo is Marie Therese Landry.  She was my great grandmother.  She was the mother of Germaine Erie Patureau Landry.  My siblings, cousins, and I knew her as Mee Maw.  She was the best and I think I was her favorite!  Marie Therese was the older sibling of Manette Landry that I mentioned earlier.  She was married to her cousin Seb.  So Marie Therese’s daughter and sister were married to the brothers Rob and Seb respectively.  (Her half-sister Clemence Babin was married to Rob and Seb’s brother Louis Landry.)  Marie Therese was the oldest child of Trasimond Landry, the brother of Alcide Landry.

Marie Emma Landry Patureau is the matriarch of all of the Patureau family in southern Louisiana. Photo circa 1864.

But there was another Landry cousin caught up in this family web, and I didn’t want to leave her out of this discussion.  That would be Marie Emma Landry and she was my great great grandmother.  She was born in 1829 in St. Gabriel, Louisiana, to Onezime Landry and Zerbine Dupuy.  The family moved to Brusly shortly after she was born.  I guess they wanted to be around other family members.  Onezime was the brother of Narcisse and the half-brother of Manuel.  They are the three sons of Joseph Ignatius Landry that I descend from.

Marie Emma spent her formative years in Brusly.  When she was a teenager, she met French immigrant Ferdinand Patureau.  The Patureau family had immigrated to Louisiana in 1840 and settled in the Plaquemine area.  Ferdinand was only 14 years old at the time, but that didn’t stop him from returning to France on his own without anyone in the family knowing where he was.  He even spent a bit of time in Cuba working on a sugar plantation.  He finally made it back to Louisiana in 1843 or so.  So Emma met him some time between then and their February 10, 1847, wedding.  Ferdinand was 20 years old and Emma was only 17.  Their first few children were born in Brusly, but they eventually settled in Plaquemine.  She gave birth to at least fifteen children.

So there you have it – most of my Landry family who lived in Brusly, Louisiana.  I suppose that I should mention that Trasimond’s wife Marie Amelie “Belite” Bujol was the daughter of Anna Adele Landry.  Adele was the sister of  Basalite Landry Leveque.  There, now they are all covered and it’s as clear as can be.  If you are part of this family or have your own connection to a Landry family (or any Acadian family), be sure to attend the Celebration on the 23rd.  I’m planning on being there.  Maybe we can figure out how we’re related!

It was really hot today.  As it usually is in southern Louisiana in the summer.  I’m glad that I live in the time when air conditioning is available.  I don’t know how those people did it.  Our family didn’t have air conditioning until I was in the fifth grade.  That means I endured about ten years without air conditioning in our house.  I remember sleeping with my head in the window so I could feel the ‘cool’ breeze drawn in by the attic fan.  We also had a box fan to blow on us, so we had it made.  Like I said, I’m glad for air conditioning.

Al, Van, Jodie, Jamie, Karen, and Rob Landry at Sam Houston Park north of Lake Charles, Louisiana, on July 26, 1967.

So when I was thinking about what to write about, I thought it should be about something warm.  And this is the photo that popped into my head.  It’s a photo of my siblings and me on a warm day in 1967.  How do I know that it was a warm day?  The date of the photo is July 26th and the sun is shining.  That’s pretty much of a guarantee that it was a warm day.

The place is Sam Houston Park, which is north of Lake Charles, Louisiana.  We lived in Jennings at the time, which is not that far away.  I suppose it was a day trip to go see the cypress trees and waterways.  When I looked up information on the park, it says that the place is now called Sam Houston Jones State Park.  It used to be named for Sam Houston.  I’m not sure when the name change happened, so I don’t know what it was actually name in 1967.  I just remember the Sam Houston part.

It’s a good thing the photo was labeled, because I would have thought this was a photo of when we went to Kisatchie National Forest.  That’s a bit further north in Louisiana, but I know we would go there from time to time.  But really, the place is not nearly as important as the people in the photo.  That would be the children of Bob and Betty Landry.  My dad was Robert Joseph Landry, Jr. and my mom was Betty Lou Bucklin Landry.  They were with us on all of our outings, but neither one of them is in the photo.  On the left in the white sleeveless shirt with red stripes (the red is from my memory) is my older brother Al.  He had turned eight years old just two days earlier.  I (Van) am the six-year-old boy sitting on the cypress knee/stump.  I still like wearing shirts like this when it’s warm.  Especially when I’m playing tennis.  I need some with a V-neck like this.  V is for Van, after all.

My oldest and youngest sisters are sitting on the ground in the middle of the photo.  Jodie is on the left.  What is she doing wearing a long-sleeved shirt?!  At least it’s white.  She was thirteen years old and it was the summer before she started high school.  The Landry kids were growing up!  I was going to be starting first grade and Jamie was going to be in kindergarten.  Why did she go to kindergarten when I never did?  Not everyone did back then.  You may have figured that Jamie is the youngest one sitting down to the right of Jodie.  She was the smallest.  

I don’t know what’s happening with Karen and Rob.  It looks like they have matching poses.  It does balance the photo, wouldn’t you say?  The other subjects of the photo can’t be ignored.  Look at the flock of birds clamoring for a taste of watermelon rind.  I can just imagine the squawking going on.  Can you?  Memories of a summer long ago.

Little Bobbie Landry flanked by his older sisters Germaine on the left and Marie on the right circa 1933 in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

I don’t think I’ve ever posted this photo before.  I know that I have sat down at the computer a few times and considered using it.  For some reason, I ruled it out previously.  But this week, I’m going for it.  Aren’t you glad about that?  Even though I ruled it out a few times, it wasn’t because I didn’t like the photo.  I kept thinking it was a bit blurry and I could somehow fix it.  But I’ve decided it doesn’t need fixing.  It is quite charming the way it is.

I think the first time I saw this photo was around four years ago.  It is part of the Secret Collection that is curated by my cousin Daphne.  She is the daughter of Germaine Landry Winn, the little blond-haired girl on the left in this photo.  When she was older, she had this photo and she wrote the names and ages of the subjects.  With those ages, I can tell that this photo was taken around 1933 or so.  Thanks, Aunt Germaine, for writing that information and saving this photo for all those years.

But little Germaine was only six years old in this photo.  She was born on April 6, 1927.  She was the fourth child of Robert Joseph Landry, Sr. and Germaine Erie Patureau Landry.  While Aunt Germaine was named after her mother Erie, her younger brother (my dad) was named after his father.  He was a Jr. and when he was young, they started calling him Bobbie.  He was known by that name for the rest of his life – mainly by family.  He was more often known as Bob or Pluto by his peers.  But in this photo, he was just little Bobbie with his two older sisters.  There were two brothers born between these two sisters, but somehow they did not make it into the photo.  Neither did younger sister Wana who was born in 1932.

The oldest of all of the siblings was Marie Therese.  We knew her as Aunt Marie.  She is the one standing a head taller than the other two in the photo.  She was born on April 23, 1923.  This was a year and a half after the marriage of Rob and Erie.  No short pregnancies for my Mee Maw!  This photo looks like they are standing next to a field of some type of produce.  Maybe it was before a long day of working in the fields.  Isn’t that what people did back in the day?  Work hard from sunup to sundown.  I don’t think so.  That was definitely not my dad’s style.  If he would have ever had to work the fields when he was a child, I’m sure we would have heard about it.

So I’m not sure what is going on in the photo.  I just know that it is a sweet looking photo of my dad with his older sisters.  Sure the photo is a bit overexposed, a bit blurry, and their feet aren’t showing.  But somehow, I think all of that adds to the charm.  It’s why I’m sharing it with you today.  Behold.

My parents Betty and Bob Landry were the longest-lived couple in my ancestry. This is a photo of them in 2011 in Galveston, Texas, at a family gathering.

If you read my post last week, you’ll know that this is a continuation of that one.  Again I will be discussing the longevity of my ancestors.  I looked through six generations (up to 4X great grandparents) and figured out as closely as I could the exact age they were at their death.  The most interesting thing I noticed was that both of my parents were in the top 10 for longevity.  I definitely got to benefit from that.

Last week the focus was on my mom’s side, so this week the focus is on my dad.  The amazing thing is that my dad outlived most of my other ancestors.  Only three ancestors outlived him.  When I was younger, I would have never agreed with anyone if they would have suggested that that would happen.  Both of his parents died from heart issues, and he had heart issues for a while.  

He’s like Nadal in the tennis world.  Everyone said that his aggressive style of tennis would take an early toll on his body and he wouldn’t last long.  He ended up having one of the longest careers of elite tennis players and has set many records.  My dad may not have set any world records, but I have been told that he is a legend!

The two longest-lived ancestors were on my mom’s side of the family.  The longest-lived ancestor from his side of the family made it the age of 90.  So she lived a year longer than he did.  That was accomplished by Marie Magdelena Babin, who lived two hundred years earlier.  She lived from 1725 to 1814, and Daddy lived from 1929 to 2017.  She was born in Acadie, married Augustin Landry around 1752 (my parents married in 1952), and ended up in Louisiana after being exiled by the English during the Grand Derangement.   What tales she could have told.

I find it interesting that the three ancestors who outlived all the rest did it against the odds.  All three of them survived events that took the lives of many of their contemporaries.  And they weren’t just any old event.  They each had an Event with a Capital Letter.  Like I mentioned last week, Samuel Charles Phenice (the oldest) survived being injured during the Civil War.  That was a war with many casualties.  The next oldest was Edward McGrath who was from Ireland.  And he wasn’t just an immigrant from Ireland, he survived the Irish Potato Famine.  That happened during the 1840s and about a million people perished from the Great Hunger.  Edward and his wife Ettadosia brought their children to the United States and settled in Massachusetts.  And now we see that one of those long-lived ancestors was a survivor of the Great Expulsion of the Acadians.  We are all descendants of survivors, and these were the long-lived ones.

On the other end of the spectrum were a few ancestors who lived only long enough to produce one offspring.  Most of my ancestors had large families.  That was true for both sides of my family.  And likewise each side of the family had a short-lived ancestor that only produced one offspring.  I’ll start with the runner up.  Can an ancestor who lived the shortest amount of time be considered the winner?  Hey, at least we are talking about him all these years later.  The winner and the runner up both lived about 200 years ago.  They were alive at the same time as Marie Magdelena Babin Landry.  The runner up was on my mom’s side of the family.  Peter Hine was her great great great grandfather.  He died on July 22, 1819, at the age of 24 years, 8 months, 12 days.  He died from consumption less than two months before the birth of his son.  He never knew his only child.

The winner of the Shortest Lived Ancestor goes to Simon Hebert.  He died on April 17, 1802, at the age of 24 years, 6 months.  It was a close contest – only two months separated the two.  The main difference between the two is that Simon was able to meet his only child.  Marie Carmelite Hebert was born two months before her father died.  Simon’s wife Marie Martha Hernandez would go on to marry a second time and have more children.  But she did not live very long herself.  In fact, she had the third-shortest lifespan of my ancestors.  She died on Dec. 22, 1814, at the age of 33 years, 11 months, 9 days.  So they are definitely the couple with the fewest years when looking at their combined ages.

In fact, I’ve outlived their combined age of 58 years and some months.  I’ve outlived almost forty of my ancestors.  I mentioned Augustin Landry earlier.  He lived 62 years and some days.  I’m a few months older than that.  His great granddaughter Emma Landry Patureau (my great great grandmother) died in 1892 at the age of 62 years, 2 months, 14 days.  She is the most recent of my ancestors that I have outlived.  My sister Karen outlived our ancestor Pierre Bruneteau who lived to the age of 63.  She did not outlive his daughter Celeste Bruneteau Landry who lived to 63 years, 5 months, 29 days.  Karen lived to 63 years, 4 months, 6 days.  My brother Al has outlived Karen and Celeste.  He will soon outlive Henry Keys (63 years, 10 months, 24 days).  My brother Rob has gone on to further outlive nine more of our ancestors, including our Pee Paw – Robert Joseph Landry, Sr. (64 years, 7 months, 19 days)

I plan to touch on this topic again in the future.  Possibly in 10 months, 25 days.  But who’s really counting?