Author: Van

Keys Reunion 1976

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My grandparents Myrtle and Fred Bucklin at the Keys Family Reunion in 1976.

I thought I would share a few photos from the 1976 Keys Family Reunion.  The event was held on Saturday July 10, 1976.  I’m not sure where it was held.  It was definitely in southern Louisiana.  It was probably in Jennings, Hathaway, Kinder, or someplace like that.  I shared a photo from the event back in June of 2018.  It was a photo of my maternal grandmother Myrtle Phenice Bucklin and her Keys cousins.  Her mother was Daisy Keys Phenice, an English immigrant.

This photo is of Grandma and Grandpa.  Grandpa would be Myrtle Phenice Bucklin’s husband Fred D. Bucklin.  They were married in 1930 and my mom Betty Lou was their second child.  Actually, you can see my mom in the background of this photo in the pinkish-looking top.  I think it was actually a red checkered print.  She is talking to her cousin Kathleen Phenice Montgomery.  Behind Grandma is Tommy Campbell.  He is married to Julie, another of my mom’s first cousins.  There are other cousins in the background that I don’t recognize.

The summer of 1976 was an eventful summer.  The whole country was celebrating the Bicentennial that year.  Back then I wrote a few posts on my blog.  One of the posts was about marching in the Bicentennial parade.  Of course I was in the band: my father was a band director!  And since we all sang and played musical instruments, we had a family band.  And it was in June of 1976 that we started playing our most notable gig at the Shakey’s Pizza Parlor in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  I blogged about that back then as well.  I even mentioned a picnic I went on with the Catholic Youth group and another outing with the Baptist group.

The Keys Family Band (AKA The Landry Family Band) sang at the 1976 Keys Reunion. We were joined by some of our musical kinfolk.

But I didn’t mention this family reunion for the Keys family!  I skipped right over it.  You would think I would mention it.  My blog posts now are all about family history.  And as you can see from this other photo, our family sang at the reunion as well.  I’m thinking that we went to the reunion and sang, then later that night we went to Shakey’s to perform our regular Saturday night appearance.  Would we skip Shakey’s to go to a family reunion?  I wish I could remember.  And it’s a shame that young Van was foolish and overlooked writing about it back then.

In the photo from left to right:  Karen, Jamie, and I were sitting at a picnic table.  I never really liked this photo of myself.  I had such terrible posture back then!  I probably still do.  I know I slouch in my chair at work all of the time.  But I don’t have groovy bell-bottomed pants anymore!  Those didn’t make it through the 70s. 

The next thing in the photo is my trombone.  It looks so shiny.  I think this was probably right after we had it relacquered.  It was my dad’s before I got it, and I think he had it back in the early 1950s.  The top of the trombone is blocked by the elbow of Tommy Campbell.  Blocking Tommy’s face is Cousin Kathleen.  Next is Kathleen’s daughter Gwynne Montgomery.  It looks like the cousins are discussing musical choices with Al on the guitar, mom with the microphone, and my dad – Robert Joseph “Bob” Landry – on the electric bass.

The entertainment at the 1976 Keys Family Reunion

The last photo is another one of the entertainers.  That is Kathleen, Tommy, Gwynne, Al, Mama, and Daddy.  Al is playing the guitar that my dad had for many years.  It was always hanging on the wall of our den at 758 Lucy Street in Jennings, Louisiana.  Except when someone was playing it. 

My mom is holding a microphone, but not HER microphone.  She didn’t like the way she sounded on the one she’s holding in this photo.  That’s the one my dad usually used.  My mom thought her voice sounded too shrill with that mic.  That’s why she’s holding it like it’s a snake!

If you look closely, you can see the banjo in the background between mom and dad.  My dad got that one after his uncle Vincent Patureau died in 1956.  I have it now.  My dad is holding a black electric bass.  I have nothing interesting to say about that.  I do have something to say about that little brown box sitting on top of the Fender amplifier.  That is Sticks.  He was the drummer for the Landry Family Band. 

That’s right, we had a drum machine to accompany us on our songs.  It was a newfangled thing at the time, and it had a wide variety of settings.  We had the perfect setting for each song that we played that was written on the top corner of the page.  It was the best that we could do, since none of us played the drums.  Besides, we wouldn’t have had room for a set of drums on that Shakey’s stage.  Sticks didn’t take up much space.

Who Is Maria Francisca Ovispo?

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Joseph Auguste Leveque circa 1885, probably in Lake Charles, Louisiana. (This is a photo edited by Van Landry.)

I can’t believe I haven’t posted this photo more than once.  This is a photo of my great great grandfather Joseph Auguste Leveque.  I shared this photo on Christmas Eve in 2015.  That was when I was first started sharing photos and I only wrote a short little caption with the photos.  Through the years, the number of words per post has increased significantly.  That’s a good thing, right?  I also have access to tools to enhance old photos and I’ve never shared this edited photo before.

J. A. Leveque was the father of Marie Celeste Leveque.  I shared a new photo of her last week.  It was a photo of her with two sets of twins who were her great grandchildren.  Even though I am her great grandchild, too, I was born 30 years later than they were.  When I write a post about a family line, I usually move on to another line the next week.  But earlier this week I saw something about the Leveque line that really intrigued me.

That’s why I had to write about Maria Francisca Ovispo.  You may ask, “What does this Ovispo chick have to do with the Leveque family?”  That’s what I was wondering when I saw the name associated with the profile of a Leveque ancestor.  If you were a linguist, you may not have wondered, particularly if you specialize in Romantic languages.

I saw the name on WikiTree.  It is a website that is striving to connect everyone with one single tree.  You don’t have your own family tree; you enter your parents and previous generations until you find ancestors who are already on the tree.  So everyone adds what they know to anybody in the tree.  It has its benefits and drawbacks.  This week I definitely benefited from it.  Someone entered the baptism/birth record for Maria Francisca Ovispo onto the profile for Joseph Auguste Leveque’s older sister Marie Francoise Leveque.  In the biography, the person said that the baptism entry from the Diocese of Baton Rouge (DOBR) church records for Marie Francoise Leveque used her family name Ovispo.

“Ovispo?” I thought.  “That’s not right!  Her maiden name was Leveque.”  Then it donged on me that it might be a translation.  From dealing with French records, I’ve seen the word leveque in many church records.  Not because there were a lot of Leveque family in France.  I’m sure there were some, but it is usually in reference to a church official.  LeVeque means ‘the bishop’ in French.  So I did a search for the word ovispo (or obispo), and sure enough it is the Spanish word for bishop.  Louisiana was under Spanish rule in the late 1700s and many of the records show names using Spanish versions.  

I’ve never thought to look for records of the Leveque family by anything but Leveque and Levesque.  I’ve seen the name spelled both ways and I’m pretty sure it’s pronounced the same way.  Our family usually spells it without the ‘s’ in the middle of it.  I usually see that with families in Canada.  

Headstone for Marie Francoise Leveque is located in the St. Joseph Cemetery in Brusly, Louisiana.

So Marie Francoise Leveque was Maria Francisca Ovispo.  She wasn’t just my great grandmother’s aunt; she was also my 4x great grandmother and she was married to Joseph Sylvestre Bujol.  The great thing about the DOBR baptism record is that it lists both or her parents and all of her grandparents.  It lists her father as Agustin Ovispo.  That would be our Henry Augustin Leveque.  His parents are listed as Mauricio Ovispo and Julia Verto.  That would be our Maurice Henry Leveque and Marie Julie Berteau.  Marie Francoise’s mother is listed as Margarita Prevo.  I think of her as Marguerite Justine Prevot.  Her parents are listed as Pablo Prevo and Felisa Viso.  I show them as Paul Prevost and Felicite Perpetua Bujol.  

Even though the names are a bit different, it still refers to the same people.  It’s nice to see a record that confirms all of those names.  I won’t get into the different birth dates that we have for her.  The baptism record states that she was born November 15, 1796.  The headstone shows it as November 17, 1797.

Marie Francoise died in 1875.  I’ve never seen a photo of her, even though she lived well into the age of photography.  If anybody knows of one, please let me know.  Who knows? One could be out there.  My godmother has her wedding band.  I’m sure that if she had a photo of her, she would have shared it with me.  She’s generous like that.  She’ll probably share a photo of the ring if we ask sweetly.

Grandma Celeste and the Kids

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Grandma Celeste and the kids circa 1930, likely in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Here is a photo I discovered recently.  I’ve had the photo for a few years now.  I got several photos from some of my Cazes cousins when I went to visit them in Brusly in 2017.  Now I don’t have any Cazes ancestors, but some of the Cazes family lines share a lot of common ancestors.  That’s why I’m never surprised to see a Cazes individual show up as a DNA match to me at any of the testing sites.  Some of my cousins may be familiar with this connection that comes through my great great grandfather Trasimond Landry.  He is one of my ancestors who fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War.  There are a few books about him written by his descendants.

In the genealogy book written by Trasimond’s grandson Tommy Landry, he mentions that Llewellyn Cazes (another grandson of Trasimond) had one of the biggest collections of information about Trasimond.  The Cazes line descends from Trasimond and his first wife Marie Amelie “Belite” Bujol through their son Moses Joseph “Uncle Mose” Landry.  Tommy descends from their son Thomas Belisaire or Tommy Landry, and I descend from their oldest child Marie Therese.  We’ll talk about another line of their offspring later.  

Claire Landry, Rosey Hebert Landry, Henry, Myrtle (daughter of Mose & Claire), and Mose Landry circa 1930s in Brusly, Louisiana

Uncle Mose brings in a little bit of confusion, because he married another Landry.  It wasn’t a close Landry cousin like some of the other family members connected with, but it was still a Landry marrying a Landry.  He married Claire Landry from Brusly.  She was the daughter of Justin Landry and Rosey Hebert Landry.  They are somewhat distant Landry cousins, but some of their daughters married into closer Landry lines.  The Cazes family had stories about Rosey, but they weren’t too pleasant.  It was said that she wasn’t a particularly nice person.

I know that isn’t true for all of the members of this family line, because my dear friend and coworker Marisa descends from Rosey through her daughter Justine.  Justine married John Peter Landry.  Both of John Peter’s parents were Landrys as well.  I like to tease Marisa about that.  I always say that even though my ancestors married their cousins, at least they didn’t have the same last name!  Like that makes any difference at all!  Rosey doesn’t look all that mean in the photo that she’s in.  My great grandmother Addie has some sour looks in her photos, but she was a sweet lady.  Never judge a book by its cover!  Or by their ancestors!  We’ll talk about another one of Rosey’s daughters later.

We have to talk about another Landry family because I still haven’t gotten to the main topic.  The other important Landry family is the family of Trasimond’s brother Alcide.  Of course I think it’s important since I descend from him as well.  Alcide was married to Marie Celeste Leveque, who we all know as Grandma Celeste.  I descend from them through their youngest child Robert Joseph “Rob” Landry.  Rob married Erie Patureau, the daughter of Trasimond and Belite’s daughter Marie Therese.  Rob may have married his first cousin’s daughter, but their last names were different.  One of his older brothers – Joseph Alcide or “Uncle Joe” – married a Landry.  Her name was Azema and she was a daughter of Rosey.  She was known as Aunt Zim.

So I got the photo of Grandma Celeste and the kids from descendants of Uncle Mose.  But that wasn’t how the photo was labeled.  It was labeled as “Louis, Roberta, and Unknowns.”  I don’t know for sure who Louis and Roberta are, but when I saw the photo the other day, I knew it was Grandma Celeste right away.  It looks just like her.  When I got the photo all those years ago from the Cazes family, I got a huge number of photos.  I thought I had skimmed through all of the folders on my computer.  Either I didn’t look through them all, or I didn’t recognize her the first time I saw it.

And who are Louis and Roberta?  Uncle Mose and his first wife had a son named Louis in 1904.  He later had a wife name Roberta, but I doubt that they knew each other as children.  I don’t think they’re related.  Imagine that!  I also think the photo was taken around 1930.  For some reason the photo puts me in mind of another Landry-Landry connection.  Trasimond and Belite’s youngest child Marie Manette married Alcide and Celeste’s son Sebastien.  Marie Manette and Uncle Seb had one child together, and Marie Manette died shortly after that.  Their daughter – also name Manette- was raised by Uncle Seb and Grandma Celeste.  Grandma Celeste was like her mother.  When Manette grew up and had children of her own, Grandma Celeste was very close to them.  

Manette and Bibb Bouquet had a set of twins in 1926 named Roberta and Robert.  When I showed it to some Bouquet cousins on Facebook, one of them verified that it was Roberta and Robert on the right in this photo.  She suggested checking into Uncle Louis.  Louis was another brother of Rob, Joe, and Sebastian.  He was married to Clemence Babin, a daughter of Belite by her second marriage after Trasimond died.  They had a son named Thornwell, who later had a set of twins of his own in 1928.  The twin sons were named Thornwell, Jr. and Louis.  That would fit perfectly with the ages of the two children to the left of Grandma Celeste in the first photo.  So I think this is a photo of my great grandmother Celeste Leveque Landry with two sets of twin great grandchildren.  Interestingly, her father had a twin brother.

I’m glad the Cazes family kept this old photo of an unknown woman with some kids.  Come to find out, it was their Aunt Celeste.  Or maybe it was their cousin Celeste?  Or cousin-in-law?  With these three Landry families connecting in so many ways, it’s difficult to determine all of the relationships between any two people.  It doesn’t really matter; I’ve got another photo of my great grandmother thanks to some generous cousins who were willing to share.  With the help of other cousins, I was able to figure out all of the identities of the children in the photo.  I like that.

Addie and Her Dog

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Addie and her dog circa 1950 in Hathaway, Louisiana

Here is a photo of my mom’s paternal grandmother Addie Hine Bucklin with one of the dogs she had during her life.  I’ve posted a story about Addie and her dog Sammy.  In that post, I shared an old voice recording of Addie talking about how her dog Sammy got run over by a truck.  But don’t worry, he commenced to getting better shortly after the incident took place.  When I wrote that story, I was mainly talking about how wonderful it was to have a recording of her voice from around 1942.  Since she died shortly after I was born, I wasn’t familiar with her voice.

When I first heard the recording, I didn’t know who was telling the story.  I had to get my mom and my aunt to identify the speakers in it.  Since I was used to seeing photos of Addie with a scowl on her face, I assumed her voice was the more shrill one.  I was so glad that I was wrong.  Addie is the one telling the sweet, warm story about her little dog that made it through a scary incident.  I have listened to it many times over the past seven years because it helps me to ‘see’ her as the caring person that she must have been.  She obviously liked children, because she gave birth to a dozen of them!

One of her children was Fred Bucklin.  My cousins and I knew him as Grandpa.  He and Grandma (Myrtle Sylvia Phenice Bucklin) were the parents of five children, including my mom, Betty Lou.  My grandparents had considered naming my mom after her grandparents.  Addie was married to Louis Bucklin, so the proposed name for my mom was Addie Lou.  When Addie heard that, she nixed the idea.  She thought Addie was a too old-fashioned name.  So instead, my mom was named Betty Lou.  The name fit her.  I think my mom looked up to her Grandma Addie.  When she was young, she wanted to grow up and have a dozen children herself.  Actually, she wanted to have thirteen.  My mom was a little competitive, so she thought she could outdo her grandmother by having one more than she had.  In the end, though, she “only” had half as many as Addie had.  Lax, lax, lax.

The other thing I realized about Grandma Addie was that she was fond of animals.  After I wrote the post about her and Sammy, cousin Joseph shared a photo of Addie with a dog.  I also noticed that one of the early photos of the Hine family in 1892 shows a dog with the family.  Then I found the photo I’m posting today.  Again she is posing with a little dog.  It’s possible that this little dog or the one in the other photo could be Sammy.  Even though she took photos with her pets, nobody ever bothered to give the name of the pets.  And it wasn’t just dogs she was fond of, there are a few photos of her with a cat.  I also have a picture of her with some cows, but I don’t know if she considered them pets.  Even though the cows were a business venture, some people do get attached to those animals.

My mom did not share that affection for animals that her grandmother had.  We had pets when we were growing up, but Mama was not too fond of them.  If we ever found a stray animal, she would insist on cleaning it with Lysol before she let it hang around for any length of time.  I remember her doing this with dogs, cats, and a turtle.  I don’t know how she got away with doing that to a cat.  Most cats fight their selves away from any kind of smelly water.  I would think Lysol water would be particularly unappealing to cats.  Maybe my mom wanted them to run away!  After we had cleaned them, she would let us keep them.  But she mostly just tolerated them as long as they stayed outside.  It was only our little black dog Mitsy that was allowed inside.  She must have been fond of him.

Bob & Betty at Kerosene Flats in 1953

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Newlyweds Bob and Betty Landry in their first home in California

Last year I wrote about the events that led up to the marriage of my parents in 1952.  I like to commemorate important anniversaries, and 70 years is notable.  I thought I would continue that a bit more with a couple of photos from their first year together as a married couple.  The photos come from a photo album that was always in our house when we were growing up.  I always thought of the photo album being something that my mom put together.  But when I look at it now, I notice that the writing is definitely my dad’s.

Thinking back to how I thought when I was a kid, that photo album was the be all end all of our family history.  Any curiosity about my family’s past was found in that album.  I mean really, it went back a whole fifteen years when I was an eight-year-old.  World War II ended just over seven years before my parents’ wedding, and I remember thinking that that was ancient history.  Our perception of time definitely changes as we get older.

This first photo was on the first page of that old photo album.  It is a photo of my parents in front of their first home in January 1953.  How do I know that?  Because it’s written on the page of the album below the photo.  I had to include that in the photo.  I also included their names – Robert Joseph Landry, Jr. and Betty Lou Bucklin Landry.  My dad was in the Air Force at the time and he was stationed at Edwards Air Force Base in Kern County, California.  It is on the edge of the Mojave Desert and near Joshua Tree National Park.  The housing for married service members was called Wherry Housing, but it was also known as Kerosene Flats.

My mom would talk about her days in the desert.  She was not familiar with the dry climate.  She said that the clothes dried on the line so much quicker than in Louisiana.  She said that by the time she finished hanging all of the clothes, the first things she had hung up were already dry.  One time in the wintertime she hung them up, but instead of drying the clothes quickly, they froze.  She didn’t realize how cold it was.  

Betty and Bob Landry in California at their first home. Note Betty’s newest painting on the table behind them.

But her favorite thing to talk about was the fact that the stoves at Kerosene Flats actually used kerosene to cook.  This was fine for young newlywed Betty Lou, because she had grown up using kerosene.  But all of the other wives in Wherry Housing were not familiar with it.  So my mom helped them all out and taught them the basics of cooking with kerosene.  There were some benefits to growing up in the small Louisiana hamlet of Hathaway.

This second photo of my parents was taken a few months later.  It was taken in the spring of 1953.  It’s a great photo of the two of them.  They even had an enlargement of it made back then.  It’s hanging on the wall behind me right now.  My mom had just finished the painting that you see in the background. 

They sure do look happy!

The Pierre Patureau Collection – Ferdinand and Emma’s Children

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Beginning of the list of the children of Ferdinand Patureau and Emma Landry.

Sometimes, after I have decided on a topic for some of my posts, I’m tempted to apologize for not having something glamorous or exciting to post.  But then I tell myself that if they don’t want to read it, they don’t have to.  There is information that I come across that I find important, so I want to share it.  When I find myself referring back to different documents or pages of information often, I figure other people may find it beneficial as well.  And who knows, they may notice something in it that I skim right over.  

That thing this week is a list of the children of Ferdinand and Emma Patureau in the back of an old work ledger.  The pages come from the Pierre Patureau Collection at the Tyrrell Historical Library in Beaumont, Texas.  The collection reference number is AC-824. I visited it over a year ago and took hundreds of photos of the pages, letters, and photos.  The photos are my favorite things from the collection.  How could they not be?  I’ve shared a few of those amazing old photos of various family members from over 100 years ago.

But I’ve scoured this list for as many details as I can figure out.  It’s a bit tricky for me, because it is in French.  The list includes my great great grandparents Ferdinand Patureau and Marie Emma Landry Patureau and all of their children.  And they had a lot of children!  I thought all of them had been born in Plaquemine, Louisiana, except for my great grandfather Vincent Maximilian “Max” Patureau.  I’ve always known that Grampa Max was born in Mexico.  He was born there during the Civil War when the Patureau family went there to get away from the fighting in Louisiana.  Well, the list showed that a few of their other children were born other places as well.  Nothing as exotic as Mexico, mind you, but they were not all born in Plaquemine.

If you look at the very first line on the page, you’ll see what I’m talking about.  “Zulma Patureau est nee le 5 mai 1848 a 3 1/2 heure du matais. A Brule Landing W. B. Rouge, Louisiane.”  See?  She was born in West Baton Rouge Parish, not Iberville.  So she was born in Brusly on May 5, 1848, at 3:30 in the morning.  So when Ferdinand and Emma first got married, they lived in Emma’s hometown.  She was born in St. Gabriel, but the family moved to West Baton Rouge Parish shortly after.  The next two children of Ferdinand and Emma – Aline and Leobon – were also born in Brusly.

Leobon was born on August 20, 1851, and the family moved to Plaquemine before the birth of their next child Marie Valentine in July of 1853.  There is an entry for her death as well and it was just over a year later.  Elizabeth Palmyre is listed next.  She was born in 1855 and died in 1870.  This entry makes me think this list was written over the years of when the children were born (and died).  I say this because the ink color is different, and it looks like they went back to it 15 years later when she died.  Marie Valentine was born and had died before the next one came along.  It all looks like one entry.  It’s not the same for Elizabeth Palmyre.  It must have been either Ferdinand or Emma writing this information.

The list continues with the entries of Marie Zelica in 1857 and Ferdinand Pierre Jr. in 1858.  F.P. Jr. has a footnote that shows his death on June 25, 1862.  Yes, it says 1862, while the tombstone in Plaquemine shows 1860.  If you want to know which one is correct, look at what one of his parents wrote.  It is written as 1862.  And not only that, the year is underlined to emphasize that year.  I just changed it on my family tree.  

At the bottom of the page is the entry for Anne Emma born in 1860.  I’ve seen her name written as Anna Emma as well.  She died in 1874 after a jump-roping incident.  I don’t see that listed.  There is something about Chalet and July 23 written below her entry, but I don’t know what it is about.  In the left margin, reading from bottom to top, there is an entry for Ferdinand Pierre Patureau who was born in LaRoche-Chalais in France in 1826.  Above that is listed the birth date for Emma Landry in Iberville Parish (St. Gabriel) in 1829.  Between their entries is a smaller entry for Emma’s mother Zerbine Dupuy in W. Baton Rouge Parish in 1807.

Second page of the list of the children of Ferdinand Patureau and Emma Landry.

On the second page of the list, the children continue.  Surely you didn’t think eight children would be enough!  We haven’t even gotten to Grampa Max yet.  Ignore the first few lines on the page.  That’s just a reference to an uncle of our Pierre Patureau (1800-1860).  Uncle Pierre Patureau (1774-1827) fought under Napoleon in the late 1790s and received a Legion of Honor Award in 1814.  The list continues with more children born in Plaquemine.  Joseph Onesime was born in January of 1862 and died six months later.  According to this list, Ferdinand Pierre, Jr. and Joseph Onesime died only eight days apart.  It must have been a sad time for the household of Ferdinand and Emma.  I wonder if there was some disease going around at that time?

The last of the pre-Mexico Plaquemine births was next.  Rose Elisa was born in 1863.  She lived to be almost 77 years old.  Only her older sister Aline lived longer.  She made it a month past her 77th birthday.  I don’t know the exact details of why or when the family moved to Mexico.  Some family researchers said it was to get away from the fighting of the Civil War.  Others say it was to pursue a business venture connected to the French ruling in Mexico at the time.  Ferdinand’s sister Victorine Patureau Laulom is said to have moved to a border town in Texas at the time.  Victorine’s daughter Eliza Laulom married Vicente Crixell (rhymes with Michelle) in Texas in 1864.  She gave birth to a son in 1865 in the same area of Mexico where Grampa Max was born that same year.  I do know that the family moved back to Plaquemine later that year.  

And still the children kept appearing.  Pierre Oscar was born in 1866.  Joseph Alcide was born in 1868.  Omer Abel was born in 1870.  The last child was born in 1873.  Her name was Marie Victorine and she was the one that started collecting all of the family information that ended up in the Pierre Patureau Collection.  Ferdinand and Emma were pretty prolific.  Many of their children were as well.  There were over 70 grandchildren of Ferdinand and Emma.  Large families seem to have been a family tradition.  There are over 1000 descendants of Ferdinand and Emma at this point.

And it all started from this little list of children.

Myrtle in 1958

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Myrtle Sylvia Phenice Bucklin in Hathaway, Louisiana, in 1958.

This is my grandmother in 1958.  She looks rather serious in this photo.  She was a teacher at the time, so when the students had their photos taken every year, she had hers taken as well.  Usually she smiled in the photos, but not in this one.  Was she having a hard day at school that day?  Was she worried about something going on at home?  Or was she staring deep into our eyes from the past?  I suppose we’ll never know.

What I do know is that her name was Myrtle Sylvia Phenice Bucklin, and she was 52 years old at the time.  She had been teaching at Hathaway High School for the past twelve years.  She wasn’t teaching high school students, though.  She was a third-grade teacher for most of her career.  She was known as being quite stern, though most of her students speak fondly of her.  Since I am her grandson, people might be a bit more generous with positive reviews of her.  I also know that she was keen on penmanship and spelling.  I think she would be happy with my spelling abilities.  I think of it as my superpower!   She would definitely say that my penmanship was wanting.  

At school, she was known as Mrs. Bucklin.  At home, she was known as Myrtle, Mama, or Grandma.  Her husband was Fred Bucklin.  They were married in 1930, and the first of their four daughters was born in 1931 on the day before their first anniversary.  There was Sylvia, Betty Lou (my mom), Alma, and Loris.  The last of their children was Austin who was born in 1942.  By 1958, she was being called Grandma.  Not by me, of course.  I didn’t come along for two more years.  But my three older siblings and four of my cousins were around.   Those first seven grandchildren were born over a seven-year period.  The next six were born over a two-year period.  It was during the Baby Boom, and the Bucklin family was doing their part!

I enjoy looking at these older photos of my ancestors.  This one reminds me of some portrait paintings where the subject’s eyes follow you as you walk past it.  When you look into her eyes, she draws you in.  Try it!

Bob and Betty in the Round

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Bob and Betty – the round dancers – in 1988.

Today is the sixth anniversary of my mom’s death.  Betty Lou Bucklin was born in Hathaway, Louisiana, on May 20, 1933.  She died in Lake Charles, Louisiana, on January 19, 2017.  My dad was not far behind.  Robert Joseph Landry, Jr. was born on January 31, 1929, in Lake Charles, and died there on January 24, 2017.  Yes, it was only five days apart from natural causes.  They liked to do things together, so it was appropriate that they had a joint funeral on the 28th of that month.  They had 64 good years together.  Toward the end they were growing much more dependent on one another.  We always thought that when one of them went, the other wouldn’t be far behind.  I never thought that it would be that close.  

When I think about it, I always thought that my dad would be the first to go.  He was the one with the heart problems on his side of the family.  His dad (RJL, Sr.) died at the age of 64 from a heart attack in 1957.  His mom (Germaine Erie Patureau) died at the age of 78 in 1973 – also from a heart attack.  He had open-heart surgery and that’s probably what extended his life so much.  That and the healthy food my mom always cooked. 

But that didn’t stop us from worrying.  Most of the time when I would get a call from home, I would wonder if it was the news that the end was near or had already happened.  I did that for years – probably decades.  I know my sister Karen used to do the same thing.  I remember talking about it before.   Even toward the end we were thinking the same thing.  There was talk about moving my mom to Texas when my dad died.  She could be closer to my younger sister Jamie for a while.  

At the end we were still thinking that.  I got a call on the 18th about Daddy going into hospice and that he only had a few days left.  Later in the night I got a call that Mama had fallen out of bed and hit her head on the floor.  Something similar had happened before, but it was nothing too serious.  So the next morning it was my dad who had the Last Rites performed on him, but it was my mom who died.  She didn’t want to be left alone.

Ok, that’s enough sad talk.  I wanted to talk about Bob and Betty the Round Dancers.  They had so much fun dancing with each other through the years.  When my dad retired in the mid 1980s, he had hobbies like golf, barbershop singing, and genealogy.  Those are fine hobbies (especially the genealogy!), but they aren’t ones that included my mom.  So mom insisted that they come up with an activity that they could do together, and round dancing was the answer.  Most people don’t know what round dancing is, but it was perfect for them.

Now most people know what square dancing is.  Couples form a square and dance around, following the directions of someone giving them calls for specific steps to complete.  Sometimes the couples dance with other couples’ partners.  In round dancing it is more like ballroom dancing.  The person giving the instructions is a cuer (he gives cues, not calls).  The couples dance in a large circle and they stay with their partner.  

My mom and dad did this for years.  They loved it.  They would go to dances all over the South.  Every year the big one they went to was in Dallas at Thanksgiving.  My mom was able to incorporate another of her talents with the dancing.  She made all of the dresses that she would wear for the dances.  They had to be made from comfortable material that had a nice design to it and it flowed well when she’d twirl.  I saw them dance in their house, but never saw them dance at any of their dances they went to.  But I got to see the videos that they made at many of the dances.  My dad got to be a cuer and he would make up dances for some of his favorite songs.  So it helped to record the dances.  That way he could show the video when he’d teach people the dances.

Now that I’m talking about it, round dancing was also another thing that helped to extend my dad’s life.  That’s probably true for both of them.  It was such a good activity that they both really enjoyed doing together.  It also helped that they loved each other and enjoyed each other’s company. Their love for each other and their family is a legacy they left for us.  The dancing was just one way of many of demonstrating that.

Grandpa in His Greenhouse and More

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My grandfather Fred Bucklin in his greenhouse in Hathaway, Louisiana.

This photo of my grandfather Fred D. Bucklin (father of my mother Betty Lou Bucklin Landry) brings back memories from childhood.  It seems like lots of times when we would get to Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Hathaway, Louisiana, Grandpa would be puttering around in his greenhouse.  He didn’t look at all tired from riding the pig through the fields as he raced us back to his house.  LOL The only one who wouldn’t need an explanation for that comment would be my sister Jamie!  When our family was driving up to Hathaway from Jennings, we would pretend that Grandpa was riding a pig out in the fields along the road we were on.  We thought it was hilariously funny!

But he wasn’t really.  He probably had been in the greenhouse as we approached their house.  There was a semicircular drive next to the road where we’d park, and next to that was a large live oak tree.  From what I remember, he had the greenhouse built around the base of that tree.  Of course he would have a greenhouse, he was a nurseryman!  He started out in that profession around 1930 with his twin brother Clarence.  He was still involved with it when we would visit their place in the 1960s.  They moved from the country into Jennings in 1975, so this photo is probably from some time in the 1960s or early 1970s.

I’m not really sure what he was doing in this photo, but he looks to be in his element.  There are lots of potted plants behind him as well as tables full of some of the starts of other plants.  I’m sure he started lots of those plants from seeds, but my mom always talked about how they would help him make cuttings of plants.  He also got creative with grafting citrus trees.  He had one tree that produced four different types of fruit.  I wonder if any of those plants he grafted are still around.

I’ve been thinking about Grandpa this week because I’ve had some interesting discoveries in his maternal grandmother’s family line.  Fred’s mother was Addie May Hine, and Addie’s mother was Susan G. Stanbrough.  I like to refer to my great great grandmother as Grandma Sue.  That’s because a while back I found some transcriptions of letters written by her, and she signed them as “Sister Sue” and “Aunt Sue.”  So Sue it is!  I’ve been wanting to find a photo or scan of those original letters, and I found someone who has a letter and is willing to send me a copy of it.  Woo  hoo!  I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for that since I told you about it in a previous post!  We’ll still have to wait until Cousin Stanbro puts his hands on the letter again and sends us a copy.

Albert Wicker and Mary Etta “Mollie” Stanbrough circa 1910 in Indiana.

Another thing that happened was that I’ve finally been able to identify the couple who are in this old photo.  I got this photo from Cousin Joseph a few years ago and their identities were unknown.  All that was known was that the photo came from our Hine/Stanbrough part of the family.  So we didn’t know if it was friends of the family, Hine family members, or Stanbrough family members.  

The woman in the photo always reminded me of Addie and her mother Susan, but that could have just been the rather stern look that she had on her face.  Still, I did think that she could have been Grandma Sue’s sister.  If you look at the 1900 photo of Sue Stanbrough and George Hine, you might see a resemblance also.  

Sue Stanbrough and George Hine in 1900 in Louisiana.

The other day I was looking at some information on Ancestry about the family, and saw an old, grainy Xerox copy of a photo of Albert Wicker.  It was a copy of the man in this photo.  So the man in the photo is Albert Wicker.  And who do you think Albert Wicker was married to?  Well, it just happened to be Sue Stanbrough’s older sister Mary Etta Stanbrough.  We like to call her Aunt Mollie. 

It was a photo of Sue’s sister after all.  I had just gotten an email from one of Aunt Mollie’s descendants a few days earlier.  She was interested in finding out what our connection was.  I was glad to tell her how we are related and also told her about this wonderful photo that I have of her ancestors.

Even though Grandma Sue moved down south from Indiana and never went back to visit, she did keep in touch with her family that had spread across the country.  The only reason I really know that is because of the letters that people have saved through the years.  At least two of the letters that she wrote to her family have survived.  I know that some of the letters that she received have been saved as well.  I’ve seen a reference to that but have never actually seen the letters.  Maybe one day someone will share them with me.  (Hint, hint, Joseph!) 

I do have copies of some of the photos that were included in those letters.  That’s what I shared with you today and in previous posts.  And now we know the identity of the people in one of those photos.  

Pee Paw’s 130th Birthday

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Robert Joseph Landry, Sr. circa 1893 in Westlake, Louisiana.

130 years ago in Westlake, Louisiana, my great grandmother Marie Celeste Leveque Landry was getting ready to give birth to her last child.  It was about time for her to stop – she had recently turned 45.  There were a few eventful things that happened during her pregnancy.  The father and stepmother of Lizzie Borden were found murdered in their Massachusetts home. Thomas Edison received a patent for the two-way telegraph. The Pledge of Allegiance was first recited in the United States, and the next day the fifth moon of Jupiter was discovered. And The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was published in London on the Halloween of 1892.

I don’t know if she noted these events that happened during those nine months, but they are all things that most of us are familiar with.  But she was familiar with what to expect during pregnancy.  She had already given birth to nine children – seven boys and two girls.  Celeste and Alcide’s first child had been born 22 years earlier in Brusly, Louisiana.  That’s where most of their children were born. At some point in the 1880s, the family moved west across the state and settled in Westlake.

I believe they moved there for the railroad industry in the area.  There were a few family groups that moved from West Baton Rouge Parish to Calcasieu Parish.  Some of them – like Landry and Leveque – are who I descend from.  Others – like Myhand, Bird, and Thompson – are families who married some of my ancestors’ cousins. The closest family group to Marie Celeste and her husband Alcide Landry included two of their siblings.  Alcide was the youngest in his family, and he had an older brother named Pierre Belisaire.  Pierre Belisaire was married to Celeste’s older half-sister Lise Leveque.  They also ended up in Westlake.  So even though they moved across the state, there were still family members around.

So there were a few people waiting to see what Celeste would give birth to.  Would it be a girl?  A boy? They would just have to wait and see.  But not all of the children of Celeste and Alcide were still alive.  Their oldest, Lily, had died at the age of 19 in 1889.  Celeste had given birth to twins in 1879 and one of them did not make it.  Yet there were still seven siblings waiting to see the newest addition to the family.

Once 1893 arrived, they didn’t have to wait long.  Little Robert Joseph was born on the second Monday of the year.  And it just happens to be the same date – January 9 – as the second Monday of this year.  This coming Monday will be the 130th birthday of my paternal grandfather.  Happy birthday, Pee Paw!

 

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