Van | Family History

Twins and Stilts

May 30, 2019 Van Leave a comment

I remember my mom telling me about her dad’s family when I was a child. I thought we were a pretty big family because I was one of six children. But my grandfather was from an even bigger family. He was one of twelve children! I was pretty impressed by that. It was like that book I read back then called “Cheaper By the Dozen.” But my great grandmother Addie Hine Bucklin cheated a little, because she had two sets of twins. So she only had ten pregnancies.

My grandfather Fred was in one set of twins. He had an identical brother named Clarence. They were born Oct. 2, 1907, and they were the seventh and eighth children of Louis and Addie Bucklin. I’m not sure who was born first. I wonder if anyone knows? After two other children were born (Edna and Robert), there was another set of twins in 1915. Obviously they were not identical, because the girl was named Ruth and the boy was named Roy.

Ruth Bucklin, Myrtle Phenice, Orville P., Clarence B., Myrtle Moon, Warren P., Roy B., Fred B., and Jack Jester circa 1927

Both of the sets of twins can be seen in this photo. Ruth is on the far left of the photo, while Roy is the one with the stilts on. I would say they look about 12 years old in this photo, which would put the year for this photo at 1927.

According to the IDs that I had on this photo from Joseph and Louise (ID’d by possibly Ruth and my mom), Clarence is the twin fourth from the left and Fred is the one second from the right. I really like this photo and really appreciate the IDs, but the original version of the photo that I got was rather poor. I was getting ready to inquire about a better version, but then I got this copy from my cousin Carla. And that’s why you’re seeing it today – I finally have that better version.

There aren’t any other twins in the photo, but there are some other similarities. If I got the date correct, Fred would later marry Myrtle Phenice and Clarence would later marry Myrtle Moon. Myrtle Phenice (or Grandma to us grandkids) is second from the left and Myrtle Moon is the center person in the photo. There are two other guys in the photo who kind of look alike, but they’re just regular brothers. Actually they are two of my grandmother’s younger brothers. Orville is to the right of Grandma, and Henry is to the right of the other Myrtle. That leaves just one more person in the photo. I thought of cropping him out of the photo, but didn’t have the heart. He’s not part of my family, but he is part of somebody’s. Maybe someone will know him. He is identified as Jack Jester. He must have been a friend of the family.

I like these photos of the two families – Phenice and Bucklin – together. With eleven children in the Bucklin group and eight in the Phenice group, there were a lot of opportunities for friendships. Two couples came out of the two groups – Sylvan P. married Mary B. in 1926 and Fred married Myrtle in 1930. I’m hopeful that there are more photos to be discovered and shared with everyone. I’m always on the lookout.

Pee Paw Strikes a Pose

May 23, 2019 Van One comment

I don’t remember when I first saw this photo of my paternal grandfather. I know that at one point I had an old version of it that I edited to get rid of scratches and such. Then shortly after I finished that, I got a better version from somewhere else. I’m thinking that I got the improved version from Uncle A. J., but I’m not sure. Either way, I put off working on the new version since I had just edited the old version nicely. So last year I posted a different photo of Pee Paw in the Great War and put off the redo on the upgraded version.

But now is the time for this great photo. This is a photo of Robert Joseph Landry, Sr. I have several photos of him from his time at training for World War I. On one of the photos I got from Uncle A. J., it stated that the date was 1919 and that he was at Camp Lee in Virginia. That was near the end of the war, so it looks like he went through the training for the war, but was never shipped anywhere.

But there were several photos. He was a big baseball player, so there’s a team photo with military uniforms. There is also another group photo with his unit, I presume. Many of them are just goofing around with friends or posing by himself. But this one has always been my favorite. He’s got such a casual pose, yet he looks rather dignified.

Everyone loves a man in uniform.

Landry

Keys Reunion 2019

May 16, 2019 Van One comment

I thought I would send out a reminder/invitation to this year’s Keys Family Reunion. We had a reunion two years ago, and it was such a success that we decided to have another one. The first Keys Reunion happened in 1973 and our family went to that one. (I’m still hoping to see a video from the people I remember recording the event. I didn’t know who it was with the recorders, but remember seeing them being lugged around.) I have photos from that reunion and from subsequent ones throughout the years.

I don’t know if the reunions went on consistently through the years, but I remember some happening in the 90s and 2000s. We started them up again two years ago and there was a good turnout. But it would be nice to have all of the children of Martha Ann Cook Keys represented. She was that brave woman who brought her five children from England to southern Louisiana in June of 1887. She also happens to be my great great grandmother. Her five children were Henry Alfred “The Judge” Keys, Leonard James Keys, Daisy Henrietta Martha Keys Phenice, Rosetta “Ruth” Keys Bryan, and Mabel Olive Keys Miller.

Mabel Keys Miller, Daisy Keys Phenice, Harry Clifton Phenice, Leonard James Keys, and Edessa Havenar Keys in 1938.

I got this photo recently that shows three of those five siblings. Since I’m wanting all five of them to be represented, I should use a photo that has all five of them in it. But I don’t have one! This one has Mabel, Daisy with her husband H. C., and Leonard with his wife Edessa in 1938. It was taken at Leonard’s home in Elton. I posted a larger group photo from the same day about nine months ago.

When I first saw this photo I was really excited because I was thinking it might be the five siblings in the same photo. Then I realized that two of them were spouses. I can’t be too disappointed since it is such a great photo and my great grandparents are in it. If anyone has a photo that includes all five siblings, I would love to see it and scan it. Bring any interesting photo to the reunion. I’ll take photos of them or borrow them to scan if possible. I tried to take a photo of Daisy and H. C. with some kids on a horse, but it didn’t come out very well. I’d like to try again, but can’t remember who had that photo.

I thought I’d post this photo of The Judge’s family, since he didn’t show up in the first photo. I got this from a cousin on Facebook, but can’t remember who that was. I need to take better notes! I’d also like to have a few names for people in the photo and the approximate year.

I know that many of them lived in Kinder. Henry Alfred and his wife Eugenia LaFosse had twelve children together, so there should be lots of descendants from that line. I’d like to see some of them at the reunion.

I can’t ignore the Ruth Keys Bryan line of the family! This photo is from the 1973 Keys Family Reunion and it shows the descendants of Ruth at that time – at least the ones that showed up and were willing to pose for a picture.

I know the names of some of these, but would like to know more. And if I were to guess who it was that had a video recorder back at that reunion, I would say it was this guy in the red jumpsuit. Who is that man in red?

We can discuss who these people are online, or you can wait until the family reunion. Like I said, I’d like to see you there. “Where?” you ask. It is going to be at the Raymond Methodist Church annex, which is located at 5532 Pine Island Hwy. The festivities are on Saturday June 15th and they start at 10:00 a.m.

Keys

Our Erie the Student

May 8, 2019 Van Leave a comment

Long before my dear sweet Mee Maw (Germaine Erie Patureau Landry) taught me and my siblings how to play Solitaire – even before she taught her own children how to play Canasta and Pinochle, she was just little ol’ Erie, student at SLI. According to this old school newspaper, she started school there in 1912 after graduating high school from Crescent, Louisiana.

Class photo from around 1914 at SLI in Lafayette, Louisiana

I think this picture titled “Fourth Year Class” was taken in 1914 at the beginning of her senior year at SLI. The accompanying school newspaper cover shows the graduating class of 1915 with Erie on the front row. Neither one of the photos is very clear. They are school newspaper photos after all and I think it’s amazing that they have survived in any form all of these years later. I like this photo because she looks so stylish with her black skirt and lace-up boots. (In the front on the right.)

I remember that when I was younger, I thought my Mee Maw was from Lafayette. Now I think of her a being from Plaquemine. Most of her childhood was spent in Crescent, which is a suburb of Plaquemine. Her mother died in 1909 when Erie was just 14 years old. Her mother’s mother Belite (Marie Amelie Bujol Landry Babin, known as Grandma Babin to some) moved to Lafayette by 1910. Her father Max (Vincent Maximilian Patureau) stayed in Crescent until 1912, which was around the time Erie finished high school. He set up practice in Lafayette in October of 1911 and brought the children over in April of 1912.

So once she finished high school, her home was Lafayette for about ten years. Even after she got married in 1921 and moved to Lake Charles to live, her father lived in Lafayette for several more years. When I was a kid I didn’t consider all of these details. I wish I had asked a bit more back then, but we were too busy playing games and singing songs. So it’s a good thing these articles were saved that have a few photos and some reminiscences of young Erie.

The front page photo has Erie second from the right on the front row. (See here for a better version of the photo.) It looks like the photo must have been taken in the cooler time because of the heavier clothes. This photo has more people in it than the previous one, so that is a little confusing for me. Usually classes get smaller as time goes on with people dropping out or moving away.

This front pages starts introducing members of the class and telling what each individual accomplished during the years. Mee Maw is not mentioned there.

The second pages gives a description of the paper and its staff. It also has a dedication. Someone must have asked the class what they wanted to will to the younger class mates. It’s called “LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF THE SENIOR CLASS.” Very dramatic. Check out number 19: I, Erie Patureau, do will and bequeath my good times to Pierre Hernandez.

My favorite part of the pages is the article on the right side called “HISTORY OF THE CLASS OF ’15.” (That’s 1915 in case you were unsure.) It mentions many of the class members, but what they write about Mee Maw is sweet – “The following January after all dangers of finals was over Erie showed up. Modest and retiring, she was hard to make friends with, but we were determined and now she’s ours.” I like that.

Page 3 continues with introductions to the class. There at the bottom of the first column is our Germaine Erie Patureau. That’s where I learned that she entered S. L. I. I. from Crescent Graded School in 1912. It doesn’t list any accomplishments at all. Not one. I wonder why that is? What it does have is a quote in Latin: “Dulce est recipere in loco.” According to Google translate, that means “Sweet is back in place.” That makes no sense.

I tried to reword it, but nothing really made sense. Put sweet back in its place? Give sweetness back in place? Dude? Sweet! (What does mine say?) So I searched again and found a famous Latin quote – “Dulce est desipere in loco.” That means, “It is sweet on occasion to play the fool” or “It is pleasant to be frivolous at the appropriate time.” I wonder if that is a quote that she liked, or was it said to her?

Page 4 has a letter that is a study in alternative reality. Someone wrote a letter as though it were years later and talks about the old classmates he runs into on his travels. There is a mention of our Erie in it. In that alternate reality, she went to Europe as a Red Cross nurse helping in a hospital.

While that would have been a grand and noble thing to do, I do prefer the reality of her staying here in the States and becoming my grandmother. Of course, I am biased.

Patureau

100 Years Gone, Bye George

May 2, 2019 Van Leave a comment

I’m repeating myself. Of course, these posts are all about repeating stories from the past. But this time I’m using a photo that I’ve used before. Twice before, actually. It’s just such a great photo, though. I really need to get a good print of this photo, by George. Those eyes mesmerize me.

The occasion for posting this photo again is that May 3, 2019, is the 100th anniversary of the death of our George. That would be my great great grandfather George Henry Hine. My mother was Betty Lou Bucklin Landry. Her father was Fred D. Bucklin. His mother was Addie May Hine Bucklin, the oldest child of George. George got married to Susan G. (Grandma Sue or just Sue) Stanbrough on October 12, 1873, in Hamilton County, Indiana. Besides having my great grandmother Addie, they had five sons.

“The People’s Guide: A Business, Political and Religious Directory of Boone Co., Ind.,” 1874, p. 136

The family was from Indiana and lived there until 1894. I’ve shared photos of the family in Indiana before, but recently I found some more history of George’s family in Indiana. I knew that Sue’s Stanbrough family had moved to Indiana from Ohio around 1830. I also knew that the Hine family had moved to Indiana from North Carolina around 1835. But George’s mother was Malina Cox and the Cox family name was a recent discovery. I found that Malina’s father was Benjamin Cox, who was born in 1796. In an old book about Boone County, Indiana, it had a small mention of the family moving to Indiana from North Carolina in 1829.

So sixty years later the Hine family – at least the George Henry Hine family – made their way south to Louisiana. They homesteaded in Jefferson Davis Parish around China. In a letter I shared previously from May of 1916, Sue wrote about how George had come close to dying on May 2 (1915). He was doing quite well in 1916 as a result of quitting his medicines and drinking cold water. (Per Grandma Sue’s letter.) She talks about how Addie and the family had moved back to Louisiana after their stint in Arkansas. She was also glad that their son Roe lived close by and could answer their ring when they needed something.

Obituary for Grandpa Hine in the Jennings Daily Times Record on May 22, 1919.

I always thought it was so sweet that Sue’s son Rowe (Roe) lived so close and could help them out in their older years. But then I realized that Rowe died only four months after that May 1916 letter was written. Like my sister Jodie, he died at the age of 36. And I’m sure his death must have impacted their family as it did ours. I’m sure that bell she mentioned in the letter was one of the bittersweet reminders of her son.

Then came that fateful day 100 years ago when George passed away after he and Sue had been married for 45 years. He was 72 years, 5 months, 6 days old. As Sue would say a few years later when speaking of her brother’s death, “the Death angel came for him.” The newspaper article that gave notice of his death talked about how much George suffered his last few years.

So Grandma Sue was probably thinking of her dear George when she wrote that letter to family about her brother’s death. Even though she wasn’t specifically writing about George, the words probably fit her sentiment about her husband’s death, “I was glad he did not have to suffer (any longer). and of course we all have that debt to pay sooner or later.”

Cox
Hine

The Old Swing Set

April 25, 2019 Van One comment

My younger sister Jamie shared a post this week about preschool. It said that structured learning at a young age was not as beneficial as play. I’m glad to know that. I never went to preschool and when I was young, it seemed like all we did was play. And when you have five brothers and sisters, you always have someone to play with. The photo that represents this topic is this photo of all of us siblings on our old swing set in 1965.

Rob (with Princess), Van, Al, Jamie, Jodie, and Karen Landry in 1965.

As you can see, there was room for all of us at once. Though Rob isn’t on the swing set, he is in the photo playing with our dog Princess. She was a good dog. I remember that she had at least one litter of puppies while we lived there. I used to crawl under the house to gather up all the puppies so we could play with them!

I am the little boy closest to Rob in the photo. I was only four years old at the time, but I have lots of memories from that old house “out in the country.” It was north of Jennings (about half a mile north of I-10) on Highway 26. We rented the house for two years or so from 1963 to 1965. It was preschool for me, Al (to the right of me), and Jamie (to the right of Al). Rob, Jodie (with the baton), and Karen (on the trapeze) had already started their formal education.

That swing set was lots of fun. It was a little scary at times when we were all swinging at once. If too many were on the same side at the same time, it would start to tump. We liked the way it gave us butterflies when we’d go really high. And we always tried to jump just a little bit further than we did the time before. We learned to hang from our knees and our toes on that old swing set! And sometimes we’d Skin the Cat. But don’t worry, we’d always Bring Him Back.

We also had an old trike that we’d ride around. There was a wagon that could carry a couple of kids with armloads of puppies. I remember being scolded not to touch a baby bird that fell from the fig tree. If we did, the mother would reject it. Nobody wanted that. We had a sand pit that was somewhat fun. I seem to remember my mom saying that the cats used it for other purposes than playing. I do remember there being a wasp nest in it. (It was a round brick structure with a ceiling from what I recall. That sounds rather odd now that I say it. It seems like a sand pit should just be a boxed in area with sand in it. What say you, siblings?)

Toward the back of the yard was an old rusty barn. We’d rub our hands on it and make our palms red. It seemed fun at the time. Inside the barn was the wooden framework of an airplane. I don’t think we were allowed to play in there, but we’d peek in from time to time. We had cats and dogs as well as horses and cows. (some with feathers!) It was great fodder for young developing minds.

But all we were really concerned about was having fun.

Landry

The Mother of Us Landrys was a Babin

April 18, 2019 Van 2 comments

I was thinking of naming this post “Joseph Ignatius’s Mother Was a Babin,” but decided to give her a little more prominence than that. I wrote about Joseph Ignatius a few weeks ago to talk about the five ways my tribe and I descend from that ancestor. This week I’m going a generation back to talk about his mother.

The ancestor I’m talking about is my great great great great grandmother Marie Magdelena Babin. She was born in Pisiquit, Acadie, around 1725. She married Augustin Landry some time around 1747. He was a widower and he had two children by his first wife Ann Rivet. Magdelena probably took care of her step-children Maria and Joseph Marie as well as the children that she and Augustin soon started having. Magdelena gave birth to Joseph Ignatius, Mathurin, Marie Madeleine, and Marguerite. There were most likely more children born that did not survive, but the ones I named have documentation.

At some point during this time of child-bearing, Magdelena and Augustin, along with the children born by 1755, were ripped from their homes by the Grand Derangement. The English took over the land that they wanted for their own subjects and sent the Acadians away violently. The Landry family spent about a dozen years in Exile in Maryland where the last of their children were born. I can’t imagine rearing six children during their formative years in a foreign environment where you didn’t feel welcome.

Things changed in 1767 when Spain offered land grants to settlers who wanted to relocate to Louisiana. The Landrys decided to take a chance in Louisiana. They were aboard the ship “The Virgin” that brought a load of ‘French neutrals’ to Louisiana on July 12, 1767. They brought with them all of their worldly possessions. That amounted to two trunks and everything they contained. They were given 8 arpents of land fronting on the Mississippi River.

This was really a huge turning point in the lives of our ancestors. I came to this realization this week when I found the document that inspired me to write the topic of this week. I’m a little reluctant to say that I was a bit touched by this document. The document is titled “Succession Vve. Augustin Landry” and the date is March 25, 1814. “Vve.” is the abbreviation for veuve, the French word for widow. So it is the succession information for our Magdelena. It was written by John Dutton, Judge of the Parish of Iberville.

What was so touching to me was the way Judge Dutton talks about entering the Landry home after Magdelena’s death. He talks about her death being two days previous (on the 23rd), and how he walked into the principal hall and placed a seal on the large armoire (painted red) he found there. It sounds like he was making sure that her legal possessions were not disturbed until there was an inventory a few days later. He proceeds down the hall and puts another seal on a “door of a chamber in the back gallery…”

Judge Dutton also mentions family members that he interacted with and were present at the Landry home. Joseph LeBlanc dit Michel was her son-in-law. He was the husband of Marguerite and son of Michel LeBlanc (hence the dit name). A John Baptiste a gros LeBlanc is mentioned, but I can’t figure out his connection to the family. (See update below.) Two witnesses are named. Aubry Dupuy was the brother to our Magloire Dupuy . Antoine Serrette is another witness and he was the brother of Henriette Serrette, Magloire’s wife. Ten years later, Magloire and Henriette‘s daughter Zerbine would marry Joseph Ignatius’s son Elie Onezime Landry.

It is such a revealing document from over 200 years ago. I was happy to see that this first generation of Acadians in Louisiana were prosperous. This can be seen by the list of their belongings on this and further documents. It included much more than what could be placed in two trunks. I was not happy to see more individuals who had been enslaved by my family. Though it sounds like these individuals were treated considerately, it was still within the confines of slavery.

It also seems like the family was coming together for Magdelena’s funeral. She lived to be almost 90 years old. Oh, what a story she could have told! So by the time of her funeral, her children (natural and step) had children of their own. All but one of the children (Marguerite) had predeceased her. But by the look of the names of witnesses at the bottom of the document, Magdelena’s family had come to her house to mourn or to celebrate her life. Included in that list is Emanuel Landry, one of her three grandsons that I descend from. Other grandsons include Elie, Bellonni LeBlanc, Xavier Landry, Josephe Landry, and Ursin Landry. Pierre Paul LeBlanc was a grandson-in-law.

And now all of us, her great great great grandchildren and beyond, are celebrating her life again.

April 2, 2021 Update – I recently found the connection to John Baptiste a gros LeBlanc. Marie Magdelena (Widow Landry) had a daughter named Madeleine who married Joseph a gros LeBlanc. (Yes, sister Marguerite married another Joseph LeBlanc, but that one was dit Michel.) Joseph a gros LeBlanc had a brother named Jean Baptiste a gros LeBlanc, who I’m pretty sure is the John Baptiste a gros LeBlanc mentioned in this succession paper.

Landry

Old Phenice Memorabilia

April 11, 2019 Van Leave a comment

I can’t remember when I first saw this old letter and old copy of a photograph. I seem to recall seeing a Xerox copy of the photograph in my mom’s collection of Phenice family history many years ago. I’ve already shared a copy of the letter that my great great great grandmother Susan Jackson Phenice (wife of Daniel Phenice) wrote to her daughter-in-law Ida Fitzgerald Phenice (wife of Daniel Abraham Phenice). The letter I’m sharing this time was written much more recently. The older one was written in 1877 and the more recent one was written in 1975. Here is the first page of that 1975 letter.

1975 letter from Meredith Compton Gibson to Gerald Z. Phenice p. 1

The letter was written by Meredith Compton Gibson (1924-2002) to Gerald Z. Phenice (1909-2001). Their correspondence started in 1973 when Meredith found Gerald’s name in a Columbus, Ohio, phone book. Since his last name was the same as her grandmother’s maiden name (Maud Phenice Martin – the daughter of Ida and Abraham Phenice mentioned earlier), she wrote to him to find out what their connection was.

As it turned out, Gerald and Meredith’s father Harry Dale Compton were second cousins. They were both great grandsons of Daniel and Susan Jackson Phenice. So they corresponded for a while. I found this one really interesting because it identifies all of the family lines that Meredith, Gerald, and our family group descend from.

Meredith comes from the Daniel Abraham (1852-1900) line. His daughter Maud was the mother of Harry Dale Compton. Harry was the father of Meredith. A sad part of this story is that Maud had a sister named Gertrude that died as a teenager around 1900. This tragedy struck Abraham particularly hard and he ended up committing suicide shortly after her death.

Gerald comes from the William Henry (1840-1914) line. William Henry was the oldest son of Daniel and Susan Jackson. He had a son named Milroy Morton Phenice. Milroy was the father of Gerald. Gerald was actually the youngest of four children.

My family line comes from Samuel Charles Phenice (1844-1939). Samuel had the longest lifespan of all of his siblings. He lived to be 95 years old. Not bad for a Civil War soldier who was injured in battle. He was the father of my great grandfather Harry C. Phenice. HC was the father of Myrtle Phenice Bucklin. Myrtle was the mother of my mom Betty Lou Bucklin Landry.

The other great thing about the letter is that it included the photo of Samuel and his family that I mentioned at the beginning of this post. For the longest time, I read that second line as “1st wife Catherine Jane Foster Phenice” and wondered if there was a 2nd wife that I hadn’t found. I recently realize it says ” lso wife C.J.F.P.” The A is missing in ‘Also’ because of a typo with the old typewriter she was using to type that letter! Long before SpellCheck!

As you can see, it is a poor quality image. It looks like a Xerox of a Xerox. She obviously had a better quality photo that she sent, because she encourages Gerald to look at the photo with a magnifying glass. A magnifying glass won’t help now. You might get a better view of those large Phenice ears that she talks about in the letter! If you look closely at the names, you can see that she wrote one of the daughter’s names as Myrtle and then tried to remove it all and replace it with May. I think she had it right the first time. I think this is Samuel and Catherine with their daughters Emma and Myrtle with some of their grandchildren. It’s hard to tell with the blurriness of the photo, but the man in the right of the photo could be their son Edd.

William Henry Phenice circa 1850. Brother of Daniel Phenice

The other subject that Meredith talks about is an old tintype photo that her grandmother had sent her previously. She spoke about it in another letter as well, saying that it was taken in the 1850s. Her grandmother said it was Meredith’s 3rd great uncle William Henry. Daniel’s son by the same name was born in1840 and would have been too young in 1850s for this individual. So this would be Daniel’s brother. Since I don’t have a photo of my great great great grandfather (yet!), this is the closest thing that I have. She also said that Samuel had whiskers like this at one point. I’d like to see that, too!

I’m always on the lookout for more photos – either improved quality or ones I haven’t seen before. I have been looking for the photo of Samuel and his family for a few years. I’ve gotten others that I didn’t know about along the way. (Thanks to those Quillen girls and other cousins!) Since the letter was from Meredith Gibson, I thought of tracking down her descendants. I think the old letter from Susan Phenice was in her possession, too. I’d really like to get better quality scans of both.

1975 letter from Meredith Compton Gibson to Gerald Z. Phenice p. 2

So you can imagine my excitement when one of Meredith’s children showed up as a DNA match to me a few months ago! I don’t want to come across as all “Grab, grab, grab” when I introduce myself, so I try to be subtle. But I also don’t want any old family photos or letters destroyed either. I have to check on these things. So I sent off a message of inquiry and sat back and waited patiently.

I didn’t have to wait long. And I was so excited when I first started reading the response. “My mother was an avid genealogist.” Yes, I knew that. It went on about “totes chocked full of family history…” Yee Haw! I was really getting excited and it continued with “…letters and photos…often dozens of photos…with careful notes on the back…” You can only imagine my excitement. And then…

“I have not even popped the lid of the Phenice tote… My daughter is keeper of the totes…” Where is he going with this? “I will happily look into the Phenice material, but unfortunately…” No! No unfortunately! Not now! They were seeming so close! “the totes are buried deep in storage…daughter building a home…inaccessible for 12 months or so…” A year!? or so!? Say it isn’t so!!!

So I sent back a letter of feigned understanding.

And I sat back.

And I wait…

Phenice

I Am a Patureau

April 4, 2019 Van Leave a comment

Well, technically I am not a Patureau, I am a Landry. But my grandmother was a Patureau, so that makes me a Patureau, too. It’s funny how you tend to easily connect with those who share your common surname. With all the research that I have done, I tend to connect with several surnames. I was shocked recently when I asked someone what their grandmother’s maiden name was and they didn’t know! How can you not know your grandmother’s maiden name? It’s an outrage!

Standing in back: Unknown 1, unknown 2, Zita Patureau, Sylvia Patureau, Erie Landry (my Mee Maw) holding daughter Germaine Landry, Lidwin Patureau, unknown 3, unknown 4; standing in front A. J., Hubert, and Marie Landry (children of Erie), unknown 5, unknown 6. Circa 1928 (IDs provided by Sis)

It seems like I’ve always known that my Mee Maw was a Patureau. But it was not because there were lots of people named Patureau around me. There weren’t. One of the reasons for this is that Mee Maw had more sisters than brothers. My grandmother was Germaine Erie Patureau Landry. Her mother was Marie Therese Landry Patureau, who endured fifteen pregnancies.

She only lived a few days past her last pregnancy. Eleven of her offspring were girls, though only seven of them survived to adulthood. Four of her offspring were boys and two of them died in infancy. Additionally, neither of the two who attained adulthood (Romuald and Vincent) had any offspring.

So my great grandfather Vincent Maximilian Patureau had many grandchildren, but none of them carried the Patureau name. I noticed this a few years back and I had to ask Daddy about it because it seemed so unbelievable. To have that many children, yet not have any grandchildren with your last name. I’m sure he was okay with it. His mother was a Landry, his wife was a Landry, and eight of his grandchildren were Landrys. He was a Landry like I am a Patureau. It’s all family.

Louis Leobon with five of his seven sons. From left to right are Alex, Allen, Abel, Louis Leobon, Richard and Edmond. Missing are Pierre and Arthur. Circa 1927 (Photo from another “Patureau” Terry Knight.)

Then there was Grampa Max’s older brother Louis Leobon. He and his wife only had twelve children. The slackers! They had eight boys, though one of them (Louis Leobon, Jr.) died as a teenager. There were also four daughters named Alizia, Leona, Caroline, and Bertha. All of them were first cousins to my Mee Maw.

I don’t know who had more grandchildren: Max or Leobon. But with all of those male children, I know that Leobon had at least fifteen grandsons with the Patureau name. So even though I don’t have any first or second cousins with the last name of Patureau, I have many third cousins out there with that surname. In fact, if you meet a Patureau in southern Louisiana, it’s almost a guarantee that they are my third cousin.

But there are even more like me. We descend from a Patureau and have a different last name. Be it Landry, Duffy, Raley, Winn, Marionneaux, Barker, Boudreaux, Daigre, Vicknair, Stassi, Gunn, LeBlanc, Wendt, Mouton, Pitre, Pays, Knight, Amann, Zimmerman, Desonier, Conaway, Bourgogne, McLaughlin, Sicard, Guelfo, Scruggs, Written, Cropper, Barlow, Blanton, Rush, Martin, Rabalais, Kerr, McGown, Cansler, Hebert, Thommen, Dupuy, Schroeder, Soliman, Keegan, Hartz, Crandell, Llanas, Laulom, or Crixell – we are all Patureau. We should have a reunion!

Patureau

The Wooden Leg

March 28, 2019 Van Leave a comment

There wasn’t any one photo or story that called out to me for my blog this week. So I went searching through my “Old Photos” folder on my computer to see what I’d come across. I kept coming back to this photo, so I decided to go with it.

Myrtle and Fred Bucklin were my grandparents.

This is a photo of my maternal grandparents. I am Van Landry. My mom was Betty Lou Bucklin Landry, and her parents were Fred Bucklin and Myrtle Phenice Bucklin. I had thought of posting this photo several times, but put it off for various reasons. I figured I’d end up posting it at some point. That point is now.

One of the reasons I didn’t post it was that I can never decide on a date for the photo. They seem pretty young in the photo. The Depression was going on during the 1930s, yet they seem to be dressed pretty nicely. Of course I used to think the family had no money at all, but then had to rethink that when I found out my grandfather used to summer at the spas in Arkansas.

She was born Dec. 19, 1906, and he was born less than a year later on Oct. 2, 1907. They both grew up in the same area and now that I think about it, I have no idea how they met. It’s not like my other grandparents who were cousins and probably knew each other all their lives. But they could have met when they were young since they were the same age and lived near each other. They got married March 12, 1930. So this photo could have been taken before then, or it could be fifteen years later. I just don’t know.

Either way, I think they make a handsome couple. My grandmother was never referred to as a beauty, but was said to be handsome. I wonder if that was said because she wasn’t dainty. I think she looks very striking in some photos. Like this one. She looks a bit stylish with that hat, coat, and handbag.

Grandpa looks nice in his suit, also. It may not have the same lines that are popular today, but he looks rather dapper. Of course when I was a child, I never thought such a thing. He was just an old man that liked to complain about his health. I never thought of him as this young man starting out his married life with his cherished bride. I do think I resemble him a bit, as did my cousins Keith and Dale. (Depending on the photo.)

The other thing that I didn’t like about this photo is that it looks like Grandma has a wooden leg. When I looked at this smallish photo when it was in a photo album, that’s what I’d see. It wasn’t until I scanned it and looked at it on my computer that it quit looking like that, so maybe you won’t see it at all. Maybe you’ll just see a handsome couple looking stylish as they smile for the camera.

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