Author: Van

A Voice From the Past – Sammy Got Run Over

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I’ve got another keepsake that I want to share with all of you.  I found this last year when I was going through some of the things I collected from my parents’ home when we cleaned it out for selling.  I’m not talking about the photo that I’m posting with the keepsake.  The photo is part of a promise that I made on here a few weeks ago.  I said that the next thing I’d post for Addie would be a photo of her smiling.

Addie Hine Bucklin

Addie Mae Hine Bucklin circa 1937

For those of you who don’t know who Addie is, she is my maternal grandfather’s mother Addie Mae Hine Bucklin.  (mother of Fred Bucklin, grandmother of Betty Lou Bucklin, and great grandmother of Van Landry)  In most of the photos I have of her, she has a rather severe look on her face.  I thought it was time to share a photo of her smiling since the story in the post is a happy one.  Yes, Sammy did get hit by a car, but he recovered quite well as you’ll hear Addie explain to you.  That’s right, you’ll be hearing the story of Sammy the dog in Addie’s own voice from around 1944.

Addie’s oldest daughter Mary was married to Sylvan Phenice.  He was a sound engineer and one of the things he was able to do was make recordings with a turntable using a cutting needle.  And I thought it was tough when I was a youngster recording conversations secretly using a reel to reel tape recorder!  Somehow he was able to record a conversation with Addie going into detail about her dog falling in the wheel track.  (It must have been a dirt road with deep ruts from the wheels of the cars and trucks.)

Sylvan’s wife Mary can also be heard in the conversation.  I wouldn’t want to get that one too excited.  Her voice would be piercing!  The other people in the recording are Roy Bucklin and his wife Effie.  So find a quiet spot, click on the link to the site that has the recording, close your eyes, and let yourself be transported back to 1944 in rural southern Louisiana.

Sammy Got Run Over – as told by Addie Mae Hine Bucklin.

I thought I’d go ahead and put the transcript of the recording on here in case there was anything you weren’t able to make out.  I am very thankful to aunt Loris who is the one that was able to recognize the voices in the recording.  Mom had it labeled, but I didn’t know which voice belonged to which person.  Thus begins the transcript:

Roy Day Bucklin:  Effie’s a gardener.

Addie Mae Hine Bucklin:  That was the morn… that was the morning that uh Sammy got out in the road and got run over.

Effie Hetzel Bucklin: (at the same time) Yeah, I’ve been trying but I’m afraid that uh it’s not going to amount…

Roy: Did Mr. Compton die?

Mary Bucklin Phenice:  Who’s Sammy?

Addie:  Our little dog.

Mary:  Your little dog?

Addie:  He followed me to mailbox and just as I got out there, there’s a, a pickup went by and he run out to bark and he got too close and it run over him.  And uh, I don’t know if it knew it hit him or not;  it didn’t stop, it just went on and there Sammy was layin’ right in the wheel-track, you know, just all drawed up.  And he commenced makin’ the funniest noise.  Now I was afraid to go and pick him up.  And uh, I stood there and looked around and I thought I heard Roy out in the shop and I said, uh.  Went and called him and I said, “Come here!” and he come, looked at him, and he said, “Oh, I’m afraid he’s done for.”  And we just stood there and watched him.  We’d speak to him and he wouldn’t let on like he heard us.

After a while, why I guess he was kinda commencin’ to get over it, and he’d raise up and look, you know, but he, you could tell that he didn’t know what he was lookin’ at.  So I looked down the road and I saw a car comin’ and I said, “Well, Roy, let’s get him outta the road.  There comes a car.”  So he picked him up and really just puttin’ him out of the track.  Well he just took him on in to the yard.  He laid there.  We’d talk to him.  Still he didn’t know what we’s sayin’.  I guess we musta stayed there fifteen minutes just lookin’ at him, you know.  And we couldn’t see any place was hurt, only just the blood dropped out of one eye – just two or three drops.  Then uh..(cough)…so like, like uh, when we got ready to go to the house, like we said, “Come on, Sammy!  Let’s go!” and he got up and followed us to the house!

Mary:  He’s alright?!

Addie:  And he laid around all day that day, though, Roy was workin’ out with the cattle and he didn’t pay any mind.  He just laid around.  After that, well he seemed to be alright.

Mary:  Shocked him, I guess.

Addie:  Broke… broke the collar off of his neck.  He had… he had a leather collar on.

Roy (interrupting): Must, he, must, car musta hit him on the neck.  That collar was layin’ where the car had hit him.

Mary:  It shocked him.

Addie: It’s a shock, I guess. Long, oh for several days he, he wouldn’t bark at cars.  He’s got over it now. He runs out.  This next time he’d catch it harder and it’d be the last of him.

Eenie Meenie Mee Maw Mo

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Mrs. Robert J. Landry Jr. and mother-in-law

Germaine Erie Patureau Landry, little Landry children, and Marie Celeste Leveque Landry circa 1930.

Here is a photo that I got from uncle A. J. last month.  I think it is from the earlier 1930s.  The person with the child in her lap is my paternal grandmother Germaine Erie Patureau Landry.  When I got those photos from A. J., I realized there were more photos of my dad’s siblings when they were children than I had ever known.  I had seen a few of them ever since I was a youngster.  I remember seeing some of my dad when he was just a toddler wearing a dress and thinking that was strange.  Other people in my generation must have thought the same thing, because nowadays most people dress their children to match their gender.

After I got home with the photos and scanned them all, I shared a few previews with some of my cousins.  This always leads to them sharing some of their photos as well.  Yet more childhood photos of those Robert Joseph Landry, Sr. family members!  We are going to have to get together and study these photos thoroughly, because they are not all dated and labeled.  Like this one.  No names, years, or locations.  I’m sure none of you neglect to label your photos, especially after I have encouraged you to label them.  (On a side note – I could have sworn that I labeled every photo that went into my photo albums.  But I would have been lying!  I thought I did, but several times I have gone to one photo album or another and looked on the back of a photo to find a date.  And I found nothing.  Well, not nothing.  I did put the frame number from the roll of film that I took.  But what good is that if I don’t know when it was taken???  I digress.)

So this photo is of my wonderful Mee Maw who definitely knew who she was holding in this photo!  But she’s not talking.  I don’t think it’s Marie, since there is an older child showing in the photo.  Maybe it is A. J. and that is Marie sticking her foot into the photo.  Of course it could be Hubert, Germaine, Bobbie (my dad, Robert Joseph Landry, Jr.), or Wana.  They were all born pretty close in age to one another.  It couldn’t have been the younger ones, because of who else is in the photo.

On the far right of the photo is Mee Maw’s mother-in-law (and double half 2nd cousin once removed) Marie Celeste Leveque Landry who died February 10, 1934.  Though she lived in Lake Charles from about 1890 to 1925, she was living in Lafayette with uncle Seb in 1930 (according to the census;  She was buried in Lake Charles.)  But I’m sure she had to come visit her little darlings in Lake Charles.  I’m sure she knew their names as well.

But we don’t.  For me, I like to think that it was my daddy.  It looks like some of the photos I’ve seen of him at that age.  But my cousin Shirley might think that it looks like her dad.  Tricia would say that it was definitely Wana.  Daphne will pull out her copy of the same photo and will show that it was labeled as Germaine.  Whichever one it was, it was a Landry child being cared for by their loving mother.  And that represents all of her children.

I still say it’s Bobbie.  (And that cool stroller was his as well!)

A Study of Hine Genes

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George Henry Hine with grandsons

George Henry Hine with his grandsons in 1919.

I thought I’d do a post about DNA this week.  It is directly related to this photo.  It is a photo of my maternal grandfather Fred Bucklin as a child.  He and his male cousins are gathered around their common grandfather George Henry Hine.  (I will try to identify everyone later in this post.)  I wonder if Henry was the one that passed on that towheaded or blond hair trait.  It was very common in his grandchildren and their children and grandchildren as well.  Of course, some of them don’t have this trait.  DNA traits are randomly passed on to offspring.

In each generation each parent passes on half of their genetic information.  So children are made up of half of each of their parents.  But the half that they passed on to their children was not separated evenly from their parents.  Most of the time a parent passes on more of the traits of one parent than the other.  On average you have 25% of your grandparents genes, but it varies from 19% to 35%.  As more generations pass, the differences can be notable.  I’ll give you an example.

I am the great great grandson of George Henry Hine.  Joseph Connors is too.  We both descend from his daughter Addie Mae, so we are 2nd cousins.  Chad Foley is a great great grandson as well, but he descends from Henry’s son James.  That makes him 3rd cousins to Joseph and me.  DNA tests have been done on Joseph, his mom Louise Bucklin Connors, me, and my mom Betty Lou Bucklin Landry.  And just recently Chad agreed to share his DNA results on the the website GEDmatch.com, which allows me to compare his results with everyone else who has tested.  Thanks again, Chad.

I found the results very interesting.  On average a 3rd cousin shares around 1% of their DNA, which comes to around 79 cM (centimorgans – a measuring scale for genetic linkage).  Since I discovered Chad’s DNA at Ancestry where aunt Loris tested, I will let you know that the average amount shared for 2nd cousins once removed is 129 cM.  Loris and Chad only shared about 62 cM, which was a little low but still in normal range.  I was curious to see if her siblings and cousins would share more.  And when Chad shared his results, I saw that they did.

My mom and Louise (and her brother Ray) shared more than 100cM with Chad.  This was still lower than average, but much more than Loris had.  The only one with the average amount was uncle Austin who shared 126 cM with Chad.  That’s what can happen with the random mixing of DNA through the generations.  And it can be even more random.  I compared my DNA to Chad and I share the same amount that my mom had.  All of the DNA that matches Chad just happened to pass on to me as well.  But when I compared Chad to Joseph, they had no matching DNA.  Even though Louise had about the same amount as my mom, she just happened to not pass any of it on to Joseph.  (I’m sure there was other Hine DNA that was passed on to Joseph, but the DNA segments that matched Chad were not.)

So this is an encouragement for all of you to do DNA tests.  Besides getting all of that fun heritage information and seeing whether you have Neanderthal DNA, you get to see who you are related to.  But most of the time it’s better to test the older generation.  Sometimes those little pieces that connect to certain distant ancestors get dropped out along the way.  There are a few Stanbrough (from Henry’s wife Susan Stanbrough Hine) segments that mom had that were not passed on to me.  Some of them were really interesting, too.  I’m still related to those distant cousins, but there aren’t any common DNA segments to easily prove it.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, it’s time to try to identify the people in this photo from 1919.  At that time George Henry Hine had 11 grandsons.  His daughter Addie Hine Bucklin had 8 of them.  The rest were from his sons.  Let’s see who might be who.  The first one born was Leo Bucklin in 1898.  That’s him standing tall in the middle of the photo.  Next born was Ralph Bucklin in 1902.  He must be the one in the overalls.  Next born was Carl Bucklin in 1904.  He is in the back to the far left with his head turning away.  Finally Lonnie Hine gives Henry a Hine grandson in 1905.  He was named Arthur Henry and he is standing to the right of the oldest one (sans hat).

The next three are the hardest to identify.  They all look alike to me.  It doesn’t help that two of them are identical twins.  Herbert Bucklin (grandfather of Joseph) was born in 1906 and then Clarence and Fred (my grandfather) were born in 1907.  I’ll say that Herbert is the boy 2nd from the right in the back row, Fred is on the right in the back, and Clarence is 2nd from the left (sticking his tongue out.  Carla, if you want to switch those names in your mind, that is fine with me. Either one is representative of what he looked like.)  The next grandson born was Aulden Hine (son of James and grandfather of Chad) in 1908.  He is standing in front to the far left with plaid hat.  Robert Bucklin was born in 1911 and is standing in front on the right in the dark shorts.

Okay, we’re almost finished.  If there were any more, I’d have to number them and make a chart!  Roy Bucklin was born in 1915 and that’s him with his hand to his blond hair in front.  And lastly, there is little Kenneth Hine sitting in grandpa Henry’s lap.  He was born in 1916 to James.  There would be one more grandson born.  Bert Hine had a son named Harold in 1921.   There is not a photo of Harold with his grandfather because Henry died in 1919 at the age of 72.

So now we’re done.  Fini. The end.  The case study of Hine genes has been completed.  At least for now.

 

 

Meet the Patureaus of Patureau Lane

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Last week I collected a few new old photos, so we won’t be running out of Throwback Thursday fuel for an additional few months.  I know you are as excited about this as I am!  A few of you already know that I went to visit my dad’s older brother A. J. last week with some family members.  We had a nice visit with him.  It was good to see him because I hadn’t seen him in a while.  He seemed to be in good spirits despite the challenges of a weakening body from many years of wear.  It was also good to see aunt Margie.  She’s such a sweet lady.

But one of the other good things about this visit is that they gave me some of the old photos of the family that uncle A. J. had.  A nice one of Pee Paw from World War I, a really sharp one of Pee Paw’s mother from around 1930, and a few other family photos from when my dad and his siblings were just kids growing up in southern Louisiana.  But the photo this week comes from my cousin Wade.  Actually he is my second cousin because his grandmother was Mee Maw’s sister.

I’ve never met Wade, even though I’ve known about him for almost 30 years.  (Have I really been in Baton Rouge that long?)  I met my other second cousin Kim at that time and she talked about getting together with him.  I met with other cousins, but not him.  I know he was at my dad’s cousin Patricia’s funeral last year, but I didn’t meet him then either.  But I do know that he has a strong interest in genealogy and he knows that I do as well.  So he shared this photo with me.  He doesn’t remember where he and Kim got the photo years ago, but we are all thankful to that family member whoever they may be.

Patureaus of Patureau Lane in Plaquemine

The Patureau family of Patureau Lane circa 1904.

The photo is of our Patureau grandmothers when they were children growing up in Crescent, Louisiana.  They were the Patureau family of Patureau Lane.  When Vincent Maximilian Patureau married Marie Therese Landry in October of 1888, they soon started expanding their family in the Plaquemine area.  Just ten months later came their first daughter Marie Emma.  That’s her on the far left of the photo.  It’s kind of obvious that she’s the oldest since she is so much taller than the rest.  She would be sixteen in this photo and likely was close to her full height.  Her brother on the far right was two years younger than her and would probably be catching up to her height shortly.  His name was Romuald Sylvester, but we like to call him “Romy.”

Next up is Marie Lydwin who was born in 1893.  That’s got to be her standing straight and tall next to her big sister Emma.  And standing next to Lydwin is our very own Germaine Erie who was born in 1895.  (Not 1885 like her grave marker shows.)  She’s looking kinda cute with that dark ribbon in her hair!  The next in line (according to age) is the girl with the light ribbon in her hair standing next to Romy.  Her name was Frances Lorena, though everyone knows her as Lorena.  Next to her (in age and in the photo) is yet another little girl and I think she is Zita Amelie, who was born in 1897.  Those girls were showing up fast and furious approaching the new century.

In 1899 Marie Therese was born.  That’s her standing in front of her father.  Was she a Daddy’s Girl?  One can wonder.  The last child in the front row of the photo was not a little girl this time.  I know that he looks like he could be a girl.  He is wearing a dress after all.  That was a tradition at the time, or maybe the family just thought it was easier to dress him up in hand-me-downs.  But he was definitely a boy and his name was Vincent Maximilian Patureau, Jr.  Since his father went by the name of Max, he could use his first name.

The youngest child in the photo is being held by her mom.  Her name was Sylvie Albine Patureau and she was born in 1903.  She was my cousin Wade’s grandmother.  But she wasn’t the last child born to Marie Emma and Max.  It wasn’t long after this photo that the family suffered a few tragedies.  Actually they had experienced a few already.  After their first child they lost a child at birth.  This happened again in 1900 with a set of twins named Alta and Alva.  In 1906 a daughter named Yve Lyn was born and lived for two years. In 1907 a son named Ray Hugh was born and lived for a year and a half.  Then in 1909 a daughter named Hedwidge was born and only lived a month.  But before she could finish out her month long life, her mother died as well.

It was a tough time for the Patureaus of Patureau Lane, but they made it through with strength and determination.  He also had help from his family.  In the 1910 Census it shows that Max’s older sister Zulma was staying with them.  I’m sure the older girls in the family helped Max with those youngsters he was rearing “alone.”  But that was years later.  This photo was the calm before the storm.  If you can maintain your calm when you have nine children under 17 years of age in your house at the same time!  At least they all look calm for the photo.

I’m glad I have this wonderful photo.  Thanks Wade.

Christmas Eve Eve 1920

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It was getting cold that late December day.  The following day would be the coldest day of the month and would get down to -17 degrees.  That would be a really cold Christmas Eve.  So as they gathered around their trash burner/wood stove, thoughts of the upcoming first Christmas of the 1920s may have been crossing their minds.  Cathrine would be thinking about the many meals that this stove would be used to prepare.  There were many grandchildren who would hopefully enjoy the feast she intended to prepare.

Samuel Charles Phenice with wife Catherine circa 1920 Nebraska

Samuel Charles Phenice with his wife Cathrine Jane Foster Phenice and their two great grandsons Floyd and Elmer Racine (sons of Marie Taylor Racine, grandsons of Anna May Phenice Taylor – listed in Cathrine’s obituary). This was probably in Nebraska circa 1920.

Samuel as well was probably thinking of that feast to come.  Of course, he didn’t have to worry about that overmuch because it was probably his devoted wife of 54 years who would be doing that cooking.  He may have been recounting to his friend Louis the exciting times he had in years past, such as that long ago day at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC.  Whatever they were thinking, those thoughts were soon swept from their minds because of what happened next.

Cathrine probably opened the stove to put more wood on the fire as she had done thousands of times during her 72 years on earth.  No big deal, just a part of her ordinary life in her 1920s home in Precept, Nebraska.  But this was no ordinary day.  Either she stood too close to the fire or for some reason there was a particularly strong draft, but something definitely went wrong for her.  Before she knew it, her dress was on fire and evidently it was burning quickly.  When she realized the severity of the situation, she screamed and began to run in a panic.

I’m sure this was a horrific sight for her husband to behold.  Anybody knows how painful it can be to witness a loved one suffer.  So to see his beloved wife being consumed by fire must have been heart-wrenching.  “Who’s going to cook my Christmas feast now?” he wondered in alarm.  I’m sorry.  I was doing so well telling this serious and terrible story without breaking the tension, but then my evil humor took over.  I’m sure that thought was nowhere near his mind.  He sprang into action no matter the consequence to himself.

He got to his wife, caught her, and tried everything he could to extinguish the flames.  In the process he burned his hands terribly.  His friend Louis Adler witnessed what was happening, filled up a container with water, and did what he could to help put out the fire.  The fire had reached her hair, because he poured water over her head to stop the flames.  The fire was put out, but not before burning poor Cathrine so badly that her life ended as a result of it.

She did not die immediately.  It was said that she suffered miserably.  It must have been a very somber Christmas that year for the Phenice family.  Their beloved matriarch suffered with blood poison as a result of the burning.  It sounded like she had severe burns over a large portion of her body.  She was quoted as saying shortly before she died, “I know you if I can’t see you,” which makes me wonder if she was blinded by the fire.  She ended up dying at 3:20 p.m. on January 7, 1921, at the age of 72 years, 3 months, and 22 days.  I like the way in some parts of the country, the age is given like that in obituaries or on headstones.

Even though she suffered for two weeks, the family reported that she was patient all the way.  When writing an obituary, I would think that most people try to make it reflect the person and be true to who they were.  The report of being patient was written two times in that one article.  I suppose they wanted that to be well understood.

Catherine Jane Foster Phenice

Cathrine Jane Foster Phenice circa 1910.

She sounds like a good woman who relied on her faith to see her through.  Generosity to those in need was also attributed to her.  I can believe it because of what she inspired in others.  Her husband risked his own life to attend to her terrible situation.  Then her children lovingly tended to her during her last weeks of suffering before tenderly laying her to rest.

I’ve been wanting to write about Cathrine Jane Foster Phenice for a while now.  Like the first picture above, she was kind of in the shadows.  Her husband was a witness to the assassination of President Lincoln, so he tended to get most of the attention.  It is such an historic event.  But his wife deserved to be the center of attention at least once.  I was planning on writing her life story, but got carried away with the events surrounding her final days.  I will probably write another story about her at a later date.  (See the great photo I found and the post I wrote about it here.)  Maybe I’ll find another photo to post of her as well.  That first photo was another one of the photos that I had taken of my grandmother’s photos back in the 80s and forgotten about until recently.

The portrait of her had been in my mom’s possession for as long as I can remember.  I hate to make fun of her, but she always reminded me of Grandpa from the Munsters.  My mom must have thought similarly, because she wrote, “Isn’t she a cutie?” on the back of the photo.  I may also do a Munsters version of this photo at one point.  All in good fun.  (Here is the result.)

I’m also posting the obituary from their local paper.  I worked for hours cleaning it up so it could be legible.  Most of the details from my story came from that.  I also looked at historical meteorological data and did a search for (vintage) trash burner (/stove).  It answered my question as to why they would have a trash burner inside.  After all these hours spent with these photos and articles, I have grown quite fond of my great great grandmother Cathrine Jane.

Bender’s Reach – A Sportsman’s Paradise

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Bender's Reach

My father rowing while my grandfather is fishing at Bender’s Reach on the Calcasieu River in 1942.

I’ve always liked this photo of my father and his father – Robert Joseph Landry, Jr. and Sr. This was taken in 1942 on the Calcasieu River. It was my grandfather’s favorite (and evidently secret – according to my cousin Kenny) fishing spot that is called Bender’s Reach.

My first thought when I look at this photo is, “Aw, Daddy and Pee Paw were fishing alone one early Saturday morning.”  But then I remember that it is a photo that had to have been taken by someone in another boat.  I don’t know who the photographer was, but I’ll go ahead and make another assumption and say that it was probably one of my uncles.  Okay, I won’t be sexist and agree that it could also have been one of my aunts or my grandmother.

Either way, it’s a cool photo from almost eighty years ago.  Another thought that runs through my mind is that the photo is reminiscent of many of the paintings that my mom did.  In particular, it reminds me of a painting that was in our family home all through the years.  I wonder if the painting ever reminded my dad of his long ago fishing trips with his dad?  Too bad the original photo was so small that it didn’t come into my mom’s notice.  It would have made a nice painting.

I’m glad that these rather small photos scanned so well.  You can see that my grandfather was right in the middle of casting his line in that first photo.  His hand and fishing pole are just a blur.  These other photos show the pole a little better.

 

Or is that a crease in the photo?  I’m not really sure, but I thought I’d post all of the photos I had from the fishing expedition.  I’m surprised there are three photos of that day.  Nowadays there would not only be photos of the fishing expedition, there would also be photos of the fish being cleaned.  And to top it all off there would be a few photos of it being served: Fresh!  Local!  Organically grown!  Caught just today in the waters of the Sportsman’s Paradise – otherwise known as Bender’s Reach.

Bucklin Double Exposure

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Double Bucklin

Bucklin family double exposure circa 1950

I don’t know what it is about double exposures that capture my attention, but they do.  Particularly when they are older photos of my family.  I’m guessing that this one was taken around 1950 in Hathaway, Louisiana, at the home of my great grandmother Addie Mae Hine Bucklin.  She was my mother’s paternal grandmother.  I’ve posted photos of her before and she usually has a rather dour look on her face.  There are exceptions to that, but this is not one.  Now that I think about it, all of the ones I’ve posted so far show her scowlish demeanor.  I promise you that the next photo that I post of her will be one with a smile.

But for now you will have to put up with that sour look one more time.  Poor old Addie!  She seemed like a sweet woman whose family meant everything to her and all I do is give her a hard time.  I can just picture her scowling at me!  See her?  She’s the one standing in front of the window in this photo.  She’s also standing ‘behind’ the only person who is doubled in the photo.  The other thing I like about the photo is that it looks to be a candid shot.  Sure, they were setting up for a group photo, but it doesn’t seem like they are quite posed yet.

In fact, it looks like my mom is coming down the steps when the photo was taken.  That’s Betty Lou Bucklin on the far right in this photo.  Her sister Loris is between Betty Lou and Addie Mae with the dark blouse on.  In front of Loris is their younger brother Austin.  Sister Alma is on the other side of Addie Mae.  She looks a bit dazed from being bombarded with the lights from the double exposure.  Older sister Sylvia is the first female seen from the left of the shot.  She’s got the most light on her from the double exposure, but she’s smiling like a trooper.  To the right of her is my grandfather Fred D. Bucklin, father of Betty Lou and son of Addie.  To the right of Fred is his sister Edna Bucklin Keys.  Next is a brother-in-law.  The next two are cousins of my mom.  The older one is a Bruchhaus boy and the younger one is maybe a Keys.  The woman next to them is Ruth Bucklin Bruchhaus, who is trying to imitate the sour look of her mother.  She even crossed her arms for better emphasis.

I’m not sure who all of the people are.  I’m pretty sure that the man to the left of Sylvia is her uncle Herbert Bucklin.  I’ll be editing this post as I get corrections and additions concerning the identities of certain people.  I’m posting this other photo from the same day, but that is all I have from that day.  I’m wondering if there is a ‘final result’ photo that shows everyone ready and smiling.  With Addie in the photo, that may be asking for a bit much!

Bucklin family preparations

Getting ready for the Bucklin family photo. I can just hear her now, “Come on, everyone, get outside. Let’s get this over with.”

 

Hats in Hand and a Fob to Boot

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Southern gentlemen from 100 years ago.  Note the fob on my great grandfather Max Patureau on the left. This photo has been edited and colorized.

This photo has a bit of Southern charm about it.  Don’t you think?  The men are dressed nicely with their jackets and hats.  I guess hats on your head were not for  indoors or for photos.  I’m not really sure about hat etiquette from 100 years ago.  The setting is very nice as well.  It looks like these men are standing around old live oaks with Spanish moss hanging from them.

I’m pretty sure this was taken in Lafayette, Louisiana.  I’ll tell you why I think this.  The man on the left is my great grandfather Vincent Maximilian Patureau, who we all like to call “Grampa Max.”  He lived in Plaquemine until 1912 and then moved to Lafayette with his family.  Part of the family was his son Romuald or Rome (rhymes with foamy) who is standing next to him in this photo.  Next in the photo is Louis Joseph Peter Landry who was the brother of Robert Joseph Landry, Sr., otherwise known as my grandfather Pee Paw aka Pappy.  So Louis was my grand uncle.

Louis and his wife had moved to Lafayette by the time their first child was born in 1906.  And since his wife was Clemence Babin, aunt of my grandmother Erie Patureau (Mee Maw), the families would have associated with each other.  They were pretty close according to Tommy Landry’s account of the family.  In fact my grandmother was living in Louis and Clemence’s household at the 1920 Census.  And with family get-togethers like the one in this photo, there would be chances for her to get to know her mother’s first cousin Rob Landry quite well.  Well enough that they were married in November of 1921.  (Which makes me wonder:  Is there a photo of Mee Maw and Pee Paw’s wedding?  If so, someone is holding out big time on me!)

Getting back to the photo.  The man on the far right is Pierre Oscar Patureau.  He was Grampa Max’s younger brother.  He was a dentist and he lived in New Orleans.  That doesn’t help my theory that this photo was taken in Lafayette, but it still points to southern Louisiana.   And since Uncle Oscar died in 1926, this photo was taken earlier.  I estimate the date as around 1920.

The main inspiration for posting this photo was DNA related.  On 23andMe daddy had a match with someone that showed as his 2nd or 3rd cousin.  This is not unusual because everybody with a good amount of Cajun DNA shows up at this predicted level of relationship.  Even the fact that the match had the last name of Landry wasn’t too significant.  But his name showed up on my tree, so I checked to make sure he was the same person in my tree.  And sure enough he is.  He even has a son named Van Landry!  The DNA match is the great great grandson of Louis Joseph Peter Landry, the man in this photo.  But this DNA match didn’t know it.  He only knew that his grandfather’s name was Dickie Landry.  With the great legacy of family tree information and old photos that my dad left behind, I have been able to share lots of family history with him.  I hope he appreciates it as much as I do.

A Keepsake Letter: Much love, Myrtle

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This letter has been on my mind the past few days, so I thought it would make a good post in the Keepsake series.  My cousin Mary texted me a note about the song “Amazing Grace” that was played so wonderfully at my parents’ funeral by a family friend Marcus Davis.  She also talked about how it had been Grandma and Grandpa’s favorite song.  That put me on a quest to find this letter that I had acquired a few months earlier.

It came from a stash of some of my mom’s treasured mementos.  It is a letter that my grandmother Myrtle Phenice Bucklin wrote to her childhood friend Emily Brown Stothart.  It was written a couple of months after the death of my grandfather Fred Bucklin.  They had been married for almost 54 years.  That should be enough information to set you up to read the letter I’m posting.  It mostly speaks for itself, and thankfully she had nice penmanship as well.

I think it is a wonderful letter to have.  So touching and sweet.  There is something that I want to accentuate, though.  She kind of casually makes the statement, “A person can’t help but grieve…” and continues on.  Grieving is not the same as, “I shed a few tears” or “I felt a bit sad.”  After witnessing firsthand the grief of someone losing their spouse of many decades, I’m sure it was a powerful feeling and experience for her.  And this letter was one of the ways that she dealt with some of that grief.

It is also interesting to see her talk about some childhood experiences.  I really liked how she talked about fixing their hair in the “new styles” that they had seen on their favorite blog (Oops, wrong time frame.  Must have been from magazines.)  In another letter her friend talked about riding the buggy to school and sometimes Myrtle’s brothers Henry and Orville would ride horses to accompany them.  Oh, the good old days.

Patureau Lane Properties

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Circa 1905 Patureau Lane in Crescent, Louisiana

 

I came into possession of this photo a little over a year ago.  I had seen it in the book “Trasimond Landry: Soldier and Public Servant” by Thomas R. Landry (my Mee Maw’s first cousin) and was on the lookout for a good copy of it.  That book is one of two books that I have about my great great grandfather Trasimond Landry.  It has some history of the Landry family and also lists all of the descendants of Trasimond Landry.  But this post is technically a Patureau post since he was my grandmother Germaine Erie Patureau’s maternal grandfather.

When I started writing these posts, I knew I was going to have to track down more photos because I really didn’t have that many to begin with.  So I referred to this book to see what photos I wanted and this was one of the top ones I wanted.

Then we moved my parents out of their home in Jennings when they moved to assisted living in Lake Charles in August 2015.  Someone saw the “happy house” at 758 Lucy Street and decided they wanted it, so my siblings, nieces, nephews, in-laws and I cleared out their home in January 2016.  As you may have guessed, this photo was discovered while clearing out the house.  My brother-in-law Allen found it with some other old photos that I had never seen before.  I’ve already posted some of the others, but now it’s time for Patureau Lane Properties.

I called it that because this is a south-facing view of Patureau Lane in Crescent, Louisiana, around 1905.  It was named Crescent because of the crescent shaped bend in Bayou Plaquemine about 4.5 miles west of Plaquemine proper.  For a period of time it was a central portage area for travelers in that area of Louisiana.  This led to a community in Crescent in the early 1900s that consisted of many members of the Landry and Patureau extended families.  (Which made it easy to find and marry your not too distant cousins!)

One part of that community was the Star Club.  This was long before social media, so people had to have some place to get together to share news with their neighbors.  It was a social club, but it also performed services for the community.  But the big event was a ball that they had at the end of the year.  The ball was held in the Star Club Hall, which is shown on the right in this photo.

But another important fact about the Star Club was that the secretary for the year of 1902 was my great grandfather Vincent Maximilian Patureau and the treasurer was my great great uncle Thomas B. Landry (Thomas R.’s father).  In the photo V. M. Patureau’s home is the house that is to the left (across from the Star Club Hall).  The home on the right belonged to the Leobon Patureau family.  The Thomas B. Landry family lived across the bayou road from V. M. Patureau. (The horse and carriage in the full-frame photo was in front of that home.  This photo was taken at the intersection of Patureau Lane and the bayou road.)

The main problem with this photo is not really a problem with the photo.  It’s a problem with my knowledge.  I don’t know who all of these people are!  Even though there are several little girls in the photo and they look similar to old photos of the Patureau family, I can’t definitely identify anyone.  But I’m sure they must be family.  Why else would we have the photo and the photo was used in the book about descendants of Trasimond Landry?  I sure would like to know who they were.  Does anyone know?  There may be other copies of this photo out there.  If anyone knows more or finds out more, I would appreciate being kept in the loop.  Inquiring minds want to know!

Patureau Lane circa 1905

Full-frame photo of Patureau Lane looking south from the bayou road. Behind to the left would be Thomas B. Landry’s home, to the left is V. M. Patureau’s home, Star Club Hall is in the middle to the right, and to the right is the home of Leobon Patureau. Circa 1905.

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