Tag: Landry Family History

I decided to write about my paternal grandfather today.  I thought about posting a photo of him from World War I, but only one of those photos caught my eye and it will take more editing than I have time for.   As I was scrolling through the old photos from the Tin Can Collection, this photo called my name.  So Thanks, Tricia, for sharing the contents of that wonderful tin can found in the attic.  I’m so glad Aunt Wana treasured these items and didn’t destroy them or throw them away.  (I’ve heard horror stories.  Not about Aunt Wana!  Heavens, no.  The horror stories were about people throwing away old family photos.)

This is a photo of my dad’s dad.  My dad was Robert Joseph “Bob” Landry, Jr. and as you might suspect, his father’s name was Robert Joseph Landry, Sr.  He was known as Rob or Pappy by his family and friends.  His eight children called him Papa and his multitude of grandchildren called him Pee Paw.  He was born on January 9, 1893, in Westlake, Louisiana.  He died on August 28, 1957, in Lake Charles.

The great thing about this photo is that the name of the two individuals was written on the back – “Robt. Landry + Sidney Cary.” The main connection between the two of them is that they were married to two Patureau sisters from Plaquemine.  My grandmother was Germaine Erie Patureau and the sister in question was Frances Lorena Patureau.  They both went by their middle names.  Actually “Sidney” was Uncle Sidney’s middle name as well.  His first name was Samuel.

Sidney and Lorena were married in 1916.  They had a daughter named Marie Therese in 1917 who I think died in infancy.  I don’t have any information about her except for her name.  They didn’t have any other children.  Rob and Erie got married in 1921 and the first of their eight kids was born in 1923.  So the photo of Rob and Sidney was taken some time between 1921 and 1936.  1936 was the year that Sidney died at the age of 47.  The photo was taken in the back of Pee Paw and Mee Maw’s house.  It looks like it was taken around the time of 1930 or so.  I kinda like this photo of the two brothers-in-law.

I don’t really know much about Uncle Sidney.  That’s probably because he died when my dad was just a kid.  I don’t remember hearing any stories about him.  But I do remember Aunt Lorena.  I remember going to her house in Opelousas and I have some vivid memories of going to her funeral in 1972.  Remember?  I’ve told y’all about that before!  I somewhat regret that I didn’t post a remembrance of her on the 50th anniversary of her death on August 17, 2022.  But if you remember, I was busy recalling the events leading up to the 70th anniversary of my parents’ wedding.

When you start looking into the history of your family, you come across many dates that are important in the lives of so many people.  I can’t comment on all of them, but sometimes I see some that I try to remember.  Just tonight in looking through the information about the people I’ve been talking about, I came across two important dates.  I’ve mentioned both of them.  The one concerning the 50th anniversary of Aunt Lorena’s death was overlooked by me.  I’m hoping I won’t forget the other one.  It’s just a month away.  You may have noticed the date when I mentioned it earlier.  The 130th anniversary of my grandfather’s birth will be on January 9th.

So be patient.  It will be here before you know it.  In the meantime, I plan to have three other posts for you to read.  Aren’t you the lucky ones?!

Two years ago I wrote a post about homemade haircuts and in that post I featured my maternal grandmother Myrtle Phenice Bucklin (known to my generation as Grandma).  It was partly an encouragement to people that even if they had to have a homemade haircut during the pandemic, they would survive.  I do my duty when needs call.  The name of that post was “Myrtle Giving Haircut.”  I even followed it up with a photo of myself cutting one of my cousins’ hair.

Last year I was going to write a followup to that post with a photo of my paternal grandmother Germaine Erie Patureau Landry (known to my generation as Mee Maw).  I decided against it at the time because another photo called my name.  But I always planned on posting a photo or two of Mee Maw showing off her scissor skills.  And now I’m following through with that plan.

This is a  photo of Mee Maw cutting the hair of one of her grandchildren.  If I had to guess, I would say this is my cousin Kenny.  He looks pretty young in the photo, so it could be his first haircut.  That would be a particularly photo-worthy event.  And even though it looks like he is the center of attention for this photo, the central figure in this story is our dear sweet Mee Maw. 

The photo was taken in Lake Charles, Louisiana, out the back door at my grandparents’ home.  If you could see a little further to the left on this photo, you’d see the rest of the steps and the corner of the house.  Around that corner you would find a ladder leaning up against the house going up to the second floor.  I’m not sure why it was there, but you can see it in many photos.  I need to post one of those photos soon.  I don’t think I’ve shared one of that ladder yet.

My cousin is sitting in a highchair with some artwork on the back of it.  It looks like a little person with wings, but it doesn’t look like an angel.  I don’t recognize it from anything. Then on the tray part of the highchair is a box or a book with some writing on it.  I’m not sure what that is either.  Oh, wait!  I just found out what it is.  I did an online search for Drene Diapers.  That’s what it looked like to me.  But what came up from the search was Drene Shampoo, which makes much more sense!  It also showed an ad for Drene from 1954 that says that this new synthetic shampoo had silkening magic!  Wow, Mee Maw wanted to make sure her grandchildren had the best!  Silky, shiny hair for everyone.

My Mee Maw was the best!  I think I was her favorite!

I was planning on posting a different photo today.  I had thought that I would follow up on a topic that I started a while back.  I was thinking I would post a photo of Mee Maw giving one of her grandchildren a haircut.  I posted a photo of my other grandmother cutting someone’s hair a while back and thought I’d show off Mee Maw’s skills as well.  But when I was going through the photos to find that other photo, I found this one.  I tried to be disciplined, so I found the photo of the hair-styling session.  But it didn’t speak to me. 

But this one did.  So that’s what I’m going with.  It’s a photo from the Secret Collection.  I estimate it to be from around 1956 based on the apparent ages of the cousins that I can recognize.   One of the main reasons I posted this photo is because of the nice smile on Mee Maw’s face.  She looks so happy to be surrounded by all of her young grandchildren and their friends.  It looks to be somebody’s birthday party.

I can’t even tell whose birthday party it might be.  My cousin Douglas Winn is in the center at the front of the table.  Since the photo came from his family, it’s highly likely that it was his birthday.  Yet the cake (I think that is a cake!) is front of another cousin Mark Reeves on the left with the blonde hair.  He is also under the festive balloons.   Whatever the occasion, it looks like they are having a wonderful time.

Cousin Hubey Landry is on the left in the doorway.  He’s got a big smile.  Of course reigning over all of the cousins is the First.  She had to stand on a chair to make sure her prominence was unmistakable!  That would be my cousin and godmother Shirley Landry (now Shaw) with her hands firmly planted on her hips.  That other girl looks like she’s trying to garner some of the attention with a sassy and flamboyant stance.  This might be cousin Daphne Winn (now Morton), though I don’t associate that attitude with her.  It looks like a Paula Raley attitude, but this was way before her time and it doesn’t look like her.

The other cousin that I can identify is Dennis Landry who is sitting in the welcoming lap of our dear Mee Maw.  Wasn’t he the fortunate one!  I know that some of the other children in the photo are definitely friends, though there may be another cousin or two in there.  Is that Patricia Duffy (now Rauser) next to Mark?  I’m sure I’ll get some more information from the First or another of my cousins.  They help us young ones in our quest for older family history.

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Sept. 24, 2021 – Follow-up

Two more cousins have been identified with the help of the cousins.  The two children on the left edge of the photo are Daphne Winn and Kenny Landry.  It also was agreed that the event is most likely Douglas Winn’s birthday party.

For some reason I was thinking about these death notices that are keepsakes in my dad’s family.  I’m pretty sure they come from my Mee Maw – my paternal grandmother Germaine Erie Patureau Landry.  I was thinking it was time to share another one.  Plus it was time to write a post about the Patureau line of the family.  And again, a Patureau post ends up being a Landry post as well.  That’s what you get when  you have three generations in a row of a Landry marrying a Patureau.

I didn’t exactly remember which ancestors I had copies of death notices for.  So when I saw this one, I knew it was the topic for discussion today.  It fit all of the criteria for what I was looking for.  Then I had to decide on a name for the post.  Sometimes I just sit there for several minutes waiting for an interesting name to come to me.  I can’t start writing until I settle on a name for the post.  Mainly because I think the program won’t let me.  And actually I could be wrong about that.  Oh, well.  It is what it is.

My last name is Landry, but one of my posts is titled “I Am a Patureau.”  Now I’d like to remind all of my Patureau kin out there – and there are lots of you – you can also say “I Am a Landry” because our matriarch was a Landry.  Marie Emma Landry was born on November 10, 1829, in St. Gabriel, Louisiana.  She was the daughter of Elie Onezime Landry (1800-1880) and Jeanne Zerbine Dupuy (1807-1886).  Both of those are Cajun/Acadian surnames, but  Emma’s maternal grandmother was from a French line. 

So when Emma married French immigrant Ferdinand Pierre Patureau on February 10, 1847, she wasn’t the first one in her family to marry “outside the family.”  Isn’t that a weird term?  I found myself saying that about cousins in the Landry and Patureau family lines who didn’t marry their cousins.  It seems like that trend has mostly fallen by the wayside.

Anyway, Emma and Ferdinand were married and had a large family.  I spoke about that once before, so I won’t go through all of the names again.  She gave birth to over a dozen children, as did her son Max’s (my great grandfather) Landry wife Marie Therese.  It definitely was a trend in the Patureau family groups.  I know I’ve got over a thousand cousins that I’ve identified from that group.  That is a lot.

Ferdinand died in 1877 after an accident that occurred in his sawmill.  According to a newspaper article in 1881, Emma was declared owner of half of the Iberville Saw Mill.  I suppose that was the name of the sawmill that Ferdinand owned.  I find the article confusing because it mentions Widow F. Patureau who I’m pretty sure is Emma Landry Patureau.  But it also mentions L. Patureau and I’m not sure if that’s supposed to be Emma or someone else – most likely a son – Leobon? 

Another article from 1884 thanks Mrs. Patureau for her tasty honey in a comb that came from her apiary in town.  I’m thinking it probably is Emma, though it could be her son Leobon’s wife.  In an earlier article they talk about Emma Patureau by name and talk about her recommending the use of the Howe sewing machine. 

It wasn’t all sweetness and light for Emma, though.  In the Jan. 12, 1889, article in The Iberville South, there was a report that there was an attempted burglary of her home.  Nothing was taken, so it was supposed that the person or persons were frightened off.  Evidently she was not harmed either, or that would have been noted.  I’m sure it was probably a bit of a scare for her.  Who would do that to our poor old widowed grandmother?  Wait!  She was actually younger than me when that happened to her!  When you’re young, and sometimes still, 60 years old sounds old.  When you make it to that age – if you make it to that age – it doesn’t seem that old.  In this situation, an attempted burglary can be off-putting to anyone at any age.

We all know from the beginning of this article that she didn’t live much longer.  She was only 62 years old when she died.  That seems really young now.  In the newspaper reporting on her death, it said that she was 63 years old and 1 month.  From my calculations, she was 62 years and 2 months.  But more importantly it talks about her being a well respected and loved citizen who will be missed. 

She died at her home at 3:30 in the morning on Sunday January 24, 1892.  To me that implies that someone was with her and knew she was dying.  How else would they know the time of her death?  I’d like to think that it meant she was surrounded by loving family members and/or friends when she died.  The death notice was posted later that day to inform those interested of the time of her funeral.  From the funeral, the procession was to move to St. John’s Church.

St. John’s Church is the Catholic Church in Plaquemine.  The Catholic cemetery is nearby.  I’m sure she was buried in that graveyard, yet there is no evidence of it now.  There is a large Patureau tomb (at least, there usually is – don’t ask) and her name is not on any of the plaques.  Her husband and many of her children have their names engraved on them.  For some reason her name is not.  That may be remedied soon.  She deserves some respect.

Today I thought I would write about the death of my great grandmother Marie Therese Landry Patureau.  It’s time to write about my dad’s side of the family and it is Father’s Day this weekend, so I’ll write about his mother’s mother.  I was going to say, “But it’s mostly about my dad,” but that isn’t true.  It’s about his mother and grandmother.  My father’s name was Robert Joseph Landry, Jr.  Most people knew him as Bob or Pluto, or Daddy or Pappy, or Mr. Landry.  He answered to all of them.  I ran across the obituary of my great grandmother this week and was glad to find it.  I had looked for it a while back and couldn’t find it.  I also thought it would be good to combine that with some death notices that I got back in 2019 when I got together with some cousins.

I have always liked the title of this newspaper clipping from 1909.  Of course, as you can see, it is not the actual clipping that I have.  It is a transcription of the newspaper article.  I don’t know who did the transcribing and I’m not even sure of how I got this information.  I’m a bad genealogist.  I don’t keep good records of where I obtain things.  I find it hard enough to keep track of the things that I have, much less where they came from!  I’m a better family historian.  I can bring the information together, make a few digital edits, and share it in these writings that I do. 

The obituary is titled “Death of a Noble Woman” and continues with the story, “In the little village of Crescent, on Monday the fourth day of October, 1909, Marie Therese Landry, wife of Dr. V. Vincent Maximilian Patureau, died at the age of 41 years and 21 days.”  What I really like about this is that they actually give her full maiden name.  She’s not just Mrs. V. M. Patureau.  I don’t think her age is correct in what they say.  On the plaque on the Patureau tomb in Plaquemine, her birth is given as Sept. 25, 1868.  Cousin Sis seems to think it was in October and that she died at almost 41 years of age.  I’m going with what was carved in stone! 

“It is said that the death of her brother Thomas B. Landry, which occurred on the 26th of last month caused her much grief, and two days later having given birth to a child, her gentle soul took its flight back to its Creator.”   I don’t know about all that.  I’m sure she did grieve the death of her brother, but I wouldn’t think that it had much effect on her death.  She was only 41 (or so) and she had dealt with grief before.  The daughter that she gave birth to in 1909 was named Hedwidge and she was the 15th child that Marie Therese gave birth to.  Marie Therese had dealt with the death of five of those offspring.  Some had died at birth, and during the last two years of her life, Marie Therese had endured the death of a 22-month-old daughter and a 10 1/2-month-old son.  I’m sure she was grieving the death of her children, yet she had nine living children to take care of.  So I’m thinking that it is much more likely that she died due to complications due to childbirth.  I suppose it would have been too indelicate to mention that in a newspaper article of those times.

“She was educated at St. Joseph Academy of Baton Rouge.  She was a member of the Brusley choir until her marriage, and until her death, was a member of the Altar Society of Plaquemine.”  I find it really interesting that she went to school in Baton Rouge, especially since that is where I live.  I know people who went to St. Joseph Academy and it is still in operation.  I wish I knew a few more details of her time there.  Did she live there when she attended?  It is now just a high school, but previously it was from first grade to graduation.  I wonder how many years she was there?  She was born in Brusly and lived there during her childhood.  As stated, she was in the Brusly church choir before she was married at the age of 20.  I suppose she wasn’t in the choir as a married adult, but she was a member of the Ladies Altar Society.

“Mrs. Patureau was a devout Catholic, a model wife and a charitable woman, who will be sadly missed, not only by her husband and children, but by the many good people of the hamlet.  She leaves to mourn her loss the following:  Her husband Dr. V. M. Patureau, seven daughters, Emma, Lydwin, Lorena, Erie, Therese, Zita and Sylvie and two sons, Rommual and Vincent; a mother, Mrs. P. M. Babin of Lafayette; two sisters, Mrs. Louis Joseph Landry of Lafayette, and Mrs. Thomas M. Blanchard of Brusley, one brother Mose Landry of Cinclare.  The Daily Champion extends its deepest sympathy to the bereaved ones.”

She sounds like a wonderful – dare I say noble – woman.  I’m sure that in a small community like Crescent was at the time, her death was a loss for a lot of people.  But my concern is for her young, impressionable daughter Erie.  She had just turned 14 and she was one of the middle children in her large family.  So if her mother was as wonderful as portrayed, it would have been a terrible loss for young Erie.  Yet I don’t know how it affected her.  I was just a silly young boy myself when I knew her.  It’s not something we discussed.  I just wanted to spend time with her and learn the card games she would teach me.  I wish I knew more.  How did her mother’s death affect her?  What were her memories of her mother?  And more.

I’m glad I have the death announcement of my great grandmother.  It came from the Secret Collection.  (hushed whispers in the background “Secret?”  “What secret?”)  I’ve already told you enough about the Secret Collection.  If I told you any more, it wouldn’t maintain its Secret name!  Only the Keeper knows what further treasures lie within the Secret Collection, so be satisfied that we have this piece to enjoy.  Like the obituary, it gives the full name of my great grandmother.  Too bad the obituary couldn’t have followed the same trend when referring to to Marie Therese’s mother.  (Again with the Mrs. P. M. Babin)  It also gives her age as 41 years and 21 days, but I think it was 41 years and 9 days.  Sept. 25, 1868, to October 4, 1909 – you do the math.

I thought I’d share another death notice from the Secret Collection. (hushed gasps from the peanut gallery “Another treasure?” asked in awe. “That Secret Collection sure is leaky!” someone responds suspiciously)  This is the death notice for Marie Therese’s brother Thomas Belisaire Landry.  As mentioned in her obituary, he died just a few days before she did.  His age looks close enough.  I won’t ask you to do any more math!  But you can tell that he was her younger brother.  Marie Therese was the first child of Trasimond Landry and Belite Bujol.  She was followed by Mary Catherine “Kate” Landry (Mrs. Thomas M. Blanchard of Brusly from the obituary),  Thomas, Mose (or Moses), and Manette.  Manette had passed away in 1904 – another death that Marie Therese had to grieve.

Marie Therese also had three half-sisters by her mother’s second  husband Mack Babin.  The first one had died shortly after her birth in 1880.  Then came Clemence (Mrs. Louis Joseph Landry of Lafayette in obituary) and Albine.  Albine had passed away in 1903 – yet another death .  I didn’t mean for this to turn into a sad story, but how could it not?  It’s about death.  But really, everyone that she knew has died since then.  It’s the way of the world.  The same thing could be said about each of us in years to come.

Uh, oh, I feel like I crossed a line with that statement.  Forget I said it.  I’ll turn this back around with something I heard on the news tonight:  Never give up!  Just keep moving forward doing the best that you can do.

Last week I talked about one of the traditions of our family during the 1960s.  That one involved the music at the junior high school where my dad taught in Jennings, Louisiana.  This week I’m looking at the other family traditions from that same time period.  I realized a few weeks ago that I really hadn’t written much about Christmas traditions in the Landry household, even at the Christmas time of year.  I also realized I had lots of Christmas photos that need to be shared.

So that’s what I’m doing – sharing some Christmas cheer by way of old family photos.  It’s what you do on a family history blog, right?  And the big event for the Landry family aunts, uncles, and cousins was the Christmas Eve get together at Mee Maw’s house.  As you can see from the photos, there were lots of family members!  My dad was Robert Joseph Landry – better known as Bobbie by the family – and he was from a family of eight children.  His mom was Erie Patureau Landry and she was the matriarch of this large group.  And she loved family.

She had to if she was willing to have this large group of people in her house!  It started out with her, her children, and her daughters- in-law and sons-in-law.  That’s seventeen people, and by the time I was born, there at least fifteen grandchildren.  It continued to grow for a while longer, so in 1966 there were lots of excited little children around.  What’s even more amazing is that she had a gift for every one of her grandchildren at this event.  And since we were Catholic, we all had godparents.  So we got gifts from our godparents as well.  At some point we drew names and bought gifts for the person we picked.  That’s a lot of gifts in one place!  I remember how the people handing out gifts had to be careful not to step on anyone or anybody’s newly opened present!

The other part of this get together was the food.  Everyone brought food to share with the family.  There was always plenty to eat and it was all tasty.  One thing that we used to have at some of these events seems to be unique to my family.  My grandmother had an old family recipe for pate de fois gras.  It was a spread made with goose or pork livers.  I never have liked liver, but I did like the pate.  My dad would make it and we would make sandwiches with it and eat it for breakfast.  We would eat our liver pie sandwiches after dipping them in coffee milk.  Sometimes my dad and his siblings would bring a sampling of their latest batch and compare it with each other.  I’m trying to find out the origin of this recipe, so if any extended family are familiar with the history, let me know.  I’ve been wondering if it comes from our Leveque line.

When it was getting later at these Christmas Eve gatherings, I remember going outside with the cousins and looking up in the sky to see what could be seen.  Some of the older ones would say, “Is that Santa there?”  I would look to see if there was a telling red light trailing across the sky.  Those were such days of wonder and longing.  Waiting for Christmas day seemed like forever.  The family gatherings were such a highlight.

I think of those events from time to time when I’m doing my family research.  With my dad’s ancestry being French and Acadian, the old records are written in French.  I’m able to make out most of what is written on a birth or baptism record.  The first word I was familiar with was the word for godfather – parrain.  That’s because I remember getting a gift from Uncle Johnny (my godfather) one Christmas and it said it was from “Your Parrain.”  I started learning about my family history at a young age!  But I wouldn’t enjoy my family history as much without having such great family memories of my own to recall.

Merry Christmas everyone!

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IDs –  I can’t leave without letting you know the names of everyone in the photos.  I got most of them, but some I couldn’t tell.  That’s bad when I can tell who is who in photos of my great grandparents’ siblings, but can’t tell who my own first cousins are from 50 years ago.  Like I said, there are so many of them.  And not all of them are looking at the camera.  I can’t see some faces clearly, so I appreciate any help with identifications.  I went ahead and made a list of names and used the numbering system of the list for both photos.

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