Hats in Hand and a Fob to Boot
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.