January, 2016 | Family History

Lieutenant Landry

January 28, 2016 Van One comment

Rob Landry circa 1919 during World War I

I’ve posted two photos of my dad’s mom, so it’s time to post one of her husband Robert Joseph Landry, Sr. This is a photo from around 1919 when he was 26 and involved with World War I. He was a 1st lieutenant in the US Army. He later married his first cousin’s daughter Germaine Erie Patureau and they had eight children together.

Even though my dad was the third son, he was named Robert Joseph Landry, Jr. My dad and his siblings called their dad Pappy. He was known by his grandchildren as Pee Paw. Sadly I never really knew him because he died in 1957 (three years before I was born). I’ve heard many good things about him and he was a handsome young man.

Phenice Cousins

January 20, 2016 Van One comment

Sometimes it’s so easy to decide what to post, but other times it is not. Had a hard time deciding this time. I’ll go ahead and post a few of them that are related to this topic.

1939 - Marilyn Phenice, Betty Lou Bucklin, and Sylvia Bucklin Topaz This first one is around 1939 in Hathaway. It looks like everyone is having fun spending time with cousins: (from left to right) Marilyn Phenice (daughter of Orville Phenice), with cousins Betty Lou and Sylvia Bucklin (daughters of Myrtle Phenice Bucklin). Simple times in the country.

1949 - Marilyn Phenice and Betty Lou Bucklin Topaz

Fast forward ten years to 1949: Marilyn doesn’t seem quite as happy with her cousin Betty Lou.

But how could she possibly be perturbed with Betty Lou? From these pictures you can see that she is a sweet and carefree young girl.

It’s a Little Erie in the Church

January 14, 2016 Van One comment

Erie Patureau circa 1906

I retrieved several photos from my dad a couple of weeks ago that I didn’t know he had. I don’t know how I missed them all these years. This one is really interesting. It is from around 1906 and I think it must be the First Communion photo for my grandmother Germaine Erie Patureau (Mee Maw to us grandkids). The family was French/Acadian Catholic and they lived in Plaquemine, Louisiana. The photo had some age spots and was a bit dim, so I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get a good scan.

I scanned it and worked on it a while and I am really excited about the final result. I hope you enjoy it. If you know more about this photo than what I’ve said, please share it with us.

2018 Update – I always wondered how this could be a First Communion photo when Mee Maw was about 11 years old in the photo. I was pretty sure I got the age correct because of other photos of her when she was younger or older. I always thought First Communion happened when children were younger.

Then I posted the photo of my dad’s First Communion and I got some interesting feedback from a 3rd cousin. Dolores White Hebert informed me that when they were young, they had a Private First communion when they were around the first grade. Then they had a Solemn First Communion when they were around 11 years old. So this photo is more likely from Mee Maw’s Solemn First Communion, which fits with her age in 1906. No more wondering about the discrepancy that I noticed.

Patureau

Sock Monkeys in the Past

January 6, 2016 Jacko One comment

Hello! Your friendly, charming sock monkey here. Now we’re going to do something good for Throw Away Thursday. Van has been a bit serious and boring lately showing all those photos of serious dead people. None of them ever seem to be smiling. That’s not fun. And you want to know why? Just look at the photos – there’s not a sock monkey in sight! And everybody knows that sock monkeys bring joy wherever they go.

My Papi tells me about how excited Van used to be when he visited his grandma Murder and found him in the toy chest. (See second photo in this post.) It was the highlight of the visit.

But this post is not about Van. It’s about sock monkeys bringing joy. I found a real old picture – probably a bunch of munce ago – and even though it is old, the humans are smiling. Why? Because a sock monkey is in the picture, that’s why! Case closed. This is Papi and his Bettilou back in the day.

Photo of Van with Papi in 1964. See how happy he was?

Bucklin Family Reunion 2034

January 3, 2016 Joseph One comment

Old letter from Jeannette about the 2034 Bucklin family reunion. I wonder if it’s still happening.

Bucklin

Bucklin Gathering 1949

January 3, 2016 Van Leave a comment

It’s kind of hard to beat that gold mine picture from last week, so I’m not going to try. Hopefully we’ll have some fun with names this week. I tried to identify as much as I could from other photos, but wasn’t able to name them all. With the help of the Bucklin community we have everyone named. This is a photo from about 1949, probably in Hathaway. #13 is my great grandmother Addie Mae Hine Bucklin.

And as a special treat because of all of the responses (and because I just found this photo today in all of the stuff I got out of the house in Jennings while cleaning it out with my brother and sisters and nieces and nephew) I am attaching another photo of the same group on the same day. I think they took this one because when they looked at the first one closely on their phones, they could see that Grandma Addie wasn’t smiling. So they took another one. See the smile? Look really close!

Joseph discovered some other photos of this scene with more people and posted them here.