Month: May 2017

Ohio Normal Revisited

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Ohio Normal University circa 1893

Louis Charles Bucklin was a student at Ohio Normal University in Ada, Ohio, in 1893.

Almost two and a half years ago Joseph posted this photo of the 1893 class of the Ohio Normal University.  Not because he likes normal people or that he likes Ohio.  It’s because our great grandfather Louis Charles Bucklin attended classes there at that time.  When he posted it, he posted it without edits.  I thought that I’d like to edit it to clean it up a little.  I finally got around to it.  How does it look?

I really wish we knew which one was Louis for sure.  The one that Ray and Joseph thought was him doesn’t look like him to me.  Is there a facial recognition program that would accurately identify him for us?  Or at least rule out the ones that couldn’t possibly be him?  The only problem with that is that I would probably doubt the outcome of that too.  Especially if they say it was the one Joseph and Ray said it was!  What can I say?  I must be the stubborn sort.

I was thinking of this photo because of a letter that was recently discovered by Julie Phenice Campbell.  It was written to Louis while he was in attendance at Ohio Normal.  How it ended up with the Phenice side of the family rather than the Bucklin side of the family will remain a mystery.  We already saw a letter that Louis received in Ohio from his brother Joseph (the subject of A Sad Story) back home in Jennings.  He talks about the military aspect of the school – “…was thinking yesterday that it would be so nice for you to be up there just at your age you can realize and enjoy everything more now than at any other age your military exercises must be nice and healthful.”

The newly discovered letter was written on April 20, 1793, by Joseph Bucklin’s sister-in-law.  Joseph was married to Agnes “Aggie” Ausman, and Aggie’s youngest sister was May Ausman.  I was so surprised when I read the letter and then saw her signature at the close of the letter.  I definitely recognized the last name and had to look up the Ausman family and saw that the youngest daughter was indeed named May.  She had mentioned other family members in the letter that had gotten me curious.  It is a very intriguing letter, but I won’t go into all of the details in this post. (Those details are here.)  I’ll just share the part that made me think about this photo.

Toward the end of the letter May writes, “I wish I could see you marching with your uniforms and guns.  I never saw any Soldiers eather.”  When I read those lines, I picture her saying them while batting her eyelashes with a flirty smile on her lips.  Whether she got her wish, we’ll probably never know.  Fortunately for all of you, we have a photo of those soldiers with their uniforms and guns looking very healthful.  Eat your heart out, May!

June 11, 2019 Update

I’ve finally given in.  Ray and Joseph said that they thought that Louis was the guy fourth from the left on the front row.  I think they are correct.  He does remind me of other family members from that generation.

Pappy Baby

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Pappy Baby

Robert Joseph Landry, Sr. circa 1893

This week I’m taking you way, way back. Not just back to the 20th century, but to the 19th. This photo was taken over 120 years ago. It’s not quite as old as the some of the other photos that I’ve posted on here, but it is older than most. I’m not really sure where it comes from. It’s either from the Tin Can Collection or the Secret Collection. It is definitely not from the Fort Knox or A.J. collections. Those are the names that my Landry cousins have come up for the various collections that have been discovered or revealed.

Whatever collection it came from, it is definitely a treasure. It is a photo of my father’s father Robert Joseph Landry, Sr. He was born on January 9, 1893, in Westlake, Louisiana. He was the youngest of 10 children born to Simon Alcide Joseph Landry and Marie Celeste Leveque Landry. The family was from the West Baton Rouge Parish, but resettled in the Lake Charles area some time during the 1880s.  I’m guessing that this photo was taken in is his first year of life, so some time in 1893.

I actually just had a snapshot of the photo to work with, but I’m not sure if a scan would improve the quality of the resulting photo.  It looks like the original is faded and monotone, but not every old photo is going to be crisp with great contrast.  I’m just glad to have a photo of Pee Paw when he was just a petite babe.

The other thing I was thinking about when I selected this photo was the family he was born into.  Cousins marrying cousins.  But I was curious about those cousins and when they lived and died.  Last week I talked about the death of the last of my maternal grandmother’s first cousins from her Phenice side.  There is actually still a surviving first cousin from her Keys side.  When I looked a Pee Paw’s first cousins, there haven’t been any around for fifty years or so.  In fact, from the Landry side of the family my dad doesn’t have any surviving first cousins.  He does have some first cousins from the Patureau side of the family.

Of course, with cousins marrying cousins, you can’t really distinguish one side from the other very easily.  This makes things particularly confusing when dealing with DNA.  I’ve been thinking about checking with my dad’s siblings to see if they would be willing to do a DNA test.  Even if I’m confused now about the DNA sources from an entwined family tree, one day I may be able to figure something out.  It’s always best to DNA test the oldest generation.

A few of us have already taken some DNA tests and I was surprised with the results.  First cousin Kenny and I share less DNA than most first cousins.  Yet first cousin Scott’s daughter and son have tested and I share more with them than I do with Kenny. What’s up with that?  Did daddy and aunt Frances share a lot more in common than most siblings?  Only a DNA test would tell.

The Lincoln Collection

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Last week my post was about my mom’s side of the family, so my plan was to make this week’s theme about my dad’s side of the family. But then something happened. A second cousin once removed happened. And she happened to be on my mom’s side of the family. She took a DNA test at Ancestry last year and I have communicated with her a little bit from time to time. But both of us were dealing with issues with aging and failing parents.

Our lives have changed a bit because me and my siblings buried my parents at the end of January and her father died two weeks later. We had talked about old photos and such, but that was put on the back burner at the time. Now there is time and that cousin got back in touch with me.

You see, her father had been the last remaining first cousin of my grandmother Myrtle Phenice Bucklin on the Phenice side of her family. His name was Harry Lincoln Quillen and he was the son of Emma Phenice Quillen. Emma’s brother Harry Clifton Phenice was my grandmother’s father. If you’ve followed me thus far, you will have figured out that the cousin I’m talking about is my second cousin once removed Mona Quillen.

Well, you may not have figured out her name, but you might have figured out our relationship. Anyway, she had started to clean out her father’s home and came across several old photos. Since she remembered that I was interested in that, she got in touch with me.  And boy am I glad she did! The photos that I have seen are mind blowing! Sorry, I shouldn’t build it up too much. I would hate for you to be disappointed when you see some of the pieces in the Lincoln Collection. That’s what I’m calling it. They belonged to Harry Lincoln Quillen and our common ancestor was a witness to the Lincoln assassination, so that’s the name I’ll use – the Lincoln Collection. I actually gave a preview of it by posting a new cover photo on Facebook. I had a photo that was taken on the same day, but the quality of this new photo is much better. Probably because mine had been a photo of grandma’s old photo that has since disappeared, and the Lincoln Collection photo was an original.

The Phenice family in 1937

The Samuel Charles Phenice family in Beaver Creek, Nebraska, circa 1937.

But the photo that I’m posting today is a new one to me.  It relates to the photo that I posted last week.  Last week’s photo was of Daisy Keys Phenice and some of her siblings, and this week’s photo is of her husband Harry Clifton Phenice and some of his siblings.  Daisy was prominently displayed last week, but this week H C is hiding his face.  I mentioned that Daisy and her siblings lived within 20 miles of each other.  The same can not be said for H C.  He was born in Pennsylvania and by the time he was six years old, the family was living in  Nebraska.

In 1898 at the age of 24, he left home and went to seek fame and fortune.  So of course he came to southern Louisiana.  It was here that he met his young sweetheart with a British accent and they were married in 1900.  But being 1000 miles from his family is quite a bit different than it is today.  The country did not have an interstate system at that time and jumping on a plane wasn’t available either.  It wasn’t until 1920 that H C and his family bought their first car.  I don’t know how often he visited his parents and other family members, but he must have from time to time.  There are photos to prove it like this one.

From left to right you see H C’s brother Edd, father Samuel, niece Leora, H C, and sisters Myrtle (mother of Leora), Emma, and May.  I like the way he is hugging on his niece and sister.  He must have been glad to see them on one of his infrequent visits.  I also like the fact that someone took a photo of the get together.  And that Emma Phenice Quillen saved that photo and wrote everybody’s names on it.  And that her son Harry Lincoln held on to it all of his life.

But most importantly I am glad that his daughter Mona was also interested in preserving those old photos and was willing to share them with me.  And she likes that they are being shared with the family.  This is not the best photo that I got.  I have to save some for later, of course.  But remember when I told you the story about my great great grandmother who died as a result of catching fire?  I said that I wanted to tell the story of her life and I mused about finding a good photo of her to go along with the story.  Well I am happy to say that I have found the perfect photo for that story!

Ok, I think I have said enough in this introduction to the Lincoln Collection.  I hope I have left you wanting for more.  I want more!  It sounds like she has just touched the surface of the treasure trove of photos that she has.  And what I’ve got so far are just snapshots of the original photos.  More images made at better resolutions with a scanner are foreseen in the future.  Must…be…patient…

The Keys Sisters – Part 2

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About a year and a half ago I posted a photo of the Keys sisters.  It was taken around 1894 when the girls were just teenagers.  I explained my relation to them.  I’ll refresh that information for you.  My mom was Betty Lou Bucklin Landry.  Her mother was Myrtle Sylvia Phenice Bucklin, and then her mother was Daisy Henrietta Martha Keys Phenice.  Daisy was born in 1876 in England to her parents Henry Keys and Martha Cook Keys.  She was the third child and the oldest daughter.

In this photo, as you can see, the girls are bit older.  In the middle of the photo is my great grandmother Daisy.  This photo was taken around 1951, so she would have been close to 75 years old.  Rosetta Ruth Keys was the next daughter to be born to Henry and Martha.  She went by her middle name Ruth and that is her on the left side of this photo.  She married Herbert Bryan and they had six children together.  She would have been around 72 in this photo.  The baby sister was Mabel Olive Keys and she was around 70 as she is seen here on the right.  She married Abraham Miller and they lived in the Kinder area with their four sons.

This photo is not that good of quality, but I still like it.  It’s one that my grandmother had and I took a photo of it when I was in college.  I don’t know where the original went.  I also have another photo that was taken the same day that was of Daisy and H. C. Phenice with their children.  I don’t know if it was some kind of family reunion (like we are having on June 3 in Jennings.  Hint. Hint.) or if the families just got together from time to time since they lived in the same area.  I wonder if there are any other photos of the sisters out there?  I’d sure like to see more.  What I’d really like to see would be a photo of all five siblings.  They all settled in Louisiana and lived within 20 miles of one another.

Of course the family has spread far and wide since that time.  I wouldn’t be surprised if there is family in every state.  I started to figure out where some of them were, but it became too daunting.  East coast, west coast, north coast, south coast – we’ve got it covered.  All because of the dreams of Henry and Martha over 130 years ago.  Henry died before they could act on that dream, but Martha followed through as courageously as possible.  And these girls were part of it.  These lovely, enduring, timeless girls – The Keys Sisters.

Aug. 2020 Update – I enhanced that old photo to make it a little clearer.  I think it improved it.

Enhanced 1951 photo of sisters Ruth Keys Bryan, Daisy Keys Phenice, and Mabel Keys Miller.