Landry Brothers – 356 Years and Counting

I went to a genealogical society meeting last weekend and ran into a cousin that I didn’t know.  That’s not really difficult to do when I go to the genealogical meetings in West Baton Rouge Parish.  Our Landry ancestors have been in southern Louisiana since 1767.  They started out in St. Gabriel in Iberville Parish, then 100 years later they were in Brusly in West Baton Rouge Parish.  Another 100 years later my family was in Lake Charles and Jennings. 

Al, Rob, and Van Landry in 1965 on Lucy Street in Jennings, Louisiana. 

When I met this cousin, Jocelyn from Addis, I found out that we were related through two different Landry lines.  My great great grandfather Narcisse Landry had an older brother named Elie that Jocelyn descends from.  (I also descend from their brothers Elie Onezime and Joseph Emmanuel.)  Narcisse’s father Joseph Ignatius had a brother named Mathurin that Jocelyn also descends from.  All of this made me think of the topic of brothers.

There have been a lot of Landry brothers through the years.  How else would we get all of these Landrys in southern Louisiana?  A good many of them descend from Rene Landry (b. 1634) who was from France and was a founder of Acadie.  He had eight sons (I descend from three of them) and seven daughters (I descend from two or three of them as well).  I get my last name from the first son born to him in 1660, Antoine.

Antoine had six sons and six daughters.  I only descend from one of his sons – Pierre, who was born in 1690.  I descend from two of the daughters – Anne and Francoise.  Pierre had three sons, including Augustin who was born in 1719.  He was the father of Joseph Ignatius and Mathurin that I mentioned earlier.  They also had a brother named Francois and a half brother named Joseph Marie.

Landry brothers Alcide (in 1890) and Trasimond (in 1861). I descend from both of them.

Joseph Ignatius was really special.  I wrote a post about him and the five lines of descent from him to me.  I descend from three of his eight sons.  That would be Narcisse, Onezime, and Manuel that I mentioned earlier.  Narcisse had four sons and I descend from his youngest two – Trasimond and Alcide.  They are the first generation that I have photos of.  Though I have a photo of Alcide when he was older, he was actually the younger of the two.

Landry brothers of the 1910s – Sebastien, Louis, Joe, and Rob (my grandfather) were sons of Alcide.

Alcide was my great grandfather along my paternal line.  He had seven sons and the youngest of those was my grandfather Robert Joseph Landry, Sr.  He was known as Rob, Uncle Rob, Papa, Pappy, or Pee Paw by the family, depending on your relationship to him.  He married his cousin, but so did his brothers Seb and Louis.

Uncle Joe did not marry a close cousin, but he did marry a woman with the last name of Landry.  That’s my inside joke when I talk about all of the cousin marriages in my family line.  I always say, “At least they didn’t marry someone with the same last name.”  That doesn’t seem to convince anyone of the normalcy of cousins marrying cousins.

My grandfather Rob Landry with his sons A. J., Hubert, Bob, and Johnny in 1955.

But thankfully, my dad and his siblings turned out all right.  (Though we often wonder about the youngest one!)  Rob was the father of Alcide Joseph (Uncle A. J.), Hubert Joseph (Uncle Hubert), Robert Joseph, Jr. (my dad, known as Bob or Pluto), and John Alfred Xavier (Uncle Johnny  – the youngest).  Uncle Hubert and Uncle Johnny both had more than one son, so there are more Landry brothers out there.

Now that takes us down to my generation.  I have two brothers named Rob and Al.  You can see us in the first photo that I posted that was taken in 1965.  I don’t have any children and neither does my brother Rob.  My brother Al has four children – two boys and two girls.  So there is yet another generation of Landry brothers in my family.

Van, Ryan, Luc, and Bob Landry in Jennings on December 31, 2006.

And since this is Throwback Thursday, I’ll use a photo from way back when for those young brothers.  It didn’t seem that long ago to me, but it is from December of 2006.  And look!  There’s newfangled color and it’s a digital photo.  I’m not used to dealing with those kinds of photos on my blog!

So that brings us through 300 years of Landry brothers in my family line.  I very much appreciate my brothers and it gives me a satisfaction that my ancestors had some of the same experiences.  I don’t know the history before Rene Landry, nor do I know what the future will bring.  Maybe this chronicle will be updated by someone at some future date.  If so, thank you.