Month: December 2020

Mitochondrial Sisters

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Fred and Myrtle Phenice Bucklin family circa 1950 in Hathaway, Louisiana.  The children from left to right are Sylvia, Loris, Austin, Alma, and my mom Betty Lou.

This post is coming together from several things that I’ve been working on lately.  I’ve been editing a lot of old photos from different eras.  It’s also time to look at my mom’s side of the family.  I think I’ve neglected them a bit lately.  I did post this really nice edited photo of my mom’s childhood family recently just to give that side of my family a little bit of family history crumbs.  But it wasn’t a bona fide post.  I’m including it in this post to make it official!

The other thing that helped me to focus the theme for this week was a new DNA match at 23andMe.   He is a grandson of Aunt Marguerite, my grandmother Myrtle Phenice Bucklin’s younger sister.  Since he matches through his mother as I do, our mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is the same.  The mtDNA is passed on from mothers to their children without any changes most of the time.  From time to time there are mutations.  Since 23andMe only gives an estimate of the mtDNA and those estimates are slightly different,  I’ll just say that our designation is H1.  Some of the close relatives get an -n or an -h at the end, but we’re all basically in the very common group H1.

Grace Phenice Sowder, Myrtle Phenice Bucklin, and Marguerite Phenice Hill in their young adulthood.

I also had edited photos of both Marguerite and their other sister Grace.  I recently got a blog comment from Grace’s nephew by her husband Ray Sowder.  He commented about how Grace seemed to be out of his uncle’s league as far as looks are concerned.  I have to admit, those Phenice sisters were attractive young women.  I was thinking of sharing those photo edits, as well as a photo of my own sisters that I had completed recently.  It made me realize that there are several generations along this maternal line with three or more sisters.  So I decided to make this post about all of those mitochondrial sisters.

Alma Bucklin Waldorf, Marguerite Phenice Hill, Betty Lou Bucklin Landry (my mom), Myrtle Phenice Bucklin (my grandmother), Loris Bucklin Woolley, and Sylvia Bucklin Pilcher at Grandma’s house on Alice Street in Jennings, Louisiana, on January 22, 1984.

I found several photos of my mom with one or two of her sisters, but none of just the four sisters by themselves.  I also wanted one of them as adults.  The one I decided on was this photo of Grandma with her sister Marguerite and her four daughters after the funeral of Grandpa in 1984.  It’s a good photo of all of these H1 carriers.  It includes two of the generations that are the focus of this post.  Too bad they didn’t think to include some of the granddaughters in this photo, but that wasn’t the focus on that day.  This was one of the most difficult times in my Grandma’s life and it’s nice to see her surrounded by those she cared about the most.

There are two generations before and after these two and I keep changing my mind about which two I will talk about next.  I suppose I will go with the previous generation since I’ve shared those photos before.  I’ll save the new photos (in all living color!) for the end.

Rosetta Ruth Keys Bryan, Daisy Keys Phenice, Mabel Keys Miller in 1894.

So that brings us to the Keys sisters Daisy, Ruth, and Mabel.  I’ve posted about them previously.  They all immigrated to Louisiana from England with their mother and brothers in July 1887.  Ruth lived in Jennings, Daisy lived in Hathaway, and Mabel lived in Kinder.  They stayed pretty close to where they originally settled after arriving in the United States.

Those lovely girls were the daughters of Martha Cook Keys, the brave woman that brought her five children to America after her husband had passed away.  She was a dressmaker and shop owner in London at a time when a revolution in clothing manufacturing was taking place.  I always took it for granted that she made her clothes with a sewing machine – a machine that seems so common.  But it was a newfangled thing back then.  Before that, people went through the painstankling process of sewing everything by hand.  She was part of a revolution.  I found this out from a TV program I saw when I took a break from writing this post to take a lunch break.  I have a bit more respect for old Martha now.

Martha Cook Keys and Henrietta Cook Keys were from Great Wigsborough, Essex, England. They were married to Keys brothers.

I only have one photo for both of Martha and her sister.  I think the one of Martha is a photo of a painting.  At least we have something!  She was born in 1836 in Great Wigsborough, Essex.  She was the first child of Job Cook and Ruth Horsnell. Henrietta was born in 1839 and she was the last child of Job and Ruth.  That’s because Job died the following year at the age of 38 from “phrenitis.”  Otherwise I’m sure there would have been at least one more daughter.  All the other generations that we know of had three or more daughters.  Henrietta passed that H1 down to the present also.  I have a DNA match that came directly down from her through a line of daughters.

Ruth (1816-1880) was the daughter of William Horsnell and his wife Ann (1774-1859).  We don’t know Ann’s last name.  Since I don’t know her last name, and she is the originator of the H1 DNA for all of these women, I think I may put her last name as H1.  Somehow that seems appropriate.  Ruth had two sisters, so Ann started the trend of having three or more daughters along this line.  It could have been started earlier, but we don’t know that history.

Jamie, Jodie, and Karen in 1978

Jamie Landry Perry, Jodie Landry Rhodes, and Karen Landry Fontenot on Christmas Eve 1978 in Jennings, Louisiana.

Let’s get back to the more modern era.  I had three sisters.  My two older sisters have died.  My sister Karen died this year, so that was another reason I wanted to write this post about sisters.  This photo was a photo that my parents had on a small table in their living room for many years.  It’s from 1978 and it’s a good photo of all three of my sisters.  I can see why Mama wanted it where she could see it frequently.

Jodie did not continue the tradition of three daughters.  She had two children and they were both boys.  Karen did a little better.  She started out with a son, but then did better by having two daughters.  (Just kidding, James!)  Then Jamie decided that she had to keep the tradition alive.  She had three daughters.  She really did have three daughters, but you surely know I’m joking about her trying to keep up a tradition.  It’s just a trend that happened through the years.  Mostly it was the result of large families and the law of averages.  If you have lots of children, about half of them will be female.

Sarah, Beth, and Jill Perry

Sarah, Beth, and Jill Perry in November 2020 in League City, Texas.

Here is a very recent photo of Jamie’s three Perry girls.  This was taken last month at the wedding of her youngest daughter Beth.  Weddings and funerals are usually such big family events for us, but this was the year of Covid.  Karen’s funeral had very limited attendance due to precautions for the virus.  The high point was that the cousins in Lake Charles gathered around in the distance at the graveyard to show their love and support.

Beth and Glen’s wedding was postponed from the spring because of the pandemic.  I was looking forward to the family getting together for their wedding in early November.  But Covid struck again and Allen (the father of the bride) came down with a positive test.  So we had to have a virtual attendance to the event.  It’s not as good as being there in person, but it’s much better than missing the whole thing!

Now that she’s married, she can start thinking about carrying on that tradition!  I know, I know.  It’s not really a tradition, but we can’t let that stop her.  Jill already has one daughter.  They could make it fun – like it’s a contest or game.  Our family likes games.

Let the H1 continue!

Christmas Eve at Mee Maw’s

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Landry Christmas 1966

Christmas Eve at Mee Maw’s in 1966.  That would be Germaine Erie Patureau Landry’s home in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

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.

The Christmas Eve get together in 1967.

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!

From an old family recipe. Pate’ de fois gras made by Greg Raley (#73 in photos). He and my brother Rob are two from my generation that are keeping the tradition alive.

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!

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.

List of my Mee Maw and her children and grandchildren

Christmas in the 1960s in Jennings

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One of the memorable things for me while growing up in the small town of Jennings, Louisiana, was the Christmas Concert at Northside Junior High School.  At least I think it was a Christmas Concert.  My dad was Bob Landry, the man – the legend.  Sorry.  I had to put that in there.  One time I was talking about my childhood and I mentioned my dad.  The person stopped me and said, “Your dad is Bob Landry?  He’s a legend!” (or something similar) Actually he was the chorus and band director at the junior high school for many years.  He had been in Elton, Louisiana, for two years and then started in Jennings in 1965.  I mentioned that in a previous post and talked about the summer band program that was so memorable.

Jennings Northside Junior High School gym circa 1965.

But the thing I didn’t mention was the Christmas Concert.  I saved that for later.  That time is now.  I even have a photo to go with the story.  It’s from the same time period, but I don’t think it’s from a Christmas Concert.  The photo looks more like an end of the year Awards Ceremony.  My dad is at the mic talking about something.  He’s directly behind a table that has two trophies on it.  I’m not sure what that was about, but they look like they could be for music.  I can see that one of them has a harp symbol for musical instruments on top of it. (Directly below one of his elbows.)

I also see Lou Gaudet sitting down next to the flag behind him.   There also seems to be some other teachers or administrators for the school sitting on chairs  in the front.  Behind them is the band.  I can recognize my oldest sister Jodie in a blue dress between my dad and the tuba.  Then to the right is the chorus.  I’m sure they’re all ready to make some music. 

If this was the Christmas Concert I’d know for sure one of the songs they would be singing.  It seems like we sang it every year.  We loved singing it.  It had some interesting harmonies and echoes, and the older guys wanted to be the ones singing, “Bum pa dum pa dum, dum dum” in a deep voice.  The name of the song was  “The Carol of the Star.”  At least that’s what we called it.  It’s a great song and I’ve never heard it since that time from any other place.  I’ve searched for the song for years.  It seems like I’ve searched for it online for over 15 years.  And I never found it…until today.

My story was going to be that I never could find it and how amazing it is that you couldn’t find something on the internet.  I searched for the first few words of the song today and came up with a result.  The song is originally called “The Love Star” and it was recorded by Harry Simone and His Orchestra in 1959.  I’m sure that’s where my dad found it.  It sounds like something he would listen to.  I listened to it, but it doesn’t compare to the way we sang it back when we were kids at Northside Junior High.  It doesn’t have any “Bum pa dum pa dum, dum dum” in it.  Not a one!  And that’s what makes the song!

So here it is!  The original recording from the 1966 Christmas Concert of Northside Jr. High.  That’s right!  My dad had recordings of all of his concerts and such.  For the longest time, those reel to reel recordings sat in the kitchen closet at 758 Lucy Street.  I used to wonder who was ever going to want to listen to those recordings!  Now I’m so glad my dad did that.  It makes me want to sing his praises and call him a hero.  I’ll stop short of calling him a legend, though.  But if you want to call him that, please feel free.  Enjoy this old version of “The Love Star,” better known as “The Carol of the Star.”

 

I might as well put the other songs from that 1966 Christmas Concert on here.  This is the song “Lo How a Rose.”

 

And the last one from 1966 is “Silent Night.”

 

Fast forward to 2010.  I was sitting at my desk in my house in North Carolina and I got a phone call from my brother Al.  He asked me if I remembered the words to “The Carol of the Star.”  I said, “Of course,” and started singing it.  Unknown to him, I had reached in to the top drawer of my desk and pulled out the sheet music for the song.  I had put it in there a few weeks earlier, so it was very handy.  I was able to recall every word of that old song.  He was suitably impressed.  I did explain to him what I had done.  He decided to record me singing the first verse of the song.  He later got recordings of my sister Jamie singing another verse.  Her husband Allen even cooperated and sang a few “Bum pa dum pa dum, dum dum”s for him.  Al also recorded my sister Karen singing some harmonies.  My mom and dad (Betty and Bob Landry) were alive at the time and they participated as well.  Al combined all of the voice tracks and made us all sound great.  It’s like we had been singing the song our whole life!  Here is the 2010 Landry Family Band version of “The Carol of the Star.”

The Snow, a Coat, and a Secret

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I decided to write this post because I’ve seen so many people posting memories that are related to snow.  Plus I was chatting with my sister Jamie earlier in the week and we exchanged copies of photos from the Big Snow Event in Jennings, Louisiana, on January 11, 1973.  I just made up that name.  Nobody called it the Big Snow Event.  There was barely enough snow to make a small snowman.  It was Jennings, Louisiana, and it was the first time I remember having snow there.  We had been living at 758 Lucy Street for less than 10 years, so it was due for a snow.  We don’t get snow that often and it’s usually not very much.  But that doesn’t stop kids from being excited about it when it does fall!

The Great Snowstorm of 1973 in Jennings, Louisiana.

We took quite a few photos of us kids in the snow.  I think it was my mom who took the photos.  I’m pretty sure the date is correct, but I’m kinda doubtful.  For some reason I was thinking Rob had come home from college, but he didn’t graduate from Jennings High School until May of 1973.  In the photo is Karen, Jamie, me (Van), Al, and Rob Landry.  I’m pretty sure it was a school day, and we were let out of school because of all of the snow!

The other thing about this photo is that it’s the last photo I have of that big coat I’m wearing.  It was a reversible coat.  The side you see here is the shiny, coppery side that was good at blocking the wind.  On the other side was nice, thick brown fur.  It wasn’t real fur.  We didn’t have fancy stuff like that.  In fact it was handed down to me from Al.  That’s what happens when you’re the third of three boys – you get hand me down clothes.  I survived it.

I hinted at a secret, so I suppose I will have to reveal it.  It’s not really anything big.  It kinda makes me laugh.  It has to do with the coat.   I was in junior high school at Northside.  Anybody who’s lived in southern Louisiana knows that a cold morning can turn into a warm afternoon fairly quickly.  That’s what happened one day at school.  I was wearing this big coat when we went out for recess after lunch.  It wasn’t long before I started to get warm, so I took the coat off and threw it to the side so I could continue what I was doing.  When the bell rang, I didn’t have a thought for that big coat and went inside with everyone.

I realized a few days later that the coat was missing, but I couldn’t find it anywhere at school.  Then one day it turned up and it had been rained on.  I could see the fur inside and it looked like a mangy dog or something.  I seem to recall someone asking if it was mine.  I just shook my head no.  I turned my back on that poor coat after it kept me so warm in the snow!  I kinda felt bad about that.  Then when my mom asked me what had happened to my coat, I claimed ignorance!  For some reason I’ve never told many people this story, so let’s just keep it as our little secret.  You can go ahead and tell it to one or two of your closest friends if you like.

Before I go, I thought I’d share another photo.  This is a photo Jamie sent me the other day.  You can see the snowman that I mentioned earlier in the post.  She reminded me that we had cheated a little bit when we made the biggest part of the snowman.  There wasn’t much snow, so we formed that part around our basketball!  What’s funny is that it’s still a tiny little snowman.  Yes, he’s the little white man standing in the middle of the photo with the red, white, and blue bandana on his head.  That was Rob’s donation, because you can see he had that on his head in the first photo.  Thanks for the photo, Jamie!  I had forgotten about how cute that little snowman was.

Is Erie Engaged in the Chair?

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Today we will be discussing my paternal grandmother Germaine Erie Patureau.  I’ll use her maiden name, since I think she was single at the time.  It would be later that she would acquire the last name Landry and then be known as Mama.  A while later on she would be known by us grandkids as Mee Maw.

Poor quality photo of Erie in the chair.

But at the time of this photo she was usually known as Erie.  So that’s what we’ll call her. I had this old, poor quality copy of a photo of Erie sitting in a chair.  I’m not sure where it came from, but I didn’t really care for it.  Other cousins seemed to like it.  Maybe that’s because at least one of them had a much better copy of it!  As you can see I kept it, but I always hoped to get a better copy of it.

In August 2019 some of us cousins got together to share photos and documents.  I’ve told you that before.  But what I didn’t tell you is that we hugged, stood next to each other, and breathed near each other.  Even Shirley!  Those were the good old days.  Now we’re all keeping a distance and hoping the Covid vaccine comes out sooner than later.  But last year we got together and I was able to get this new improved version of the photo.

Erie Patureau circa 1921 probably in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Isn’t this one much better?  It’s so much clearer and it’s not washed out.  You can also see so much more detail on her dress.  Not to mention that you can see her feet.  Of course she was being very proper, because even though the dress ends a bit above her shoes, you still don’t see her ankles.  That would have been scandalous!  I’m surprised she got away with those see-through sleeves she’s wearing.  That seems a little risque!

The other detail I noticed was the Apple watch that she’s wearing.  I wonder if it was keeping track of her daily activities for her?  No, that can’t be an Apple watch.  That was way before any idea of such a thing was in existence.  But I do see a ring on her finger that I wasn’t able to make out in the old fuzzy photo.  And it is on the ring finger of her left hand.  I’m thinking that this must be an engagement photo.  It is a rather formal photographic sitting.

Erie Patureau in July of 1921.

When I compare it to the photos taken in July 1921, it looks like she’s the same age.  Here is a crop of the photo to compare.  I also notice that she was wearing a ring in that photo as well.  Those were the more casual photos that she took when she was engaged.

So I’m saying, “Yes, Erie was engaged,” when these photos were taken.  I guess they are the closest thing that I have to a wedding photo of her.  Why have I never seen a wedding photo of my grandparents?  I’ve shared a photo from her sister’s wedding in 1933.  It looked like a big formal affair that their father (Grampa Max) provided.  There were lots of flowers and lots of photos of a rather large group of family.

Maybe it was a tough time for Grampa Max.  He went into hiding in 1920.  Not really, I just can’t find him on the 1920 Census.  Wait!  There’s another clue I just remembered.  There was a reception after Mee Maw & Pee Paw’s wedding that was attended by family and friends.  I don’t have a photo of the event, but I do have this newspaper article from the Daily Advertiser in Lafayette, Louisiana, from November 12, 1921, the day of their wedding.

Newspaper article from the Daily Advertiser in Lafayette, Louisiana, on Nov. 12, 1921. Germaine Erie Patureau (they spelled her name incorrectly) married Robert Joseph Landry.