Month: August 2021

Hine Family Reunion 1989

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August 12, 1989 – The descendants of George Hine and Susan G. Stanbrough Hine in Jennings, Louisiana.

I’ve been wanting to post these photos for a while, but I was a bit overwhelmed by how many people are in the main photo.  I’m still overwhelmed because I haven’t figured out a way to label everyone in the photo.  I decided to go ahead and post the photos anyway.  If I get some identification on several people, I’ll figure it out then. 

The photos were taken on August 12, 1989, at the Hine family reunion.  I’m pretty sure it took place in Jennings, Louisiana, though it could have been in Elton.  I just don’t remember.  (Yes it was in Jennings.  At the home of Darlene Hine Landry.) When I got this photo a few years ago, I hadn’t even thought of that reunion since it happened.  I don’t have many memories about it.  My memory was somewhat refreshed back in November of 2019 when I wrote about the 30 year anniversary of my sister Jodie’s death.  I shared some of my journal entries from back in 1989, and one of them mentions the Hine Reunion that I attended.  That’s how I knew the date was August 12, 1989, and that I played horseshoes at the event.

August 12, 1989 – The Hine Family Reunion. This group includes the descendants of George and Sue Hine’s oldest child Addie May Hine Bucklin.

Most of my memories from that year are associated with Jodie.  The last time we visited.  The last time we spoke.  Her funeral.  I remember lots of things from that year, but not this reunion.  But I did go.  The pictures prove it.  Since I associated that year with Jodie, I’ll explain our relationship to the people in the photo.  Jodie and I (and our four siblings) were the children of Betty Lou Bucklin Landry and Bob Landry.  My mom is where the connection lies.  Of course it does!  My dad only has French ancestry and Hine is a German name.  My mom’s father was Fred Bucklin and he was the son of Addie May Hine Bucklin.  Addie was the oldest of six children (like Jodie was) of George Henry Hine and Susan G. Stanbrough Hine.  The reunion was for all of the descendants of Grandpa George and Grandma Sue.

August 12, 1989 – Darlene Hine Landry with old family photos.

I went to the reunion with my parents.  I am on the far right in both of the photos.  My mom is sitting on the ground on the far right in the first photo.  In the second photo she is standing next to me on the back row.  My dad is standing next to me on the back row in the first photo.  The first photo is the whole group that attended the reunion.  It includes the descendants of all six of George and Sue Hine’s children.  The second photo only includes the descendants of Addie Hine Bucklin.  I know who some of those people are.  I’ll try to name a few of them. 

On the far left is my mom’s first cousin Jeannette Bucklin.  She and my mom shared a May 20th birthday and she was my teacher at Northside Jr. High.  Her daughter Kristi is three spots over on the back row in a yellow blouse.  In front of her and to the right is Shirley Petree Bruchhaus.  She was my algebra teacher at Jennings High School and she was married to my mom’s first cousin Laurence Bruchhaus.  A few spots over to the right is Uvonne Bruchhaus Domingue holding her infant son Cade.  Next to her is our 2nd cousin Carol Taylor Fraser with her children Julia and Andrew.

I should know the older woman standing in front of my dad, but I’m not sure.  The younger woman in front of my dad is Arlene Keys Ware, my mom’s first cousin.  I’m thinking that her brother might be on the back row, but again I’m not sure.  I am sure that someone will be helping me out with some identifications.

The third photo is of Darlene Hine Landry.  She was my grandfather’s first cousin.  Like my mom, she married a Landry.  I’m not closely related to that Landry, but I think the connection is through the subject of one of my recent posts.  I think he descends from the brother of my Marie Magdeleine Granger.   At the time this photo was taken, I was not that interested in all of those photos she has laid out on the table.  Fortunately family members like Louise and Joseph have made sure the photos have been protected and they share generously.  I recognize all  of those photos because I have digital copies of them.  I also have a copy of that family tree on the board behind Darlene in the photo.  It includes the names of all of those Hine descendants up to that time.

The tree continues to grow.  Why just recently I added a little Jacob to it.  Welcome to the Hine family, Jacob.

Hine Family tree for Susan Stanbrough and George Hine by great grandson Ken Hine in 1989.

Our Patureau Matriarch Was a Landry: Emma’s Death Notice

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For some reason I was thinking about these death notices that are keepsakes in my dad’s family.  I’m pretty sure they come from my Mee Maw – my paternal grandmother Germaine Erie Patureau Landry.  I was thinking it was time to share another one.  Plus it was time to write a post about the Patureau line of the family.  And again, a Patureau post ends up being a Landry post as well.  That’s what you get when  you have three generations in a row of a Landry marrying a Patureau.

Death notice for Marie Emma Landry Patureau from 1892 in Plaquemine, Louisiana.  (Shared with me by my cousin Daphne AKA the Keeper of the Secret Collection)

I didn’t exactly remember which ancestors I had copies of death notices for.  So when I saw this one, I knew it was the topic for discussion today.  It fit all of the criteria for what I was looking for.  Then I had to decide on a name for the post.  Sometimes I just sit there for several minutes waiting for an interesting name to come to me.  I can’t start writing until I settle on a name for the post.  Mainly because I think the program won’t let me.  And actually I could be wrong about that.  Oh, well.  It is what it is.

My last name is Landry, but one of my posts is titled “I Am a Patureau.”  Now I’d like to remind all of my Patureau kin out there – and there are lots of you – you can also say “I Am a Landry” because our matriarch was a Landry.  Marie Emma Landry was born on November 10, 1829, in St. Gabriel, Louisiana.  She was the daughter of Elie Onezime Landry (1800-1880) and Jeanne Zerbine Dupuy (1807-1886).  Both of those are Cajun/Acadian surnames, but  Emma’s maternal grandmother was from a French line. 

So when Emma married French immigrant Ferdinand Pierre Patureau on February 10, 1847, she wasn’t the first one in her family to marry “outside the family.”  Isn’t that a weird term?  I found myself saying that about cousins in the Landry and Patureau family lines who didn’t marry their cousins.  It seems like that trend has mostly fallen by the wayside.

Anyway, Emma and Ferdinand were married and had a large family.  I spoke about that once before, so I won’t go through all of the names again.  She gave birth to over a dozen children, as did her son Max’s (my great grandfather) Landry wife Marie Therese.  It definitely was a trend in the Patureau family groups.  I know I’ve got over a thousand cousins that I’ve identified from that group.  That is a lot.

The Jan. 8, 1881, Iberville South has an article that mentions Widow F. Patureau.

Ferdinand died in 1877 after an accident that occurred in his sawmill.  According to a newspaper article in 1881, Emma was declared owner of half of the Iberville Saw Mill.  I suppose that was the name of the sawmill that Ferdinand owned.  I find the article confusing because it mentions Widow F. Patureau who I’m pretty sure is Emma Landry Patureau.  But it also mentions L. Patureau and I’m not sure if that’s supposed to be Emma or someone else – most likely a son – Leobon? 

Another article from 1884 thanks Mrs. Patureau for her tasty honey in a comb that came from her apiary in town.  I’m thinking it probably is Emma, though it could be her son Leobon’s wife.  In an earlier article they talk about Emma Patureau by name and talk about her recommending the use of the Howe sewing machine. 

Jan. 12, 1889 article from The Iberville South in Plaquemine, Louisiana.

It wasn’t all sweetness and light for Emma, though.  In the Jan. 12, 1889, article in The Iberville South, there was a report that there was an attempted burglary of her home.  Nothing was taken, so it was supposed that the person or persons were frightened off.  Evidently she was not harmed either, or that would have been noted.  I’m sure it was probably a bit of a scare for her.  Who would do that to our poor old widowed grandmother?  Wait!  She was actually younger than me when that happened to her!  When you’re young, and sometimes still, 60 years old sounds old.  When you make it to that age – if you make it to that age – it doesn’t seem that old.  In this situation, an attempted burglary can be off-putting to anyone at any age.

We all know from the beginning of this article that she didn’t live much longer.  She was only 62 years old when she died.  That seems really young now.  In the newspaper reporting on her death, it said that she was 63 years old and 1 month.  From my calculations, she was 62 years and 2 months.  But more importantly it talks about her being a well respected and loved citizen who will be missed. 

She died at her home at 3:30 in the morning on Sunday January 24, 1892.  To me that implies that someone was with her and knew she was dying.  How else would they know the time of her death?  I’d like to think that it meant she was surrounded by loving family members and/or friends when she died.  The death notice was posted later that day to inform those interested of the time of her funeral.  From the funeral, the procession was to move to St. John’s Church.

St. John’s Church is the Catholic Church in Plaquemine.  The Catholic cemetery is nearby.  I’m sure she was buried in that graveyard, yet there is no evidence of it now.  There is a large Patureau tomb (at least, there usually is – don’t ask) and her name is not on any of the plaques.  Her husband and many of her children have their names engraved on them.  For some reason her name is not.  That may be remedied soon.  She deserves some respect.

Myrtle the Teacher in 1949

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Myrtle Sylvia Phenice Bucklin in 1949 at Hathaway High School in Hathaway, Louisiana.

Here is a photo of my maternal grandmother Myrtle Sylvia Phenice Bucklin.  The photo was taken in 1949 when Grandma was a schoolteacher at Hathaway High School during the 1949/1950 school year.  Of course she wasn’t a grandmother back then.  She was just a mom to her five children.  I think her oldest daughter Sylvia had graduated high school the previous school year and was just beginning college at Lafayette.  My mom Betty Lou was starting her junior year of high school.  She would graduate in 1951 and that was the first year that students graduated with 12 years of school instead of 11.

So does that mean that there wasn’t a graduating class of 1950?  I never really thought to ask about that before.  And how long did my mom’s class know that they were going to have to attend 12 years of school instead of 11 before they were able to graduate?  Did they have a freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior years before that?  Whatever it was, it was not the year my mom graduated, even though she was a year behind her sister Sylvia.  My mom would have to go through another school year before she was able to graduate.

By the time her younger sisters Alma and Loris graduated, they were probably used to the idea of graduating in 12 years of school.  Austin was the youngest child and the only boy.  He was around 7 years old at the time this photo was taken.  His only scholarly concern at that time might have been wondering if he was going to have his mother as his teacher for the third grade.  That was mainly what Myrtle taught.  She wanted to get those kids in their formative years and make sure that they learned how to spell correctly!

She started teaching around 1928 after getting her Teaching Certificate.  She stopped when she got married in 1930 to have children and raise a family.  She resumed teaching in 1945 and continued to 23 years or so.  My earliest memories of her were of her being a teacher.  I don’t remember ever going to her classroom like my older sister Karen did.  I might have, but we tend to forget things through the years.  Especially if we don’t have a photo to reinforce the memory.  So that’s why I’m sharing this photo and story today.  So we’ll all remember Mrs. Myrtle Bucklin, the famed 3rd grade teacher from Hathaway High School.

Landry Family in Lafayette, Louisiana

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Four generations of Landry family that lived in Lafayette, Louisiana, circa 1930. Sitting in front is my great grandmother Marie Celeste Leveque Landry. Behind her from left to right is her son Louis Joseph Landry and her grandson Thornwell Fay Landry holding twin sons Thornwell Fay, Jr. and Louis.

When I was growing up, I always thought of the Landry family as being from Lake Charles, Louisiana.  That’s where my dad (Robert Joseph Landry, Jr. – Bob – Pluto) was born and where he grew up.  My parents (Bob and Betty Lou Bucklin Landry) settled in Jennings, Louisiana, and that’s where my siblings and I grew up.  Almost all of my Landry cousins lived in Lake Charles, so it made sense to me:  The Landry family was from Lake Charles – always and forever – amen. 

But that wasn’t really true then and it is even less so now.  What I was aware of when I was a kid were my own first cousins.  There were so many of us.  Then there were the Bouquets.  That was a family group from my dad’s first cousin.  They were a big family, too.  I didn’t really know how we were related, but I knew they were cousins.  Trying to explain it now still gets me confused.  There were so many cousin marriages in that part of the family.

When I started collecting photos and exploring family connections, I was surprised at how many cousins lived in Lafayette.  My Mee Maw (paternal grandmother Germaine Erie Patureau Landry) was born in Plaquemine and grew up there, but ended up in Lake Charles after she was married to her mom’s first cousin Robert Joseph Landry, Sr.  I knew she lived in Lafayette for a while, but didn’t know the details.  I found out that her dad (Vincent Maximilian Patureau) had moved to Lafayette in 1912 and started a veterinarian practice there.

1920 Census in Lafayette showing Louis Joseph Landry’s household, which included his mother-in-law Amalie Babin (my great great grandmother Belite) and niece Erie Patureau (my Mee Maw).

He moved close to where his mother-in-law Mrs. P. M. Babin lived.  You remember her, right?  That was my great great grandmother Marie Amelie “Belite” Bujol Landry Babin.  She was my Mee Maw’s grandmother.  She had moved there a few years earlier with her second husband Magloire Babin (Her first husband was Trasimond Landry).  Mack Babin died in 1919 in Lafayette.  Belite must have decided to move in with other family members at that point, because in the 1920 Census she is in the household of her daughter Clemence Babin Landry.

The topic of this post came about from the first photo that I posted.  It is not a photo of my great great grandmother Belite, it is a photo of my great grandmother Marie Celeste Leveque Landry.  Sorry about the confusion.  They were first cousins by their Landry mothers.  I wish I had a photo of them together, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one.  So when I was exploring the photo of Grandma Celeste with her Landry offspring, I remembered that she ended up living in Lafayette at some point as well.  I was assuming that I would find her in the household of Louis. 

I did find her in Lafayette in the 1930 Census, but she was in the household of her other son Sebastien Landry.  What was he doing there?  He was the Landry patriarch of the Bouquet family that I mentioned being in Lake Charles.  That just seems wrong, but then I discovered that he moved back to Lake Charles by 1935.  His mother died in 1934 and was buried in Lake Charles.  He probably moved back to be near his daughter and grandchildren.

Since he and his offspring lived in Lake Charles along with my dad and his siblings, those were the family members that we knew.  Louis Joseph and Clemence’s offspring did not live there, so the families lost touch.  It’s what happens when family moves around.  Maybe one day one of my sibling’s grandchildren will wonder,  “Didn’t Grandma (or Grandpa or whatever cool name they came up with) have a brother that did some family research?  I wonder if he ever found anything interesting?”

That grandchild will search for my name, find this story, and say, “Boy, that guy sure does ramble a lot!”