Month: July 2023

Grampa Max: Veterinarian at Work

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Vincent Maximilian Patureau was a veterinarian in Lafayette, Louisiana. This photo circa 1915.

This photo was part of a group of photos that I believe came from my grandmother.  To me now, that seems rather obvious.  The photo is of her father, after all.  Where else would it come from?  But some old photos that I have do not have any information about who is in the photo.  Therefore, I don’t know where the photos came from.  If I did know where they came from, I’d have a better idea of who was in those unidentified photos.  I’ve been thinking about posting some of these photos to see if any cousins might know who the subjects of the photos might be.  In the meantime, make sure to label all of the photos you have with the names of the people you know are in them.  Maybe one day someone will thank you.

So today I’ll be thanking my dad for writing some information under these photos that he had collected.  My dad’s name was Robert Joseph “Bob” Landry, Jr.  He was the son of Mr. & Mrs. Robert Joseph Landry, Sr.  This leaves you with the question, “Who was Mrs. Robert Joseph Landry, Sr.?”  And the answer would be, “Why, the wife of Mr. R. J. Landry, Sr., of course.”  So if you follow my advice to label your photos, don’t use the logic I just used.  Use a person’s full name!  My wonderful Mee Maw was Germaine Erie Patureau Landry.  She was the daughter of Vincent Maximilian Patureau, the subject of this post.

Actually my dad labeled these photos with just a “VMP.”  But being that the photos included a photo of Grampa Max with a business sign that shows his name, it was more than acceptable and deserving of a mention of gratitude.  Thanks, Daddy!  I’ve estimated that this photo was taken around 1915 based on the age of Grampa Max.  That would mean that it was taken in Lafayette, Louisiana.  He had worked for a while as a self-taught veterinarian in Plaquemine, Louisiana.  According to newspaper articles, Dr. Patureau moved to Lafayette and set up a practice in October of 1911 on Pinhook Road.  He brought his family to Lafayette six months later in April of 1912.  He rented the “Boze house on the east side of the railroad.”  I have no clue where that would be.  Somewhere in Lafayette.

The photo shows Grampa Max at work with two dogs, though you only see one dog in this photo.  Between him and the dog, you can see a young girl with flowers on her top.  Even less conspicuous is a young boy reaching through the wooden fence to the dog’s collar.  I’m thinking that they are part of the family that owned the dogs, and Grampa Max was there in the capacity of Dr. Patureau.  The photos look like promotional photos to be used to advertise his veterinarian services.  

I just like having this photo of my great grandfather on the job.  Dr. Patureau, at your service.

A Cube, a House, and a Dress or Two

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Cube puzzle like the one I found on my grandmother’s refrigerator back in the 1970s.

Here it goes.  I’m starting this post with a few ideas of things to write about, but the ideas don’t really seem to go together.  I suppose that’s okay.  It’s kind of like a puzzle, but with pieces that don’t fit together.  

Speaking of puzzles, that’s one of the main themes this week.  That’s because there has been a puzzle making its way around work this week.  Many people tried to solve it, but nobody has been able to, yet, including myself.  So when I started thinking about a topic this week for my family history blog, I thought about the theme of puzzles.

How does that relate to family history, you may ask.  Well, as a matter of fact, it does.  When our family was at my grandparents’ home in Hathaway one day in the early 1970s, we were all visiting in the dining room.  I remember reaching up on top of the refrigerator to look for something, and that’s when I made a discovery.  There were several pieces of wood that were cut and shaped into different-sized pieces.  Like the photo you see.  I was fascinated by it.

Betty Lou Bucklin circa 1950 in dress she made for 4H. Hathaway, Louisiana

I think I tried putting it together, and then my dad showed me how to do it.  Thinking back on this now, it brings all kinds of questions to mind.  Why was a puzzle on my grandmother’s refrigerator?  It was in pieces, so someone must have taken it apart and couldn’t put it back together again.  And how did my dad know how to put it together?  He liked puzzles, too.  He used to make videos of himself putting a Rubik’s cube together.  And no, there are no Youtube videos of my dad doing this!  The other day I had a dream that there was one on Youtube, so I had to check!  No luck. 

I don’t think the cube was for my dad.  The grandmother with the puzzle was my mom’s mom.  I thought about making this post a Keepsake Post, but the puzzle I have is not the one from my grandmother.  I don’t know what became of that one.  But this one still reminds me of my grandmother. 

Betty Lou with dress she made circa 1950 in Hathaway, Louisiana.

That grandmother in question was Myrtle Sylvia Phenice Bucklin.  I don’t know why I always say it was on my grandmother’s refrigerator.  My grandfather was in the house, too.  Fred D. Bucklin was his name.  They lived in a house that used to be in Hathaway.  The house is still around, but it was moved and renovated.  I recently met a distant cousin who is the friend of my Aunt Loris.  Her closer cousin owns the house, so she sent me a recent photo.  I want to go visit the house sometime soon.  Maybe a cousin or two might want to go along as well.  I was thinking of posting a photo of the house, but I didn’t feel right about posting the recent one.  It belongs to someone else, and the house doesn’t look like the way I remember it.  

So I went looking for a photo of my grandparents’ house from back in the day.  Instead, I found these photos of my mom showing off some of the dresses she made for herself when she was in high school.  Sure, she is standing in front of her house in Hathaway, but in no way is the house the main subject in these photos!  Yet, I do have a question about the house.  I’m pretty sure it’s the same house, but I don’t remember there being a porch on the side of the house where we entered.  What’s up with that?

But look how sweet Betty Lou looks in these two photos.  She seems so happy to be showing off the hard work that she did.  The one that is colorized shows a dress that was used as a 4H project.  Mama must have written that on the back of the photo.  How else would I know that?  So how do my mom’s dresses connect to the earlier part of this post?  My mom was never a fan of games or puzzles.  But she liked to sew.  Isn’t sewing like putting a puzzle together?  You get the different shapes to go together in just the right way, and then the cube is made.  I mean dress!

So there you have it – a cube, a house, and a dress or two.  It’s been put together.

My Landrys of West Baton Rouge

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Alcide, Marguerite, Sebastien, and Marie Therese Landry all lived in Brusly, Louisiana, at some point in their lives.

I don’t normally group photos together like this.  And I wouldn’t have necessarily grouped these four photos together.  But this photo grouping is part of an announcement for a special event coming up.  On July 23 there will be a West Baton Rouge Acadian Heritage Celebration in Brusly, Louisiana, and the special family name featured this year is Landry.  So when one of the organizers asked me if they could use some of my photos, I answered in the affirmative.  Why wouldn’t I want to honor some of my own Landry ancestors for the celebration?  But they are just representing the many Landry families in Brusly from back when.

And actually, one of these is not my ancestor.  That would be the handsome guy with the bow tie.  His name was Sebastien Landry.  He was an older brother of my paternal grandfather Robert Joseph Landry, Jr.  Even though Uncle Seb (That’s what my dad and his siblings called him.  It rhymes with dweeb.) was 19 years older than Rob (or Pee Paw to us grandchildren), they were very close.  Seb married his first cousin Manette Landry and they had a daughter, also named Manette.  Older Manette died shortly after giving birth, and little Manette was raised like a little sister to Rob.  The families have been close ever since that time.  When I think of my grandfather, I don’t think of him from Brusly.  That’s because he was born in Westlake, Louisiana.  So it is more appropriate for Sebastien to be in the group photo because he was born in Brusly before the family moved west.

My great grandfather (father to Rob and Seb) is the man on the left in the group photo.  He was born in Brusly in 1845.  When he was old enough, he fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War.  After the war, he married Marie Celeste Leveque.  Grandma Celeste was born in Brusly in 1847 to Joseph Auguste Leveque and Marie Marguerite “Basalite” Landry Leveque.  Basalite is the woman between the two men in the photo.  She was born in 1821 to Joseph Emmanuel “Manuel” Landry and Clarice Celeste Bruneteau Landry.  Basalite and Alcide were half first cousins.  That’s because Alcide’s father Narcisse was the half-brother of Manuel Landry.  That would make Alcide and his wife Celeste half first cousins once removed.  In case you haven’t heard this before, all four of my dad’s grandparents were related to each other through the Landry family.

The last one in the photo is Marie Therese Landry.  She was my great grandmother.  She was the mother of Germaine Erie Patureau Landry.  My siblings, cousins, and I knew her as Mee Maw.  She was the best and I think I was her favorite!  Marie Therese was the older sibling of Manette Landry that I mentioned earlier.  She was married to her cousin Seb.  So Marie Therese’s daughter and sister were married to the brothers Rob and Seb respectively.  (Her half-sister Clemence Babin was married to Rob and Seb’s brother Louis Landry.)  Marie Therese was the oldest child of Trasimond Landry, the brother of Alcide Landry.

Marie Emma Landry Patureau is the matriarch of all of the Patureau family in southern Louisiana. Photo circa 1864.

But there was another Landry cousin caught up in this family web, and I didn’t want to leave her out of this discussion.  That would be Marie Emma Landry and she was my great great grandmother.  She was born in 1829 in St. Gabriel, Louisiana, to Onezime Landry and Zerbine Dupuy.  The family moved to Brusly shortly after she was born.  I guess they wanted to be around other family members.  Onezime was the brother of Narcisse and the half-brother of Manuel.  They are the three sons of Joseph Ignatius Landry that I descend from.

Marie Emma spent her formative years in Brusly.  When she was a teenager, she met French immigrant Ferdinand Patureau.  The Patureau family had immigrated to Louisiana in 1840 and settled in the Plaquemine area.  Ferdinand was only 14 years old at the time, but that didn’t stop him from returning to France on his own without anyone in the family knowing where he was.  He even spent a bit of time in Cuba working on a sugar plantation.  He finally made it back to Louisiana in 1843 or so.  So Emma met him some time between then and their February 10, 1847, wedding.  Ferdinand was 20 years old and Emma was only 17.  Their first few children were born in Brusly, but they eventually settled in Plaquemine.  She gave birth to at least fifteen children.

So there you have it – most of my Landry family who lived in Brusly, Louisiana.  I suppose that I should mention that Trasimond’s wife Marie Amelie “Belite” Bujol was the daughter of Anna Adele Landry.  Adele was the sister of  Basalite Landry Leveque.  There, now they are all covered and it’s as clear as can be.  If you are part of this family or have your own connection to a Landry family (or any Acadian family), be sure to attend the Celebration on the 23rd.  I’m planning on being there.  Maybe we can figure out how we’re related!

The Sisters of H. C. Phenice

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Phenice sisters

When I was looking for a subject for tonight’s blog, I decided to share a recent photo I found online.  It’s a photo of my great grandfather’s older sister.  As I was thinking of what to write, I realized that there have been a lot of sisters in my family.  I grew up having three sisters and both of my parents had three sisters.  My paternal grandfather (Robert Joseph Landry, Sr.) only had two sisters and both of them died at about 20 years of age.  My maternal grandmother (Myrtle Sylvia Phenice) was one of three sisters.  My maternal grandfather (Fred D. Bucklin) had three sisters.  But the grandparent with the most was my paternal grandmother Germaine Erie Patureau.  She was one of seven sisters.  But her own grandmother wins the prize.  Amelie Bujol was one of ten sisters.

That’s what happens when you have large families, and I have large families on both sides of my family tree.  But I mainly am concerned with the family of my grandmother Myrtle’s father.  His name was Harry Clifton Phenice.  He was born in Butler County in Pennsylvania on May 24, 1874, to Samuel Charles Phenice and Cathrine Jane Foster Phenice.  He was the fifth child born to them.  I was a fifth myself.  He had three older brothers – Chauncey,  William Emory, and Edd – and an older sister named Anna May.  He had two younger sisters – Lolo Myrtle and Emma.

Phenice family in 1906.

It’s interesting that the only one that I don’t have a photo of is William Emory.  Yet it was a newspaper article about W. E. Phenice that helped me discover the family history of his mother Cathrine.  Just a short little blurb about him visiting an uncle in Kansas with the last name of Millison was all it took.  I do wish I had a photo of W. E.  If you know of one, please share!  In fact, sharing is what helped me to have these photos.  My generous Phenice cousin Mona had several photos of the Phenice sisters.  That’s because her grandmother Emma was one of them.  And she was good about labeling who they were in the photos.

The combined photo is from three photos I’ve posted before.  I combined them like this at some point to make sure I could recognize who’s who in the photo.  Now I know how to recognize my great grandfather’s sisters.  Now you know that I’m a fanatic!  

Those photos helped me to correctly identify a photo that I’ve known my whole life.  That is this second photo of the Phenice family all dressed up.  I’m pretty sure they are dressed up for the March 1906 wedding of Lola Myrtle Phenice.  It took place in Precept, Nebraska, which was where the Phenice family lived at the time.  Lola Myrtle is in the center of the photo.  On the left is Harry Clifton and his wife Daisy Keys Phenice (my great grandparents).  On the right are two other Phenice siblings.  In the back is Emma (grandmother of Mona) and in front is Edd.  I’ve shared this photo before.  It is decidedly a favorite.

Anna May Phenice Taylor with two children.

And now we come to the new photo.  Drum roll, please.  This is a photo that I found on the profile of Anna May Phenice on the FamilySearch website.  When I first saw it, I thought she had the right look.  But I still had to pull out the reference photo collage of the three sisters.  I decided it was definitely a photo of Anna May Phenice.  And it is a very good photo of her.  It was definitely a studio portrait.

But it still left me with some questions.  Who are these children in the photo?  You can read a number in the bottom right corner.  It looks like 1916.  Was the photo taken in 1916?  Her youngest children were born in 1907 and 1910, which would make them 9 and 6 in 1916.  These children look younger.  Does this woman look 47 years old in this photo?  Anna May was born in 1869.  Thoughts?  Opinions?

I always enjoy finding new photos of family members.  Especially when they’re really old.  I think this one qualifies.