Month: January 2026

Bob & Betty Gone Nine Years

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Yesterday was the ninth anniversary of the day of my parents’ funeral.  My parents were Robert Joseph “Bob” Landry, Jr. and Betty Lou Bucklin Landry.  The last wedding anniversary that they celebrated was their 64th wedding anniversary in November of 2016.  They were both having physical problems at the time but were able to get back together for their anniversary. 

Then my mom had a stroke on January 18, 2017, and died the following morning.  My dad was in hospice at the time, and I had gotten a call that he could die at any time.  Two serious phone calls on the same night.  On the morning that my mom died, my dad was getting the Last Rites.  He ended up dying five days later, and we had a joint funeral on January 28, 2017.

I was considering not writing an ‘anniversary’ post about their death this year.  But I decided to go ahead and do so.  I was going to say that you wouldn’t know that by the photo I picked, but after writing what I wrote, I’m thinking that you might think I posted the photo because it looks like my dad might be dead in the photo.  Those were not my thoughts at all.  

I had thought that I’d post something fun about them, so I prepared these two photos with the writing that was in their old photo album that they had put together during their first year of marriage.  I always thought it was fun that they took the photos and also decided to place them together in their album.  It is very lighthearted and playful revenge. 

The first photo is a photo my mom sneaked of my dad taking a nap after dinner.  The photo was taken at married housing in Kerosene Flats at Edwards Air Force Base in California.  It was during their first year together.

My dad decided to get even by taking a photo of my mom when she wasn’t ready to be photographed.  My mom was young and moved quickly back then, but my dad was quicker.  She almost made it out of the room, but fortunately for us, she didn’t quite make it.

I’ve always liked the photo.  It always puts a smile on my face.  I’m smiling right now, but I must admit that at the same time, I have bit of a tear as well.  It’s a bittersweet thing, but only because of tonight’s topic.  The photo itself is mostly just sweet.  Even though it was taken in revenge.  But really, how can this be considered revenge?  For people who like to watch reality TV to see conflict, it would make them yawn.

That’s fine by me.  I’d prefer to have parents who were bad at being vengeful.  I’m quite satisfied with that.

 

 

Bucklin Bros on Wallis Tractor

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Fred and Clarence making hay circa 1928 in Jefferson Davis Parish.

I don’t really know that much about this photo.  I’m pretty sure it is a photo of my maternal grandfather Fred D. Bucklin and his brother Clarence circa 1928.  The photo came from Clarence’s daughter Carla, so I think that information is reliable.  Who else is going to have old family photos except for the descendants of the people involved?  Not that the identity of those photos is always known.  But most of the photos from the 1920s are pretty well identified.  In the Bucklin and Hine collection of old photos, the generations before my grandfather are often not identified.

Mainly, I just like this old action photo taken about 100 years ago of my family.  It looks like Fred and Clarence are making hay on the old Bucklin family farm.  The Bucklin farm in Louisiana had started 50 years previously when their grandparents James Bucklin and Mary Ann McGrath Bucklin had moved their family south from Iowa.  James was a Massachusetts native, while Mary Ann was an Irish immigrant who came to the US during the Great Irish Potato Famine.

The family came to Louisiana in 1884 and were able to get three sections of land to homestead around Hathaway, Louisiana, in Jefferson Davis Parish.  Most of this was passed down to the descendants of their son Louis, mainly because none of their other children have any descendants.  Louis was the father of Fred and Clarence, and he was involved with the day-to-day farm life for many years.  He kept a lot of journals talking about some of his activities.  He married Addie Hine in 1898 and they worked the farm.  Addie gave birth to a dozen children, so that kept her busy for a while.

Van Landry in Jeff Davis Parish in Louisiana, in 1978

Louis died in 1927, and that left the farm to Addie and the children.  So this is a photo of Fred and Clarence helping their mom to keep the farm going.  They were doing that by making hay on this old Wallis tractor.  Or maybe they were just posing for some interesting photos when they were youngsters.  It’s been known to happen.  Just look at these old photos of me and my sisters from 1978.  That’s what we were doing.  You can pretty much tell this because we were definitely not dressed for work.  We were just riding around the countryside taking photos.  We saw this old tractor and thought we’d take some photos.

Jamie and Karen Landry getting work done in 1978.

The funny thing about these photos is that they were taken not far from the older photo.  And also, the Case tractor in the photo has a shared history with the Wallis tractor.  They had the same parent company.  We weren’t thinking of any of that, though.  We didn’t know about that old photo.  I didn’t discover that until a few years ago.  We were just playing around on an old tractor in the field and being silly.

But I really don’t think that’s what Clarence and Fred were doing all those years ago.  Just look at them.  They were doing serious farm work.  That Wallis tractor belonged to their mother.  You can tell they were serious by the overalls that they were wearing.  That’s the only thing I remember my grandfather wearing in all the years I knew him.  This is also around the time that they were getting involved with growing all types of trees, shrubs, and flowers.  It wouldn’t be long before they would set up their own nursery business called Bucklin Brothers.  The area around Jennings and Hathaway were familiar with the name, because their Uncle Joe and Uncle Ed had run a nice men’s clothing store in downtown Jennings called Bucklin Brothers in the first decade of the 1900s.

Like the first venture, it didn’t last too long for reasons not known.  There are still a few Bucklins in the Jennings area.  There are even some Bucklin descendants who farm in the area.  The Bucklin family farm has never been divided.  Some of my cousins have 1/8th interests.  My line had larger families, so I own 1/240ths interest.  One of these days I’m going to figure out what that means.  Maybe.

 

Rob Landry in WWI Company 2

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This is a great old photo from 100 years ago.  I haven’t known about it that long, though.  The first time I saw it and the other one like it was in 2019 when a few cousins got together to share old photos.  Those two were in the Tin Can Collection that Aunt Wana had in her attic for many years.  The photos are not only old, but they are also very long.  Actually, they were rolled up in a tube.  So they weren’t actually in the tin can per se, but I still refer to them as part of the Tin Can Collection.  I had to scan the photos in three separate scans and then stitch them together.  The main difference between this photo and the other one is that the men are not wearing their hats in this photo.

But look at this great old photo.  It’s definitely worth it.  I cleaned it up a little also to make it look a bit more cared for.  The photos have writing on them, and they give the date of August 1918.  The group is identified as Co 2 Advance Detachment E.O.T.C.  I’m not really sure what that means.  It was taken at Camp Humphreys, which was in Virginia.  My grandfather Robert Joseph “Rob” Landry was stationed there in1917 to 1918 for training purposes.  He joined the military when he was 24 years old.  

He seemed to have had good memories of his time in the service.  There are several photos of him by himself, with friends, and in large groups.  There’s even some of him playing his favorite sport – baseball.  He wasn’t having fun the whole time, of course.  Like I said, he was there to train.  One of the things he was training on were large guns, like cannons.  It’s the reason he had hearing loss for the rest of his life.  He also never saw action.  Just a few months after this photo was taken, the Great War came to an end.  He was honorably discharged on Dec. 4, 1918.  Those papers say he was in Company 1.

Here is a crop of the photo so you can see which one is my Pee Paw.  He’s in the middle of this one.

Samuel Phenice With Grandkids

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It’s time for a Phenice photo.  It all started this morning when I received an email about an old Phenice photo from the 1880s.  Someone wants to find relatives of the subjects of this old studio portrait made in Kansas.  She was trying to find someone who knew about the family.  I think she found the right person.  I know who the people in the photo are and I know who some of their current descendants are.  I haven’t seen the photo yet, but I look forward to seeing a photo of my great grandfather’s first cousins as children in 1880s Kansas.

In the meantime, I’m satisfied with looking at some old photos of my great great grandfather Samuel Charles Phenice.  You remember him, right?  He fought for the Union Army during the Civil War out of Pennsylvania.  He only fought in one notable battle – the Battle of the Wilderness.  But one was enough.  He was injured on May 5, 1864, in Spotsylvania, Viriginia.  While recovering from his injuries, he was stationed at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC, as part of the Veteran’s unit.  He was there the night of the Lincoln Assassination.  I don’t have any early photos of him in military garb.

Samuel Charles Phenice with grandchildren circa 1927 in Nebraska. From the Lincoln Collection.

I do have photos of him in his later years.  That’s because he lived such a long time.  He made it to the ripe old age of 95 years.  But in the photo I’m sharing with you, he was only 83.  He’s standing with four of his grandchildren.  They are his youngest grandchildren.  He had grandchildren much older than these four.  In fact, some of them were already parents themselves.  Samuel had about ten great grandchildren at this point.

They are his youngest because these grandchildren are the children of his youngest child.  He and my great great grandmother Cathrine “Kate” Foster Phenice had their last child Emma in 1889 when he was 45 years old.  That’s bit older than the average parent.  Then Emma had her last child Harry in 1927 when she was 37.

There is another interesting Lincoln connection here.  Harry was born on February 12, 1927.  February 12th is the birth date of Abraham Lincoln, so Harry was given the middle name of Lincoln.  Harry Lincoln Quillen.  I’m sure Samuel must have told little Harry his story of the Lincoln Assassination.  Harry lived to the age of 90, dying on his 90th birthday.  This photo came from that line of the family through Harry’s daughter Emma.  Thanks again for the photo.  I refer to the photos that she shared with me as the Lincoln Collection.  It seems appropriate.

There is a little bit of confusion about the subjects of this photo.  The caption was written by Samuel’s daughter Emma Phenice Quillen.  I think the people are called out in two rows.  The back row starts with Papa – Samuel Phenice – at the left.  On the right we have “Emma” holding Harry.  I don’t think that is Emma, who was 37 years old at the time.  I think it is her daughter Erma who was 15.  That’s why I call this photo Samuel and His Grandkids.  The two boys in the front with ties are Dean on the left and younger brother Harold on the right.

Samuel lived in Nebraska near Beaver City at least until 1930.  I’m thinking this must have been a visit to Grandpa’s house around 1927.

 

 

My Favorite Finds From 2025

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I thought I’d write a post about the favorite things I came across in my family history ramblings last year.  I found two really good stories about my ancestors doing commendable things.  And the other thing was an old record that was found from hundreds of years ago.  I’m always on the lookout for things like that and like to share what I find with everyone.  That way family members can see some information about their ancestors, and I’ll have a way of recording it so I don’t forget about it!  The downside is that I don’t give resources for the things I find.  I figure if people what to verify it is true or not, they can do an online search and find it, too.  At least they know what to search for.

“French Peasant” by Kevin Leveque circa May 19, 2020 (the day he posted it online).

The first image I’m using in this post is of a painting by a cousin.  The painting is called “French Peasant” and it was painted around 2020 by Kevin Leveque, a third cousin from my Landry great grandmother.  He posted a photo of the painting on Facebook, and I commented on how much I liked it.  It always makes me think of my French and Acadian ancestresses who lived and worked on farms through the years.  Kevin and I have many common ancestors, including two of the maternal ones I’m talking about here.

The first discovery I’m talking about is the discovery of Michelle Aucoin’s birth record.  She was born in LaRochelle, France, on January 29, 1620.  Her parents were Martin Aucoin and Barbe Minguette.  The family made the crossing to the New World in 1642 and were some of the founders of Acadie.  Many of those early founders’ birth records are a mystery.  There have been people looking for them for years with no luck.  So when one is discovered, it’s kind of a big thing.  At least for those of us who are looking.

Daddy had her in his tree with the correct birthplace and a close estimated birth year.  He also had the father’s name correct.  He didn’t have the correct mother and hadn’t made all of the connections to her, but I’m always amazed at all of the information he discovered.  He put in most of the branches on the tree, while I’m just fine tuning and pruning a bit.  My work is based on the groundwork provided by him and Mee Maw.  I know they would be excited with the new information being discovered.

The second discovery had something to do with a witchcraft trial in Quebec in 1684.  Though the trial was in Quebec, the events that were being questioned occurred in Acadie and involved our ancestors Francois Pellerin and Andree Martin.  The witchcraft part of the story was intriguing, but my favorite part was about the actions of my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandmother Andree Martin.  That’s right, she was my 8X great grandmother.  It was a long time ago.  By the way, Michelle Aucoin was also my 8X great grandmother. 

Anyway, Andree was visiting her sister one year.  As they were walking along, they witnessed a man harassing a young girl.  Instead of ignoring the situation, she asked the man to stop, then made him stop.  I love that she did the right thing.  It was not the last of their unpleasant interactions, though.  That may have led to her accusing him of using witchcraft to kill her husband.  She might have believed it, but she may have said what she needed to so the man would be stopped.  It worked.

The last of my favorite discoveries has to do with the Hine line in my mom’s tree.  This event occurred over a hundred years later than the first two stories, and it has to do with my 4X great grandfather John Hein.  He was born in 1747 in Dillenberg, Germany, to Johannes Jacob Hein and Ann Schober.  He immigrated with his father and stepmother in October 1753 to Broad Bay, Maine.  They later moved to Wachovia, North Carolina, which is where our ancestor John performed his heroic act.  He and two friends were attempting to cross a flooded creek to respond to some request for help.  All they had was a shabby canoe, and they decided to make the attempt anyway.  The canoe sank and Brother Hein was the only one that knew how to swim.  Despite the strong currents, our John was able to save his two friends.  Commendable indeed!

So now we’re on to another year.  I’m hoping for new discoveries, new photos…new everything.  We’re living in the future.  Happy New Year to everyone.