Cook | Family History

The Keys Sisters – Part 2

May 3, 2017 Van Leave a comment

About a year and a half ago I posted a photo of the Keys sisters. It was taken around 1894 when the girls were just teenagers. I explained my relation to them. I’ll refresh that information for you. My mom was Betty Lou Bucklin Landry. Her mother was Myrtle Sylvia Phenice Bucklin, and then her mother was Daisy Henrietta Martha Keys Phenice. Daisy was born in 1876 in England to her parents Henry Keys and Martha Cook Keys. She was the third child and the oldest daughter.

In this photo, as you can see, the girls are bit older. In the middle of the photo is my great grandmother Daisy. This photo was taken around 1951, so she would have been close to 75 years old. Rosetta Ruth Keys was the next daughter to be born to Henry and Martha. She went by her middle name Ruth and that is her on the left side of this photo. She married Herbert Bryan and they had six children together. She would have been around 72 in this photo. The baby sister was Mabel Olive Keys and she was around 70 as she is seen here on the right. She married Abraham Miller and they lived in the Kinder area with their four sons.

This photo is not that good of quality, but I still like it. It’s one that my grandmother had and I took a photo of it when I was in college. I don’t know where the original went. I also have another photo that was taken the same day that was of Daisy and H. C. Phenice with their children. I don’t know if it was some kind of family reunion (like we are having on June 3 in Jennings. Hint. Hint.) or if the families just got together from time to time since they lived in the same area. I wonder if there are any other photos of the sisters out there? I’d sure like to see more. What I’d really like to see would be a photo of all five siblings. They all settled in Louisiana and lived within 20 miles of one another.

Of course the family has spread far and wide since that time. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is family in every state. I started to figure out where some of them were, but it became too daunting. East coast, west coast, north coast, south coast – we’ve got it covered. All because of the dreams of Henry and Martha over 130 years ago. Henry died before they could act on that dream, but Martha followed through as courageously as possible. And these girls were part of it. These lovely, enduring, timeless girls – The Keys Sisters.

Aug. 2020 Update – I enhanced that old photo to make it a little clearer. I think it improved it.

Enhanced 1951 photo of sisters Ruth Keys Bryan, Daisy Keys Phenice, and Mabel Keys Miller.

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Keys Reunion 2017

February 2, 2017 Van Leave a comment

I thought I’d use my Throwback Thursday series to encourage everyone to try to attend the 2017 Keys Family Reunion. It will be held on June 3 from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm at the Lutheran Church in Jennings. It is being hosted by our cousins Julie Phenice Campbell and Diane Phenice Prejean. It should be a nice celebration of 130 years of our family in the United States.

This photo is from the first Keys Reunion that I remember. It was on June 10, 1973, at a KOA campground near Jennings off of I-10. The newspaper article for this event is on the first page of a scrapbook that I kept back then. It was written, of course, by the family historian Edith Keys Segraves. The original immigrants who came from England in 1887 were Martha Cook Keys and her children Henry Alfred “The Judge”, Leonard James, Daisy, Ruth, and Mabel. None of them survived past the year of 1967. So the oldest generation present in 1973 were the grandchildren of that brave pioneer woman Martha Cook Keys. My grandmother Myrtle Phenice Bucklin was one of those grandchildren present. (She is sitting right of center in a greenish dress.) One of the things that surprised me in my research is that one of those grandchildren is still alive. (She has since passed away. Martha Bryan Boose was born in 1920 and she was present at many of the reunions.

1973 Keys family reunion near Jennings, Louisiana. Descendants of Daisy Keys Phenice are shown.

This photo is from the Daisy Keys group. If you look at the left of this photo, you will see a small boy standing with a greenish shirt on. That is my first cousin Dale Bucklin. I am standing next to him in the brown shirt and wearing my cool 70s glasses. Standing next to me is my younger sister Jamie. We are standing in front of aunt Margaret and uncle Austin Bucklin (holding Anita, I presume). Next to Jamie is our cousin Keith Woolley. In front of Grandma is my cousin John Bucklin in a lavender shirt. Behind her are my siblings Karen, Jodie, and Al. My mom (Betty Lou Bucklin Landry) can be seen toward the right with a noticeable navy Y collar shirt. My brother Rob is behind her to the left. Behind her to the left is her father (Fred Bucklin). My dad (Robert Joseph Landry, Jr.) is to the right of them with a red striped shirt that matches the background. There are a few others I recognize; enough of them to realize that this is a photo of the descendants of Daisy Keys Phenice. (See another version of this photo with names on it below.) The top photo (which was used for the newspaper) includes descendants of all five of the children of Martha Keys.

I have a few memories of this reunion, but the most intriguing memory is what I haven’t seen – the videos that were taken that day. I remember a few men walking around with these huge video cameras and lugging around extra batteries and such. You had to put forth a lot of effort in those days to make a short video. And they probably didn’t even have sound! But I would still like to see some of that live action recorded on that long ago day. So if any of you know who might have those videos or where they might be found, I would love to see them. Or have a digital version of them. I don’t ask for much! I’m sure if they were found and brought to the reunion, they would be the highlight!

But this was not the first party for the Keys family. I found an even older newspaper article from June 25, 1895. That was before any of her children were married or had children of their own. The article stated that in China, Louisiana, “the party at Mrs. M. A. Keys was enjoyed by all present.” Hopefully the same will be said about our get together this year.

Newspaper photo from June 1973 showing most of those in attendance at the Keys Family Reunion

Photo from the Cook-Keys book by Edith Keys Segraves. My mom labeled some of the people. This is the Daisy Keys group from the 1973 reunion.

Keys Family Reunion 1973 - Descendants of Daisy Keys

Original photo of the one above. I was able to scan this from the collection of Edith Segrave’s daughter Carolyn.

Photo from above that includes the names of most of the people in the photo. Thanks to all of the cousins on Facebook who helped to identify the faces.

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A Keys Keepsake

January 4, 2017 Van Leave a comment

I thought I’d do something a little different for the start of the year. I’m not stopping the vintage photos with stories, but I thought I’d do something different from time to time. I’ve been thinking of doing this for a while and now is a good time to start. So this the the first of the Keepsake Throwback Thursdays. The more I talk to people about family history and such, the more I find out about different treasures that have been passed down through the generations. I am hoping to take photos of some keepsakes that other people have so they can be shared with the family. Just like the old photos, you can share them and keep your treasure at the same time.

This week I’m going back to the 1880s in England. It was a time before all of our modern conveniences. It was a time before this branch of the family had left Europe. It was a time of myths and legends, kings and castles. Yes, you heard that right, castles. (You also heard the myth part, too, right!?)

In 1883 my great great grandmother Martha Ann Cook Keys had a problem on her hands. Her second son Leonard, who was 10 at the time, had come down with diphtheria. It is a very dangerous disease and in fact a few years earlier in England, two members of the royal family had died from it. So it was a scary situation.

She called a doctor to see to her ailing son, but the doctor just wanted to know if her husband was home. When she inquired as to why he was asking this, the doctor said that Leonard would probably die that night. The doctor left without offering any hope, but Martha did not give up. She decided to take the situation into her own hands, literally. She put a finger down Leonard’s throat to break the membrane that can form and kill a person. It was a risk, because this could also lead to hemorrhaging. She was fortunate that it did not and Leonard began to recover.

Cross stitch by Leonard Keys from 1883 in England

His recovery took a while, so Martha sent him to stay with her Aunt Jane for a while. She must have been a very important person because she lived in a castle. Or so goes the family legend. I have not been able to find any resources that proved that the family owned a castle at one time. But I haven’t found any that proved that we didn’t either. My mom always seemed to believe that there was a family castle, so it must be true. It was while he was recovering in the lavish luxuries (minus modern conveniences, of course) of the family castle that he did this cross-stitch sampler.

For those of you a little older than me, you may remember this item hanging in the house of Daisy Keys Phenice. Mama said that is was hanging in her house for YEARS before it was given to her by her grandmother Daisy. And that is why it is still in my family. It was given to my great grandmother by her brother because he undoubtedly wanted her to have it. For those younger than me, one day I will pass it on to someone deserving. Or at least desiring!

From the City…

September 28, 2016 Van Leave a comment

1880s- Henry and Martha Cook Keys family

1880s- The Henry and Martha Cook Keys family lived in Hackney, Middlesex, England

This is one of the older photos that I have. But I don’t really ‘have’ it. All I have is this scan of a copy of a photo that was printed in a book from around 1980. It’s great to have that much because despite it being a copy of a copy (of a copy?), there are still some interesting details in it. It’s from Edith Keys Segraves’ book “Cook-Keys Family: Two Centuries in England and America.” One of these days I’m going to track down some of those old photos, get a good scan of them, retouch them, and share them with everyone. Til then, this is what you get!

The year is around 1880 or so. The country is England. The family is the the Cookie family. Not really. That’s the name I think of when I read the title of Edith Segraves’ book. But the Cook-Keys connection started here. At least for our family. When our ancestors Henry Keys married Martha Cook on Nov. 8, 1869, the Cook-Keys connection had already been started eight years earlier.

Martha’s sister Henrietta had married Henry’s brother William in 1861 and they had eight children together. Henry and Martha had five children by 1881 – Henry Alfred, Leonard, Daisy, Ruth, and Mabel. From the few examples I’ve seen, I would assume that these two families would have been close. All of their kids had the same grandparents, were double first cousins, and probably looked similar. And Martha and Henrietta were the only two children in the Cook family. Their father had died in 1840 when Martha was three years old and Henrietta was six months old, so that would likely have made them closer as well.

Yet that didn’t keep them together. When Martha’s husband Henry died in 1886, it wasn’t but a year later that she moved herself and her five young children to America. To be accurate, Martha didn’t break the families apart. One of Henrietta’s sons was already living in Delaware County, Iowa, at that time. (Funnily enough, the Bucklin family had lived in that same county earlier in the 1880s. A generation later, the Bucklin and Keys families connected as well.) And I’ve mentioned before that Martha’s uncle William Horsnell had recently moved from Iowa to the exotic locales of southern Louisiana.

Look at that photo again. It looks like a pretty nice place to live. Nice sturdy buildings and a charming little side patio enclosed with an iron fence. It was a civilized place to live. They had venetian blinds in the window! If that doesn’t say civilized, I don’t know what does! But Martha had heard of some criminal activities in nearby areas and decided it was time to move on. So in June of 1887, she brought her children to London during the week of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee and on the 27th boarded them onto the ship Aurania heading for the New World.

1887 – A page from the passenger list of arrivals in New York in July 1887. Top of the list starts with Martha A(nn) Keys, Henry A(lfred), Leonard J., Daisy H(enrietta), Rosetta R(uth), and Mabel O. Destination shown as Louisiana.

Hathaway Horse Sense

April 27, 2016 Van Leave a comment

A Little Bit of Horse Sense Goes a Long Way

I have recently been going through the book that Edith Keys Segraves put together and published in 1980. It is called “Cook-Keys Family: Two Centuries in England and America.” In it she lists the ancestors of Henry Keys and Martha Cook, my great great grandparents. I’m sure you know all about them because I have mentioned them before and recently posted a photo of their three daughters – Daisy, Mabel and Ruth. (See Dec. 13, 2015 post by clicking on thumbnail.) Those three daughters are the root of the discovery I recently was able to confirm.

In the book Cousin Edith not only lists the ancestors, but also spent a good bit of time and energy in finding and naming as many descendants as she could find. At that time it would have meant a lot of telephone calls (with real phones connected to the wall!) and letters (remember those? You would sit down and write on paper with a pen!) And she didn’t stop with just the descendants of Henry and Martha, she went back two generations further – namely to William Horsnell who was born in 1770. I posted a photo of Uncle Will Horsnell (son of William) a while back. (See Feb. 24, 2016 post by clicking on thumbnail.) He’s the uncle that moved from Iowa to Louisiana and Martha Cook Keys followed him there. He’s the first person buried at China cemetery.

But before Martha moved to Louisiana, some of her Horsnell and Cook relatives followed Unce Will and his brothers to Iowa in the 1850s. Cousin Edith tracked most of this information and listed their descendants at the end of her book. And me being the devoted (or deranged – you can choose your adjective!) genealogist that I am, I have been entering all of these people into my own family tree. Then I take it a bit further and try to bring it up to date. Using birth and death notices on Ancestry is the first thing I do. Then I look up obituaries online or on FindAGrave.com. Some of them will list all of the family members, which is really helpful. Once I get to people born in the 50s, I take to Facebook and see who I can find.

There is a lot of information that people share on Facebook. Has anyone noticed that? It can be helpful with my research. I even copy photos of relatives and add them to my tree. It’s interesting to see how some family lines kind of die out, while others spread like wildfire. In my quest, I came across some Hunters with a Horsnell mother. From time to time I’ll send a note to someone if it looks like they are interested in genealogy, but most of the time I find as much as I can then move on. That’s what I did with the Hunters.

But then on a genetic genealogy site a few days later, someone with the same last name as one of the Hunter sisters posted a note about being on a DNA site GEDmatch.com, which is where I do a lot of my research. So I went to the site and searched the name in Mama and aunt Loris’s match list. The guy’s name didn’t show up in their list, but a Cheryl Benham did come up. And the name sounded familiar from the Hunter sisters. So I looked her up, and sure enough Cheryl Hunter married a Benham. Could it be our Horsnell cousin Cheryl? She had matching DNA to aunt Loris and a smaller amount with Mama.

1770 William Horsnell Connection - 3

So I sent her a note, and she replied quickly. Yes, her mother was a Hornsell. Even though she matched mom and Loris, I still wanted to get more verification. She was a member of 23andMe where many Keys relatives have tested, so I invited her to share with me. She quickly agreed and yesterday I compared her with the other Keys cousins and “Eureka!” she matched Kay Bryan and Myra Miller (who are 2nd cousins to each other and 4th cousins with Cheryl) on the exact same spot.

Definitely some Horsnell DNA that has been passed down through the generations. (In case you were wondering about the title, this is what I was refering to. Mama always said that she had “Hathaway horse sense.” Come to find out, she inherited it!)

So that book by Edith Keys Segraves is a treasure. I wish I could thank her. I’m sure she would be excited to see the verification of the research with the matching DNA. Maybe even more excited than all of you are! But to see DNA from each of the Keys sisters – Daisy being represented by mom and Loris, Mabel being represented by Myra Miller, and Ruth being represented by Kay Bryan – that was passed down from even further back and being able to identify it is remarkable. Thanks again, Cousin Edith.

Way, Way Back

February 24, 2016 Van Leave a comment

1875 - William Horsnell and Rebecca in Iowa Rev. This is a photo from around 1875 of William Horsnell and his wife Rebecca in Delaware County, Iowa. He is the reason many of my relatives are here today, though most of us do not descend from him. For those of my generation, he is our great great great great uncle. But he was just Uncle William to my great great grandmother Martha Ann Cook Keys. Her mother Ruth was a Horsnell and the sister to this William Horsnell.

In 1886 William at age 79 moved to a new pioneer state of Louisiana with his new wife. He must have liked it here and wrote back to his family in England, because otherwise Martha would not have known about it. But heard about it she did, and decided to follow through with plans to move her family to the United States even though her husband had recently died. So she sold off most of their possessions and moved to a new country with five young children in tow.

They had intended to move on to Beaumont, but when they stopped to visit Uncle William in China, Louisiana, they liked what they saw and decided to stay. And the rest, they say, is history.

Keys in the DNA – Unlocking a Mystery

August 14, 2013 Van Leave a comment

This is a reworked page from the book by my grandmother’s cousin Edith Keys Segraves – “Cook – Keys Family: Two Centuries in England and America.” It shows the common ancestors that were discovered through matching DNA.

The story begins with a post by a DNA match at 23andMe.

“H1 looking for mother’s ancestors and relatives.”

By StillCurious on Jun 27, 2012
My beautiful blond mother was supposedly born in April 1927 under the name “Jane Hamilton”. As an infant she was adopted by a judge and his attorney wife in Lake Charles, LA. The adoption papers show Ft. Worth, TX as my mother’s place of birth/adoption but this info could be false or misleading. Because her adopted parents were global travelers who had the legal knowledge to obscure birth records, my mother could have been born anywhere in the U.S., or possibly Western Europe.

To this day, my mother and I have been unable to trace her ancestry. It would be wonderful to help my mother identify her ancestors before she passes. My mother’s health has been good most of her life and it would seem her maternal ancestors in particular would have also had generally good health.

Thank you for any information leading to the identity of my mother’s ancestors and relatives.
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I joined 23andMe.com in April 2013 when a group of friends decided we’d get our DNA tested. I sent off for a kit, completed it appropriately, and then waited patiently to get my results. As I waited, I also completed surveys on the site and explored the forums to try to get educated about the DNA results so I’d know a little before I received them.

At last the results arrived. Besides finding out that I have the most Neanderthal DNA of anyone in my group of friends, 23andMe provided me with a list of other members who share common DNA with me. So I started sending out invitations to “share genomes” with my closest cousins on the list. This just means you can compare your chromosome information with theirs and see where the common genes are located.

23andMe also tells you what your maternal and paternal haplogroups are. They are not really all that helpful because it only tells you about your father’s father’s father’s…line and your mother’s mother’s mother’s…line. And there are many more lines as you go back through the generations. My maternal haplogroup happens to be H1, which is the same as StillCurious, who wrote the above posting a year ago on 23andMe (His one and only posting.). He also is a close cousin of mine according to 23andMe. When I read his posting, I thought, “Maybe I’ll be able to help him find out who his mother is.” My response to myself was, “Yeah, right.”

The following are 23andMe correspondences, starting with my invitation to share genomes (cousin messages are italicized):

_______________________________________

Jun 30, 2013 Van Landry wrote to Lizzie W. and StillCurious, suspected Cousins:

Hi,
Through our shared DNA, 23andMe has identified us as relatives. Our predicted relationship is 3rd Cousin, with a likely range of 2nd to 3rd Cousin. That would mean we share a great great grandparent. Here is a list of mine:

Narcisse Landry (b. 1796), Marie Hebert (b. 1802), Joseph Leveque (b. 1805), Marguerite Landry (b. 1821), Ferdinand Patureau (b. 1826), Marie Landry (b. 1829), Trasimond Landry (b 1839), Marie Bujol (b. 1843), James Bucklin (b. 1821), Mary McGrath (b. 1827), George Hines (b. 1846), Susan Stanbrough (b. 1851), Samuel Phenice (b. 1844), Katherine Foster (b. 1849), Henry Keys (b.1823) and Martha Cook (b. 1838).

Would you like to explore our relationship?

________________________________________

Jul 3, 2013 Lizzie W., a Cousin wrote to Van Landry:

That is so funny! My great grandparents are Martha Cook and Henry Keys!!! My grandparents are Inez Moreau and Lloyd Bryan, grandparents are Herbert Bryan and Rosetta Ruth Keys, her parents are Martha Cook and Henry Keys! So yes we do share great grandparents!

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Jul 3, 2013 Van Landry wrote to Lizzie W., a 2nd Cousin once removed:

My great grandmother was Daisy Keys, who married Harry Clifton Phenice. My grandmother was Myrtle Phenice, who married Fred Bucklin. And my mother is Betty Lou Bucklin (grew up in Hathaway, LA), who married Bob Landry. This makes us 2nd cousins once removed. I finally found someone related to me through my mom’s side. Have you found any others related to you through the Keys? I’ve found several people on here related to me through my father, but none of them as closely related as you are. I’ll have to check with my mom to see if she remembers your family.

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Jul 3, 2013 Lizzie W., a 2nd Cousin once removed wrote to Van Landry:

I haven’t found any others that I don’t already know besides first cousins… my mom and her parents grew up in Hathaway they all still live there except my mom and I!

I have a huge family tree book at home that dates back a few hundred years and most from England…. know my great grandfather (our haha) came from England.. i have to look into the rest this weekend and send you over what I have!

This is pretty amazing that you can find a second cousin through 23andme.
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Jul 10, 2013 Bill (StillCurious) a mysterious cousin wrote to Van Landry:

Thanks for your 23andme sharing invite which I have accepted. Your family tree info could be helpful in determining my mother’s biological family.

My mother was apparently adopted in 1927 and to this day we have been unable to trace her biological parents. She was adopted by Judge Thomas F. Porter and Mary Gayle Porter from Lake Charles. Judge and Mrs. Porter (my adoptive grandparents) were both attorneys and were quite good at obscuring my mother’s true family in all adoption records. Judge and Mrs. Porter had a considerable no. of friends, relatives and business associates all over SW LA.

To exchange more info, please feel free to call me.

Cheers,
Bill

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Jul 13, 2013 Van Landry wrote to Lizzie W., a 2nd Cousin once removed:

I was comparing genomes and came across an intriguing mystery. According to 23andMe, I’m related to a guy named Bill . The order of the relationship is somewhere around 3rd cousin. I contacted him and started sharing genomes with him. He said that his mother was adopted and they were still curious and wanted to find out where she came from. I checked to see if he was related to any of the many people that I’ve determined to be on my dad’s side of the family, and there were no common genomes. He told me that his father was not Cajun, so that would mean that we are related through our mothers. When I compared him to you, I was greatly surprised. It showed that you two shared twice as much DNA (compared to yours and mine) across 13 segments of your chromosomes.

I don’t really know you and don’t want to be intrusive, but I was interested in seeing if there was anything you might know about our common relatives of long ago. His mother was born in 1927 and given up for adoption as an infant with the name Jane Hamilton. Bill is not related to my Cajun side and is not related to your Ashkenazi Jewish side, so they are probably related through the same line that we’re related. (Bill’s and my common maternal haplogroup H1 would support this.) I could be completely wrong and missing something, but it is an interesting mystery nonetheless.

Any thoughts, any complaints, any questions? I can’t stop thinking about it.
________________________________________

Jul 15, 2013 Lizzie W., a 2nd Cousin once removed wrote to Van Landry:

You aren’t being intrusive! This is crazy… yes I see him as a 2nd cousin and the most closely related person I have on this site…. since he is related to us both it has to be through Henry Keys and Martha Cook…. My family tree shows….. Martha Cook and Henry Keys had a daughter Rosetta Ruth Keys…. she and Herbert Bryan had a son Lloyd Bryan (1916-1972) who married my grandmother Inez Moreau… they had two children my mother and uncle… So if his mother was born in 1927…. maybe it was from either my great grandparents or their siblings? not sure….

________________________________________

Jul 15, 2013 Van Landry wrote to Lizzie W., a 3rd Cousin:

Well that cleared up a problem I was having in figuring this out. I mistakenly thought you were the daughter of Lloyd Bryan. When you listed them earlier, you called them your grandparents, but also called Herbert Bryan your grandparents. And called Martha Cook your great grandparents. No mention of your mother, so I assumed you were related to Keys through your father, Lloyd Bryan. I assumed wrong. So it’s you to your mother to your grandfather Lloyd Bryan through your great grandmother Rosetta Ruth Keys to your great great grandparents Henry Keys and Martha Cook. So that means we are 3rd cousins.

When I was looking at this problem before, it seemed like the generations were off somehow! That explains the problem, or at least some of it. The question now is if Lloyd had any sisters that may have given up a child for adoption. That’s based on our assumptions being correct!
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Jul 27, 2013 Van Landry wrote to Bill (StillCurious) a 3rd Cousin:

Ok, let me tell you what I have discovered so far.

I went to visit my parents this past weekend and looked over information on my ancestors. You and I are related through my Mom’s side of the family. I’m pretty sure it is through my (or our) great great grandparents Henry Keys and Martha Cook. They lived in England and had five children. When Henry died, Martha – a dressmaker – moved with her five children to Louisiana. The oldest daughter was my great grandmother Daisy Keys. The next child in line was a daughter named Rosetta Ruth Keys (b. Jan 13, 1879 & d. April 22, 1967 in Jennings), who I think was your great grandmother.

She married Herbert Maurice Bryan (b. March 4, 1880 & d. Nov. 5, 1932) on December 24, 1901. Their first son (fourth child) was Lloyd Bryan who was born in 1911. He is the father of Sandra “Kay” Bryan, who is the mother of Elizabeth Wermuth, who shows as your second cousin on 23andMe. (You both show as third cousins to me.) Lloyd was kind of young to father your mother in 1927, so the likely candidates are his older sisters:

Rena Oliva Bryan was born in 1902, married Robert Allen in 1931 and had her only reported child in 1932. The son died at age 15.

Elsie Ruth Bryan was born in 1905, never married and no report of any children. She went away to school in Houston and worked there for a while. She ended up living in Lake Charles. She died in 2002. A very good candidate.

Hazel Bryan was born in 1908, married Clifton Derouen in 1931, and had her first child in 1933. She died in 1998. The children are Eugene (b. 1933), Linda (born in 1937), Jarrett (b. 1940 & d. 2000), and Donald Derouen (b. 1945). They were born in Lake Charles and several of their children were born in Lake Charles also. If one of them could be tested, it would be helpful in solving this mystery. How to go about that is beyond me.
________________________________________

Jul 28, 2013 Bill (StillCurious) a 3rd Cousin wrote to Van Landry:

Good morning, Van.

Thank you very much for taking so much time to shed light on my mother’s ancestry. You have obviously taken a serious and time-consuming task in hand. My immediate family is very grateful for your time and kindness.

I have informed my half sister (Diana G. from Lafayette) of your info and she is going to review it ASAP with our mother, Jane Porter Zerkowsky. As I mentioned, Jane is confined to an assisted care facility in Lafayette and her mental faculties are rapidly failing. However, I do believe she will understand your info and finally realize that it is true her biological mother was Elsie Ruth Bryan.

My sister Diana and Jane met with Elsie at Elsie’s care facility in Lake Charles not long before Elsie passed. My sister has informed me that Elsie did not acknowledge Jane as her daughter. The story of this meeting is long and detailed and I am still trying to verify more info about the meeting and why it took place.

Furthermore, if you can believe this, the Clifton Derouen family lived across the street from Jane’s residence in Lake Charles in the 1960s. Never did Hazel acknowledge any connection to Jane as her Aunt. We have reason to believe that Hazel was aware of the family connection because of info my sister and Jane subsequently learned from another member of Hazel’s family. I believe I mentioned to you in our telephone conversation that we were aware that the Derouen family was possibly connected to my mother’s biological mother.

I will be in touch too with more info as I receive it from my sister.
________________________________________

Jul 29, 2013 Van Landry wrote to Bill (StillCurious):

I’ve been so excited about this all day. When I sent you all of those names, I thought they would be faceless names that wouldn’t have much meaning to you or your mother. I was a bit confused by the line “finally realize that it is true her biological mother was Elsie Ruth Bryan.” I had only said that she was a very good candidate. Then I questioned the phrase “finally realized.” When I read more, I realized that the names I sent you were not faceless in the least. I even got choked up a bit knowing that she had visited Elsie shortly before she died.

When I was looking at the ‘possible candidates’ for her mother, I remember fantasizing about the possibility of Elsie being her mother. I saw that she moved to Lake Charles and I imagined her moving there so she could be close to the daughter that she gave up those years ago. So you can see why your information floored me. And then to have Hazel’s family living across the street was surprising too. I don’t recall you mentioning the Derouens when we spoke on the telephone. I remember talking about the Keys family. Come to find out, we were talking about the same people! When I made the comment about one of them being tested to verify the connection, I thought, “Yeah, right, like someone would do that for a perfect stranger.”

Not strangers after all. And it doesn’t look like a test is needed to verify the connection.

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