Category: Keys

Keys Family Reunion 2024

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2024 Keys Family Reunion

Calling all Keys!  Calling all Keys cousins.  It is time for a reunion!  Definitely time.  The reunion this year will be on June 15, 2024, starting at 10:00.  It will be held in Hathaway (Raymond), Louisiana, at the St. Lawrence Catholic Church.  That’s right.  This year it is at the Catholic church.  The last few times it was at the Methodist Church right across the street.  So if you know how to get to the previous reunion, all you’ll have to do is show up at the place across the street to the south.  The physical address is 5505 Pine Island Highway.  It’s at the crossroads of Pine Island Highway and Raymond Highway.

As you can see by the flyer, the festivities begin at 10:00.  As usual we are encouraged to bring food to share for the covered dish feast.  That will commence around noontime.  The forenoon will be for socializing and sharing old family photos.  Wait!  It doesn’t say that.  But I am.  I want to see any interesting old family photo, especially ones that I don’t have yet.  How can I continue writing posts about old family photos if I run out of them?  We’ve got to keep it going!  You can also bring a door prize.  If enough people bring one, it’ll be like a Christmas gift exchange.

Painting of Martha Cook Keys circa 1865 in England

One thing I wanted to point out is that this is an anniversary year.  It was 130 years ago that Martha Ann Cook Keys had a party at her house for friends and family.  The local Jennings paper reported that the party was a hit and “enjoyed by all present.”  It was just seven years after she had immigrated with her five children to Louisiana.  They came from the London area of England and moved to get away from the increasing crime at the time. Her husband Henry Keys had talked about the family coming to America and was planning on doing just that.  But sadly, he died at just 63 years old.  That’s the same age that I am!  

So it was quite an accomplishment for Martha to follow through with the plan and bring the family to a new place to live.  She was very motivated to come here and it is said that she never regretted her decision.  She loved her new home in America.  I’m not talking about the house she built.  I’m talking about the country that she felt welcomed by.  Perhaps that was the reason for the party in 1894.  She and her five children had made a home in America.  

At that time, none of her children had married yet.  The oldest was only 24 years old.  Martha didn’t live long enough to see any of them marry or have children.  She died in 1896 at the age of 59.  It wasn’t until 1900 that the first one was married.  That was my great grandmother Daisy Keys who married Harry Clifton Phenice.  Her younger sister Ruth followed suit less than a year later.  Eventually, all of the children were married and started having children.  Altogether, the five children had over thirty children between them.

I’m excited about this photo that I put together.  It was just last week that I did the same with my Landry grandfather’s family.  This time it is a grouping of the photos of all five of Henry and Martha’s children – Henry “The Judge” (1870-1950), Leonard (1873-1959), Daisy (1876-1952), Ruth (1879-1967), and Mabel (1881-1962).  I’ve posted a photo of the three sisters together previously.  Those three images come from the same photo.  I got a photo of Leonard from Carolyn, the daughter of Edith Keys Segraves.  Edith was the one who wrote the amazing book about the Cook and Keys family.  

So tonight I was wanting to have all five of the families represented, because I want to encourage descendants of all of them to show up for the reunion.  I didn’t have a good photo of the oldest son “The Judge.”  I was looking through the old book by Edith Segraves and found one of him.  It was a grainy old photo, but I had hopes of improving it with the great software that is available nowadays.  I worked on it a while and I am satisfied with it.  It goes well with the rest of them.  And now I have a group photo of all five of the Keys immigrant children.  The ancestors of all of us Keys relatives who will be attending this reunion.

Behold!

Henry Alfred “The Judge”, Leonard James, Daisy Henrietta Martha, Rosetta “Ruth”, and Mabel Olve Keys circa 1894-1899.

 

Was Daisy Feeling a Little Unwell?

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My dear sweet English great grandmother Daisy Keys Phenice circa 1950, bless her.

I have been sick all week.  Sick, sick, sick.  And I’m sick of it!  My head feels like it’s in a fog most of the time and I don’t have much energy.  But I still wanted to do my family history blog post, right?  I can’t miss that.  It would let down my peeps.  With what I have planned for tonight, I still may disappoint some.

I was starting to look for something to post, and I thought about something musical.  Maybe I have another little ditty by Great Grandpa H. C. on his fiddle?  So I went searching for those recordings I got a few years ago.  I always think I’m so organized, but I find myself frustrated more often than I like when I’m looking for something specific.  Having a foggy head today wasn’t a help.  I finally found “Soldier’s Joy” and “The Irish Washerwoman.”  But I didn’t see another fiddly jig.  But then something else entered my foggy brain.

In my semi-demented stated, I thought of just the song recording that would represent how I’ve been feeling this week.  It’s a song from the same group of recordings as those others, but it wasn’t something that resonated with me until today.  Anytime I’m asked a question this week, I don’t want to answer with much effort.  It can set off coughing.  You also know I’m from a musical family.  I tend to relate things around me to certain songs, which I will start singing at random.  But with a scratchy throat and not much energy, I don’t really try for the correct pitch, and I really don’t care.  Like I said:  I’m sick, sick, sick!

So this is a recording of my mom’s maternal grandparents Harry Clifton Phenice and Daisy Keys.  Daisy is singing and playing the piano, while H. C. is accompanying her on his fiddle.  It’s a bit discordant.  It’s bit off key.  It’s exactly how I felt inside my head this week.  I wonder if Daisy was a bit unwell back then?  Let’s give her the benefit of the doubt.

For the Love of Cats

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Little Boy in 2013 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Last week I wrote a sad post about one of my ancestors receiving a letter talking about the impending death of his sister due to cancer.  It hit home with me, because our favorite cat was dying of cancer when I wrote it.  We got two cats eleven years ago.  The female cat was named Bella and her little brother from the next litter was named Cocoa.  But we always just called them Little Girl and Little Boy.  A few weeks ago, we found out that he had cancer and this past Saturday he died.

He was such a gregarious cat.  He was especially fond of Chuck.  Anytime he was inside, that cat was either walking around him or sitting on or next to him.  He especially liked to be around us in the evenings when we’d watch television.  I’d invariably be coaxed into making a tent with my legs and a blanket so Little Boy could have a cozy little place to stay.  

When he was content, he liked to let us know.  He’d meow a bit and then we’d start exchanging “What?”s and “Meow!”s.  This behavior is what led us to sometimes calling him Squeaky Boy.  As you can see by the photo of him, he was also a pretty boy.  

His sister did not appear to be as fond of him.  She seemed to resent the fact that she had to share the house with her younger brother.  She would hiss and swat at him when he walked by her.  Sometimes they would get into fights and growl at each other.  

But now that he’s gone, it’s a bit quieter.  No more squeaking.  No more tents.  An empty lap.  We miss that little cat.  And unexpectedly, Little Girl is missing him, too.  She jumps on the bed, then looks back to see if her brother is going to join her like he usually did.  Instead of whining for food in the morning like she usually does, she’s going around looking for him.  She even crawled under the blanket to see if she could find him.  It’s hard to explain to her that he’s not coming back.  She doesn’t understand what we’re saying, but we do.  And we miss him.

Betty Lou Bucklin with a cat in 1935 in Hathaway, Louisiana.

It’s time for me to turn this into my family history blog post.  Little Boy is now part of my family history.  But he’s not the first cat that was in my family.  I remembered that I had photos of both of my mom’s grandmothers with cats.  So I went looking for those photos in my mom’s old family photos.  I was surprised to find a picture of my mom with a cat when she was a young girl.  I never thought my mom was fond of cats.  Maybe young Betty Lou Bucklin was.

But I’m pretty sure her Bucklin grandmother was fond of cats.  My mom’s dad was Fred Bucklin.  His mother was Addie May Hine Bucklin, and she was fond of cats.  I’ve already established in previous posts that she was fond of dogs.  I have a sweet recording of her talking about her little dog Sammy and his brush with death.  There are several photos of her with dogs throughout her life.  

Grandma Addie with her cat in 1937.

But there are also some photos of her with at least one cat.  Those photos were taken in 1937 at the old Bucklin homestead.  The reason I say that it is in 1937 is because that’s what is written on the bottom of the photo.  I love it when that is done.  No guessing.  No looking for vague clues.  No wondering if I’m missing something so glaringly obvious.

And though to look at the first photo of her with the cat, one would not necessarily say that she was fond of said cat.  But these photos come from an old photo album that I’m thinking was put together by Grandma Addie.  It might have been put together by one of her dozen children.  I don’t know.  But the pictures were taken at her old home, and the cat seems to be at her feet in a few photos.  There’s even a photo of the cat by itself.

Daisy Keys Phenice sitting on her porch with her cat behind her in 1950 in Hathaway, Louisiana.

My mom’s mom was named Myrtle Sylvia Phenice Bucklin.  Her mother was Daisy Keys Phenice.  She may or may not have had a love of cats.  She lived on a farm, so she probably appreciated the usefulness of cats.  Even my mom spoke positively about cats in that regard.  They help to keep rats and other vermin away from the feed for the farm animals.  We had a few cats that lived outside when I was just a toddler and we lived in the country.  

I’ve shared this photo of my great grandmother before.  It was taken after my mom gave her grandmother her first permanent wave for her hair.  Sitting behind her on the porch is a cat.  The cat looks very much at home on the porch.  I can’t tell what the cat is sitting next to.  It always makes me think of a dumbbell or a set of weights on the porch.  But I don’t think my great grandmother was known for pumping iron!  I’m not sure what it is, but the cat doesn’t seem to be bothered by whatever it is.

My cat Kew in 2000. He was a garden cat.

I can’t write a post about cats without posting a photo of my favorite cat.  Look at those eyes.  I got Kew from a coworker in 1997.  He was not a gregarious cat.  He was only friendly to me.  He tolerated Chuck.  He was mostly a garden cat.  Back then we lived at our house that we called Cloud’s End that was on a half-acre lot.  It was mostly garden.

I had a website for Cloud’s End for a long time that I used to share photos of plants and flowers.  In a blurb about the garden, one writer called Kew the mascot for Cloud’s End.  I always thought that was appropriate, and he even took a photo of Kew.  Most of our friends thought that Kew was a figment of my imagination – Van’s imaginary cat friend. 

That’s because whenever people would come around, Kew would disappear.  He didn’t go far, because as soon as they would leave, Kew would nonchalantly walk back into view.  Fortunately for me, Kew was photogenic.  So I had proof that he wasn’t imaginary.  Though he stayed out most of the day, when evening came, he would come to the window and scratch to be let in.  Then he’d spend the rest of the evening laying on my chest or sitting on my lap at the computer.

And though Kew was my favorite, Little Boy came in a very close runner up.  Surprisingly close.

 

The Keys Family in England Circa 1878

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The Keys at their home in the London area of England, in late1870s.

I’ve been planning on posting this photo for about six years.  I posted an inferior version of the photo in September of 2016.  That one came from a print in the Edith Keys Segraves’ book “Cook-Keys Family: Two Centuries in England and America.”  It looked like a Xerox copy of an old photo.  It was tolerable, but I wanted better.  Thankfully, Edith Keys Segraves took good care of the photo and passed it down to her children.  In 2017 I got in touch with one of her daughters, who graciously let me borrow several photos so I could scan them and photograph them.  (Thanks again, Carolyn!)

The Keys family that I’m talking about include my great great grandparents Henry Keys and Martha Cook Keys.  Before they were married, they each had their own professions.  Henry was a tinsmith for many years, while Martha had a successful dress shop in London.   Some people may have thought that Henry was a confirmed bachelor, because he was single until the age of 47.  But then at some point probably in the late 1860s, he met Martha Ann Cook.  Martha was no spring chicken herself – she was 32 or 33 at that time.  It must have been love.

They were married on November 8, 1869, at St. James Church in the Parish of Shoreditch.  I believe it was part of the Church of England.  After their wedding, they made their home at 6 Field View Terrace in Hackney.  Shoreditch is a district in the East End of London in England and forms the southern part of the London Borough of Hackney.  Both Henry and Martha continued their chosen professions, and while doing so they started a family.  How very modern of them!  Henry Alfred Keys (later known as “The Judge” by his family in Kinder, Louisiana) was born March 18, 1870.  (She had a very short pregnancy! 😉 ) Their next child was another son.  He was also their last son.  Leonard James Keys was born on April 16, 1873.  (He would later become the father of Edith Keys, the family historian.) 

Henry, Martha, Henry Alfred, and Leonard welcomed a new addition to the family on April 20, 1876.  Finally, they had a little girl.  They named her Daisy Henrietta Martha Keys.  Her middle names came from Martha and her younger sister Henrietta.  Henrietta had a Keys family of her own – she was married to Henry’s younger brother William.  So Daisy was born into a large family.  She had her parents, her brothers, several aunts and uncles, and many cousins including eight double first cousins.  Her double first cousins lived in the London area as well, though in the Islington area.  Of importance to me is that Daisy would later be the mother of my maternal grandmother Myrtle Phenice Bucklin – the source of my mitochondrial DNA.  But you can just refer to her as my great grandmother.

Next to join the family was Rosetta Ruth Keys.  Ruth was born on Jan. 13, 1879.  She was the last of the children to be born while the family lived at 6 Field View Terrace.  In about 1880 the family moved to 70 Tiverton Road in Tottenham.  I suppose they must have moved to a larger house to make room for their growing family.  It’s what families usually do.  Tottenham, like Islington, is in North London.  The family would be closer to Henrietta and William’s family.  It is also closer to Walthamstow, which is where Martha and Henriette’s Cook family were from.  There could be other family connections that I’m not aware of.

The last child of Martha and Henry was born December 8, 1881.  She was named Mabel.  I guess they decided five children would be enough.  Every family should have a fifth!  I just say this because I’m a fifth.  I’m not sure if Mabel had been born yet when this photo was taken.  The information I saw about it says that it was taken before 1884 in Hackney.  I’m thinking that if it was taken at the Keys home in Hackney, it would have been taken before 1880.  They moved to Tottenham after that.

Even though this photo is clearer than the first version I had, it’s still a bit blurry.  Henry looks rather dapper standing up in front just behind the iron fence.  He looks as though he may have been smoking a pipe.  This could just be a smudge on the photo.  I can’t tell for sure.  Martha is sitting down to the left of him.  There is nothing of her face to make out.  She does look like she was dressed nicely.  I can make out Henry Alfred standing in front of the window.  He is decidedly older than the boy to the right of him who must be Leonard.  The only other person I think I can make out is a little girl sitting to the right of the photo within the fenced area.  That would be little Daisy when she was a young girl!  

I’m thinking the photo was taken around 1878.  That’s before 1884, so I’m not contradicting the information I was given.  The next few years were probably an ideal time for little Daisy.  Her two little sisters were born, and she was probably learning to sew from her mother.  It was said that they learned at a very young age.  They had some good years before the tragic death of her father when she wasn’t quite 10 years old.  This photo was a view back to that sweet time in the family’s life.  That’s probably why it survived the years.  I’m glad it did.

Keys Reunion 1976

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My grandparents Myrtle and Fred Bucklin at the Keys Family Reunion in 1976.

I thought I would share a few photos from the 1976 Keys Family Reunion.  The event was held on Saturday July 10, 1976.  I’m not sure where it was held.  It was definitely in southern Louisiana.  It was probably in Jennings, Hathaway, Kinder, or someplace like that.  I shared a photo from the event back in June of 2018.  It was a photo of my maternal grandmother Myrtle Phenice Bucklin and her Keys cousins.  Her mother was Daisy Keys Phenice, an English immigrant.

This photo is of Grandma and Grandpa.  Grandpa would be Myrtle Phenice Bucklin’s husband Fred D. Bucklin.  They were married in 1930 and my mom Betty Lou was their second child.  Actually, you can see my mom in the background of this photo in the pinkish-looking top.  I think it was actually a red checkered print.  She is talking to her cousin Kathleen Phenice Montgomery.  Behind Grandma is Tommy Campbell.  He is married to Julie, another of my mom’s first cousins.  There are other cousins in the background that I don’t recognize.

The summer of 1976 was an eventful summer.  The whole country was celebrating the Bicentennial that year.  Back then I wrote a few posts on my blog.  One of the posts was about marching in the Bicentennial parade.  Of course I was in the band: my father was a band director!  And since we all sang and played musical instruments, we had a family band.  And it was in June of 1976 that we started playing our most notable gig at the Shakey’s Pizza Parlor in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  I blogged about that back then as well.  I even mentioned a picnic I went on with the Catholic Youth group and another outing with the Baptist group.

The Keys Family Band (AKA The Landry Family Band) sang at the 1976 Keys Reunion. We were joined by some of our musical kinfolk.

But I didn’t mention this family reunion for the Keys family!  I skipped right over it.  You would think I would mention it.  My blog posts now are all about family history.  And as you can see from this other photo, our family sang at the reunion as well.  I’m thinking that we went to the reunion and sang, then later that night we went to Shakey’s to perform our regular Saturday night appearance.  Would we skip Shakey’s to go to a family reunion?  I wish I could remember.  And it’s a shame that young Van was foolish and overlooked writing about it back then.

In the photo from left to right:  Karen, Jamie, and I were sitting at a picnic table.  I never really liked this photo of myself.  I had such terrible posture back then!  I probably still do.  I know I slouch in my chair at work all of the time.  But I don’t have groovy bell-bottomed pants anymore!  Those didn’t make it through the 70s. 

The next thing in the photo is my trombone.  It looks so shiny.  I think this was probably right after we had it relacquered.  It was my dad’s before I got it, and I think he had it back in the early 1950s.  The top of the trombone is blocked by the elbow of Tommy Campbell.  Blocking Tommy’s face is Cousin Kathleen.  Next is Kathleen’s daughter Gwynne Montgomery.  It looks like the cousins are discussing musical choices with Al on the guitar, mom with the microphone, and my dad – Robert Joseph “Bob” Landry – on the electric bass.

The entertainment at the 1976 Keys Family Reunion

The last photo is another one of the entertainers.  That is Kathleen, Tommy, Gwynne, Al, Mama, and Daddy.  Al is playing the guitar that my dad had for many years.  It was always hanging on the wall of our den at 758 Lucy Street in Jennings, Louisiana.  Except when someone was playing it. 

My mom is holding a microphone, but not HER microphone.  She didn’t like the way she sounded on the one she’s holding in this photo.  That’s the one my dad usually used.  My mom thought her voice sounded too shrill with that mic.  That’s why she’s holding it like it’s a snake!

If you look closely, you can see the banjo in the background between mom and dad.  My dad got that one after his uncle Vincent Patureau died in 1956.  I have it now.  My dad is holding a black electric bass.  I have nothing interesting to say about that.  I do have something to say about that little brown box sitting on top of the Fender amplifier.  That is Sticks.  He was the drummer for the Landry Family Band. 

That’s right, we had a drum machine to accompany us on our songs.  It was a newfangled thing at the time, and it had a wide variety of settings.  We had the perfect setting for each song that we played that was written on the top corner of the page.  It was the best that we could do, since none of us played the drums.  Besides, we wouldn’t have had room for a set of drums on that Shakey’s stage.  Sticks didn’t take up much space.

The Irish Washerwoman by HC in ’43

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I told everyone that I was going to share something special from my mom’s side of the family this week, and I definitely think that this fits the bill.  It is a recording of my great grandfather Harry Clifton Phenice playing the song “The Irish Washerwoman” on his fiddle on June 12, 1943, in Hathaway, Louisiana.  At least that’s what the woman in the recording says at the beginning of the group of songs that are on the disk I have.  It probably is on that date, but it could have been from another recording session around the same time.

Harry Clifton Phenice circa 1949. I wasn’t planning on posting a photo, but I thought I’d go ahead and post this rough one. I have another one of him from the same day where he is smiling.

Harry, or H. C. as he was mostly known, was my maternal grandmother Myrtle Phenice Bucklin’s father.  He was born in Pennsylvania, grew up in Kansas and Nebraska, and ended up in Louisiana as an adult.  He was married to the most recent immigrant of my ancestors – Daisy Henrietta Keys Phenice from London, England.  She came with her mother, brothers, and sisters to the United States in 1887 at 11 years of age.  Her father Henry Keys had played the violin or fiddle and I think that her mother had played the piano.  The only portrait of Martha Ann Cook Keys shows her with her hand touching a piano.  Henry died before the family moved to America, but his violin came with them.  The violin is still owned by a family member to this day.

So Daisy was around music most of her life.  That continued when she married H. C., who was a fiddler like her father.  I wonder if they played any of the same songs.  “The Irish Washerwoman” is known as an Irish song (hence the name!), but some people claim there are English origins to the song.  The song has been around since 1785, so her father could have known it. 

She was fond of her husband’s fiddling, at least according to family lore.  Once he went to play in a local music contest and she asked him what he would play.  He told her that he hadn’t decided yet.  He would make up his mind once he got there.  Well, come to find out, he played a slower song and lost the competition to Daisy’s brother Leonard.  Daisy said that he would have won the competition – over her brother playing with their father’s violin – if he had played something more lively like “The Irish Washerwoman.”  That’s the story told by my grandmother’s younger sister Marguerite in some of her writing.  I’m sure Marguerite nor Daisy were biased in any way when judging musical talent!

I love that we have recordings of my great grandfather playing his fiddle.  It’s only because of his son Sylvan’s interest in radio and sound systems.  He cut those old records back in the 40s and they’ve been preserved in one form or another since then.  I know for sure they’ve been on reel-to-reel tape, cassette tapes, computer disk, and now on iPhone recordings.  That’s probably why they are a little rough around the edges.  But you can still hear the lively tune and you may even be tempted to dance a little jig!  Accompanying H. C. on the fiddle is his wife Daisy on the piano.  The way she plays reminds me of the way my mom played when our family sang at Shakey’s and other get togethers. 

The recording starts out a little slow, but then H. C. starts playing.  The fiddle playing is really interesting.  He seems to play around with the rhythms of the song.  I can’t really explain it well, you’ll just have to listen.  I wish I had a photo of him playing the fiddle.  That would be nice.  I wonder what ever happened to that fiddle of his?  That would be nice to find out.

But for now, enjoy the sounds from the past.

 

Sue & Jennie’s 20th Birthday Bash

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Birthday Celebration for Susan Stanbrough Hine and Edessa Jane Havenar on Oct. 3, 1926 in Raymond, Louisiana.

I have written a few posts that mention the 20th Annual Birthday Celebration of Mrs. Susan G. Hine and Mrs. W. E. Havenar.  My cousin Joseph shared some old photos from that event, so I shied away from writing about it before.  But I need to write about it.  There are some things I want to say.  First of all, the Sue mentioned in the title would be my great great grandmother Susan G. Stanbrough Hine.  I usually like to refer to her as Grandma Sue.   She was the mother of six children, and the oldest was her only daughter Addie May Hine Bucklin.  Addie was the mother of my grandfather Fred Bucklin.  He was the father of Betty Lou Bucklin, who was my mother.  The Jennie mentioned in the title was Edessa Jane “Jennie” Welton Havenar.  The two of them were friends who happened to share the same birthday:  October 3.

Newspaper article from 1926.

The newspaper article about the two women celebrating their birthday talk about how it was the 20th annual celebration.  Does that mean it was the 20th time they had the party?  I don’t really need to be that picky, but I also have an article from 1906 that describes that first celebration.  If they had it every year after that, the celebration in 1926 would be the 21st time they had it.  But it would also be the 20th anniversary of their first big bash.  Either way, Sue was celebrating her 75th birthday and Jennie was celebrating her 60th.  Grandma Sue is the older woman on the right side of the photo in the black dress.

Many of their family members and friends were also celebrating these two girls’ birthday.  And many of their family members and friends were relatives of mine.  There were family members from all of my mom’s side of the family.  There were many Keys, Hine, and Phenice family members mentioned in the newspaper article.  Both of my mom’s parents are in the photo, but it was before they were married.  My grandparents Fred Bucklin and Myrtle Phenice were married in 1930. 

I was going to say that even though they weren’t married yet, their families were already connected through the marriage of Fred’s sister Mary and Myrtle’s brother Sylvan earlier in 1926.  But the newspaper doesn’t list them together.  They list them separately as Mary Bucklin and Sylvan Phenice.  And newspapers were very particular about how they listed married people back then.  You see that Jennie is listed as Mrs. W. E. Havenar.  That’s because she was married to William Edward Havenar AND he was still alive.  Sue, on the other hand, was a widow.  So they use her given name of Susan and call her Mrs. Susan G. Hine.  If her husband had still been alive, they would have referred to her as Mrs. G. H. Hine – my great great grandfather was George Henry Hine.  I like my posts to be more personal, so I refer to them as Sue and Jennie.

But the newspaper article lists Mary and Sylvan separately, so it makes me question the information I have about their marriage date.  But I didn’t want to focus on them so much, I wanted to point out all of the family members that are in the photo.  Fred is the guy on the second row with the bow tie.  It might be his identical twin brother Clarence, but I think it is Fred.  You can find Myrtle by following the large branch that comes in from the right of the large tree trunk.  When it runs into the hat, the person in front of the hat is my grandmother. You can only see her head because she is directly behind two other women.  If you look to the left of Myrtle, there is a man in a straw hat.  That’s Myrtle’s brother Sylvan.  Between Myrtle and Sylvan is Mary Bucklin.  She is standing next to Daisy Keys Phenice, the mother of Myrtle.  Myrtle’s father Harry C. Phenice is standing next to Daisy and is wearing a white shirt.

I’m not going to list everyone.  I don’t even know them all.  I just wanted to show you the ones I descend from.  Even though Addie was at the event and is in several photos, I do not see her in this one.  Her husband Louis Bucklin was also alive at the time, but he avoided having his photo taken.  Part of that could be due to the fact that he lost an eye earlier on.  He had a glass eye that I believe is in a cousin’s possession.  I have never seen it – with either of my eyes.  Louis died the following year.  If you are interested in seeing more identified people, you can check out the post that Joseph wrote a few years ago.  There is a photo with the people numbered so they can be identified.  It is an ongoing project to identify as many of the people as possible. 

Or you can just enjoy looking at all of the faces of the people who helped Sue and Jennie celebrate their birthdays all those years ago.  It’s a great old photo.

Keys Reunion 2022

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I was asked/encouraged by a cousin to make sure that I reminded all of our Keys cousins about the Keys Family Reunion this year.  Since I was planning on doing that already, I had no problem at all with agreeing to the request.  I do enjoy getting ideas from cousins, but sometimes it doesn’t necessarily become a post for this blog.  I’m never exactly sure what I’m going to end up writing about from week to week.

But I did want to write about the Keys Family Reunion and invite all of the Keys relatives to attend.  It will be on Saturday, June 18th at the Raymond Methodist Church.  It will begin at 10:00.  And according to my reputable source, it is requested that you “bring a covered dish, cold drinks, and if possible, something to put in the door prize giveaway.”  In addition, per my personal request, bring any old family photo to share. 

June 10, 1973, in Iowa, Louisiana. This was the first Keys Family Reunion that I attended.

This is a photo that one of our Keys cousins shared with me.  One of the famed family historian Edith Keys Segraves’ daughters shared it with me a while back.  It is a photo from the first Keys family reunion that I ever went to.  It took place on June 10, 1973, in Iowa, Louisiana.  I was only twelve years old at the time.  That was long before I developed an interest in family history.  I’ve shared a few other photos from that day, but this one is a little different.  There were a lot of people taking pictures on that day.

The reunion was a gathering of all of the descendants of Martha Cook Keys, who brought her five children to America in 1887.  Her children were Henry Alfred “The Judge,” Leonard, Daisy, Ruth, and Mabel.  This group photo is of the descendants of Daisy Keys Phenice, which includes me and my siblings, my parents, my maternal grandmother, and many cousins.

My grandmother Myrtle Phenice Bucklin is sitting on a chair in a light green dress.  She is surrounded by a few people wearing pinkish/magenta clothing.  Sitting to the left of her is her sister Grace Phenice Sowder.  In front of her is her grandson John Bucklin.  Behind her are my older sisters Karen and Jodie in their dark blue tops.  Jodie is wearing the pinkish pants.  To the left of Karen is our 2nd cousin Patricia Sowder.  Next to her is our first cousin Keith Woolley.  To the left of him is my sister and I am standing on the other side of her in my striped brown shirt.

Keys Family Reunion from 1997 in Jennings, Louisiana.

Here is a more recent photo from a Keys Family Reunion.  I’m in this one, too.  And, no, that young boy is not me.  That’s my nephew James Fontenot.  This was taken in 1997 in Jennings, Louisiana.  I am sitting at the table eating on the far left of this photo.  My back is toward the camera, but that’s me.  I’m sitting at the table with my dad – Bob Landry, uncle Ernie Waldorf, George, and my mom’s sister Alma Bucklin Waldorf.  My sister Karen (mother of James) is all in pink and she is talking to our sister-in-law Tammy Tarsi Landry.  My brother Al is standing next to them, though you can’t see his face either.  I’m sure they were all discussing little Alex Landry who is not in the stroller.  I don’t see her, but she was just a year old at this time and we all gushed over her cute curls.

I hope these photos encourage you to attend.  I’m sure we’ll be taking photos and making new memories with all of our cousins.  So come join us on the 18th of June in Raymond.  We’ll treat you like family!

 

Calling All Keys – Unite!

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It’s time again.  That’s right.  We are overdue for a Keys Reunion.  The last one was in 2019. With the pandemic happening the past two years, we were unable to meet.  But now things have settled down and we can meet again, just like we have for many years.  It will be held on June 18th (a Saturday) at the Raymond Methodist Church at 10:00am until…bring your favorite dish and drink!  A fun time will be had by all.

Keys family reunion in June of 1973.

Can you believe it has been almost fifty years since that First Keys Reunion in 1973?  So much has changed since then.  The biggest change recently is that my Uncle Austin passed away earlier this month.  He died a week before his 80th birthday.  He will be missed.

I do love this old photo, though I do notice that a lot of people are no longer with us.  But that is the way with families.  The older generation passes on and the younger generation carries on.  Sometimes we lose touch with relatives.  So that’s what the reunion is for – we can get together and reconnect.  We do share a great family heritage from our Keys family.  I do hope that I’ve shared enough photos and stories of the family for you to see that.

But if you don’t believe me, maybe you’ll listen to my great grandmother Daisy Keys Phenice.  After all, she was born a Keys.  She and her four siblings – Leonard, Henry Alfred “The Judge,” Ruth, and Mabel – gave rise to all of the hundreds of family members in that Keys family spreading out from southern Louisiana.  Maybe she will entice you to attend the event.  Just touch or click on the photo below and it will come to life.

Daisy Keys circa 1894

Phenice Family Circa 1917

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H.C., Warren, Orville, Henry, and Daisy Phenice circa 1917.

This is a picture that was shared with me a few years ago at the Keys Family Reunion.  It was an easy enough way to share it – they brought the photo to the reunion and I took a photo of it.  I should keep track of who shares photos with me, that way I can thank them properly.  I do appreciate whoever it was that brought the photo.  It makes me wonder how many other photos are out there that I would find interesting enough to share on my blog.

The reason it was shared at the Keys Family Reunion is because of the woman in the photo.  She would be my great grandmother Daisy Keys Phenice.  She was born in England in 1876 and moved to America with her mother and siblings when she was 11.  The family settled in the Hathaway, Louisiana, area.  She grew up, and at the age of 24 she got married to Harry Clifton Phenice.  A year later they had their first child Sylvan.  In 1903 Grace was born.  My grandmother Myrtle was born in 1906.  She was followed by Henry in 1909, Orville in 1911, and Warren in 1916.  That brings us to the year the photo was taken.

So actually this is H.C. and Daisy with half of their children in 1917.  I wish that my grandmother was in the photo, too.  Maybe she was taking the photo.  She was about 11 years old when this photo was taken and would have been in elementary school with her friend Emily Brown.  In old letters they talked about going to school together and riding the buggy.  Sometimes Orville and Henry would go along or rode horseback.  For some reason I always pictured older brothers riding along for protection, but this is the age that they would have been!  At least they had company!

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