Keys | 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!

Loops-a-Daisy

November 17, 2016 Van Leave a comment

1950ish-daisy-keys-phenice-with-1st-perm-ever-done-by-betty-lou-heal

Daisy Keys Phenice circa 1950

I’ve been thinking of this photo for a little bit. I got it from a family photo album a couple of weeks ago when I went to visit my parents. I don’t really remember it from when I was younger, but I should. I was the one who put that photo album together! When I was in high school I decided to make a family album that included old photos that I found from my mom’s and dad’s collection. It included photos of their grandparents and parents and old school photos of them and all of us kids. But for some reason, this photo was forgotten by me.

It will be forgotten no more. I suppose that photo album was a precursor to what I do now. I wanted to bring the photos together and make them available for people to easily view. I do remember specifically NOT putting photos of my parents’ great grandparents in that album. They were just too old and from too long ago! Now I can’t get enough of those old photos.

And I think this one is really sweet. This is Daisy Keys Phenice (my mom’s mom’s mom – aka the source of my mitochondrial DNA). She came from England in 1887 with her mom and siblings when she was just 11 years old. I call this post “Loops-a-Daisy” because the original phrase ‘oops-a-daisy’ originated in England a few years before she was born (at least as seen in print – or so the internet search informed me). The “Loops” part of the title is because of the reason for this photo. Young Betty Lou Bucklin must have thought that her grandmother’s hair was too plain and straight for the times. So she went about giving her grandmother her first hair permanent. And then she took a photo of her achievement for all of us to witness.

I see a sweet old lady that humored her grandchild by letting her give her a new hairdo. There is a hint of a smile and she let my mom take her photo, so she must have been pleased with the outcome. I like that you can see her socks as she sits on the porch. She’s sitting off center of the photo and it is a bit skewed as well. I think the cat is another point of focus. Altogether it makes for an interesting photo to share. I just wish there were a bit more loops to see in that hairdo.

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…to the Country

October 5, 2016 Van Leave a comment

Last week I talked about how one family left England to head for the New World. Of course, in 1887 you really couldn’t call it new anymore. People had been immigrating from Europe to North America for over two hundred years. But in some ways it still was very new. Especially when comparing it to England, Ireland, and France, which is where most of my ancestors came from. I showed you the one photo I have of my ancestors’ home in Europe. Most of the other ancestors immigrated before the invention of the camera. My next most recent ancestors were the McGraths who came from Ireland around the middle of the 1840s. And just before them the Patureaus came to Louisiana in 1840.

Patureau Lane circa 1900

This photo is a photo of where those Patureaus settled after returning to Louisiana after the Civil War. This is Patureau Lane in Plaquemine. As you can see, it was definitely a new town. And this was about 30 years after they moved to the area! Just a dirt road with a few chickens scratching around, a ditch with a few boards spanning them to cross over to your house, some fences, and a few houses are all you see.

But if you think this looks bad, think about the Keys family that I talked about last week. They left a brick home with venetian blinds, no less. When they got to southern Louisiana and decided to do a little homesteading, they didn’t have a house. But their friendly neighbors (the MacVeys) were more than accommodating. They had a roomy chicken house that they were willing to put them up in. It wasn’t any ordinary chicken house, so you couldn’t call it a coop. This chicken house had a window. Pretty snazzy, right? I seriously doubt that it had venetian blinds, though. How is that for civilized?

All I can say is that we take a lot for granted – running water, a sewerage system, electricity, roads with fancy automobiles to drive around in – to name a few. Those people had to have vision and fortitude to make such huge steps into the unknown. So here’s to our ancestors – those crazy, driven, brave, believing in themselves survivors.

June 11, 2017 Update

I’ve recently discovered information about the MacVey (not to be confused with the more Irish McVey surname) family that helped out my Keys family back in 1887. The family consisted of Thomas Lord MacVey his wife Rebecca Noble MacVey, and their two sons William Lee and Frank Lincoln. One important thing I discovered was that the family had just recently started homesteading in the area and their chicken house was brand new. That’s somewhat of a relief, isn’t it? For more information about their connection to my family, read the post The Bucklin/Keys/Ausman/MacVey Connections.

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.

Mother’s Day Through the Years

May 4, 2016 Van Leave a comment

I found an assortment of information a few months ago and decided to group it together for a post for the week of Mother’s Day. The first item is an article from 31 years ago about a Mother’s Day 50 years earlier. So the Throwback is a Throwback. It’s a very interesting article, especially for me and my family. It mentions several family members from both sides of my mom’s family and even quotes them about family and motherhood.

The first family member mentioned is Mrs. H. C. Phenice, known to my family as Daisy Henrietta Martha Keys Phenice. I’ve posted a few photos of her in this series, most recently was at the beginning of last month. In 1935, she was the second oldest mother present. She was 59 years old at the time.

Mrs. Ruth (Bucklin) Bruchhaus is also mentioned as the youngest mother present. She was Fred Bucklin’s (my mom’s dad) sister and she had a young son Harley (father of Uvonne) who was born Feb. 5, 1933, just a few months before mom. Most notable to me is that in Ruth’s later years she preserved many old photos and labeled them for all of us to enjoy.

My favorite part of the article is the quote by my great grandmother Addie Mae Hine Bucklin (mother of Fred). She was the mother of twelve children, so I enjoyed reading that she spoke of the love and tenderness of a mother as she gazes upon her newborn baby as it lies in her arms planning its little life.

An interesting talk was given by Joseph Connors’ grandfather Herbert Bucklin (brother of Fred). It was questioning whether ‘modern’ mothers meet the needs of the family. I guess every generation compares themselves to the ones that came before. That was followed by a talk by Frieda (Rampmier) Bucklin (Fred’s sister-in-law) and Dora Koll (married Herbert Bucklin 2 years later). Then my grandmother Myrtle Sylvia Phenice Bucklin (wife of Fred) and her brother-in-law Roy Bucklin talked about how young people can show appreciation to their mothers.

The program concluded with my grandmother reading a poem she had written about Mother’s Day (I wish I had that!) and then the youth closed out the event with a song. So interesting to read an article with so many relatives mentioned from long ago. The older generation there were the last of the pioneers who settled that area in the late 1800s. I just realized that my two great grandmothers mentioned were both born in 1876. Daisy was five months older than Addie, so she was able to score the lovely bouquet of sweet pea intermingled with lace fern.

The photo of the group is from 1948. It has many of the same people that are mentioned in the article. Both are about the Adult Sunday School class of Raymond Methodist Church in Raymond, Louisiana.

The last photo is of my dear sweet Mama from around the same time as the other photo.

1947 - Betty Lou Bucklin2 Heal Betty Lou Bucklin

Happy Mother’s Day!

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.

Bucklin Gathering 1949

January 3, 2016 Van Leave a comment

It’s kind of hard to beat that gold mine picture from last week, so I’m not going to try. Hopefully we’ll have some fun with names this week. I tried to identify as much as I could from other photos, but wasn’t able to name them all. With the help of the Bucklin community we have everyone named. This is a photo from about 1949, probably in Hathaway. #13 is my great grandmother Addie Mae Hine Bucklin.

And as a special treat because of all of the responses (and because I just found this photo today in all of the stuff I got out of the house in Jennings while cleaning it out with my brother and sisters and nieces and nephew) I am attaching another photo of the same group on the same day. I think they took this one because when they looked at the first one closely on their phones, they could see that Grandma Addie wasn’t smiling. So they took another one. See the smile? Look really close!

Joseph discovered some other photos of this scene with more people and posted them here.

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