Category: Landry

The Landry family at Six Flags Over Texas in 1966.

I was planning on calling this post “On Vacation” or as the French would say, “En Vacances.”  But then I was looking at those six singing siblings sitting on shiny seats at Six Flags in 1966, and I had to change it.  I’ve been thinking of a big vacation trip lately, and the big trip for the Landry family back then was Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington, Texas.

We would all pile into the station wagon we had at the time and drive west toward a completely different state.  Of course, we’d play games like I Spy or Stink Pink.  Or we’d make up stupid jokes about tunas or elephants.  Sometimes we’d make the peace sign for the people in the cars behind us.  Then if they would do it back, we’d turn the peace sign into an imaginary slingshot.  We thought we were so funny.

It seemed like such a long drive back then, but it was only a few hours.  After we arrived, we’d find the campground and set up the tents.  That’s right!  We camped on the grounds at Six Flags.  We weren’t the only ones.  It’s not like we were camping on the parking lot.  I’m pretty sure it was campgrounds located at the park.  I could be wrong and it was just nearby.  Whatever the case, we’d set up two tents for the family.  One for the boys and one for the girls.  There were public restrooms where we could shower and get ready for a fun day at the theme park.

We did that camping thing at Six Flags for a few years.  Not continuously, of course.  We had to be in Jennings (Louisiana) for most of the summer so we could go to our dad’s summer band program at Northside Junior High.  Besides the grand excursions to Texas for the summers, the summer band program was the highlight.  I need to identify everyone in the photo for you in case you don’t know.  I don’t know who the person in the front seat is.  We just sat behind her and minded our own business.  The second seat has the oldest and youngest of the six siblings.  Jodie is on the left and Jamie is on the right.  On the next seat is me (Van), my mom Betty Lou Bucklin Landry, and sister Karen.  At the back of the train are Al and Rob.

So off on vacation I go.  Besides taking a break from work, I’ll be taking a break from this weekly blog.  I’m not going to Six Flags, but there will be different flags to represent the places I’m going.  A bientôt!

Robert Joseph “Bob” Landry, Jr circa 1945 probably in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

I wasn’t sure what to write about this week until this photo of my dad caught my attention.  I wasn’t sure about it, because I don’t really have much to say about it.  But it kept calling to me, so I’m going along with it.  It’s not a photo that I am overly familiar with.  I don’t remember where it came from and I don’t remember seeing it when I was younger.  It was a photo of my dad that he must have liked.  Otherwise, he wouldn’t have kept it.

I estimate that it was taken around 1945.  Robert Joseph “Bob” Landry, Jr. was born on January 31, 1929.  I’m thinking he looks around 16 years old based on other photos of him through the years.  That would put him as about a junior in high school.  His family lived in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and he went to school at Landry Memorial Senior High School. 

His junior high and high school years occurred during World War II.  He graduated from high school less than a year after the war ended.  My dad was in ROTC from 1942-1944.  I commented once that I didn’t know why he had done that, but it must have been because of the war.  The ROTC program was instrumental in training officers for the war effort.  

Another influence of the war was that there was a shortage of teachers at the schools.  It was the time that young Bob Landry became really interested in band music.  He learned how to play the baritone and several other instruments.  He taught himself for the most part and at some point, he began teaching other students at his school.  He continued teaching music to people for the rest of his life.  He always said that anybody could learn music.  He never changed his mind about that even when rock and roll became popular.  He would call a lot of it “trash,” so he really didn’t consider it music.  He would say that they might sound good if they sang instead of all of that yelling.

I often wonder what it was like during World War II at the time this photo was taken.  The fighting was pretty intense in several places and the outcome was uncertain.  Things could have turned out so differently.  When I think of that backstory for this photo, it gives it a different look.  Context is important.

I’ve been wanting to write about this for a while.  But it’s going to be a bit difficult.  It’s a sad story.  That shouldn’t be a problem, I kinda like a sad story.  I think I’ve mentioned that before when writing other tragic stories.  But this one was so long ago and there aren’t any cute photos to go along with it like last week.  I haven’t even decided what photo I’m going to use with the story.  Maybe a photo of a Landry ancestor.  Maybe an old map.  Maybe a screenshot of the family tree.  I’m just not sure.

It’s about my Landry ancestor who was Exiled from his homeland of Acadie in 1755.  His name was Pierre Landry, and he was born in Pisiquit, Acadie, in 1690 to Antoine Landry and Marie Thibodeaux.  He was the sixth of their known twelve children.  I also descend from his sisters Anne and Francoise.  Pierre grew up and married Marguerite Forest in Pisiquit in 1712.  They had seven children together.  I descend from their son Augustin and from their daughter Anne Marie.  By the time that 1755 came around, he already had twenty-one grandchildren.

When I look at this blank white page with a few black marks on it, I’m wondering how I’m going to get them to color the picture of Pierre Landry’s life and what I presume to be a stark contrast in the before and after pictures.  Because he was living in a community of mostly family and close friends.  Travel and communication were not as fast-paced then as they are now.  Acadie as a whole only consisted of several thousand individuals and it’s not likely that he knew everybody.  He lived in a tight-knit community with cousins, children, and grandchildren living nearby.

Another thing that makes the story difficult to tell is that there is not that much information about Pierre.  We know about when he was born and got married.  We know of his marriage to Marguerite Forest and their children together.  We also know that Marguerite died around 1745.  That death date is very uncertain, and it could have been closer to the 1755 date when so much turmoil began.  If she did die around 1745, Pierre would have had his large supportive family around him to help him through his loss.  If she survived through the beginning of Exile, his support system would have been shattered at that point.

Because that’s what happened during the Exile.  Families were broken apart and sent to various places to live.  The English were not happy with those French speaking Acadians in North America, so they removed them from their homes and shipped them to remote, unwelcoming ports.  Their homes and churches were destroyed, their livestock was killed, and their families were divided.  This time is known by various names – The Grand Derangement, The Great Deportation, or The Acadian Exile.  

It was a terrible time for the Acadians.  Many of them lost their lives.  There is an Acadian genealogist/researcher named Nicole Gallant Nunes who has set about gathering the names of all of those Acadians who died during that time.  I’ve been adding those names to my tree as a remembrance for those terrible times.  You quickly start to notice how many people died who were close to your ancestors. 

I’ve talked about Pierre Landry before because he was separated from his son and grandchildren in my line because of the Exile.  Augustin Landry was my 4x great grandfather and he ended up in Louisiana with his family.  I descend from his son Joseph Ignace Landry, who was born around 1753.  He most likely knew his grandfather his first few years, but then the Grand Derangement happened.  No other generation in my Landry family line knew their Landry grandfather.  Joseph Ignace could have but was prevented by tragic events.  

But that was not all that Pierre lost.  I want to talk about all of the people he lost during this period.  I thought I would start with his cousins.  Since he was sixty-five at the start of the Exile, he had already lost his parents, aunts, and uncles.  Like I said, he had a large family.  I counted that he lost at least fifty first cousins.  I’m counting their spouses in this number as well.  That’s a huge number of people to lose and it was people that he most likely knew well.  Of course, he wouldn’t have known about all of those deaths.  People were separated from their families and were not given information about them.  I’m sure they heard news about deaths and drownings and such, but not specifically about the family members you were concerned about.

I won’t even try to count the number of deaths among his first cousins’ children.  I also descend from some of his cousins and know some tragic stories in those lines.  In 1755, Pierre had nine siblings who were alive.  They were in their sixties and seventies, so not a good age to try to survive such upcoming trauma.  Within fifteen years, all of them had died.  Some of them died in various places of Exile, and a few of them died soon after settling in Quebec. 

Among Pierre’s children, three of his seven died during the first few years of the Exile.  My ancestor Anne Marie Landry was one of them.  She was married to Joseph Babin, and their family was Exiled to Upper Marlboro in Maryland, which is where she died at some point before 1763.  Her daughter Dorothee died then as well.  The rest of the family ended up in Louisiana.

Pierre’s oldest daughter Marie was Exiled to France.  Her husband Jean Theriot died at sea during the voyage in 1756.  Marie died in 1778 in France.  The Exile in France continued until 1785 for many Acadians.  Yet some decided to stay.  Maybe she had decided to stay.  I don’t know what happened to her eight children.  It’s unlikely that Pierre ever heard about what happened to his daughter.

Augustin’s family fared well during the Exile, considering what happened to other families.  They were in Maryland for 12 years and then made their way to Louisiana and settled in St. Gabriel.  His next-youngest sister Marguerite did not fare so well.  She was Exiled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with her husband Bruno Trahan.  She died there in 1757.  She had one known daughter – Margaret.  Younger brother Basile, his wife Brigitte Boudreau, and their two daughters were sent to Maryland.  They also survived and settled in Louisiana.  Bridgitte Landry was Pierre’s other daughter who did not survive the Exile.  She died before 1763 in Maryland.  The youngest son named Joseph was Exiled to Upper Marlboro with his wife and three children.  They survived and settled in Louisiana.

It’s strange that I keep thinking that Pierre “only” lost three of his seven children during that time.  There were other family groups that suffered more deaths.  Then I think of when my sister Jodie died and the effect it had on my parents.  I never wanted them to have to deal with that again.  It’s hard to know if Pierre was ever aware of those deaths.  He settled in Quebec, where he lived until 1786.  He was around 96 years old.  I would think that he found other Acadian friends and family to live nearby.  His children and their families mostly settled in Louisiana, so I don’t think he saw any of them during the last thirty years of his life.

Now that is tragic.

Family group of Pierre Landry, showing parents, siblings, and children. The names with the crosses above them are the family members that died during Exile.