Category: Leveque

The Ancient Family Plot

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Van Landry taking selfie with great great great grandfather Amedee Bujol at St. John the Baptist Catholic Cemetery in Brusly, Louisiana.

Most of my posts are about photos of my ancestors, which is somewhat limiting because photography hasn’t been around very long, genealogically speaking.  I don’t have any photos of my great great great grandparents.  I have photos of most of my great great grandparents.  The only set of great great grandparents that I don’t have photos of happen to also be my great great great grandparents.

The couple in question are Narcisse Landry and his wife Marie Carmelite Hebert Landry.  They were Pee Paw’s (my paternal grandfather) grandparents and Mee Maw’s (my paternal grandmother) great grandparents.  There, that makes everything clear.

Since I don’t have photos of the individual, sometimes I’ll take selfies with their headstone.  Isn’t that sweet?  Or is it morbid?  Either way, I do it.  I have one of myself with Martha Ann Cook Keys and now I have one with Amedee Bujol.

I took this photo almost two weeks ago.  It was a Sunday afternoon and I was thinking to myself, “I want to take a picture of myself with dead people!”  No, not really.  I had a few spare hours and thought I’d take a quick hop across the Mighty Mississip to check out the Brusly cemetery.  I knew that we had some ancestors buried out there and it was a nice overcast day.  Cemeteries are downright miserable in the summer.  Out in the burning heat and there are usually no trees for shade.

Graves of several family members are located in this small area of the cemetery.

But on a day like that, it is perfect for ‘digging up bones’ as my mom liked to call it.  It took me maybe 15 minutes to get from my house to the spot that I parked in that you see in this photo.  I just pulled in a little ways into the graveyard and got out of my car to start looking.

It didn’t take long to find what I was looking for.  I actually couldn’t have parked any closer.  The main person I was looking for was 1) Marie Francoise Leveque Bujol, my 4th great grandmother.  Francoise was the mother of 2)Amedee from the selfie and he was the father of Amelie ‘Belite’ Bujol who married Trasimond Landry.  They were the parents of Marie Therese Landry Patureau, who was Mee Maw’s mother that died in 1909.

I had seen photos of Francoise’s headstone, so I knew what to look for.  The marker has the writing “Veuve Sylvester Bujol” which means the widow of Sylvester Bujol.  I didn’t see his headstone, but I know that he died in 1824.  With her death given as 1875, that means she had been a widow for over 50 years when she died.

Her son Amedee’s wife Anna Adele Landry also outlived her husband.  She was known as the Veuve Bujol as well and is referred as such in the book about Trasimond Landry called “The Tirailleurs.”  Her grave is not at this cemetery.  (2020 Update – I found the death notice for Anna Adele Bujol, so now I know that she outlived her husband by almost 42 years.  It states that she was buried in this cemetery, yet I haven’t been able to find it.)

It is rumored that Trasimond is buried at this cemetery.  There is a headstone for his mother 3) Marie Carmelite Hebert Landry.  She was the wife of Narcisse Landry.  The rumor also states that Narcisse could be buried here as well.  The rumor comes from family members who have been searching for those graves.  When you look at Marie Carmelite’s grave, you can see plenty of real estate around it.  It is thought that Narcisse and Trasimond are buried on either side of her.

Marie Carmelite and Narcisse are my great great grandparents because they are the father of Simon Alcide Landry.  He moved to the western part of the state in the mid to late 1880s with his family and he was buried in Lake Charles.

And though Narcisse may not have been buried in the St. John the Baptist Catholic Cemetery, we know for sure that some of his brothers were.  I found two of their graves.

The most important brother that I found was Narcisse’s half brother 5) Emmanuel Landry.  The reason I claim his importance is because I also descend from Emmanuel.  He was the father of the Anna Adele that I mentioned earlier.  Not only that, he was the father of Clarissa Doralise and Marguerite ‘Baselite’ Landry, the two wives of my great great grandfather Joseph August Leveque (also buried in Lake Charles).

His wife 4) Celeste Bruneteau Landry’s headstone is at this cemetery as well.  As you can see from the photos, they are large concrete graves that are above the ground.  Sitting on top of Celeste’s grave was a broken marker for Valerien Landry.  His grave must be nearby.  He was another brother of Narcisse Landry.  I don’t descend from him.  Imagine that.

So I descend from Narcisse through two of his sons.  Then I descend from his half brother Emmanuel through two daughters.  Through these connections, I am my own double half 5th cousin once removed.  And that’s not all.  I descend through Narcisse’s brother Onezime through his daughter Marie Emma Landry, the wife of the Patureau immigrant Pierre Ferdinand.  They are the progenitors for all of the Patureaus in southern Louisiana that I know of.

J. H. Amedee Bujol died June 28, 1857, in his 42nd year. He was full of honor, esteemed, loyal, always sincere. He was always a good son, a good husband, and a good father. (roughly translated)

So the people in these graves are part of the great entanglements in my family tree.  I can’t really complain about any of that, because if any of that would have been different, I wouldn’t be here.  And neither would a lot of you reading this.

It’s always interesting to me to see the final resting place of some of my people.  Even though it is a place for the dead, I know that many of my family lived and breathed at this same location.  Mourning their loved ones who came before them.  The cycle continues.

I thought I’d put the family tree for my paternal grandmother on here since all of the graves I found are in her tree.  I also thought I’d add the numbers that are associated with the graves pictured in the second photo on this post.

Family tree showing my grandmother’s ancestors. One correction – I have since found that her maternal great grandmother Anna Adele Landry died on Mar. 13, 1899.

Celeste and the Cistern

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Marie Celest Leveque Landry

Grandma Celeste visiting Lake Charles in the late 1920s.

Here is another photo that I got from the AJ Collection.  It is from around the late 1920s and was taken in Lake Charles.  That is my dad’s paternal grandmother. (Van’s dad is Bob, Bob’s dad is Rob, Rob’s mom is this woman.)  Her name was Marie Celeste Leveque Landry and she lived her whole life in Louisiana.  Let me give you some background facts about her.

Celeste was born in 1847 in Brusly, Louisiana.  Her parents were Joseph Auguste Leveque and Marie Basalite Landry Leveque.  She was the 2nd of 9 children by her father’s second wife.  Since the first wife was her mother’s sister, the children from that union were Celeste’s half siblings and half cousins – 3/4 siblings.

When she was born, the family owned a plantation in the Brusly area where they had 60 individuals enslaved and forced to work for them.  Since she was born in 1847, her whole childhood would have been in that environment.  And when the Civil War came along, many of her siblings and cousins fought for the Confederacy.  Would she have considered her childhood happy?  I wonder.

She married one of those cousins that fought in the Civil War.  She married Simon Alcide Joseph Landry on November 24, 1868, in West Baton Rouge Parish.  They had ten children together including my grandfather Robert Joseph Landry who was born in 1893.  That means that Celeste was 47 years old when she gave birth to him!  That’s pretty old.

But it’s not as old as she was when this photo was taken.  She was around 80 years old at the time of this photo.  Yet she still has a little vanity left.  Why do I say this?  Because you can see that she has taken her glasses off for the photo and is holding them in her hand.  Trying to look her best for the photo.  I can just imagine a conversation with her about this photo:

Grandma Celeste asks me, “Why are you putting that old photo on the Facebook?  I look so old in it.  You could at least remove that bump on my neck with all your fancy gadgetry.”

I tell her, “I already removed a possible bump on your cheek.  I want it to look as good as it can, but I also want it to reflect what you actually looked like then without too many changes.  I posted a photo that showed you when you were young and pretty.  Now I’m showing one of when you were older and more dignified.”

“Hmmph!” she snorts, “Old and decrepit is more like it.  At least I’m not wearing my bed clothes like you’ve done to other family members!  I wouldn’t mind if you fixed my blouse to make it straight across the bottom.”

“Like I said,” I patiently explain to her, “I like to keep it as real as possible.”

“You and your ‘really real’ shenanigans,” she says with exasperation, “If only you would treat your ancestors as well as that darned sock monkey of yours!  Now I’m making an edit of the photo myself.  There.”

“Hey,” I say as I notice her smile is gone from the photo,  “You put a scowl on your face!”

She just scowls at me and disappears with a shake of her head.

Eenie Meenie Mee Maw Mo

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Mrs. Robert J. Landry Jr. and mother-in-law

Germaine Erie Patureau Landry, little Landry children, and Marie Celeste Leveque Landry circa 1930.

Here is a photo that I got from uncle A. J. last month.  I think it is from the earlier 1930s.  The person with the child in her lap is my paternal grandmother Germaine Erie Patureau Landry.  When I got those photos from A. J., I realized there were more photos of my dad’s siblings when they were children than I had ever known.  I had seen a few of them ever since I was a youngster.  I remember seeing some of my dad when he was just a toddler wearing a dress and thinking that was strange.  Other people in my generation must have thought the same thing, because nowadays most people dress their children to match their gender.

After I got home with the photos and scanned them all, I shared a few previews with some of my cousins.  This always leads to them sharing some of their photos as well.  Yet more childhood photos of those Robert Joseph Landry, Sr. family members!  We are going to have to get together and study these photos thoroughly, because they are not all dated and labeled.  Like this one.  No names, years, or locations.  I’m sure none of you neglect to label your photos, especially after I have encouraged you to label them.  (On a side note – I could have sworn that I labeled every photo that went into my photo albums.  But I would have been lying!  I thought I did, but several times I have gone to one photo album or another and looked on the back of a photo to find a date.  And I found nothing.  Well, not nothing.  I did put the frame number from the roll of film that I took.  But what good is that if I don’t know when it was taken???  I digress.)

So this photo is of my wonderful Mee Maw who definitely knew who she was holding in this photo!  But she’s not talking.  I don’t think it’s Marie, since there is an older child showing in the photo.  Maybe it is A. J. and that is Marie sticking her foot into the photo.  Of course it could be Hubert, Germaine, Bobbie (my dad, Robert Joseph Landry, Jr.), or Wana.  They were all born pretty close in age to one another.  It couldn’t have been the younger ones, because of who else is in the photo.

On the far right of the photo is Mee Maw’s mother-in-law (and double half 2nd cousin once removed) Marie Celeste Leveque Landry who died February 10, 1934.  Though she lived in Lake Charles from about 1890 to 1925, she was living in Lafayette with uncle Seb in 1930 (according to the census;  She was buried in Lake Charles.)  But I’m sure she had to come visit her little darlings in Lake Charles.  I’m sure she knew their names as well.

But we don’t.  For me, I like to think that it was my daddy.  It looks like some of the photos I’ve seen of him at that age.  But my cousin Shirley might think that it looks like her dad.  Tricia would say that it was definitely Wana.  Daphne will pull out her copy of the same photo and will show that it was labeled as Germaine.  Whichever one it was, it was a Landry child being cared for by their loving mother.  And that represents all of her children.

I still say it’s Bobbie.  (And that cool stroller was his as well!)

Grandparents

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A post from a friend of mine today made me think about the topic of grandparents.  She had a grandmother that reminded me of my Mee Maw.  She liked to cook for her grandchildren, taught them card games and such, and was well loved by everybody.  The  grandmother who every grandchild hoped to be (and felt like) the favorite of.  Many people have fond stories about their grandparents.  It reminded me that my dad didn’t have very many memories of his grandparents.

1930-celeste-leveque-landry-robert-joseph-landry-jr-and-vincent-maximilian-patureau-heal

Bobbie Landry with his grandparents circa 1930.

Though the subjects in this photo may be questionable, the facts I tell about it are as accurate as I can get.  I believe this is my father in 1930.  He was born in January of 1929 in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  This kid looks about a year or so old and it looks like my dad from other photos that I’ve seen from around that time.  If you think he looks like a little girl in this photo, you should see some of the other photos of him!  Those curls of his were there from the beginning.  The other two people in the photo are his surviving grandparents when the photo was taken.

My dad’s paternal grandmother was Marie Celeste Leveque Landry.  She was married to Simon Alcide Joseph Landry who died in 1917.  On the other side was his maternal grandfather Vincent Maximilian Patureau, who was always fondly spoken of as “Grampa Max.”  His wife was Marie Therese Landry and she died in 1909.  These two were not a couple, but they were related.  (All of his grandparents were related!)  They were half 2nd cousins.  The photo was not labeled, but I have identified them because I recognize them from other photos that I’ve been looking through.  And who else would it be?  It makes sense that he would be in a photo with his grandparents.

It’s the only photo of him with his grandparents.  Not only because people back then did not take 1/1000ths of the number of photos that people take nowadays, but also because his grandparents didn’t live much longer.  His grandmother died in 1934 and his grandfather followed suit the next year.  So shortly after his 6th birthday, little Bobbie did not have any grandparents left.  That’s kind of sad.  I have many fond memories of my grandparents.  I had 24 years worth of memories.  I had more years than he did, but not as many as I would have liked.

So now all I can do is cherish the memories of my grandparents.  I know many of you do, too.  For some of you that still have grandparents, make the most of it.  For those with grandchildren, you make the most of it, too.  Be funny; be cantankerous; give them something; take something away from them; share your truths with them; tell a few white lies. I don’t have to tell you to love them.  I think that comes naturally to most people.  Leave them with something to cherish.

 

 

Alcide the Great

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1890 - Simon Alcide Joseph Landry

Alcide Landry circa 1890

I think I have shared a photo of all of my other greats before.  This is Simon Alcide Joseph Landry, my paternal great grandfather.  You can call him Alcide the Great if you want to, but Alcide will do.  He was born in Brusly, Louisiana, in 1845.  His father’s name was Narcisse and they lived on a plantation.  When the Civil War started, he was too young to join, but his brothers did join.  I’ve talked about one of his brothers – Trasimond – because he was my great great grandfather.  There were two other brothers that fought in the Civil War – Amedee and Belisaire.

When Alcide turned eighteen in the summer of 1863, he joined in on the fighting two months later in Alabama.  He fought in several battles there, in Atlanta, and in Nashville.  He was captured at Hollow Tree Gap in December of 1865.  He then spent time as a prisoner of war at Camp Douglas which was located in what is now Chicago, Illinois.  What I find amazing is that all of the four brothers that fought in the Civil War survived through all of those battles.

After the war he married Marie Celeste Leveque (his half first cousin once removed – his grandfather Joseph Ignatius Landry was her great grandfather).  They had ten children together, the last being Robert Joseph Landry, Sr. my grandfather. At some point in the 1880s the family moved to Westlake in Calcasieu Parish.  He and his wife are buried in Lake Charles at Orange Grove Cemetery.

An interesting note about grandfathers in this line.  Here is the Landry line going back – Van, Bob, Rob, Alcide, Narcisse, Joseph Ignatius, Augustin, Pierre, Antoine, and Rene.  My paternal grandfather Robert Joseph, Sr. died before I was born.  Daddy‘s paternal grandfather Alcide died in 1917, which is 12 years before Daddy was born.  Narcisse died before Rob was born.  Joseph Ignatius died before Alcide was born, and Augustin died before Narcisse was born.  And finally we get back to Pierre who was considerate enough to stick around for 33 years after Joseph Ignatius was born.  This is mostly a result of being in a line of latter born children.

Landry Unions and Reunions

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1888 - Marguerite Basalite Landry Leveque

Marguerite Basalite Landry Leveque 1821-1902

This week we are having a Landry reunion in Lake Charles, so I thought it would be appropriate to post a relevant relative.  The person receiving the honor this week is my great great grandmother Marguerite Basalite (aka Basilde) Landry Leveque.  She was born in 1821 in Iberville Parish in Louisiana.  She was the sixth and last child of Joseph Emanuel Landry and Clarice Celeste Bruneteau. Manuel and Clarice were 4th cousins through the Acadian Landry forefather Rene Landry.

I’ll try not to be too confusing, but that’s going to be difficult.  Because, you see , I also descend from Marguerite’s next older sister Anna Adele Landry.  I won’t explain how she fits in, because I want to get to the next older sister Clarissa Doralise Landry.  Clarissa married Joseph Auguste Leveque (I posted his photo last Christmas.) in 1831 at the age of 18.  She and Joseph Auguste had six children together.  Shortly after the last child was born in 1840, Clarissa died.

Now I don’t really know all the details about the dynamics going on in the family, but in 1843 Joseph Auguste got married again.  And I’m sure you’ve already guessed who it was that he married.  Yes, you are right, it was our very own Marguerite Basalite.  Was she sweet on him when he was married to her sister?  Did she want to make sure her nieces and nephews were cared for properly?  Was she longing to have servants of her own?  Did she want her headstone to read the same as her sister’s:  Mrs. J. A. Leveque?  Did he only want to marry a Landry?  a cousin?  Or did he think, “Hey, she’s over here all the time, maybe I should marry her?”  All I know is that they got married and had eight or nine children together (six lived to adulthood).  And I descend from a daughter of this second marriage, Marie Celeste Leveque.

Marie Celeste went on to marry a Landry cousin of her own.  That’s right.  She married Simon Alcide Joseph Landry, her half first cousin once removed.  And their son (my grandfather) married his first cousin once removed through the Landry line.  That’s a lot of Landry lines in this group of people.  Unions and reunions.  It reminds me of a poem I once read,

It must have been Cajun tradition
or kids with a lot of volition.
Whatever it was
It didn’t give pause.
It happened despite admonition.

Oh wait!  I wrote that poem.  Who else writes poems about their families marrying their cousins?  No one that I know.  Maybe my third cousin once removed.  Oh wait?  That’s me, too!  Like I said, I try not to get too confused.  But with a family tree like ours, that’s asking for a bit too much.

1888 -Marguerite Basilite LandryA note about the photo.  The first copy of this photo that I found was the one on the left.  It’s not a very big file, it’s very yellowed, and it has spots all over it.  But since it was all that I had, I worked on it and tried to make it look good.  It still looked a bit rough.

Then I came across a slightly better version and started working on that one.  Finally I got this better version from my dad and worked on it and retouched it.  I’ve been working on this photo for over six months!  I threw the first edited version away.  So you’d better enjoy it.  And if you have an even better copy of it, wait a while before you show it to me.  I’m not quite ready to throw away my new edited version.

Throwback Thursday Threefer: Part I

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Merry Christmas to my Landry/Leveque relatives. Last week I had Marie Celeste Leveque and this week I have her father Joseph Auguste Leveque, my great great grandfather.

1885- Joseph Auguste Leveque

Joseph Auguste Leveque circa 1885

He was born in 1805 and died in 1894 in Westlake, Louisiana. He was first married to Clarissa Doralise Landry and they had six children together. Shortly after the sixth child was born, his wife died. He then married her sister Marguerite Basalite Landry and they had eight children together. Marie Celeste was their second child and she married Simon Alcide Landry.  They were my great grandparents. There are lots of big families in this line, so there are lots of Landry and Leveque relatives out there.

Leveque and Landry United

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Last week I posted a photo of my paternal grandmother. This week I am posting a photo of my dad’s paternal grandmother. Her name was Marie Celeste Leveque and she was born in 1847 in Brusly, Louisiana. That is just across the river from where I live now. In fact this evening I’ll be passing right through there on my way to Plaquemine.

1868 - Marie Celeste Leveque Landry

Marie Celeste Leveque circa 1868

She married Simon Alcide Joseph Landry in 1868. My assumption is that this photo was from her wedding engagement around the time prior to the wedding. If anyone knows better, let me know. I’m not sure who has an original printing of this photograph. I have a scan that was faded and in sepia that I edited to bring to this condition. Enjoy it.

July 2020 Update – New colorized version of the photo

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