Category: Patureau

Patureau – A Butcher, a Baker, a Beau Chapeau Maker

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Mr. and Mrs. Robert Joseph Landry, Jr. with Mrs. Robert Joseph Landry, Sr., informally known as Bob, Betty, and Erie Landry, other wise known as Daddy, Mama, and Mee Maw. This was taken in May of 1971 at my oldest sister Jodie’s high school graduation.

I’ve found some really interesting documents online this week.  I’m sure Daddy and Mee Maw would have been excited to see these old documents as well.  Mee Maw (Germaine Erie Patureau Landry shown here with my mom and dad Betty Lou Bucklin and Robert Joseph Landry, Jr.) started researching the Patureau and Landry family lines back in the 1950s.  Daddy probably got interested around the time of this photo, which was in 1971.  He continued with the research for at least another forty years.

This week’s finds started out when I got a notice about someone adding some additional information to the profile for Leobon Patureau on WIKItree.

You can see the link to Leobon Patureau on the top of this section of the tree of my grandmother. Piere F. Patureau and his wife and children were the ones who immigrated to the US in 1840.

That is a site that has one world tree that everyone tries to connect to.  It is public and anybody can add to the profiles once you become a member.  The first notice I saw was for a passenger list for Piere Patureau in 1857 on a ship traveling from France to New Orleans.  I have a copy of his passport dated 1856, but didn’t know if he had done any traveling.

Evidently he traveled to France.  And on that passport it lists him as a boulanger.  That is the French word for baker.  I had read somewhere else that he was a butcher, but I’m thinking the baker is more likely since both the passport and passenger list indicate that.

Then original French resources were added for Leobon Patureau, who just happens to be my great, great, great, great grandfather.  I now know that he was born Aug. 1, 1768, in Palluaud, Charente, Poitou-Charentes, France, and he died on Feb. 3, 1851 in LaRoche-Chalais, Dordogne, Aquitaine, France.

Baptism record for Leobon Patureau in 1768 in Palluaud, France.

I didn’t recognize the name of the person adding the information, so I sent him a note of thanks and inquired if we were related.  We’re not related, but he lives in France and he likes to do research.  And research he did!  As you can see from this copy of a document, it is not easy to read, especially if you do not understand French.  I could barely find the name leobon patureau on this page when I was referred to it, and I knew it had to be on that page!  How would you find something like this if you didn’t know when or where he was born in France?  I will definitely be sending another note of thanks to him.

If you haven’t noticed yet, the document also gives the names of Leobon’s parents, which I didn’t have.  They are listed as Antoine Patureau (a surgeon) and Marie Sicaud.  That would make them my 5x great grandparents.  They lived in the mid 1700s in Palluaud, France.

Anne Machet’s birth record from 1801 in Mareuil, France.

It didn’t stop with all of that.  Piere Patureau was married to Anne Rose Machet.  Anne was born in 1801, which is documented in this photo from French archives for births.  We already knew her parents’ names, which were Louis Machet and Louise Roux.  But I don’t remember ever seeing his occupation.  He was a chapelier!  In English we would call him a hatter.  Maybe he made his precious little Anne a beautiful hat (or as he would say, a beau chapeau) for special occasions.

Louis Machet married Louise Roux on Nov. 6, 1793 in Mareuil, France.

We just keep going back further in time!  We can thank our anonymous French researcher for that.  I really like the look of this document.  It is the marriage record for Anne’s parents Louis and Louise.  This one is dated Nov. 6, 1793, and it took place in Mareuil, France.  It lists the parents of Louis as Antoine Machet deslauriers and Anne Chavalarias.  Daddy already had these names from his research, which is amazing to me.  He did a lot of great research that I am grateful for.

One of the interesting things that I learned from this record is that not only was Louis a hatter, but his pater was a hatter.  (Oops, shouldn’t mix Latin with French!)  I’m sure there are other interesting things, but I’ve just started looking at them and haven’t been able to figure out what some of the words are supposed to be or what they would mean.

So if you are able to figure anything out from any of these documents, let me know.  Leave me a comment or send me a note.  I’ll be glad to discuss it.  As you can probably tell by now, I find it all very interesting.

Further French facts

Too Young to be Grampa

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“Who is that dashing young man?” you may be asking yourself.  That’s what I would be asking if I didn’t have the information available to me.  I’ve posted several photos of him in the past, but none of them were this far into the past.

This photo was taken around 1888.  I estimate it to be from that year because that was the year he got married.  He looks about the same age as he does in his wedding photo, maybe even a little younger.  He was 23 when he got married.  Does he look that age to you, too?

But men don’t necessarily take photos of themselves when they became engaged.  Could it be a high school graduation photo?  That would make it closer to 1883, assuming he graduated when he was 18.  Assuming he actually did graduate from high school.  I don’t have all the details of his life.

Have you figured out who he was?  I posted a photo of his wife Marie Therese Landry two months ago.  He’s the only ancestor that I call “Grampa.”  Not Grandpa or Pee Paw.  He was born in Mexico, though he is not of Mexican descent.  His ancestry is not from Spain, but from France.  He lived in Plaquemine and he was the only grandfather my dad knew.

Yes, it is our very own Vincent Maximilian Patureau, later to be known as Grampa Max.  But he was just a young man in this photo.  This is one of the great photos that come from the collection of my dad’s cousin Sis. (She is one of the Marie Therese womenfolk in the family – Marie Therese Schafer Vicknair to be exact!) So great when family members are willing to share their treasures with us.  Though some people in the Patureau family have been known to be a bit stingy with their photos.  I won’t name names, but I’m sure that none of you reading this are like that!

But this photo is before Sis was in anyone’s imagination.  It was also before the birth of her mother, who was also named Marie Therese.  This was when young Max’s only thought of a Marie Therese was the young woman he was planning on marrying.  So when he popped the question to her all those years ago, how could she say no to this dashing young man?

A Patureau Wedding From 1933

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As you can tell by now, I really like old photos.  Especially those of my own family.  I also like photos with large groups of people in them.  Wedding photos are nice, too.  So this old photo is particularly nice because it has all of those elements in it.  Of course, it’s really not that old.  It’s only from eighty-four years ago.  It was taken a month after my mom was born.  But it’s from my dad’s side of the family.

This photo is from the wedding of Marie Therese “Bee” Patureau and Clarence Schafer on June 19, 1933.  It looks like a very nice affair.  The wedding took place at St. John’s Cathedral in Lafayette, Louisiana.  Bee was the younger sister to my Mee Maw (Germaine Erie Patureau was the mother of Bob Landry, my father), who I can’t find in this photo.  I know that she was there, because there is another photo of the event that supposedly shows her. (It doesn’t look like her to me.)  Erie and Bee’s father was Grampa Max (Vincent Maximilian Patureau) who is standing proudly in the middle of his large family.

The wedding couple are seated in chairs with the bride surrounded by many bouquets of flowers.  Sylvia (another Patureau sister) and her husband Son Marionneaux are directly behind the bride.  On each side of Sylvia are two more Patureau sisters.  (Neither of which is wearing a hat.)  On the left is Lidwyn and on the right is Emma.  Emma is the mother of Tez.  Tez was just a 12-year-old girl at the time with no signs of bumps to be seen.  She can be seen sitting on the ground directly in front of her mother.  Her father is the tall man in the back at the center of the photo.  His name was Toby Mouton.  The other Patureau sibling in the photo is Mee Maw’s brother Rome (rhymes with homey) on the far right.

Sadly, the marriage was not very long lasting.  The shortness of duration was not due to a lack of affection nor infidelity nor infelicity.  The end of the marriage was due to the death of Bee only a short four years later.  But not before the births of her two daughters Syl in 1934 and Sis in 1937.

We can thank Sis for sharing this photo with us.  It really is a beautiful photo.  Full of familiar and familial faces at a happy moment in their lives.

Invitation to the festive occasion.

July 5, 2019 – I found this newspaper article about the wedding.  It ran in Lafayette’s “The Daily Advertiser” on the day of the wedding.

A Bazaar Picnic

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I’m not really sure about the circumstances of this picnic.  But for some reason the photos and the writing on the back of them has captured my attention.  At least for now!  As much as I like old photos of my ancestors, the addition of seeing their handwriting in letters or on photos is a nice bonus.

 

These photos were taken around this time of year, but they were from 63 years ago.  The exact date was October 17, 1954.  This first photo shows uncle Duffy, my cousin Douglas Winn, my Mee Maw (paternal grandmother Germaine Erie Patureau Landry), another cousin Dennis Landry, uncle Joe Raley, and aunt Frances Raley.  The little girl sitting on the blanket in the front is not identified.  I’m thinking it is another cousin Daphne Winn, because she looks to be too young to be The First (Shirley Landry) who would have been seven at the time.  It’s Mee Maw’s writing on the back, because as you can see, she labels herself as ‘me.’

The grand occasion for this picnic was named on the photo.  It reads, “The St. Huberts (sp) Bazaar was held in Prejean’s pasture, so we went to Wana’s and I had a picnic in her back yard with children.  But we never could get them all together.”  I’m not sure if the Bazaar was canceled or it was just close to Wana’s house, but Mee Maw must have decided it was the perfect day for a picnic at her daughter’s house.  And those disagreeable children would not behave and get together for a group photo.  But we have the photos nonetheless to memorialize that outstanding picnic from years gone by.

This other photo is obviously from the same day.  But it was written by one of Mee Maw’s children.  (Hence the naming of Mee Maw as ‘Mama’ on the back of the photo.)  In this photo you see Duffy, Frances, Joe, Douglas, Mee Maw, and Dennis.  Even though the photo doesn’t mention it, you can also see the legs of the little girl on the blanket that I call Daphne.  (I’m sure Daphne has this photo with all the names on it too, but hers probably has her name written on it!  Unless of course, it is not Daphne.)

I like other details of the photo as well.  You can see the bottles of Coca-Cola on the blanket.  No canned sodas back then!  No red Solo cup either.  And Mee Maw was prepared, too.  She had a box of Cut Rite wax paper in her lap in case there were leftovers to save for later.

Oh, well, that’s it.  Just a short little picnic in Wana’s back yard.  Nothing fancy.  Nothing really important.  Not much to write about when you think about it.  But sometimes it’s those simple things that can be cherished the most.  What any one of her grandkids wouldn’t give to be able to have a nice little October picnic in their back yard with their beloved Mee Maw.

Marie Therese Landry Patureau

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You have to be careful when you talk about my father’s maternal grandmother.  Not that she’ll get mad at you or anything, it’s just that the name Marie Therese is very popular in our family.  Not only did my great grandmother have the name, but so did my dad’s sister (Aunt Marie), one of his first cousins (Sis – thanks again for providing this new and improved photo of your namesake!), and one of my second cousins (Therese).  And there are a few other more distant cousins with the same name too.

Marie Therese Landry circa 1888.  She was the mother of my Mee Maw.

This Marie Therese was born in 1868 to Trasimond Landry and his wife Marie Amelie “Belite” Bujol Landry in Brusly, Louisiana.  She was the first child born to that union.  According to the book “The Tirailleurs”, Trasimond and Belite began courting during the Civil War.  I guess you can call it courting even though he was fighting in a war.  They saw each other on an occasional leave and then corresponded by letters.  Belite was one of four beautiful daughters of widow Bujol, and Trasimond was particularly partial to her tender charms.

Trasimond and Belite were married after the war on Nov. 30, 1867.  Ten months later came along our little Marie Therese.  Over the next eight years two sisters and two brothers joined her.  They lived on a farm at first, but then Trasimond gave up farming and became a teacher and took on some minor roles in politics.  He died when Marie Therese was only eleven years old, so I’m sure she helped her mother out with the younger children.  Belite married Magloire Babin in 1880, which led to two younger half-sisters for Marie Therese.  I don’t have much more information about the next few years.

I do know that Marie Therese married Vincent Maximilian Patureau on Oct. 10, 1888, in Brusly, but afterwards they were living in Plaquemine on Patureau Lane.  I don’t know how they met, but it was probably through the family.  They were cousins after all!  Hey, if her parents did it, why not her?  It was the custom back then.  Ten months after they were married, Marie Therese and Max welcomed their first child into the world.  They went on to have many more children – and lose a few – until our Marie Therese died on October 4, 1909, at the young age of 41.  The anniversary is just a few days off.  So think about her on her anniversary, whether your name is Marie Therese or not!

Music in the Family Part IV – Patureau Keepsake

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I thought I should have a Keepsake version of Music in the Family.  Especially since I was wanting to showcase this instrument for a while.  I tried to find photos or audio files of it in action, but no such luck.  I do have a few photos of it though.  So here you go.

1928 Vega tenor banjo

This was my dad’s banjo for many years.  He played it at Shakey’s sometimes with the family band in the 1970s, but it has a longer history than that.   Daddy left me a document about the banjo that he wrote on January 15, 2005.

Besides playing it with the family band, he also stated that he played it with some Dixieland bands in Lake Charles.  He also played it in the orchestra pit with a ‘pit band’ for Lake Charles Little Theater productions.  But he wasn’t the first owner of this Vega Four string Tenor banjo.

Vincent Maximilian Patureau, Jr. circa 1922

Daddy inherited it in 1956 when his uncle Vincent Maximilian Patureau, Jr. passed away.  Daddy was 27 years old at the time and Uncle Vincent died at the age of 54.  He was my Mee Maw’s youngest brother.  Uncle Vincent had it for many years and played it with a band in Baton Rouge.  That’s about all I know.  I’m not sure when he lived in Baton Rouge.  Probably in the 1920s and 30s when he was in his twenties and thirties.

Maybe at the age he is in this photo.  I got this photo recently from my dad’s cousin.  (Thanks again, Sis!)  He may have honed his craft for a few years, then decided to buy himself a nice Vega banjo.  That would fit with the timeline of when this banjo was produced.  According to Daddy the serial number places it as being put together in 1928.

I got the banjo in August of 2015 when we moved my mom and dad into Assisted Living in Lake Charles.  I encouraged him to keep it because there was room for it in the apartment that he had, but he wanted me to take it.  So I did.  I’ve always thought it was a beautiful instrument.  And now it’s back in Baton Rouge, where it first came into our family.

1928 Vega tenor banjo

1928 Vega tenor banjo

Music in the Family Part II – Patureau

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When I was young I thought I knew everything.  Understood everything.  What is it about the innocence of youth that makes people think this?  Is it innocence?  Yes, I guess it is.  Maybe a little bit of ignorance thrown in with it, though.  The older I get, the more I realize that I don’t know everything.  Not even close.  When you are young, you know your immediate family and you kinda know your place in it.  When you start looking into family history, you realize that your family is much bigger and spread out.

This is particularly true for the idea of music in my family.  When my family had the Landry Family Band in the 70s and 80s, we (maybe I should say I) thought we were so innovative and different.  People would even say that it was “special” or “extraordinary.”  We weren’t famous or anything, but we did play together every week at Shakey’s Pizza Parlor in Lake Charles.  We’d also play for events or parties.  It was pretty special, but it wasn’t the first time that family members performed music together.

Kelly's String Band

Kelly’s String Band circa 1900 performed in the Plaquemine, Louisiana, area.

Just look at this photo from 1900.  The name of the band was Kelly’s String Band and there were some family members in it from my Patureau family line.  In the front with the funny looking trumpet (not a string) is my great great uncle Alcide Patureau (my father was Bob Landry, his mother was Erie Patureau, her father was Max Patureau, and Max & Alcides’s father was Ferdinand Patureau who was originally from France).  Alcide’s (& Max’s) brother Omer is the one in the middle with the banjo.  The guy on the right with the mandolin is Alcide and Omer’s (& Max’s) nephew Ferdinand Hebert (son of Aline Patureau Hebert).  The two guys standing up are Nick Manola and Wade Landry.  I don’t know of any relation to them.

So at least 70 years before our Shakey’s day, there were family members performing for other people’s entertainment.  And I’m sure there were probably more before that in the unknown history of the family.  This is the earliest photographic record of a band in my family.  I’d love to know what they sounded like and what kinds of music they played.

Plaquemine, Louisiana, in 1894 - Patureau family

Omer Patureau and Ferdinand Hebert

I have this other photo of two of these members who must have performed on their own with their dueling banjos.  This is Omer Patureau and Ferdinand Hebert in a photo dated 1894.  Both photos show that they were taken in Plaquemine.

As I’ve said before, people in the past did not have as readily available access to entertainment and information as we do now.  Maybe when people came from their homes and listened to them entertain, they heard things like people saying they were “special” or “extraordinary.”  And maybe they were.

As I get older and particularly with the passing of both of my parents, I do look back at those times playing music with my family and they are special to me.  And they will become more special as time goes by.  This I do know.

Feb. 17, 2022 – Update

I received a better version of the Kelly’s String Band photo.  I also figured out how I am related to Wade Landry.  In addition to that, I’ve learned more about his life.  So check out my new post to see it all – Patureau and Landry Musicians Circa 1900.

Erie Get Your Gun

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Erie’s got her gun and is ready to take on the world. This was taken around 1963 in Lafayette, Louisiana, at a picnic hosted by her cousin Wana C. Landry’s home.

I don’t know why these last few Landry/Patureau posts are featuring guns.  I have two posts named Grandfathers With Guns, so I thought I would try to give a more balanced view.  Besides, I had this great photo of Mee Maw that I’ve been wanting to post for a while.  So my desire to present a more balanced view finally motivated me enough to edit this photo in the way I wanted to.

Because you know Mee Maw, she didn’t go anywhere without her fruitcake tin and gun!  Well maybe you don’t know Mee Maw.  She was born Germaine Erie Patureau on August 6, 1895, in Crescent, Louisiana.  You could actually say that the family lived in Plaquemine.  They lived right on the corner of the Bayou Road and Patureau Lane.  That’s right!  They lived on the road that they named for themselves.

She was a child at the turn of the century (not the Millennial century, the one before that!) and it was a very rural area.  They usually had to entertain themselves with reading books, eating food, playing cards, or playing music.  (I will be posting some musical stories soon.)  But sometimes, if they were lucky, the showboat would stop in their area and put on a show for them.  There was an area not far from their home that would be used as a stage for the actors who traveled on the boat.  This sounds very charming, even though it reminds me of the musical “Show Boat.”

I have to admit that I am not particularly fond of most musicals.  Even though my family was very musical and sometimes we would break into song during a conversation, I always hated to see that in a movie.  And when I think about “Show Boat” I cringe.  But I try to look past that when I think of Mee Maw and her family enjoying the performances of the people from the showboat.  (Let’s just hope they weren’t musicals!)

So why is it that I referenced another musical (“Annie Get Your Gun”) when I named this post?  Yet something else to get past.  I guess for the same reason I named two posts “Grandpa’s Got a Gun,” I think that it has a ring to it.  So let’s get back to Erie and her love for guns.

Sorry, I don’t know if Mee Maw had a love for guns or not.  It’s not something I can ever remember talking to her about.  I’m surprised that I have a picture of her holding a gun. (She was really holding a gun in the photo.  I only edited it to make her more noticeable and to make the background less noticeable.)  We always talk about Mee Maw being so sweet, so I thought I would post this picture showing her tougher side.

Oh well, even when she’s holding a gun she looks sweet.  That’s Mee Maw.

A Patureau Keepsake: Grampa’s Got a Gun

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Grampa's Got a Gun

Grampa Max’s gun

I’m not sure when I heard about this keepsake.  I’m thinking that it was last year at the high school graduation of my second cousin once removed in Plaquemine.  Now I don’t go to all of my distant cousins’ graduations, but it just happened that I was there.  I went with Chuck to his nephew’s graduation from St. John in Plaquemine and one of the Barkers were graduating as well.  To clarify who the Barkers are to me, I’ll explain.

My grandmother Erie Patureau married Robert Joseph Landry, Sr. and they became my Mee Maw and Pee Paw.  One of Erie’s sister Sylvie married John Walter “Son” Marionneaux.  So Erie and Robert’s son was my dad Bob.  His first cousin is Melwyn who is the daughter of Sylvie and Son.  Melwyn married Will Barker and they had seven children.  Mom and dad only had six children including me.  Melwyn and Will’s son Walter is my second cousin and his son Walter, Jr. is my second cousin once removed.

And it was Walter, Jr.’s graduation that I ended up attending.  I looked around during the commencement services and saw a few cousins.  Then after the service we went to the reception.  Of course, Melwyn was there as well as several other kinfolk.  Somehow we ended up talking about family history (how that happens I never know), and she mentioned that she had the pistol that belonged to Erie and Sylvie’s father, AKA Grampa Max.

I was told that when Grampa Max was a practicing veterinarian in Lafayette from 1917 to 1933, he carried this gun around with him.  He wasn’t carrying it for protection, of course.  Everybody knows that there was no crime in little Lafayette a hundred years ago.  No, he brought it with him in case one of his patients needed to be euthanized.  He did what he could for people’s pets, livestock, and farm animals, but some animals could not be saved.  Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.

Grampa’s Colt was made in Connecticut

So when I started to do a few of these Keepsake Series posts, the gun from Grampa Max was high on my list of things to photograph and share.  I went to Plaquemine to see Melwyn last week and we had a very pleasant visit.  She’s sharp as a tack.  She knows a lot of family history and she’s glad it is being shared.  She has this gun mounted, framed, and hanging in her house.  It’s a Colt series No. 2 derringer from somewhere around the 1870s or so.  I’m no gun expert, but that’s what my research found from the details in the second photo.

I would love to know the whole history of this gun.  I’m not sure how much more our family knows.  I was surprised to know of its existence when I first heard about it.  With the little bit that I know about it, it is a priceless family keepsake.

Grampa Max on a horse call. “Look sharp, girl, or I’ve got a surprise for you in my pocket!”

Grampa Max and AJ

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Grampa Max and AJ

Vincent Maximilian Patureau with his grandson Alcide Joseph Landry

This is another photo that I got from my visit with my Uncle A. J. a few months ago.  Obviously most of those photos were focused on A. J.  They were photos for him after all.  But they also included photos of the family.  I had never seen most of those photos.  Some of them were similar to others that I already had.  All of them (well, maybe not all of them) were treasures to keep and share.

I really like this one.  In the front of the photo is my dad’s mom’s dad.  He was my great grandfather Vincent Maximilian Patureau.  Of course we all know him as Grampa Max.  (You say the ‘grampa’ part to kinda rhyme with Santa.  Accent on first syllable and and short -puh at the end.)  The little boy on the hood of the car is little A. J. in 1925.  At least that’s what I estimated.  He was born in June of 1924 and looks about a year or so old.  He looks a little fascinated with the car.  And he got to sit right on top of it.  Grandparents are just great!

As I mentioned previously, my dad and his siblings didn’t know all of their grandparents.  And the two that they had didn’t live long after my dad was born.  Poor little Johnny, the youngest, was born after all four grandparents had passed.  A. J. was the oldest son (Aunt Marie was the oldest), so he had them until he was about ten years old.  When I visited and asked him about some of the photos, he talked about Grampa Max and Grandma Celeste like he had just seen them a few days earlier.  He definitely had some fond memories of them.  I’m glad that he was willing to share them with us.  Enjoy.

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