Category: Patureau

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.

Last week I collected a few new old photos, so we won’t be running out of Throwback Thursday fuel for an additional few months.  I know you are as excited about this as I am!  A few of you already know that I went to visit my dad’s older brother A. J. last week with some family members.  We had a nice visit with him.  It was good to see him because I hadn’t seen him in a while.  He seemed to be in good spirits despite the challenges of a weakening body from many years of wear.  It was also good to see aunt Margie.  She’s such a sweet lady.

But one of the other good things about this visit is that they gave me some of the old photos of the family that uncle A. J. had.  A nice one of Pee Paw from World War I, a really sharp one of Pee Paw’s mother from around 1930, and a few other family photos from when my dad and his siblings were just kids growing up in southern Louisiana.  But the photo this week comes from my cousin Wade.  Actually he is my second cousin because his grandmother was Mee Maw’s sister.

I’ve never met Wade, even though I’ve known about him for almost 30 years.  (Have I really been in Baton Rouge that long?)  I met my other second cousin Kim at that time and she talked about getting together with him.  I met with other cousins, but not him.  I know he was at my dad’s cousin Patricia’s funeral last year, but I didn’t meet him then either.  But I do know that he has a strong interest in genealogy and he knows that I do as well.  So he shared this photo with me.  He doesn’t remember where he and Kim got the photo years ago, but we are all thankful to that family member whoever they may be.

The Patureau family of Patureau Lane circa 1904.

The photo is of our Patureau grandmothers when they were children growing up in Crescent, Louisiana.  They were the Patureau family of Patureau Lane.  When Vincent Maximilian Patureau married Marie Therese Landry in October of 1888, they soon started expanding their family in the Plaquemine area.  Just ten months later came their first daughter Marie Emma.  That’s her on the far left of the photo.  It’s kind of obvious that she’s the oldest since she is so much taller than the rest.  She would be sixteen in this photo and likely was close to her full height.  Her brother on the far right was two years younger than her and would probably be catching up to her height shortly.  His name was Romuald Sylvester, but we like to call him “Romy.”

Next up is Marie Lydwin who was born in 1893.  That’s got to be her standing straight and tall next to her big sister Emma.  And standing next to Lydwin is our very own Germaine Erie who was born in 1895.  (Not 1885 like her grave marker shows.)  She’s looking kinda cute with that dark ribbon in her hair!  The next in line (according to age) is the girl with the light ribbon in her hair standing next to Romy.  Her name was Frances Lorena, though everyone knows her as Lorena.  Next to her (in age and in the photo) is yet another little girl and I think she is Zita Amelie, who was born in 1897.  Those girls were showing up fast and furious approaching the new century.

In 1899 Marie Therese was born.  That’s her standing in front of her father.  Was she a Daddy’s Girl?  One can wonder.  The last child in the front row of the photo was not a little girl this time.  I know that he looks like he could be a girl.  He is wearing a dress after all.  That was a tradition at the time, or maybe the family just thought it was easier to dress him up in hand-me-downs.  But he was definitely a boy and his name was Vincent Maximilian Patureau, Jr.  Since his father went by the name of Max, he could use his first name.

The youngest child in the photo is being held by her mom.  Her name was Sylvie Albine Patureau and she was born in 1903.  She was my cousin Wade’s grandmother.  But she wasn’t the last child born to Marie Emma and Max.  It wasn’t long after this photo that the family suffered a few tragedies.  Actually they had experienced a few already.  After their first child they lost a child at birth.  This happened again in 1900 with a set of twins named Alta and Alva.  In 1906 a daughter named Yve Lyn was born and lived for two years. In 1907 a son named Ray Hugh was born and lived for a year and a half.  Then in 1909 a daughter named Hedwidge was born and only lived a month.  But before she could finish out her month long life, her mother died as well.

It was a tough time for the Patureaus of Patureau Lane, but they made it through with strength and determination.  He also had help from his family.  In the 1910 Census it shows that Max’s older sister Zulma was staying with them.  I’m sure the older girls in the family helped Max with those youngsters he was rearing “alone.”  But that was years later.  This photo was the calm before the storm.  If you can maintain your calm when you have nine children under 17 years of age in your house at the same time!  At least they all look calm for the photo.

I’m glad I have this wonderful photo.  Thanks Wade.