Category: Patureau

Well, technically I am not a Patureau, I am a Landry. But my grandmother was a Patureau, so that makes me a Patureau, too. It’s funny how you tend to easily connect with those who share your common surname. With all the research that I have done, I tend to connect with several surnames. I was shocked recently when I asked someone what their grandmother’s maiden name was and they didn’t know! How can you not know your grandmother’s maiden name? It’s an outrage!

It seems like I’ve always known that my Mee Maw was a Patureau. But it was not because there were lots of people named Patureau around me. There weren’t. One of the reasons for this is that Mee Maw had more sisters than brothers. My grandmother was Germaine Erie Patureau Landry. Her mother was Marie Therese Landry Patureau, who endured fifteen pregnancies.

She only lived a few days past her last pregnancy. Eleven of her offspring were girls, though only seven of them survived to adulthood. Four of her offspring were boys and two of them died in infancy. Additionally, neither of the two who attained adulthood (Romuald and Vincent) had any offspring.

So my great grandfather Vincent Maximilian Patureau had many grandchildren, but none of them carried the Patureau name. I noticed this a few years back and I had to ask Daddy about it because it seemed so unbelievable. To have that many children, yet not have any grandchildren with your last name. I’m sure he was okay with it. His mother was a Landry, his wife was a Landry, and eight of his grandchildren were Landrys. He was a Landry like I am a Patureau. It’s all family.

Then there was Grampa Max’s older brother Louis Leobon. He and his wife only had twelve children. The slackers! They had eight boys, though one of them (Louis Leobon, Jr.) died as a teenager. There were also four daughters named Alizia, Leona, Caroline, and Bertha. All of them were first cousins to my Mee Maw.

I don’t know who had more grandchildren: Max or Leobon. But with all of those male children, I know that Leobon had at least fifteen grandsons with the Patureau name. So even though I don’t have any first or second cousins with the last name of Patureau, I have many third cousins out there with that surname. In fact, if you meet a Patureau in southern Louisiana, it’s almost a guarantee that they are my third cousin.

But there are even more like me. We descend from a Patureau and have a different last name. Be it Landry, Duffy, Raley, Winn, Marionneaux, Barker, Boudreaux, Daigre, Vicknair, Stassi, Gunn, LeBlanc, Wendt, Mouton, Pitre, Pays, Knight, Amann, Zimmerman, Desonier, Conaway, Bourgogne, McLaughlin, Sicard, Guelfo, Scruggs, Written, Cropper, Barlow, Blanton, Rush, Martin, Rabalais, Kerr, McGown, Cansler, Hebert, Thommen, Dupuy, Schroeder, Soliman, Keegan, Hartz, Crandell, Llanas, Laulom, or Crixell – we are all Patureau. We should have a reunion!

Last week I posted a photo of Phenice Family relatives in Nebraska.  In the course of the post that I wrote, I mentioned that I had wondered if my Phenice grandmother (Myrtle Phenice Bucklin, mother of my mom Betty Lou Bucklin Landry) had ever been there.  It seems not.

According to my aunt, Grandma never went to Kansas nor Nebraska.  And she never really traveled much at all.  I had discovered from a previous post that Grandpa (her husband Fred Bucklin) had done more traveling than I had realized.  While Grandma and the family (including my mom, little Betty Lou who was too poor to have a “real” store-bought doll) stayed at home in Hathaway, Grandpa went to a spa vacation in Hot Springs, Arkansas, every summer.  While that is not terribly far to go on a vacation, he was still traveling more than Grandma.

Germaine Erie Patureau Landry on her way to Mexico.

But it was not nearly as much as my other grandmother liked to travel.  She was known for enjoying being on the move.  (Kinda like Jacko.)  So this week I’m posting this photo of Mee Maw (Germaine Erie Patureau Landry, the mother of my dad Robert Joseph “Bob” Landry, Jr.) when she was getting ready to go to Mexico.

To me, she seems very excited to be on the way to the land of her father’s birth.  (Though he was born in Mexico, he was of French and Acadian heritage.)  She loved to travel and would go with family most of the time.  My mom always referred to her as a “Go, go, Patureau.”  I’m not sure if my mom made up that moniker, but I always liked it.

Sisters Erie, Sylvia, and Lorena traveled with Sylvia’s son Rhett.

From the look of the second photo, this was a trip with family members.  That’s my Mee Maw on the far left checking to make sure that she wasn’t shortchanged by the money transfer.  Next to her is her younger sister Sylvia Patureau Marionneaux with her son Rhett.  On the right is Lorena Patureau Cary.  They all look excited about all the money that they received in the exchange.  I wonder who took the photo?  Was there another family member on the trip?

I got this photo from Rhett’s son Wade over a year ago and appreciated seeing this old photo of my grandmother enjoying herself.  She loved traveling and being with family, so this was the best of both worlds for her.  That makes me smile.

I got another treat this morning when I looked at my phone. It’s a link to the 1993 Patureau Reunion that I attended. I don’t see myself in the video, but I do see Tez and Syl Daigre, two of my dad’s first cousins.

I posted a photo two weeks ago that I claimed was the 1992 Patureau Reunion. I had some assistance in making that claim, but I will take the full blame. Now some evidence has surfaced that makes me think that the video was not from 1992.

One of my Patureau 3rd cousins Craig Pays sent me a photo this week.  It was a photo that his mom had saved.  His mom was Merlyn Agatha Patureau Pays and she was the 2nd cousin of my dad Robert Joseph “Bob” Landry.  Merlyn’s father was Peter Alexander “Alex” Patureau, who the first cousin to Bob’s mother Germaine Erie Patureau Landry.  Alex was the son of Louis Leobon Patureau, and Erie was the daughter of his brother Vincent Maximilian “Max” Patureau.  Louis and Max were sons of Ferdinand Pierre Patureau, the patriarch of the Patureau family in southern Louisiana and beyond.

Patureau family reunion on June 5, 1993

I was very excited to see this photo.  Not only was it the first time I’ve ever seen a photo from this reunion, but it is a photo of me with one of my most notorious cousins.  I’m speaking of Therese Wynhoven Mouton, who most of us call Tez.  (She was the daughter of Emma Patureau Mouton, the sister of Erie, my beloved Mee Maw.)  Tez actually has a number of nicknames, some of them not as nice as others.  One of the other ones that I’ve heard is “Wynie,” which is derived from her middle name.  But when I heard it spoken, it sounded like “whiney.”  It seems like Craig and his family just referred to her as Therese.

It also seems like Craig and his family were visited by The Uninvited Guest (aka The Bumply UG) as well.  It was a kick to share stories about our kooky cousin.  According to him, Therese would show up uninvited and start bossing people around.  Who ever heard of such a thing?  And she expected people to wait on her as she lounged around their house!  My goodness!

Craig said he had to speak up when Tez (sorry, that’s how I know her.  ‘Therese’ just doesn’t fit her as well) shooed away the family cat so she could sit in the chair it had been occupying.  Obviously it must have been a young cat who hadn’t learned to hide at the beginning of a visit from Tez.  Our family learned that lesson right away. (to avoid the obligatory greeting with a kiss)  Even family pets were known to make themselves scarce for the infrequent (yet too frequent) visits from the Bumply UG.

Nevertheless, I was excited to have a photo that included myself and Tez.  And we’re standing right next to each other!  How awesome is that?!  I have grown quite fond of Tez, now that I don’t have to be put out in my own house.  No more red kimonos coming down the stairway.  No more opera blaring through the house.  No more clouds of Cashmere Bouquet following behind Cousin Wart.  (Oops, Paula made me do that!)  At least we can share our fond memories of her and have a laugh.  Actually I’d like to hear a few more of those stories from Craig’s part of the family.  Feel free to leave a comment.

1993 Patureau Reunion with labels

I’d also like some help to identify as many people as we can in this photo.  I’ve named just a few.  I’m pretty sure that is Patricia Marionneaux in front of me in this photo.  Correct me if I’m wrong. (I was corrected.  It is actually Sylvia Schafer Daigre, first cousin to Patricia and my dad.)  I gave everyone a letter and a number (A1, A2…B1, B2…L5), so if you use that to identify a person, that would help.  I’ll update it as time goes by.

One more request.  If you have any more photos of Patureau reunions, I would love to have a copy of them.  Not just from this reunion, but I heard there was another one in Franklinton at Craig’s parents’ place.  I know I went to Tez’s place in Duson for a get together as well.  That was many years ago, but I’m sure somebody must have taken a photo or two.

Thanks for the photo, Craig.

Let the commenting begin…

I thought about posting some of this information last week, but it would have been out of turn.  We must let everyone have their turn!  I think it will work out well anyway.  The topic has changed a bit from what I had thought of last week.  I had even thought of doing something entirely different, but a few things happened this week that made me decide to go with the flow.

Baptism record for Leobon Patureau in 1768.

The thing that started it last week was this bit of information I found a few months back.  If you can’t read it, it says that Leobon Patureau was baptised in Palluaud, France, in 1768 and that he was born on Aug. 1.  That was what struck me last week – it was the sestercentenneal of of his birth.  Or is it semiquincentennial?  Whatever you call it, he was born 250 years ago.  Now that’s a milestone.

Mausoleum in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for Elmo Leobon “Pat” Patureau, Jr. and family

Then, earlier this week, some Patureau family members were remembering the anniversary of a loved one’s death.  A new mausoleum was built in the honor of Elmo Leobon Patureau, Jr.  who was known by family and friends as “Pat.”  He was the father of Dana and Byron.  There was a service for family and friends for his new resting place.  It is a beautiful monument.

The thing that really decided it was that I started looking back at those old French documents and noticed the repetition of that name Leobon.  It’s not a common name, yet it has been in the Patureau family for quite a while.  The Leobon that was born in 1768 died in 1851 in France.

He died that February, and then the name was continued later that year when his grandson Ferdinand Pierre Patureau named his firstborn son Louis Leobon Patureau (Pat’s great grandfather).  Ferdinand was about 14 when the family moved from France to the US, so he probably had some fond memories of his grandfather.

The Patureau tomb in Plaquemine

Louis Leobon went by the name Leobon.  He later married and named one of his sons Louis Leobon, Jr.  The son died at the age of 16, so the name Leobon was not carried down his line.  His next older brother was named Charles Allen and he had a son named Elmo Leobon.  He, of course, named one of his sons Elmo Leobon, Jr.

But that Leobon Patureau born in 1768 was not the first one in the family with the Leobon name.  If you look at that old baptismal record, you’ll see that his godfather or “parrain” was a Leobon Mounier. Leobon’s mother’s name is given as Marie Sicaud.

I looked at more documents and found that Marie Sicaud was the daughter of Pierre Sicaud and Jeanne Mounier.  So I’m thinking that the Leobon name was actually from our Mounier side of the family.  I found a document from 1742 that records the death of a 72-year-old man named Leobon, and Pierre Sicaud was a witness to the death.  Pierre was married into the Mounier family at that time, so it’s possible that the man was a family member.

So that Leobon name might have been in the family for almost 350 years.  Do I see a semiseptcentennial in our future?  We’ll have to find further verification before we do that!  So we’ll just have to be satisfied with a sestercentennial.

Go on.  Celebrate!  Just be careful with all those candles!