Category: Patureau

Christmas 1923 With Grandma Amelie

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The first time I remember seeing this photo was shortly after clearing out my parents’ house in January 2016.  I was the one that took all of the old photos and genealogy information for both of my parents.  I was thinking that I was familiar with all of the old photos that they had, but I was wrong.  There were several photos that I had seen online from other relatives that I had hoped to get copies of, and I discovered that I now had those photos.

But there were several others like this one that I didn’t recall seeing anywhere else.  I found this image on a slide that was in a box of many more.  On the border of the slide, it reads “Grandma Amelie + women who spent last Christmas with her 1923.”  (As you can see in the photo I posted.)

I knew who Amelie was.  She is my great great grandmother.  My dad was Bob Landry and his mother was Erie Patureau Landry.  Her mother was Marie Therese Landry Patureau, who was the oldest daughter of Marie Amelie “Belite” Bujol Landry Babin.  Boy, that is a mouth-full!  But she was known by simpler names, such as Belite, Amelie, Grandma Amelie, or Grandma Babin. 

But who were all of these women spending Grandma Belite’s last Christmas with her?  My first thought was that it was some kind of women’s retreat that she had gone to.  But really, what 80-year-old woman goes on a retreat a month before she dies?  Not that she knew she was going to die just over a month later (Jan. 28, 1924), but you can see that she seems a bit frail in this photo.  I then considered that some of the women were family members.  I didn’t really give it much more thought, because I didn’t really recognize anyone in the photo.

Van Landry with dad's first cousin Sis Vicknair.

Van Landry with dad’s first cousin Sis Vicknair.

A little over a year later in July 2017, I went to a Landry family reunion in Lake Charles.  Of course there were lots of cousins there.  One of those cousins was my dad’s first cousin Sis, who has been collecting Patureau family information for a while.  When she was sharing her book, I saw this photo again!  And she had the names of everyone in the photo!  After seeing some more of her photos and some of the ones I had, we realized we need to meet up and share.

Amazingly, we actually followed through with that!  Me and my own first cousins haven’t done the same thing, yet.  We’ve been talking about it for a few years.  Someday soon, I say, very soon.

Grandma Amelie + women Christmas 1923

Grandma Amelie + women Christmas 1923

So this is the photo that Sis shared with me.  I’ve edited it to clean it up a bit and now I can tell you who all of those women are.  I should have suspected that they were her grandchildren.  She was referred to as “Grandma Amelie” on the notation after all!   They all descended from her.

On the front row is Emma Patureau Mouton, Hazel Landry, and Wana C. Landry.  The back row is Sylvie Patureau, Naomi “Sis” Landry, Therese Wynhoven “Tez” Mouton (held by Sis), Grandma Belite, Clemence Babin Landry, Lydwin Patureau, Mona Mel Mouton (held by MTP), Marie Therese “Bee” Patureau, and Zita Patureau.

The main thing I don’t like about this photo is that my Mee Maw isn’t in it!  Neither is her sister Lorena.  Their mother Marie Therese Landry Patureau wasn’t in it because she died in 1909, but their sisters Emma, Sylvie, Lydwin, Bee, and Zita were there.  It also includes Emma’s daughters Tez and Mona Mel.  Mee Maw was expecting her first child in a few months, so maybe that’s why she didn’t attend the gathering.  Besides grandchildren and great grandchildren, one of her daughters is in the mix.  Clemence was her daughter by Belite’s marriage to Magloire Babin.  Clemence was married to Louis Joseph Peter Landry, and their daughters were Sis, Hazel, and Wana C.

I was considering explaining all of the other ways that everyone was related to one another, but it got really confusing quickly.  Best just to say that Belite looks like she had a lovely gathering for her final Christmas with her family.

Dec. 17, 2021 – Update

I’ve been looking over some videos that my dad made and noticed some bits of information about this photo.  This photo was taken at Uncle Louie and Aunt Clem’s home on South College Road in Lafayette, Louisiana.  The copy of the photo I had from Daddy was a slide photo.  I think he got that from his first cousin Naomi “Sis” Landry Vincent, the daughter of Louie and Clem.  She put together a slide show of all of her old photos and got together with Daddy to explain who everyone was in those photos.  An extremely helpful slideshow that fills in a lot of gaps that I had.  Thanks again, Daddy and Sis, as well as cousin Tez who shared some of her photos as well.

 

 

Our Erie the Student

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Long before my dear sweet Mee Maw (Germaine Erie Patureau Landry) taught me and my siblings how to play Solitaire – even before she taught her own children how to play Canasta and Pinochle, she was just little ol’ Erie, student at SLI. According to this old school newspaper, she started school there in 1912 after graduating high school from Crescent, Louisiana.

Class photo from around 1914 at SLI in Lafayette, Louisiana

I think this picture titled “Fourth Year Class” was taken in 1914 at the beginning of her senior year at SLI. The accompanying school newspaper cover shows the graduating class of 1915 with Erie on the front row. Neither one of the photos is very clear. They are school newspaper photos after all and I think it’s amazing that they have survived in any form all of these years later. I like this photo because she looks so stylish with her black skirt and lace-up boots. (In the front on the right.)

I remember that when I was younger, I thought my Mee Maw was from Lafayette. Now I think of her a being from Plaquemine. Most of her childhood was spent in Crescent, which is a suburb of Plaquemine. Her mother died in 1909 when Erie was just 14 years old. Her mother’s mother Belite (Marie Amelie Bujol Landry Babin, known as Grandma Babin to some) moved to Lafayette by 1910. Her father Max (Vincent Maximilian Patureau) stayed in Crescent until 1912, which was around the time Erie finished high school. He set up practice in Lafayette in October of 1911 and brought the children over in April of 1912.

So once she finished high school, her home was Lafayette for about ten years. Even after she got married in 1921 and moved to Lake Charles to live, her father lived in Lafayette for several more years. When I was a kid I didn’t consider all of these details. I wish I had asked a bit more back then, but we were too busy playing games and singing songs. So it’s a good thing these articles were saved that have a few photos and some reminiscences of young Erie.

The Vermilion, Class 1915, page 1.

The front page photo has Erie second from the right on the front row. (See here for a better version of the photo.) It looks like the photo must have been taken in the cooler time because of the heavier clothes. This photo has more people in it than the previous one, so that is a little confusing for me. Usually classes get smaller as time goes on with people dropping out or moving away.

This front pages starts introducing members of the class and telling what each individual accomplished during the years. Mee Maw is not mentioned there.

The Vermilion, Class 1915, page 2.

The second pages gives a description of the paper and its staff. It also has a dedication. Someone must have asked the class what they wanted to will to the younger class mates. It’s called “LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF THE SENIOR CLASS.” Very dramatic. Check out number 19: I, Erie Patureau, do will and bequeath my good times to Pierre Hernandez.

My favorite part of the pages is the article on the right side called “HISTORY OF THE CLASS OF ’15.” (That’s 1915 in case you were unsure.) It mentions many of the class members, but what they write about Mee Maw is sweet – “The following January after all dangers of finals was over Erie showed up. Modest and retiring, she was hard to make friends with, but we were determined and now she’s ours.” I like that.

The Vermilion, Class 1915, page 3

Page 3 continues with introductions to the class. There at the bottom of the first column is our Germaine Erie Patureau. That’s where I learned that she entered S. L. I. I. from Crescent Graded School in 1912. It doesn’t list any accomplishments at all. Not one. I wonder why that is? What it does have is a quote in Latin: “Dulce est recipere in loco.” According to Google translate, that means “Sweet is back in place.” That makes no sense.

I tried to reword it, but nothing really made sense. Put sweet back in its place? Give sweetness back in place? Dude? Sweet! (What does mine say?) So I searched again and found a famous Latin quote – “Dulce est desipere in loco.” That means, “It is sweet on occasion to play the fool” or “It is pleasant to be frivolous at the appropriate time.” I wonder if that is a quote that she liked, or was it said to her?

The Vermilion, Class 1915, page 4.

Page 4 has a letter that is a study in alternative reality. Someone wrote a letter as though it were years later and talks about the old classmates he runs into on his travels. There is a mention of our Erie in it. In that alternate reality, she went to Europe as a Red Cross nurse helping in a hospital.

While that would have been a grand and noble thing to do, I do prefer the reality of her staying here in the States and becoming my grandmother. Of course, I am biased.

I Am a Patureau

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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!

Standing in back: Unknown 1, unknown 2, Zita Patureau, Sylvia Patureau, Erie Landry (my Mee Maw) holding daughter Germaine Landry, Lidwin Patureau, unknown 3, unknown 4; standing in front A. J., Hubert, and Marie Landry (children of Erie), unknown 5, unknown 6. Circa 1928 (IDs provided by Sis)

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.

Louis Leobon with five of his seven sons. From left to right are Alex, Allen, Abel, Louis Leobon, Richard and Edmond. Missing are Pierre and Arthur. Circa 1927 (Photo from another “Patureau” Terry Knight.)

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!

Magloire et Henriette: After the Happily Ever After

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This post is a follow-up to a previous post that I wrote. It was titled “Magloire et Henriette” and it was about a love letter that my great great great great grandfather wrote to his future wife. The letter was written in 1799 and the couple was married June 28, 1801, in St. Gabriel, Louisiana. That would have been the beginning of the happily ever after.

When I wrote that previous post, I intentionally left it in an idealized form. The letter was so formally written in fine French penmanship and he was so sincere in expressing his undying devotion to his lovely wife to be. But when I was looking at documents pertaining to their life, there were things that were definitely not ideal. I decided to leave that out of the first introduction to the couple. The letter was romanticized, but we all know that life isn’t always perfect. Just as I would hope that you don’t demonize the couple for what you find out about them, I wouldn’t want to only present an idealized version of them either.

I was thinking about Magloire and Henriette this week for two reasons. The first reason I was thinking of them is because I ran across some documents about their son Magloire, Jr. this week. Magloire and Henriette had eight children. The first two were daughters that married into the LaBauve family. Then Magloire, Jr. came along. He married a LeBlanc. Their fourth child was my great great great grandmother Jeanne Zerbine, who married Elie Onezime Landry. They were the parents of Emma Landry who married French immigrant Ferdinand Patureau. They are the couple that brought forth all of the Patureau cousins in southern Louisiana. After Jeanne came Edouard Dupuy who also married a Landry, though not a close relation to Elie Onezime. The next son was Alphonse Dupuy. The next daughter was Henriette Coralie, who also married into the same LaBauve family. Their last child was Amelia.

The other reason I was thinking of this couple concerns the ‘definitely not ideal’ part of their life: they were slave owners. I went to a genealogy meeting last weekend that concerned documentation of sales and conveyances in Ascension Parish. The focus was on finding slave records and how that was documented to ensure that family members can find clues about their enslaved ancestors. Since the meeting was in West Baton Rouge, I thought that they might discuss documents from that area pertaining to slavery. But they didn’t.

I was more interested in West Baton Rouge Parish because that is where Magloire and Henriette lived after they were married. Some of their first children were born in St. Gabriel, but at some point they moved to Brusly. Then in 1819, Magloire died at the age of 41, less than a year after their last child was born. That’s the reason we have records of all of their belongings, both fixed and moveable. There was a succession performed at Henriette’s request to determine the value of their possessions and to ensure the protection of her minor children.

The handwritten signature of Henriette Serrette Dupuy can be seen on this 1819 document.

The succession information didn’t seem that striking at first. It just gave a description of the property and it introduced the reasons for the succession. A bit of family history information was shown and in a few places I found the handwritten signature of Henriette. I really liked seeing that.

Then it went on to start listing things and the assessed value. A bedstead here, a closet there, nine chairs, a table, and other assorted things for values of a few dollars to around $30. I was starting to think that they didn’t own much. Then I started seeing the names. I really disliked seeing that.

Excerpt from 1819 succession papers for Magloire Dupuy of West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana.

There was “a negroe man named Ben, estimated $800.” Then “a negroe man named Noel, estimated $1500.” The one that was really gut-wrenching was the one that said “a negroe wench named Eulalie with four children estimated $1700.” I can’t imagine being a mother (possibly herself born into slavery) in 1819 trying to explain what life was about to her four children born into slavery. Slavery would continue for another 45 years, but they didn’t know that. There was no promised end in sight.

There was a total of eleven enslaved individuals listed. In addition to the ones already listed, there was Marguerite and her two children and another woman named Agnes. It is difficult to find words to talk about this situation. I knew the history of my family and knew that they were involved in the wretched institution of slavery. But seeing the names of individuals makes it more personal. In an institution all about depersonalization, names bring back the personal.

So when I think back on the names of my ancestors Magloire and Henriette, I will be thinking of other names as well. There will be Ben and Noel, Marguerite and her two kids, and Agnes, but mostly I will remember Eulalie and her four children. People with hopes and fears just like you and me.

Go Go Patureau – To Mexico!

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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.

Surplus Sunday – Patureau Reunion Video 1993: Tez Speaks

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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.

At 3:06 I’m pretty sure that is Syl on the left and she is talking with Linda Cansler on the right. They were going through some old Patureau information. I think I have that collection of Patureau information from my dad.

Then at 6:05 Tez gets up and speaks about Grampa Max and the store and veterinary business he had in Plaquemine. It’s interesting to hear her voice again after all these years. Look at her Paula Raley, she really doesn’t seem that scary! And the bumps are hardly noticeable!

But the thing I do notice about her is that she does not offer to help her elderly cousin in any way. Tez has a microphone (probably a child’s Rock Star toy one) for when she was addressing everyone. Then when her cousin (I haven’t determine who she is yet. Any help would be appreciated. Don’t be a Tez!) starts to talk, she just looks her way and holds onto the mic the whole time.

It seems obvious that people couldn’t hear her very well. I would give Tez the benefit of the doubt if I hadn’t heard so many stories about her before. Once a Tez, always a Tez. It seems like there should be a family phrase like, “Don’t be a Tez.” I’ve never heard that, but I have heard, “Don’t be a Manette.” How is this possible? The only Manette I recall was a sweet old matriarch of the Bouquet family. I think there was another Manette that wasn’t so sweet. (Maybe Therese Daigre Barker knows more.)

And so ends the Patureau reunion posts…at least for this week…I think. Thanks again, Craig.

 

 

Saturday Surprise: The Real 1992 Patureau Reunion

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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.

Since I have been proven wrong once on this issue, I will not make another claim about the date of this photo. Let’s just say it was around 1992, but it wasn’t 1992. How’s that.

And I am going to share with you the evidence that was shared with me. It is a copy of a videotape that Craig Pays found recently. He is the same one that provided the photo. In the beginning of the video, a girl (presumably a Patureau relative) states that it is 1992. Later in the video cousin Linda Cansler talks about the family lines of Patureau that were represented. She does not mention Grampa Max (my great grandfather Vincent Maximilian Patureau). So me nor Tez was there that year.

 

 

Patureau Reunion 1993

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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…

Magloire et Henriette

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I thought I would add a little French to the title since the subjects of this post spoke and wrote in French.  For those of you that may not know, “et” is the French word for “and.”  I never learned French when I was younger, but I wish I had.  It would have come in handy since I have French ancestors.

It would have really helped with this letter, which was written by one of my ancestors in 1799.  I found out about the letter when I was exploring some family connections on a Facebook group about southern Louisiana ancestry at the beginning of 2018.  Someone posted rough, blurry photos of the letter and the transcription.  Come to find out, it was a love letter from Magloire Dupuy to Henriette Serrette.

To find this couple in my family tree, you have to go through my paternal grandmother Germaine Erie Patureau Landry (Mee Maw) and her father Vincent Maximilian Patureau (Grampa Max).  Grampa Max’s father was Ferdinand Patureau, who is the patriarch of all of the Patureau families in southern Louisiana.  But the matriarch of all of these families was his wife Marie Emma Landry Patureau.  Emma’s parents were Eli Onezime Landry and Jeanne Zerbine Dupuy.  Jeanne Zerbine was one of the eight children of Magloire et Henriette.

So now that you know the results of the letter, I’ll tell you a little more about Magloire and Henriette.  Magloire (I’ve seen it spelled “Magluar” in Spanish documents.  It must have been spelled phonetically.) was born in 1777 in St. Gabriel, Louisiana.  His parents and all of his ancestors were Acadians, so he would be the first generation Cajun.  Henriette was also the first generation born in North America, but her parents and ancestors were born in France.

They lived and met in Louisiana when it was still under Spanish rule, but they both were part of the French-speaking culture.  I don’t know the particulars of how Magloire and Henriette met, but this letter gives a little bit of insight into their relationship.  It’s amazing that it survived through the years.  I don’t know those particulars either.  I just know that at some point it was in an attic and rediscovered. Then at some later point someone posted a blurry copy of it on Facebook.  I decided to search for a better copy.

It didn’t take too long.  I went to some type of Cajun reunion/social gathering in West Baton Rouge Parish and started asking people.  Most people didn’t know what I was talking about, but then I came across Lucy Landry.  She is related to me, but not through the Landry line – that’s her married name.  We are related through Magloire & Henriette and she had a good copy of the letter that she was willing to share.  Woo hoo! Thank you, Lucy!

So I got a copy of the original letter and transcription.  I decided to edit it to try to bring it back to closer to what I thought it might originally look like.  There were age spots from tape that was used to put it back together.  It also had writing on top of it to fill in for parts that had been more damaged.  I got rid of those things and then copied words from other parts of the letter.

I also changed the transcription a little bit.  I took poetic license with the help of Google Translate.  People nowadays are turned off by the phrase “I want to possess you as my dutiful wife.”  The meaning of “have” and “possess” are very close, and the phrase “I want to have you as my faithful wife” sounds a little better.  Things were a bit different back then.

So let me go ahead and give you my version of the transcribed letter.  Imagine yourself sitting in your parlor back in June of 1799.  No air conditioning, so it could have been rather warm in Iberville Parish in southern Louisiana.  Here is the letter:

Iberville June 2, 1799

Mademoiselle

The esteem which everyone has for your virtue and your modesty, and my own familiarity with them which  I have had for a long time, lead me to take the liberty of writing you these lines and telling you simply and genuinely that I should consider myself the happiest man if I could win a small place in your thoughts.  Certainly I may often be found in the presence of a number of young ladies of very great merit, though I must acquiesce that none of them has been capable of significantly touching my heart as you have.  O to Heaven that I might have enough good qualities that you might honor me with some consideration, and that this kindness might surely lead to my goal which would be to have you one day as my very dear and faithful wife.  I should have nothing more to desire on earth, since I would have in you what I esteem more than everything else in the world put together.     I am, Mademoiselle, with the most sincere devotion,

Your humble and very obedient servant,

Magloire Dupuy

That’s it.  I hope you enjoyed it.  I think it is a great treasure to have from an ancestor from so long ago.

One day I would like to see the original.

I thought I’d go ahead and post the original transcript that I got.  It was very useful in working out some of the original words that were so illegible.  As you can see, it is from the Peavy Family Papers.  (Thanks again, Lucy!)

For a follow-up to this post, you can readMagloire et Henriette: After the Happily Ever After.

Erie Alone

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I noticed that many of the past few posts have been large groups.  I like those old photos with lots of people in them, but they are more work to identify them all.  Not that I can I identify them all, but I try to.  So I thought I’d post a photo with fewer people in it.

It’s also time to post something for my dad’s side of the family.  I thought I’d post something about my Mee Maw.  I had some group photos from when she was in school, but I don’t want to post a group shot.  You see the dilemma I have when trying to find the perfect post every week?

But lucky for me, there is a photo of Mee Maw by herself that I’ve been wanting to post for a while.  I posted another photo of her that was taken on the same day, but that was over two years ago, so I should be good to post it now.

Erie Patureau sitting pretty in 1921.

Here it is.  This was taken in July 1921 somewhere in southern Louisiana.  Germaine Erie Patureau was born in Crescent, Louisiana, (near Plaquemine) on August 6, 1895.  Her parents were Max and Therese Landry Patureau.  Her mother died in 1909 when Erie was just 14 years old.

In 1912 she went off to college in Lafayette at SLI.  She may have stayed with Grandma Babin at that time.  Grandma Babin was her mother’s mother.  I always refer to her as Belite.  Her full name was Marie Amelie “Belite” Bujol Landry Babin.  She was one of the beautiful daughters of the Widow Bujol who made a flag before the Civil War to see off the soldiers in the Brusly area.  But in 1912, she was just Erie’s grandmother.  Belite and her second husband Magloire Babin had moved to Lafayette a few years earlier.

In 1915 Erie graduated from college and began her teaching profession in Lafayette.  I’ve shared a photo of her with her classroom once before.  She was living in Lafayette in 1920 according to the Census.  She was living with her mom’s half sister and her family.  Her mom was the daughter of Belite and Trasimond Landry, and her mom’s half-sister Clemence was the daughter of Belite and Magloire Babin.  Also in the household was Clemence’s husband and their six children, as well as Belite.

As it turns out, Clemence’s husband was her own second cousin Louis Peter Landry.  Louis had a younger brother by the name of Robert Joseph Landry.  We all know what happens next.  In 1900 Rob’s brother Sebastian had married their first cousin Manette.  Then in 1905 Louis married their second cousin Clemence.  So really, a cousin marriage was long overdue!

Because that’s what Erie did in November of 1921.  She married her mom’s first cousin Rob and moved with him to Lake Charles to start a family of her own.  So much for Erie being all alone as the title suggests.  But as we all know, she lived happily ever after.

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