Fred and Clarence in 1908

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I remember hearing stories about my grandfather and his identical twin Clarence ever since I was a kid.  There was never really any doubt about them being identical, because people had a hard time telling them apart.  Teachers tied different colored strings on them to signify a difference, but they always switched them to confuse the matter.  According to my mom, they seemed to enjoy confusing people and pulling switches on them.

I don’t remember seeing photos of the twins back then, though.  Grandpa may have had one or two, but he was not the type to sit with you, show you pictures, and talk about the good old days.  He was more prone to talking about his “good old age.”  He seemed to go on and on about his aches and pains.  It’s kind of sad, because I remember avoiding being around him because of that.  But really, what kid wants to hear adults complaining about being old?  Not me.

Clarence and Fred Bucklin circa 1908

So let’s talk about young Fred before the aches and pains.  The picture I’m posting is of Fred D Bucklin and Clarence Jonathan Bucklin who were born October 2, 1907.  The photo was probably taken some time in mid 1908.  So that makes the photo 110 years old.

At the time of their birth, their mother Addie Mae Hine Bucklin was 31 years old.  They were her 7th and 8th children. Their older siblings were Leo, Mary, Ralph, Carl, and Herbert.  There was also a brother Paul who was born in 1903 and died in 1904, so they started out with four older brothers and one sister.  They were Addie’s first set of twins to carry and she would later carry another set.

Their father Louis Charles Bucklin was 34 at the time of their birth.  Both of Louis’s parents had died before this time, so Clarence and Fred didn’t know their paternal grandparents.  Louis was the youngest of all of his siblings.  He actually had a half-brother who was 27 years older than he was.  The other factor was that neither of Louis’s parents lived into their 70s.

I have this photo labeled with Clarence on the left and Fred on the right.  This identification was provided by their younger sister Edna Bucklin Keys.  She identified them in the photo in 2001 for my mom’s cousin (Joseph’s mom).  There must be a few copies of this photo around, because I got this original from my cousin Anita.  (Thanks again, cousin!)

I don’t have childhood photos of all of my grandparents, so I really appreciate the ones that I do have.  It’s nice to see my grandfather before he started complaining about his aches and pains.  It’s actually before he had any aches and pains!  Before they had a falling out with each other.  Before they had a business together.  Before either one of them married their Myrtle.  They were just two sweet looking little boys posing for a photographer in nearby Jennings, Louisiana.  Just so we could admire them 110 years later.

Sweet Belite & Co.

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Max Patureau family circa 1921

I saw this photo for the first time at the Landry Family reunion last year.  When I saw it, I just knew I had to have a good scan of the photo.  What I first saw was just a Xerox copy of the photo. Luckily for me, Sis was the one that had both versions of the photo.  We met up a few months later and I got the improved version that I’m sharing with you.  I did edit it a bit to remove some scratches and other age damage.

What I really like about the photo is that it shows four generations of my family.  Not all of those generations are direct ancestors of mine, but three of them are.  The three I’m talking about are my grandmother Mee Maw, her father Grampa Max, and his mother-in-law Belite.  The representative of my dad’s generation is none other than his first cousin Wynhoven Therese Mouton.  But we all know her as Tez.  (Or the UG from a previous post!)

In fact Tez is the reason for this get together.  She was born Feb. 18, 1921, in Lafayette, Louisiana, and this photo is from her baptism, which was probably shortly after.  Tez was the daughter of Emma Patureau Mouton, but that’s not who’s holding her.  Emma’s sister Zita is holding Tez.  That makes me think that Zita may have been her godmother.  Emma’s brother Vincent on the right is holding a corsage, which makes me think that he may have been the godfather.

Let me go ahead and give you the names of all of the people.  Grampa Max is sitting in the front.  His full name was Vincent Maximilian Patureau (1865-1935).  He was married to Marie Therese Landry Patureau who died in 1909 at the age of 41.  She was the first child of Belite, who can be seen sitting in the front.  She was born Marie Amelie Bujol (1843-1924) and married Trasimond Landry in 1867.  After Trasimond died in 1879, she married Magloire Babin.  Her nickname was Belite, but she was also referred to as Grandma Babin.  She was a widow again at this point, because Magloire Babin died in 1919.

Standing up in the back are the children of Max Patureau.  From left to right are Marie Therese (who would later give birth to Marie Therese Schafer – the “Sis” that provided this photo), Romuald, Erie (my dear sweet Mee Maw), Emma (mother of Tez), Zita with Tez, Sylvie, Vincent, and Lidwin.  Missing from the photo is another daughter named Lorena.  Being from a large family, I know how difficult it is to get a photo with everyone in it.  So this is a really good representation of the family at that period of time.

It’s great to have this photo of Belite with her son-in-law, her grandchildren, and one of her great grandchildren.  Actually she had around thirty grandchildren, so this was only a few of them.  I’d like to tell you how many great grandchildren that she lived to see, but my genealogy program gets confused with so many of her grandchildren marrying their cousins!  If someone wants to figure that out for me, feel free to do so and let me know.

So that’s our story for today.  A glimpse into the life of Grampa Max, his kids, and his sweet mother-in-law Belite celebrating the arrival of a new family member.

If they only knew!

Basketeer Betty AKA Mom’s Memories p. 19

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Mom’s memories, p. 19 is about basketball

During the last few years of her life, my mom jotted down little stories about her past. She knew that she was forgetting things and I suppose there were some things she wanted to make sure to remember. But when it came to the topic of basketball, she needn’t have worried. She was talking about her basketball days with some of the care workers up until the end of her days.

I’m glad she wrote a little bit about basketball because it makes me laugh and it provided me with some details I wasn’t aware of (or forgot). She started basketball in the 5th grade, and the 6th grade was a trying year for her since her mother was her teacher.

Her family was big into basketball. She always talked about the dirt basketball/tennis court that they made in their yard. From the way she talked about it, she scraped up all of the grass and smoothed the ground single-handedly! Maybe she did.

Ladies basketball team from Hathaway, Louisiana, in 1948. My mom Betty Lou Bucklin can be seen standing on the left.

It was obvious from the way she talked that she loved the game. She played all through high school and nothing pleased her more than when her small town Hathaway team beat the ‘city’ teams like Jennings.

Beating the Jennings team was not their only success, though. They also made it to State, where they once made 3rd place and another time placed 1st. I’m thinking this photo may be from their winning season. If anyone knows better, let me know.

Shown in the team photo are (top row) Betty Lou Bucklin (my mom), LaVelle Krumnow (mom’s best childhood friend), Mrs. C. B. Krumnow (Gertrude Lessman Krumnow, mother of LaVelle and coach of the team), Lela Mae Jester, and Claribel Brown; (kneeling) Dorothy Gary, Carol Bryan, ? Sittig, Adley Benoit, and Jean Jester; and (front) Geneva Hayes, Laura Jane Ritter, and Eva Derks. At least that’s the information on the back of the photo.

My mom also saved some old clippings from her glory days as a basketeer Hornet, or as one reporter claimed “a bulldog.” This article is from the beginning of the 1948 year, which is the same year as the photo.  The article lists some of the members and it mostly matches Mom’s recollections. I’m sure Dot must be Dorothy, but is Ruby the same Derks as Eva?

 

1949 newspaper article about the Hathaway basketball teams

The other article is from 1949, I think. The same members are mentioned, and as before, they were up to their winnings ways again. This is the article that talks about those girls giving a “bulldog” defense during the games. I’m not sure they would appreciate that description. They were, after all, rivals of Jennings and everyone knew that Jennings were the Bulldogs.

I doubt that bothered young Betty Lou. She was proud of her accomplishments with the basketball team. According to her yearbook, she and teammate Laura Jane Ritter were chosen on the “All Tournament” team. Maybe that’s the Parish team she mentions in her writing. That’s how she ended up playing in an exhibition game at McNeese. And as my mom stated, that’s when she (and presumably her teammates) “thought we were hot stuff.”

Number 0 Betty Lou Bucklin in action during her high school basketball career.

I’ve never really been a fan of basketball – as a player or an observer. But I do have some fond basketball memories from my childhood. Our family had a basketball goal set up in our driveway and sometimes we would all go out and play the game. It was my mom and dad and all six of us kids. (At least according to my memory!) I mainly remember that we were laughing and making a lot of noise and we’d play until after dark.

The dark didn’t stop us because we would go inside and get this clamp-on light that we attached to the pole for the antenna. This did not make our neighbors the Bordelons very happy. That crazy Landry family was out all hours of the night laughing, yelling, and shining a bright light right outside their window. So we put up a big, white wooden fence along the property line by the driveway.

I thought I’d post a photo of the fence, since I was talking about it. That’s Al and Rob shooting some hoops in 1974. I don’t see how that fence would have made much difference to the sound level. But we could continue playing our games and say that we tried.

I wasn’t going to post this next photo since I have posted it before. But it was posted in 2010, which is well before I started these regular blog posts. Since I’ve already written more than I intended to, I might as well add a little more.

Getting rough on the court! Christmas 1977

Because I just have to talk about the basketball match to end all basketball matches. I’m talking about the famous Christmas 1977 Bucklin Girl Basketball Extravaganza. It was the most entertaining family gathering for my mom’s side of the family. (As you can see, the white fence has been removed.)

On the sidelines on the left are Uncle Ronald and Toni Pilcher. On the “court” are Sylvia Bucklin Pilcher (on the ground), Alma Bucklin Waldorf (with the ball), Betty Lou Bucklin Landry (the famed basketeer stepping over her sister Syvia’s foot), Charla Seal (with hand on her Aunt Bettilou’s hip), and the matriarch Myrtle Phenice Bucklin AKA Grandma.

There was a lot of laughter that day. As you can see Aunt Sylvia and Grandma are having big laughs as they try to catch their breaths. I know Aunt Loris was there and she was involved in the game as well. Perhaps she was taking a break at the time.

Oh, wait, there she is with Aunt Alma waiting for the ball to come down. See, she definitely was there. She told me that this was the last time they all played basketball together because it took so much out of them. If they’re gonna play ball, they’re gonna go all out! I, for one, am glad that I was a witness to that phenomenal game. And I’m more than just a little bit jealous that Toni and Charla took part in it. But knowing them, I’m sure they cherish those basketball memories as well.

Bobbie’s First Communion

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First Communion photo from circa 1940.

Here is a really cool old photo of my dad.  He was born January 31, 1929, in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  He was the fourth of eight children born to Robert Joseph (“Rob” or “Pappy” or “Pee Paw”) Landry, Sr. and Germaine “Erie” (or “Mee Maw”) Patureau Landry.  It wasn’t long after he was born that the country was thrown into a Great Depression that lasted until little Bobbie was almost a teenager.

Yet that did not deter this southern Louisiana Catholic Cajun family from celebrating milestones that they felt were important.  The suits and the candles indicate that this was a celebration of the First Communion for these young ones of old.  I think that most times this occurs when a child is around the first or second grade.  Back then, there was a Private Communion at that time.  Later, when they were around 11, they would have a Solemn First Communion.  This photo is of the Solemn First Communion.  (Thanks to my 3rd cousin Dolores White Hebert for informing me about the different rituals held back then.) So I estimate the photo was taken somewhere around 1940.

Daddy can be seen in the group of boys.  He is the one with the wavy hair third from the left.  He’s got his little white suit on, which probably was quite a luxury for that time.  He did have two older brothers, so it could have been a hand-me-down.  I’m sure he got a new candle, though.  You can’t have a candle that’s been burned before at your First Communion, right?

The other ‘luxurious’ part of this event was that there was a photo taken and he got a copy of it.  There aren’t that many photos of him from that time.  Mainly the photos from that time were the yearly school portraits.  It’s a really good photo.  I did a little bit of editing on it last year, but it was already in pretty good condition.  And though a good many of these people may have had their Last Rites, it’s nice to be able to look back and reminisce about one of their earlier rites.

A Dash at the Bash

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I really like this old photo.  It was probably not something that was cherished, however.  It is a bit of a blurry photo.  I think it came from my second cousin Joseph Connors (his maternal grandfather Herbert Bucklin was the brother of my maternal grandfather Fred).  He found an envelope of old negatives from a special event back in the 1920s.

Oct. 3, 1926 – Grandma Sue with her family at her birthday bash.

The special event was Grandma Sue (Susan G. Stanbrough Hine, maternal grandmother of Herbert and Fred) and her good friend Jennie’s (Edessa Jane Welton Havenar, grandmother of our Keys family historian Edith Keys Segraves) joint birthday celebration.  They both had an October 3 birthday and they celebrated together with a joint celebration for at least 20 years.  I know that because there was a newspaper article about that big celebration in 1926.  There were lots of photos taken of family and friends.

You’ve already seen some of the large group photos of most of the attendees because Joseph and I have shared them previously.  Then there were a few pictures of Grandma Sue with her children and grandchildren.  And then there’s this photo.  It might have been a throwaway photo that only survived because the negatives were grouped together.

But I like the photo.  It’s a photo of the family and it includes Grandma Sue, her daughter Addie (my great grandmother), some of her sons, grandsons, and granddaughters.  The fun thing about the photo is its defect.  It’s either a double exposure with the second exposure being a long one, or it was a long exposure and people didn’t realize it.  Because you can see one of the granddaughters in two places.  You can see that she was initially standing in beside Grandma Sue and then she must have made a mad dash to get to somewhere else.

You can also see one of the Hine men (a brother of Addie) on the right is turning around to look toward the men who are talking in front of their sporty new cars.  Another granddaughter on the left with a Y type collar can be seen walking away to the left.  You can just make out some of the feet of people who have moved forward after the first exposure (or after the initial exposure.)

Meanwhile it looks like Grandma Sue hasn’t moved a bit.  It was her 75th birthday celebration after all.  She might have slowed down a little at that point.  So the picture captures more than just a split second from that day.  It captures some of the movement as well.  It’s the closest thing we have to a video or Live photo from back then.

Article from the Jennings Daily Times Record from Dec. 12, 1906

I thought I would also share an article I found that relates to this annual birthday celebration.  This is part of page 8 of the Jennings Daily Times Record from Dec. 12, 1906.  They are giving the news from the Raymond area.  The first few articles are about people I don’t know nor recognize any names.  Then there is a little blurb about some of the Hine family visiting in Jennings.

After that is some information about the weather and how it affects the farmers of the area.  It’s interesting to see what they wrote in the papers back then.  I’m glad they did, because I have been able to find some interesting articles about my family.  Like the next part of the column.

It talks about the goings on of the birthday celebration in 1906, back when Grandma Sue was just 55 years old.  Younger than I am now.  Even though the main course was oysters, which I don’t really care for, I’m sure there were other tasty items on the menu that I could have enjoyed.  It’s obvious that people were having a good time.  I suppose this was the first celebration and it was such a hit that they decided to continue with it.

I do enjoy these old photos and articles about my family.  It makes them much more personable to me.  And the photos from the birthday celebration are great because so many family members were in attendance.  Not just my Hine family, but the Bucklin, Keys, and Phenice ones as well.  A veritable family smorgasbord.

Patureau Passings

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I heard some sad news yesterday relating to the Patureau extended family.  My dad’s first cousin died.  Melwyn Mary Marionneaux Barker (1930-2018) was the daughter of Sylvie Albine Patureau Marionneaux (1903-1962).  My dad Robert Joseph “Bob” Landry, Jr. was the son of Sylvie’s sister Germaine Erie Patureau Landry (1895-1973).  Sylvie and Erie were the daughters of Vincent Maximilian “Grampa Max” Patureau (1865-1935).  Melwyn was one of the sweetest people that I have ever met.  She always had such a welcoming smile and demeanor.  I’ll miss seeing her at the Plaquemine cousin events.

The other sad thing that happened relates to a sibling of Grampa Max.  Max had an older brother named Leobon (1851-1928).  I posted a photo of the two brothers a while back.  Leobon had a son named Charles Allen Patureau (1887-1956) and on the day before Melwyn died, a son of Allen named Edward Andrew “Ned” Patureau (1933-2018) passed away as well.  He was my dad and Melwyn’s second cousin, and he seemed like a kind and gentle person.  I have read some remembrances of him that make me think he was a genuinely good person.

Ferdinand Pierre Patureau and Marie Emma Landry Patureau’s family circa 1864.

So in honor of these two wonderful people who were second cousins to each other, I’m posting a Patureau family treasure.  It’s the oldest photo that I have of the Patureau family.  It’s a photo of Max and Leobon’s Patureau family in about 1864.  Their parents were Ferdinand Pierre Patureau (1827-1877) and Marie Emma Landry Patureau (1829-1892).  This is the only photo of Emma Patureau that I know of.

It’s not the best of photos, but it’s better than nothing.  It’s actually a scan of a Xerox copy that my dad had.  I don’t know where it came from, but I’m on the lookout for a better copy. (Hooray! The original has survived and it is in a collection in Beaumont, Texas.  In case you were wondering, you are not seeing the terrible Xerox copy, you’re seeing the new improved photo. Updated 1/16/2022) That’s why I put off using the photo before.  But for this occasion I thought I’d share it.  I did work on Emma’s face and the background a little, but it is a rough photo to work with. (Here is an improved version from the original that I found.)

Let me tell you a little bit (or maybe a lot!) about this family.  Emma and Ferdinand were married on Feb. 10, 1847, and she gave birth to their 16 children over a 25 year period.  Doesn’t that sound fun?!  Their first child was Elizabeth Zulma Patureau (1848-1924) who was never married.  I believe she is the older girl in the back on the right of this photo.  I have another photo of her that looks like this.  The next daughter to be born was the other older girl on the left.  Her name was Marie Aline Patureau (1849-1946) and she later married Joseph Omer Hebert.  Their son was one of the banjo players (Ferdinand Hebert) in a previous post.

The next child born was Leobon.  He is the young man standing proudly in front of his father in this photo.  This is a really big family line on its own.  Leobon and his wife Amelia Hebert (sister of Marie Aline’s husband Joseph Omer Hebert) had twelve children, including Marie Caroline Patureau Wilkinson (I posted a photo of her two weeks ago).  Since it was just two weeks ago that I talked about that DNA connection, I won’t mention all of the other DNA matches that I’ve found from this line of Patureau kin.

After Leobon came a daughter named Marie Valentine in 1853.  She lived for just over a year, so did not survive to be in this photo.  Elizabeth Palmire Patureau (1855-1870) was the next one born.  I think she is the young girl standing in the front on the right.  She is in the photo, but only lived for another six years or so.  She died at the age of 14.  After her there was an infant son that was born and died somewhere around 1856 or 1857.  Then in 1857 Mary Zelica Patureau (d. 1925) was born.  She is most likely the young girl in the front on the left.  She first married Roger Allain, but after his death she married Louis Hebert, the brother of Amelia and Joseph Omer.

The next child born was Ferdinand Pierre Patureau, Jr.  He was born in 1858 and only lived for two years.  If you are counting, that would make 8 births in 10 years (only halfway through the children) with 5 children making it past two years in age.  Modern medicine has cut down on infant mortality.  For the most part, we are better off than most of our ancestors in this respect.  This brings us to the next two children who also had short lives.

Anne Emma Patureau was born in 1860 and she survived to be in this photo.  She is the youngest girl standing next to her older brother Leobon.  She looks to be 3 or 4 years old in this photo and she only lives to be about 13 years old. The next child born was Joseph Onesime Patureau who was born in early 1862 and died about six months later.  Next came Rose Elisa Patureau (1863-1940) who lived to the respectable age of 76.  She was married to Hypolite Victor Dupuy and they had three sons and a daughter together.  She was the last child born to Ferdinand and Emma when this photo was taken.  She is the little girl in her mother Emma’s arms.

The date of this photo was determined based on the approximate ages of the children, their sexes, birth order, and how long they lived.  With the number of children increasing and decreasing through the years, the date of 1864 is the only year that seems to fit with the details of the family in the photo.  My only disappointment with the photo is that it was taken just about a year before Grampa Max was born.  I know that he was born in Mexico and I’m not sure when they moved there.  So I’m also not sure if the photo was taken in Louisiana or Mexico. (The back of the original photo I saw in 2021 shows that it was made in New Orleans, Louisiana.)

As you can figure, Vincent Maximilian was born in 1865, followed by Pierre Oscar in 1866 (-1926).  He was married to a Domitille Dupuy.  I’m sure she was related somehow to Elisa’s Hypolite, but I don’t know how closely they were related.  A lot of the information on this family line came from a DNA match at 23andMe, including a sad story that I may share with you all one day. (Here it is: Unnatural Patureau Deaths.)  After Pierre Oscar came Joseph Alcide (1868-1919), another sibling that never married.

I know you’ve been wondering when this next one would show up.  “Where is that other banjo playing Patureau?” you wanted to know.  Well here he is.  Abel Omer Patureau (1870-1917) was a member of Kelly’s String Band and was married to Eunice Constance Pefferkorn.  They had eleven children and their family group is quite large, with many living in southern Louisiana.

And finally we come to the baby of the family.  Marie Victorine (1873-1937) was married to William Albert Cropper and they had a dozen children.  They must have been competing to see who could have the most children.  I never stopped to count how many grandchildren that Ferdinand and Emma had, but I’m sure it’s a rather large number.  Victorine’s family lived in Beaumont, Texas, and a lot of the family still lives in that area.

So there it is.  The family that led to all of the Patureau descendants in southern Louisiana, including our very own Melwyn Barker and Ned Patureau.  Here’s to these two wonderful people.  May we live up to the excellent examples their lives exemplified.

An Orthographic Centennial

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“What is he writing about this time?” you may be asking yourself.  Even if I had mentioned to you what I was writing about this week, you might think that I had changed my mind.  (Or that I’m out of my mind.  Your pick.)  Last week my sister Jamie suggested the topic for this week’s post.  She said that since it was one hundred years since my maternal grandmother Myrtle Sylvia Phenice received a certificate to acknowledge her superior spelling skills, I might consider writing about that.  So I agreed.  Thus the title.

I like to have an interesting title to my posts, which I hope none of you find surprising. Otherwise I have failed miserably!  So I thought I would find a synonym for the word “spelling.”  The word that came up was “orthography.”  Orthography means “the conventional spelling system of a language.”  But I used the adjective form of the word.  In my line of work (drafting or technical drawing), the word “orthographic” has a different meaning.  It is defined as “a method of projection in which an object is depicted or a surface mapped using parallel lines to project its shape onto a plane.”  As you can tell, it is a very different meaning.

So the word has a double meaning.  And hopefully I used the adjective form of the word accurately for the title.  Because it’s supposed to mean a century full of words spelled correctly.  Wasn’t that interesting?  Aren’t words fun?  I think so, and I think my grandmother felt the same way.  She was a stickler for spelling words correctly and speaking with the proper grammar.

April 1918 – My grandmother Myrtle Phenice received recognition for her spelling prowess.

It started early for her, because one hundred years ago she was only eleven years old when she participated in the State Spelling Test.  The test occurred in March, but she didn’t receive her certificate until April.  I’m sure she was very proud of this accomplishment, otherwise we wouldn’t be looking at this old piece of paper.

And if you read it, you’ll see that she spelled five hundred words correctly.  I don’t think I ever had a spelling test with five hundred words on it.  How did they do that?  Pronounce 500 words for a large group of students while making sure that they all heard it pronounced accurately?  That sounds like a monumental task in itself!  It does say that the test was on March 28th and 29th, so I suppose it was spread out over two days.  She was in the second or third grade, so she must have been well-behaved as well.

1920 – Myrtle Phenice at it again.

As you can see from this second document, she repeated the feat two years later.  This time it was only 100 words and just one day.  But she got them all correct again!  That’s an accomplishment.

I wonder if there is a spelling gene?  A few markers in the chromosomes of people who are good spellers?  If there is, I think I got it.  I have always been a good speller, if I may say so myself.  I was looking through some old documents the other day and came across my old report cards.  I always thought that math and science were my strong subjects, but it was spelling that was the only subject I only made As in.  I don’t have any certificates to prove my point, though.

My niece Kelli is an excellent speller like her great grandmother.  She won a district spelling bee when she was in the third grade. (Let’s hear three cheers for Kelli!!!)  When I went to the Keys family reunion last summer, the topic of spelling came up.  It’s funny to hear that other family members are sticklers for incorrect spelling and grammar as well.  It’s that old question of nature vs. nurture.

Grandma was a teacher after all and I’m sure she wanted her progeny to be the best spellers they can be!  Her sisters were also teachers with the same proclivity.  So don’t disappoint them: lets irradicate mispelled words!

 

Marie Carmelite Revisited

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Two weeks ago my post was about my great great grandmother Marie Carmelite Hebert Landry.  Since I wrote that post, I received my DNA test results at AncestryDNA.com.  I really wasn’t expecting much there because I had tested at 23andMe previously and all of the Cajun DNA from cousins marrying cousins is very confusing.  I found a few Patureau and Landry 2nd and 3rd cousins, which was interesting.  Then I came across a DNA match who was a Wilkinson.

Marie Patureau Wilkinson and her first cousin Germaine Erie Patureau Landry in the early 1960s.

I recognize that name Wilkinson because I have a photo of our dear beloved Mee Maw (paternal grandmother Germaine Erie Patureau Landry) with her first cousin Marie Caroline Patureau Wilkinson.

I didn’t do much research into the Wilkinson line when I first saw that Marie had married a Wilkinson, but then I found another Wilkinson connection to the family.  Our cousins Byron and Dana Patureau, son and daughter of Elmo “Pat” Patureau, had a grandmother who was a Wilkinson.  When I discovered that, I was interested to see if I could find a connection between the two Wilkinsons marrying into the Patureau line.

Come to find out, Marie’s husband William was the first cousin of Pat’s mother Geraldine.  William Wilkinson, Jr. was the son of William Wilkinson, Sr and Emily Rivet.  Geraldine was the daughter of William, Sr.’s brother Herman Wilkinson.  I was glad to be able to find a connection at that time.  And then along comes a DNA match with a Wilkinson at Ancestry.

So my first thought was that this match would be a descendant of Marie.  I think I sent a message to her son at some point when I found his family tree online.  I never heard anything back.  But I knew what his family tree looked like, and the Wilkinson DNA match did not have the same tree.  The thing that really struck me at first was that the common ancestors were identified as Diego Hernandez and Anne Theotiste Babin.  Remember them?  Of course you do.  Diego was the grandfather of our little Marie Carmelite.  His daughter Marie Marthe married Simon Hebert in 1800, they had Marie Carmelite in 1802, and Simon died a few months later.

Marie Marthe then married Pierre Rivet, and they had three sons together.  I reported that the three sons had died as infants, but that I hoped that my information was wrong.  Well, when I looked at my Wilkinson DNA match closer, I realized that the actual common ancestor was Marie Marthe Hernandez. (They had her listed as Marie Marthe Marca Hernandez.)  And they showed that they descend from her second marriage to Pierre Rivet!  (I’m referring to my DNA match as ‘they’ because I later found that another sibling is a DNA match to me as well.)

Emily Rivet Wilkinson on the left. Her mother-in-law Frances Johnson Wilkinson is on the right and she is holding Emily’s son Joseph B. Wilkinson. Circa 1904

So Marie Marthe’s third son Auguste Rivet did not die as an infant.  His full name was Auguste Valmond Rivet and he lived long enough to have four children of his own.  So our Marie Carmelite had a brother that survived to adulthood, and she was aunt to his children.  That’s nice to hear after the many tragedies in her early life.

Auguste Valmond’s second son was Joseph Premelia Rivet and he married Marie Amanda Landry (his second cousin through Diego Hernandez!).  They had a daughter name Mary Emily Rivet.  And when little Emily grew up, she married a Wilkinson.

I know you saw that coming.  I already mentioned Emily Rivet marrying William Wilkinson, Sr. earlier on in this post.  So come to find out, Mee Maw’s paternal first cousin Marie Patureau married Mee Maw’s maternal half third cousin William Wilkinson, Jr.  I wonder if she was aware of that?  She might have been because she was into family history and family connections.  I know her brother Vincent would pick her up in Lake Charles and they would visit cousins in New Orleans, which is where Marie lived.

One of the fun things about this discovery was the old photo of Emily with her son and mother-in-law from 1904.  And since Emily’s brother-in-law was Herman Wilkinson, she is not an ancestor of Byron and Dana (and others in the line of Elmo Leobon Patureau, Sr. and Geraldine Wilkinson) and neither is Marie Marthe.  But Frances Johnson Wilkinson is.  The woman in the old photo holding the little boy is their great great grandmother.

Since this family line (and DNA match) comes from Mee Maw’s Landry side of the family, it is also in Pee Paw’s line as well.  No wonder we have common DNA with them; we got a double dose of it.  But since they are half cousins, that should reduce the amount of DNA that we would have in common.  I will leave it up to you to determine the relationships involved and what the expected amount of DNA in common should be.  Get your calculators out and have a few aspirins ready!

Grandma Myrtle the Aviatrix

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My grandmother Myrtle Sylvia Phenice Bucklin in June of 1963 in Hathaway, Louisiana.

This is Myrtle Sylvia Phenice Bucklin.  Aviatrix supreme.  Flying ace of the Phenice flock.  Not really.  I just like this whimsical looking photo of my mom’s mom.  I always thought my Grandma Bucklin had a humorous streak and this photo proves it.  Not that she didn’t have a stern streak, also.  Many of her former students have attested to that claim.  But this photo of her is a favorite of mine because of a few things.

It reminds me of the days when I was really young.  We would drive out to the country and visit my grandparents (and sometimes our cousins) in Hathaway, Louisiana.  That area is prairie land and has been since my ancestors homesteaded there in the latter part of the 19th century.  It’s very flat with not many trees around.  You could see the line of rain coming from out in the distance.  The haze of the sky in this picture reminds me of that.

Some of my earliest memories of going to their house out in the country has to do with airplanes.  My Uncle Austin has always had a fascination with airplanes.  His room had model airplanes hanging from strings.  I don’t know if he was there at the time or if he had moved away and was traveling the globe, but I definitely remember his room.  And I’m sure that’s where the plane in this photo came from.  I would assume that the goggles came from there as well.  Uncle Austin now lives in the War Vets home in Jennings and there are airplanes hanging from the ceiling of the hallway to his room.  It so reminds me of my memory of his room back then.

But the best part of this photo is the whimsical smile on Grandma’s face.  With a tilt of her head and her sassy stance, it makes for a charming photo.  I’m not really sure what she is doing with the plane.  I can just imagine her shouting “Prepare for takeoff!” followed by her hearty laugh.  She’d give that plane a good heave into the sky.  Then a prairie wind would carry it away as we’d sit by and admire it flying and looping through the air.

After a moment of being mesmerized by the spectacle, we’d ask Grandma how she did that.  But she wouldn’t be anywhere we could see.  How could that be?  We could still hear her laugh echoing through the sky!  But then we’d realize that it wasn’t an echo, it was Grandma flying around in that plane and laughing.  As she’d fly over us, she’d smile down at us and shout, “Let your imaginations soar!”  She’d disappear in the distance with her laughter drifting back down to us.

Marie Carmelite’s Story

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My dad Robert Joseph Landry, Jr.’s family tree showing his paternal great grandmother Marie Carmelite Hebert.

Marie Carmelite Hebert was born on February 3, 1802, in Brusly, Louisiana.  Her parents were Simon Hebert, 24, and Marie Marthe Hernandez Hebert, 21.  This was during Spanish rule of Louisiana and Brusly was a small town on the west bank of the Mississippi River in what is now known as West Baton Rouge Parish.

Though Simon and Marie Marthe look like they might not be related since their last names are Hebert and Hernandez, they are in fact related.  They were third cousins through their common Acadian great great grandparents Anthony LeBlanc and Marie Bourgeois.  They also have common Landry, Dupuis, and Babin lines.  Marie Marthe, though, was the daughter of Diego Hernandez, who was seemingly Spanish.  His ancestry is not known.  Her mother was Theotiste Babin, an Acadian Exile.

On April 17, 1802, Simon Hebert died.  This left young Marie Marthe a widow with a two and a half month old daughter.  There are court documents that discuss Simon’s inheritance and the guardianship of Marie Carmelite.  Her paternal grandfather Pierre Hebert was named guardian.  On March 5, 1806, Pierre appears in court and relinquishes guardianship and passes the responsibility over to his son Ely Hebert.  Pierre then dies sometime within the next ten days.

I’m not really sure why Marie Carmelite needed a guardian since her mother Marie Marthe was alive during that time.  In an 1803 court record it shows that Marie Marthe received her own share of her husband’s property and that Pierre Hebert received Marie Carmelite’s share since he was the guardian.  I don’t know the dynamics of the relationships nor am I familiar with all of the Spanish laws that were in effect at the time, but it sounds like it could be a difficult time for the young mother and her daughter.

Marie Marthe then married Pierre Rivet in 1807.  Her brother was also married to a Rivet.  Marie’s brother was married to Pierre’s sister.  Marie Carmelite was an only child until this point.  Her mother did have three sons with Pierre Rivet.  Pierre was born in 1808, Louis was born in 1810, and Auguste was born in 1812.  According to my information they all died within a year of their births.  That sounds really tragic, so I hope the information I have is wrong, especially for little Marie Carmelite’s sake.  If it is correct, at the age of 11 she would have experienced the death of her father, her grandfather, and all three of her siblings.

I thought about warning you that this was a sad story, but I held back on that.  I only have birth dates and death dates available to me, so I really don’t know the overall experiences of her life.  But having your father die at an extreme young age is rather sad.  At least she had her mother for a dozen years.  That’s right.  Marie Marthe died in 1814 at the age of 33.  So that left Marie Carmelite an orphan at the age of 12.

Marriage record for Narcisse Landry and Marie Carmelite Hebert in St. Gabriel, Louisiana.

She still had her grandfather Diego, but then he died the next year as well.  At least her grandmother Marie Theotiste Babin Hernandez survived until Marie Carmelite had reached adulthood and gotten married.  From the court documents it seems like the different family members in both the Hebert and Hernandez families were willing to help.

She married Narcisse Landry on February 13, 1819, in St. Gabriel.  As you can see in the marriage license, both of Narcisse’s parents were deceased at the time of their wedding.  He was 10 years older than she was and did not lose his parents at as young of an age.  Still, he was only 27 and both of his parents had died.

I hope they had a happy life together.  During the next 25 years they brought 8 children into the world.  I’m glad they kept going until #7 and #8, because #7 is my great great grandfather Trasimond Landry and #8 is my great grandfather Alcide.  It was a different life, though.  Her whole life was spent during slavery times in southern Louisiana.  She and her husband lived on a plantation in Brusly that incorporated slave labor.  It was a terrible institution to be involved with.

She died in 1856.  I am glad that it looks like she did not have to experience the death of any of her children.  With such an abundance of deaths to deal with in her early life, that was a relief to find out.  I wish I had a photo of her and old Narcisse.  They are the only two great great grandparents that I don’t have photos of.  As it is, I only have one photo each of the two sons I descend from.

Of course, photos were not as widespread as they are now.  I suppose there could be a portrait of them somewhere out there, but I haven’t heard of such.  We’ll just have to be satisfied with the few bits of information about them that we can piece together.  So ends the story of Marie Carmelite.

The story continues…

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