Follow-up Friday: Further French Facts

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1857 passenger list includes Pierre Patureau, baker.

After I posted my last blog, I realized that I hadn’t posted a photo/scan of the original document that started all of the discoveries this week.  Plus I found another great document as well.  So I thought I’d give an additional bit of information for you all to peruse.  I’m sure everyone was wanting that, but they were a bit too shy to ask.

This first pic is of that document, which is a passenger list for the Louisiane that traveled from the port of Bordeaux in France to New Orleans in 1857.  As you can see, Piere is listed as a baker.  What business does a baker have that requires him to travel to another country in 1857?  Or was he just visiting family?

Passport for Piere Patureau from 1856.

I also mentioned the 1856 passport for Piere in the last post and I don’t think I shared it with everyone previously.  So here it is.  Henri Germaine, who was evidently very important because he had been awarded a Legion of Honor title in France, signed this passport that asks that Piere be allowed to pass freely.  This is where Piere is identified as a boulanger, which is French for a baker.  In one place I read, they identified him as a butcher, but that would have been a boucher.  I guess with the old scribbly writing that you can see in these old documents, it could be an honest mistake.

Now for the other document that I found.  I posted the baptismal record for Leobon Patureau.  It was dated Aug. 1, 1768, from Palluaud, Charente, Poitou-Charentes, France, and it listed the parents as Antoine Patureau and Marie Sicaud.  I had found on a distant cousin’s blog that Leobon was the first of six children for Antoine and Marie.

From the research I have done, I notice that in my family the first child is usually born pretty soon after the marriage.  Because that’s what it takes to have a child – a marriage certificate. Mom and dad had Jodie almost a year after they were married.  Mee Maw and Pee Paw had Marie after almost a year and a half.  Grampa Max and Marie Therese had Emma after ten months, and his parents were similar.  It must have been a Patureau tradition.  So I figured that Antoine and Marie probably got married in 1766 or 1767.

The original French record of the 1767 marriage of Antoine Patureau and Marie Sicaud on top. Bottom left is the text version in French. Bottom right is the English translation text.

Since the online collection that had the baptism was from the Palluaud area and it included marriages and deaths, I figured I might as well check for a marriage record.  They could have gotten married in a different place, but I figured it would be worth checking out.  It was a small area, so a year’s worth of documents was only 5 or so pages.  Yes, it was in French and hand written over 250 years ago, but how bad could it be?

It was a bit straining, but the reward was worth it in the end.  Otherwise there wouldn’t be this post that you are reading!  Sure enough, the wedding was recorded on November of 1767, just nine months prior to Leobon being born.  My hunch paid off and now I have the wedding information for my great, great, great, great, great grandparents.  I also found some birth records for their children.  I found a few death records as well.

1840 passport for Piere Patureau when he immigrated to the United States with his family.

Now let’s go back to the time of the Patureau family immigrating to the US.  This is the 1840 passport that they had when they came to Louisiana.  The French authorities request in the name of the King that the United States allow Pierre Patureau, his wife, and their four children to enter freely into the country.  Again, Pierre is called a boulanger.

The family settled in Opelousas, where Anne Rose Machet Patureau (Piere’s wife) and their daughter Elise died in 1842 during a yellow fever epidemic.  The family then moved to the Plaquemine area and lived in Turnerville (northeast part of Plaquemine).

I would like to show you more and probably will in the future.  But for now, I think you may have had enough.  My problem is that when I find something exciting like that, I want to find more.  And if I can find that wonderful old French wedding record that is so difficult to read, I can find anything.  At least that’s what I tell myself while I’m going cross-eyed looking at those blurry documents.  Sometimes I just have to tell myself that it’s time to stop.

Follow up to my follow up

The original French record for the 1787 marriage of Leobon Patureau and Jeanne Lanson. The top is the original record, bottom left is the French text, and bottom right is the English translation.

Just found another old document that needs to be shared.  This one is the marriage record for Leobon Patureau and Jeanne Lanson.  They were married on January 16, 1787, in Bors de Montmoreau, Charente, France.  The great thing about this document is that it gives the Jeanne’s father’s name, which is shown as Francois.  It probably has the mother’s name, but I can’t make it our right now.  Perhaps another time…

PS.  I think Jeanne mother’s name was Jeanne Hivain.  I found the death register for Jeanne (mother and daughter) and it was clearer.  So much out there to see!

Death record for Jeanne Lanson on Jan. 16, 1843.  It shows that her age at death was 80 years (quatre vingt ans).  This puts her birth around 1763.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Further French facts

Go Tigers!

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Sorry about that misleading title. I couldn’t resist. I was trying to think of something to get people’s attention that was related to the story I’m going to write. “Go Tigers!” seems to be attention grabbing. But this article is not about LSU tigers. Not that I have anything against LSU tigers, my dad and I both got our graduate degrees at LSU. The tiger in this story is mainly just a tiger head that my mom made for me when I was a kid.

Jamie and Van Landry in early 1970s.

As you can see from this photo, it wasn’t just a tiger head that she made. She also made tiger-print pajamas for me and a leopard-print nightgown for my younger sister Jamie. What made me think of this photo was the cold weather we are having. I’m not much of a fan of cold weather and never really have been.

I don’t remember if it was that cold on the day that we got this sleepwear, but I do remember that it was a surprise when we got home from school.  And it wasn’t a hand-me-down!  Something new and decidedly fun.  Who wouldn’t want tiger-striped pajamas?  Any LSU fan would surely agree.  Of course, I had no awareness of LSU’s mascot at the time.  I just liked my new flannel pajamas with the matching tiger head.  It was warm and cozy and something that our mama had made us.

Another warm memory of my mom was a few years later on.  When I was in junior high, I had a paper route in the neighborhood.  And we were like the post – neither rain, nor sleet, nor blah blah blah could keep us from delivering those newspapers.  So every day after school – while reruns of “Star Trek” were playing mind you (now that’s dedication!) – I would faithfully go out and deliver my paper route.  Sometimes I would even do my brother’s as well if he had something to do!

Betty Lou Bucklin Landry in the 1960s.

During the winter it could get particularly cold riding that old Schwinn bicycle in the elements.  If it was raining, I would really be miserable.  I don’t know how often she would do this, but I remember my mom having a warm blanket to wrap around me when I would finish my paper route.  I’m not sure if she kept the blanket warm in the dryer or just started it running when I got home, but I remember it being nice and toasty and definitely comforting.

I’m sure that my brothers and sisters have warm memories of my mom as well.  It’s not like I was the only one she treated that way.  I think she loved being a mom, taking care of her children and showing them that she loved them.  This carried on to her grandchildren as well.

Though later in life her failing memory caused her to be reticent in dealing with people, sometimes even her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.  Too bad they weren’t able to experience the full warmth of her love.  It was a wonderful thing.

Mamma and Nook in 1890

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‘Mamma + Nook’ was the inscription written on the border of this photo.  Do you recognize anyone?  Yes? No?

I was so excited when I first saw this photo.  Not only because of the cute little baby who was obviously called Nook.  (Or do I have that wrong?  The little baby could actually be ‘Mamma’ and the older one ‘Nook.’)  I was excited because I recognized my great great grandmother Cathrine Jane Foster Phenice immediately.

Even though the other photos of her that I had seen were from about 20 or 30 years later, she still had that Grandpa Munster look about her.  I shouldn’t say that.  I still feel a little guilty about turning her later years photo into a Grandpa Munster lookalike for Halloween this year. (Animating old photos has helped to change my view of her.)

Cathrine or Kate was the mother of Harry Clifton Phenice.  Harry was the father of Myrtle Sylvia Phenice Bucklin.  Myrtle was the mother of Betty Lou Bucklin Landry.  And everyone knows that Betty Lou was my dear sweet mama.  Kate was also the mother of the little girl in the photo.  Her name was Emma Orra Phenice and she was the grandmother of Mona Quillen, the person who graciously shared this photo with me.  It is part of the collection that I refer to as the Lincoln Collection.

I got this photo earlier this year and fell in love with it.  But I have to take my time in sharing the really good ones since there are a limited number of them.  Consider this a Christmas gift from me.  It’s kind of appropriate because the last time I featured Kate, there was a Christmas theme.  (She had her fire incident on Christmas Eve Eve, remember?)

1889 Homestead Testimony Page 1

Since Emma was born in 1889, I’m dating this photo as 1890.  And I happened to run across some other information earlier this year that gives some more glimpses into what was going on with the Phenice family in 1889.  I found a document titled “Homestead, Pre-Emption and Commutation Proof.”  It was for the land homesteaded by Samuel Phenice in McCook County, Nebraska.  He had filed a homestead entry No. 4887 on Nov. 9, 1885.  He moved onto the property on April 1, 1886 and commenced to “building a house worth $12.” (see page 2 of document)

1889 Homestead Testimony Page 2

He stated that his family consists of himself, his wife, and their six children.  This was true for June 8, 1889, which is when the document was written.  Kate had given birth to seven children, but they had lost an infant daughter named Mollie in 1881. So when little Emma was born on June 20, Samuel and Kate would have seven children.  Emma was their last child.

The document states that Kate and the children moved onto the property (and into the $12 house he built) on about June 10, 1886, which was about ten weeks after he started work on the site.  According to page 3, the house was “part dug + part sod house, 22 by 24 feet with an ‘Ell’ 14 by 22 feet in size, has 4 doors and 5 windows worth $200.”

1889 Homestead Testimony Page 3

He goes on to list improvements on the land and their value.  They had a stable worth $20, a granary worth $20, a 155 ft. deep well worth $80, 65 acres of farmed land worth $130, and forest and fruit trees worth $50.  He puts a total value as $500.  He also had farm implements such as two plows, a cultivator, a mower (not a riding one, I’m sure!), a wagon, and a barrow.  All of which he had owned since before moving on to the property.

Aren’t you just loving all of these details?  I am.  It describes so much of what their life would have been like out in the prairie lands in Nebraska where his neighbor (& witness in other documents) lived 3/4 of a mile away.  The neighbor said he visited frequently.

1889 Homestead Testimony Page 4

When the neighbor visited, he probably noticed that there was a horse, five cows, a colt, three hogs, and a mess of chickens.  When he went into the house he would have seen the stove, the two tables, and the ten chairs.  He may or may not have seen the four beds and the bedding.  If he shared a meal with them he would have seen the dishes and cooking utensils.

He would definitely notice those six kids ranging from age three to twenty-one.  (Our H. C. was 15 at the time.)  It’s hard not to notice that many kids running around underfoot.  It also would have been hard not to notice that Kate was soon to be adding a seventh to the group.  Would he have commented on that?  Would that have been frowned upon?  There’s no way to know about that.  That wasn’t included in the document.

One of the other things I like about this document is that it was written by Samuel himself and signed as well.  And his answers to some of the questions are interesting as well – “No Sir” and “I think not.”  Little did they know that we would be looking back at that document and photo almost 130 years later to get a glimpse of their lives.

You may now return to the present.

A Letter from Aunt Sue

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This is from a letter written by Susan G. Hine to Miss Nola Stanbro, Lovington, N. Mexico about the death of James Stanbrough. (Nola was the granddaughter of Sue and Jim’s brother Joseph B. Stanbrough.  Nola was the daughter of Orville Carlton Stanbro.)

Elton, La. Oct 29, 1923

My dear niece and all

It has been so long since I wrote to you I expect you have forgotten us. but it sure has been a busy summer and fall. the boys are threshing their Rice now but think they will just about finish up this week. Ollie is not going to have as good a crop this year as he did last but the prices are better so I guess we will come out alright. I told you in one of my letters that Uncle Jim was failing so fast. Well there was an epodemic of colds going round. I was quite sick but did not give up and have the Dr. but was miserable. so about the time I got better Bro took a hard cold. I Dr. him just as I did myself. and we all thought he was getting better he did not cough hardley any. so one morning he had a hemorage. and we sent for the Dr. he said he had taken fresh cold and it was almost pneumonia, but not bad. gave him medicine and told me what to rub on his chest but he did not get much better. he would seem better every other day. he said there was not anything that hurt him. he just seemed wore out so he just got weaker and weaker. the Dr. came again and said we might just as well make up our minds to give him up for there was no hope. one day I asked him if he wanted to get well and he said O I don’t know but he did not say anything about dying. but he told the minister he was living for Christ he was all to him. the day the Dr. Said there was no hope. but he might live till morning. but the Death angle came for him that evening at 6:30, Sept 10. he just passed a way without a strugle. I was glad he did not have to suffer. and of course we all have that debt to pay sooner or later. I am ashamed to ask forgiveness for not writing sooner. for I feel like I should not but I was just about wore out. for Bro just wanted me to wait on him all the time. and they were cutting Rice and I had to cook for the hands. and just kept puting it off from day to day. but will try to do better next time. so will close hoping to hear from you soon. I am as ever. Aunt Sue

The Ancient Family Plot

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Van Landry taking selfie with great great great grandfather Amedee Bujol at St. John the Baptist Catholic Cemetery in Brusly, Louisiana.

Most of my posts are about photos of my ancestors, which is somewhat limiting because photography hasn’t been around very long, genealogically speaking.  I don’t have any photos of my great great great grandparents.  I have photos of most of my great great grandparents.  The only set of great great grandparents that I don’t have photos of happen to also be my great great great grandparents.

The couple in question are Narcisse Landry and his wife Marie Carmelite Hebert Landry.  They were Pee Paw’s (my paternal grandfather) grandparents and Mee Maw’s (my paternal grandmother) great grandparents.  There, that makes everything clear.

Since I don’t have photos of the individual, sometimes I’ll take selfies with their headstone.  Isn’t that sweet?  Or is it morbid?  Either way, I do it.  I have one of myself with Martha Ann Cook Keys and now I have one with Amedee Bujol.

I took this photo almost two weeks ago.  It was a Sunday afternoon and I was thinking to myself, “I want to take a picture of myself with dead people!”  No, not really.  I had a few spare hours and thought I’d take a quick hop across the Mighty Mississip to check out the Brusly cemetery.  I knew that we had some ancestors buried out there and it was a nice overcast day.  Cemeteries are downright miserable in the summer.  Out in the burning heat and there are usually no trees for shade.

Graves of several family members are located in this small area of the cemetery.

But on a day like that, it is perfect for ‘digging up bones’ as my mom liked to call it.  It took me maybe 15 minutes to get from my house to the spot that I parked in that you see in this photo.  I just pulled in a little ways into the graveyard and got out of my car to start looking.

It didn’t take long to find what I was looking for.  I actually couldn’t have parked any closer.  The main person I was looking for was 1) Marie Francoise Leveque Bujol, my 4th great grandmother.  Francoise was the mother of 2)Amedee from the selfie and he was the father of Amelie ‘Belite’ Bujol who married Trasimond Landry.  They were the parents of Marie Therese Landry Patureau, who was Mee Maw’s mother that died in 1909.

I had seen photos of Francoise’s headstone, so I knew what to look for.  The marker has the writing “Veuve Sylvester Bujol” which means the widow of Sylvester Bujol.  I didn’t see his headstone, but I know that he died in 1824.  With her death given as 1875, that means she had been a widow for over 50 years when she died.

Her son Amedee’s wife Anna Adele Landry also outlived her husband.  She was known as the Veuve Bujol as well and is referred as such in the book about Trasimond Landry called “The Tirailleurs.”  Her grave is not at this cemetery.  (2020 Update – I found the death notice for Anna Adele Bujol, so now I know that she outlived her husband by almost 42 years.  It states that she was buried in this cemetery, yet I haven’t been able to find it.)

It is rumored that Trasimond is buried at this cemetery.  There is a headstone for his mother 3) Marie Carmelite Hebert Landry.  She was the wife of Narcisse Landry.  The rumor also states that Narcisse could be buried here as well.  The rumor comes from family members who have been searching for those graves.  When you look at Marie Carmelite’s grave, you can see plenty of real estate around it.  It is thought that Narcisse and Trasimond are buried on either side of her.

Marie Carmelite and Narcisse are my great great grandparents because they are the father of Simon Alcide Landry.  He moved to the western part of the state in the mid to late 1880s with his family and he was buried in Lake Charles.

And though Narcisse may not have been buried in the St. John the Baptist Catholic Cemetery, we know for sure that some of his brothers were.  I found two of their graves.

The most important brother that I found was Narcisse’s half brother 5) Emmanuel Landry.  The reason I claim his importance is because I also descend from Emmanuel.  He was the father of the Anna Adele that I mentioned earlier.  Not only that, he was the father of Clarissa Doralise and Marguerite ‘Baselite’ Landry, the two wives of my great great grandfather Joseph August Leveque (also buried in Lake Charles).

His wife 4) Celeste Bruneteau Landry’s headstone is at this cemetery as well.  As you can see from the photos, they are large concrete graves that are above the ground.  Sitting on top of Celeste’s grave was a broken marker for Valerien Landry.  His grave must be nearby.  He was another brother of Narcisse Landry.  I don’t descend from him.  Imagine that.

So I descend from Narcisse through two of his sons.  Then I descend from his half brother Emmanuel through two daughters.  Through these connections, I am my own double half 5th cousin once removed.  And that’s not all.  I descend through Narcisse’s brother Onezime through his daughter Marie Emma Landry, the wife of the Patureau immigrant Pierre Ferdinand.  They are the progenitors for all of the Patureaus in southern Louisiana that I know of.

J. H. Amedee Bujol died June 28, 1857, in his 42nd year. He was full of honor, esteemed, loyal, always sincere. He was always a good son, a good husband, and a good father. (roughly translated)

So the people in these graves are part of the great entanglements in my family tree.  I can’t really complain about any of that, because if any of that would have been different, I wouldn’t be here.  And neither would a lot of you reading this.

It’s always interesting to me to see the final resting place of some of my people.  Even though it is a place for the dead, I know that many of my family lived and breathed at this same location.  Mourning their loved ones who came before them.  The cycle continues.

I thought I’d put the family tree for my paternal grandmother on here since all of the graves I found are in her tree.  I also thought I’d add the numbers that are associated with the graves pictured in the second photo on this post.

Family tree showing my grandmother’s ancestors. One correction – I have since found that her maternal great grandmother Anna Adele Landry died on Mar. 13, 1899.

Follow-up Friday: From Betty to Bob – I’m Yours

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“Follow-up Friday?” you ask, “What’s that?”  Well I’ll tell you what it is.  It’s when you obtain some added information that you want to add to your latest post, but you’re too eager to wait for Surplus Sunday.  I know that I made it very clear in my most recent post that you would not be reading any long lost love letters, but I can now happily report that I was wrong.  This is the best thing that I’ve ever been wrong about!

My sister Jamie and I had discussed those long lost letters during the Thanksgiving holiday and neither of us had any idea where those letters had gone to.  We assumed that either our mom or dad had destroyed the letters after we found them and read them.  So I wrote my post on Wednesday and shared it with y’all.

Then this morning I woke up and found a text from Jamie.  She had found a few letters!  I was so excited and when I read them I have to admit that I got a bit choked up.  I also laughed a bit because the letters my mom wrote have quite a bit of humorous points to them.  I was relieved that at least a few letters survived.  From the letters that did survive, it’s clear that they were writing to each other daily.  It is also clear that they were in love.

His letter was written on July 5, 1952, (which is exactly 10 years before our Jamie was born) and he starts out with a “Hi, Baby.”  Not long after that he says, “I sure miss you, cutey.”  He talks about how busy he is with training and not sure he will be able to write every day, but don’t be surprised if some day there isn’t a letter.  (This sets up for a funny exchange in the next letter.)  He then signs off, “All my love.”

I’m not sure of the date of the letter mom wrote, but it starts with “Hi Honey.”  This is a term of endearment that they both called each other for the rest of their lives.  I had been wondering if it had been used that far back, and now I know.  The letter continues as a response to his letter about not writing daily.

She was not expecting a letter and her sister Alma must have known this.  So when Alma went to check on the mail and saw a letter from Bob, she didn’t let Betty Lou know right away.  She then asked mom if she’d rather look through the new catalog or read the new letter from her beau.  Mom says in the letter, “I could have choked her.”  But she doesn’t, because she is “so nice.”  Now that got me giggling again.

But the rest of the letter is full of the same funny and sweet content.  She uses terms that she did for the rest of her life.  She said that she was gaining a “teeniny” bit of weight.  She was glad of that because she had lost weight because she was so lonesome.

As you can tell, I really enjoyed seeing these old letters that I had thought destroyed.  They do give a bit of a window back to the time when they were young, in love, and separated by some distance.  I’ll let you read them now, if you have a mind to.

 

Letter written on July 5, 1952, by Bob Landry who was stationed at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio for basic training. He was writing back home to his fiancee Betty Lou Bucklin.

Saturday July 5, 1952

 

Hi Baby,

Watcha know?  We are now having/ our first free time from 7 to 9 P.M. I/ sure miss you, cutey.  Our basic is/ only 8 weeks. So maybe around Sept./ Huh, Hon?

If I miss a day or two writing/ don’t be surprised.  You can’t tell/ how long it’ll be until there’s time/ to write another letter.  These ser-/geants are very unpredictable.

Our T. I. (Technical Instructor) is/ O.K.  I will probably get transfered/Into a Band Squadron next/ week.

I’ll hafta close now.  I have/ lots to do.

Be Good

All my love,

Bob

 

Page 1 of 2

Wed. nite 9:30

Hi Honey,

Hows my man tonight./ Thought you said I wouldn’t get/ a letter this morn.  I didn’t/ expect one.  Alma got the mail/ + she just fooled around and/ pretty soon she asked if I’d/ rather look at the new catalog/ or read your letter.  I could/ had choked her.  But I didn’t/ cause I’m so nice, you know.

I sure do like that picture./  Every time I look at it it/ looks more fanciful.  Yummy!

Just got back from an/ ice cream social.  Had a bunch of fun.  Got to see all my old/ gal friends.  Got to tell them/ all about my darling + showed/ them some pictures of you.  We/ really gabbed.  One of the other/ girls has her a Bob too but I/ bet he ain’t as sweet as mine.  (End of page one)

 

page 2 of 2

(page 2) Didn’t do much today.  Just/ worked.  Hoed this morn + worked/ in the house the rest of the day.

I believe I’m gaining a teeniny/ bit of weight.  It’s about time./  I weighed less that I have in 3 or 4 years.  Everybody thought I looked skinny.  I’ll probably get it back.  I feel better.  I/ believe I was just too lonesome -/ being with the family makes/ it much easier.  anyhow I be/ doing good for myself now.

I reckon that’s all the/ news I can think up.  Guess/ I’ll go to bed.  Sleep tight honey.

Be real good.

I love you, Bob

I’m yours

Betty Lou

(end of letters)

So there you go.  That’s what remains of the long lost love letters.  I can picture my mom being “beside herself” because of what her sister Alma pulled on her.  I’m sure she cursed her out!  Not really, that wasn’t her style.  She probably said something like, “You stinker, you!” and went to her room to read her latest letter.  I’m sure Alma got a good chuckle out of it.  I know I did.  I hope you did too.

 

Love Letters Lost

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Before you get too excited that you are going to be reading some long lost letters that have been found, I want to tell you that you won’t.  The letters are still lost.  At least to me.  Some of the contents of the letters are still available, but the letters themselves have been lost or maybe just destroyed.  Yes, they could have been intentionally destroyed!

The letters I’m talking about were letters written by my parents in 1952.  Daddy went off to basic training for the Air Force in San Antonio after he and my mom were engaged to be married.  I’m sure they missed each other when they were miles apart and my mom was not someone who liked to talk on the phone much.  Besides, it was expensive to make long distance calls in those days.  There weren’t many plans to choose from!  So they sent letters to each other and included photos of some of the things they were doing.

Of course the main thing that was included were pictures of themselves for their enfianced.  This is my mom Betty Lou Bucklin looking sweet for her beau Bob Landry.  I used to always think of my mom as a naive young girl who got lost easily and wasn’t very assertive.

But in retrospect, I think I was wrong.  My mom got exactly what she wanted out of life.  Her dream was to find a nice young man that she would want to marry, have lots of children, and have a family band together.  She didn’t hang around her quaint little country home town of Hathaway to see what would happen.  She went to the big city of Lake Charles and gave herself an option of an education to fall back on as a standby.  The standby was never needed.

This second shot is a photo Betty Lou with her sisters Loris and Alma.  This must have been in the summer of 1952, which was a few months before my parents’ marriage in early November.  On the back of this photo my mom wrote “anything to make you happy.”  I suppose my dad must have appreciated these photos, because he saved them and we’re looking at them today.

Here is one of the photos that he sent to her.  This was taken at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio in August of 1952.  His photos were a little more serious than my mom’s.  After all, he was a young man in training for the military.  That’s pretty serious business.

I’m not really sure how frequently they wrote to each other, but it was nowhere near what would be exchanged between people nowadays.  They’d be sending texts and photos every day.  Times were a bit different then.

One of the other differences is that they didn’t have the cloud to save all of their information for them.  They had to put the photos in boxes or albums and the letters in a file or drawer somewhere.  They did do that, because me and my sister Jamie came across those letters years ago.  And being the nosy children that we were back then, we opened up those letters and read them.  I don’t really remember much about the contents of the letters, but I do remember giggling a lot.

We got into trouble for that, which was another thing we giggled about.  But we never saw those letters ever again.  When we cleared out my parents house, we kept an eye out for them, but we could not find them.  I’m afraid that I will never see them again.  I’m not giggling about that.

Lagniappe – Thought I would add these two other photos to this post.  One of them is my mom with her younger brother Austin.  The other one is my mom’s Pin Up photo.  A photo of her in a two piece swimsuit.

Update!  Don’t want to give a spoiler, but that lack of a giggle was wiped off my face.

 

Too Young to be Grampa

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

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

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

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

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

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

George and Susan’s Eighteen in ’19

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George and Susan with their 18 in ’19. A nice old family photo from almost a hundred years ago.

George Henry Hine and his wife Susan G. Stanbrough Hine had eighteen living grandchildren in 1919. Their daughter Addie’s fifth child did not make it past infancy or there would be one more in this photo.  There are actually more people in the photo.  It includes their six children and a few unidentified people who are most likely family.

Before I get too far, let me remind you who George and Susan are to me.  I am Van Landry and my mother was Betty Lou Bucklin Landry.  Her father was Fred Bucklin who is one of the twin boys standing directly behind George (the seated man).  The twins’ mother Addie Hine Bucklin (my great grandmother) is standing directly behind them.  Addie’s parents are George and Susan, who are my great great grandparents.  I’ve actually posted two other photos previously that were taken at the same occasion, though they were of smaller groups than this.

What’s that you ask?  ‘Who are all of those people?’ Well I already told you who the important ones are, so I suppose you want me to name everyone.  So that is what I will attempt to do.  I think we’ve settled it now that George and Susan are the older couple sitting in the front of all of their progeny.  They were from Indiana and while there, they had their six children.  They then moved to Louisiana in 1894 where the children grew up and started families of their own.

Hine family group in 1919 with name designations.

Addie was the first one born and she was the first one to provide them with a grandchild.  She is the one with the big A on her head in the second photo.  She was married to Louis Charles Bucklin, but he rarely showed up in photos.  Their first child was Leo (A1) who was born in 1898.  According to a letter written by Susan in 1916, Leo had an accident with a saw blade that left him “a cripple.”  Leo did walk with a limp for the rest of his life.  Next was Mary (A2) who was born in 1900.  Ralph (A3) was born in 1902 and he later had a daughter named Helen.  In 1903 Addie and Lou had a son named Paul, but he was the one that did not live past infancy, so he is not in the photo.

In 1904 a son named Carl (A5) was born.  The photos from this date are the only ones of him that I know of.  When he was very young, he lost his hearing and never learned to speak.  I don’t know if there were any other learning deficiencies or just that there was no Anne Sullivan out in the country in 1919, but I don’t think he had an education.  When my mom was a kid, she was kind of scared of him.  He stayed up in his room a lot, but sometimes he came down to sit on “his nail keg in the kitchen.”

On to number A6.  That would be Herbert born in 1906, who was the grandfather of Joseph.  Too bad Herbert is mostly hidden behind an unidentified boy in the photo.  Clarence (A7) and Fred (A8) came along in 1907.  Clarence is the father of Carla, and Fred is the grandfather of me and all my maternal cousins.  In 1909 Edna (A9) was born.  One of her sons was Mel Keys (my mom’s first cousin through the Bucklins and 2nd cousin through the Keys) who helped to build the working model of the Starship Enterprise for the original Star Trek series.  And he is the father of Steven and Teresa.

The tenth child of Addie and Louis was Robert (A0) who was born in 1911.  He’s sitting in the front looking a little sad.  We have seen that same look time and again from his mother.  I’ve given her a hard time about it on these blog posts, but look at her mother Susan.  She has a big frown on her face as well.  I guess Addie came by that scowl honestly.  Yet there is a photo of Susan with a smile on it from this same day.  I’ll save that for a special occasion!

Back to the list of people – particularly the children of Addie.  We’ve already named ten!  But there are two more to go.  In 1915 she had another set of twins.  Not identical ones this time.  A girl by the name of Ruth (AA) was born with a boy named Roy (AB).  Ruth is the matriarch of the Bruchhaus branch of our family and Roy was the father of Jeannette and Doris.

On now to the second child of George and Susan.  Take heart, some of them did not have any children at all.  After Addie was born in 1876, along came Bert in 1878.  He was married to Anna Jones (BW) and they had three children.  Leta (B1) was born in 1912, Wanda (B2) was born in 1917, and Harold was born in 1921.  Being that the photo was taken in 1919, Harold can not be seen in the photo.

Harrison Rowe is the next child of George and Susan.  Rowe was born in 1880 and he was married to a woman named Electra (or May).  She may be the dark haired woman standing in front of Rowe, but I don’t have any identified photos of her.  They did not have any children that I know of.

Lonnie was born in 1882 and he was married to Millie (LW).  They had two children and they both show up in this photo.  Arthur Henry (L1) was born in 1905 and Alta Zay (L2) was born in 1912.  Jim was born in 1884 and he was married to Dorinda Thomas (JW) who had been a teacher at Nubbin Ridge in the Hathaway area.  They had four children together.  Aulden (J1) was born in 1908.  He graduated from Jennings High School in 1926 (the year after my grandmother Myrtle Phenice Bucklin) and lived the rest of his life in Jennings, Louisiana.  Audrey (J2) was born in 1910.  The baby at the time was Kenneth (J3) who is in his daddy’s arms.  Later on another daughter was born. Her name was Darlene and she was born in 1923.  She was married to Dalton Landry in Jennings.  I remember being confused about this when I was a kid.  They were Landrys but they were related to us from Mama’s side of the family?  What?  It doesn’t seem confusing at all now.

The last child of George and Susan was Ollie who was born in 1886.  He was a mama’s boy.  When he was younger he dated a girl, but he was too connected to his mom to allow the relationship to become more serious.  I’m not sure if he lived with both parents at this time, but after his father died later this year, the 1920 census shows him living with his mom and her 70 year old brother James Stanbrough.  Ollie lived with his mother until she died in 1933 and only married after that time.  He was a mama’s boy.

But Susan must have been a loving person.  She seemed fond of her children and grandchildren.  She also had her brother living with her family for many years.  He came down from Indiana with her family and he never married as well.  I don’t know his story.  He may be one of the identified men in this photo – possibly the bearded man in the back left.  There is also another adult man, an adult women, and some children who are unaccounted for.  I wish I knew who they were.

Well, that’s it. Thanks for traveling back to 1919 with me.  I hope you enjoyed it.  But most of all I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving.

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