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| Aioli Dinner Many of the people in this photograph are related to me. It was printed in The Daily Iberian (New Iberia, Louisiana) newspaper in 1989, though the picture is much older. |
Showing posts with label Romero. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Romero. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Not So Wordless Wednesday
Thursday, June 9, 2011
The Picture
I know I’ve made mention of “The Picture” before. I’m talking about the picture my cousin gave me, you know the one, the one that made me cry. This is also the photo I used for the Geneabloggers cry to arms. (See post "I Am The Face of Genealogy" posted on 5 June 2011)
To refresh your memories this is a picture of my great grandmother, Felicie Romero and all of her siblings taken in 1890.
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| Felicie Romero aka Mrs. Henry Landry (standing on left) and her siblings |
What a gem, on so many levels. First off, of course, there is the fact that it was taken in 1890. 1890, that ominous year where there is no census to tell you the members of a family. But here it is. I have all her siblings, how great is that, and as you can see they are all of an age where any of them or maybe all of them are out of the house. So, without this photo I might not have ever been sure of how many siblings she had.
On another level this is the only picture I know of for Felicie, maybe the only picture for any of the Romero clan.
The family photos that so many people take for granted or cherish dearly were sadly lacking in my family photo albums. I have many 20th century photos of my immediate family, (my adopted family that raised me,my son and husband) but I have almost no photos of grandparents, great grand parents or older family members. No family reunion photos or civil war photos. (Deep sigh) No founding family members or first immigrants hang on my walls.
But with the gifting of this one photo there has been a shift. I now can be counted as one of the lucky ones who has a very old photo of an ancestor.
The photo is in pretty good shape, (as you can see) except for some disintegration at the edges and a tear down the middle. But I consulted a photographer at NGS who specializes in repair of damaged photos and he assures me (for a fee) the photo can be helped. The fee wasn’t as bad as I had thought it might be either, (less then $300) so I am going to send it off to him and let him work his magic.
I have a plan. Shhhhhh, don’t tell my cousins…but after I get the photo repaired I plan on making copies and sending the photo to all the cousins I know that are descended from this group. These are good Catholic families with lots of children for each family group for the last three generations. I don’t know all the descendents (yet) but a rough conservative estimate could be in the neighborhood of (let’s see, if 6 siblings each have 4 children how many children would be in the first generation?) Oh, my gosh….I could have more than 300 cousins who would want a copy of this photo. Maybe I want to rethink this plan. Ok, this is a limited offer…only cousins who have contacted me and can show me their relationship to anyone of the Romero clan (pictured) can have a copy. There that should bring the number down. But how fabulous would it be if I had more than 300 cousins from this one line contact me. The cost of copying the photo 300 times would be well worth it to me.
You know what else would be amazing about that. Felicie is not just my great grandmother, she is also my first cousin four times removed; her father was also the brother to my third great grandmother.
Let’s see if I can make that a little less confusing.
Antonio Romero married Marie Therese Segura sometime before 1804. They had at least three children, (I know of three because I am related to two of them) Sylvestre, Marie Rosalie, and Balthazar. Sylvestre married Marguerite “Irma” Dominque, and Marie Rosalie married Hubert Theriot. Sylvestre and Marguerite Irma had Felicie Romero (the grandmother pictured in the photo) and Marie Rosalie and Hubert had a daughter named Marguerite Orelia Theriot.
Marguerite Orelia’s line is one I have not done much work on but I know that she married Jean Therville Landry and that they had a son Henry Landry. Henry Landry married….wait for it…Felicie Romero his first cousin once removed.
So that is how Felicie ends up being my cousin and my grandmother.
So, I could potentially end up learning about the Theriot line too; all because of that one photo…you know, the one that made me cry.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Spanish Lake
The story goes that Great Great Grandpa Romero lost his share of Spanish Lake and the property adjoining it in a card game. I don't doubt this story to be true (or was it Grandpa Segura, or Grandpa Landry....I'm a little fuzzy on the details.)
Do you have a family story that sounds interesting but you don't know for sure that it's true? Have you ever tried to find out? Some of your family might be delighted they have an outlaw in the family and embellish just a bit and others might be mortified and even though they know the truth of the matter won't breath a word of it. So we end up trying to reason out the "facts" of the story, based on history and other sources. Here's mine and it's a doozy.
I'd like to be clearer as to who it was that lost the property and just which property it was. (Guess that's my research focus) That the land would be lost in a card game is not surprising. Apparently, according to family and accounts of horse racing in the area, gambling was a concept my family and many others were well acquainted with long before the casinos moved into Louisiana.
If you've never been to South West Louisiana my ancestors helped settle the area, and I've been there several times, so let me tell you a little about it. The area is much the same as it has been for at least the last hundred years. Oh, some of the buildings are newer and new houses have replaced some of the older ones, but life still moves at a slow, friendly pace. The towns for the most part are still small and are more of "old town" or Mayberry kind of feel with a Bayou twist to it. While the new "town" area is more likely to be along the highway and aimed at not really serving the residents (with the exception of the warehouse hardware stores and Walmarts) but more like fast food places designed to catch the passer through. You can still drive for miles and see nothing but sugar cane fields and farm houses. One can drive from Iberia Parish through St. Martin Parish, and into Lafayette Parish with nothing to note the change except for a sign. (maybe)
There are no large race tracks like I am familiar with living in California (we have dog racing and horse racing both at Cal Expo and there are several large race tracks in the Bay Area) so when I discovered that horse racing was big in S. W. Louisiana prior to and after the civil war I was floored. Where were the tracks? Ok, I get that it's been 150 years, but there are still houses and remnants of burned plantation homes that date back that far; why, if there were several tracks in the area, is there no sign of them and very little mention?
I don't have an answer to that yet. But I'm investigating.
The story goes that Grandpa lost the farm (hence the term "betting the farm" ??) and the next day, mad as a wet hen, Grandma went and bought back the house so as to keep a roof over the heads of her babies. (You go Grandma!)
This is one of those family stories that I may never be able to prove or disprove. For any of my cousins reading this please, clear up any details you can...do you remember which Grandpa it was??
According to the book "La Maison Duchamp" written by Amy Chatham in 2000, "Court records show that during these years (1876-1885) the Duchamp family seemed to have undergone some financial difficulties. For example, in June of 1885 the Sheriff seized property owned by Eugene A. Duchamp, (my second great grandfather) property which included his house on Main street as well as a sugar plantation called LaMartiniere...."
Could it be that the story is really about Grandpa Duchamp and somehow just moved to Spanish Lake?
Or could it be Grandpa Romero? (Sylvester Romero was another second great grandfather) According the the book, "New Iberia" compiled by Glenn R. Conrad, Grandpa Romero was one of the townsfolk who would follow a favorite horse to out of town events to see it race. " In early June, 1873, Bernard Suberbielle, L. Fontelieu, Theogene Viator, Martial Bonin, T. A. Babin, Louis Miguez, Derelle Romero, Sylvester Romero, and Lacroix Hebert travelled to Breaux Bridge to watch a challenge race between horses owned by Louis Delcambre, a New Iberian, and Emile Babin of Pont Breaux." (this bit of information was taken from the weekly newspaper Louisiana Sugar Bowl, May 1, 1873)
But it was Grandpa Segura who settled in the Spanish Lake area. (one of my fourth great grandfathers) Could it have been one of his descendants who lost the land?
Then there is Grandpa Landry (reportedly a "mean man") who I am told liked to gamble. Grandpa Theaux was also from the area, it could have been him the story was about as he was married a very strong woman.
About the area itself...that is almost as much a mystery.
I'll tell more of the story of my Segura and Romero families and the settlement of this part of Louisiana in a later post. For now let me say that I can find a small amount of information on Spanish Lake during the time of its settlement but not much after that. (See below)
From the book "New Iberia" compiled by Glenn R. Conrad, "...most of the remaining Malagueño families moved away from the original area of settlement and secured tracts of virgin land, particularly in the area of Lake Flammand, which now came to be known as Spanish Lake."
That (and various versions of that kind) and the information below (found online) has been just about all I could find on Spanish Lake. I find this strange as it is a Louisiana Historical Site and the site of a fort.
Where's all the information?
So I have a research problem that will take some untangling and a whole lot of work. Want to help? See what you can find out about Spanish Lake. Consider it this weeks challenge.
According to Wikipedia:
Spanish Lake (French: Lac Espagnol) is located in the Bluff Swamp on the Iberville - Ascension Parish line. It is fed into by Alligator Bayou, Brand Bayou, Bayou Braud, and Bayou Paul. Spanish Lake is a part of the Bluff Swamp Wildlife Refuge and Botanical Gardens, a national non-profit organization which has preserved 901 acres (3.65 km2) of Bluff Swamp.
According to a 1936 Works Project paper
Spanish Lake had a population of 200 in 1936. (Figures can't be much higher now.)
According to Stopping Points.com
First known as Lake Flamand for Jean B. Grevenberg, one of the earliest settlers in this area; called Lake Tasse by the French because of its round cup shape, later known as Spanish Lake for the Seguras, Romeros, Villatoros and others who lived by its shores.
Do you have a family story that sounds interesting but you don't know for sure that it's true? Have you ever tried to find out? Some of your family might be delighted they have an outlaw in the family and embellish just a bit and others might be mortified and even though they know the truth of the matter won't breath a word of it. So we end up trying to reason out the "facts" of the story, based on history and other sources. Here's mine and it's a doozy.
I'd like to be clearer as to who it was that lost the property and just which property it was. (Guess that's my research focus) That the land would be lost in a card game is not surprising. Apparently, according to family and accounts of horse racing in the area, gambling was a concept my family and many others were well acquainted with long before the casinos moved into Louisiana.
If you've never been to South West Louisiana my ancestors helped settle the area, and I've been there several times, so let me tell you a little about it. The area is much the same as it has been for at least the last hundred years. Oh, some of the buildings are newer and new houses have replaced some of the older ones, but life still moves at a slow, friendly pace. The towns for the most part are still small and are more of "old town" or Mayberry kind of feel with a Bayou twist to it. While the new "town" area is more likely to be along the highway and aimed at not really serving the residents (with the exception of the warehouse hardware stores and Walmarts) but more like fast food places designed to catch the passer through. You can still drive for miles and see nothing but sugar cane fields and farm houses. One can drive from Iberia Parish through St. Martin Parish, and into Lafayette Parish with nothing to note the change except for a sign. (maybe)
There are no large race tracks like I am familiar with living in California (we have dog racing and horse racing both at Cal Expo and there are several large race tracks in the Bay Area) so when I discovered that horse racing was big in S. W. Louisiana prior to and after the civil war I was floored. Where were the tracks? Ok, I get that it's been 150 years, but there are still houses and remnants of burned plantation homes that date back that far; why, if there were several tracks in the area, is there no sign of them and very little mention? I don't have an answer to that yet. But I'm investigating.
The story goes that Grandpa lost the farm (hence the term "betting the farm" ??) and the next day, mad as a wet hen, Grandma went and bought back the house so as to keep a roof over the heads of her babies. (You go Grandma!)
This is one of those family stories that I may never be able to prove or disprove. For any of my cousins reading this please, clear up any details you can...do you remember which Grandpa it was??
According to the book "La Maison Duchamp" written by Amy Chatham in 2000, "Court records show that during these years (1876-1885) the Duchamp family seemed to have undergone some financial difficulties. For example, in June of 1885 the Sheriff seized property owned by Eugene A. Duchamp, (my second great grandfather) property which included his house on Main street as well as a sugar plantation called LaMartiniere...."
Could it be that the story is really about Grandpa Duchamp and somehow just moved to Spanish Lake?
Or could it be Grandpa Romero? (Sylvester Romero was another second great grandfather) According the the book, "New Iberia" compiled by Glenn R. Conrad, Grandpa Romero was one of the townsfolk who would follow a favorite horse to out of town events to see it race. " In early June, 1873, Bernard Suberbielle, L. Fontelieu, Theogene Viator, Martial Bonin, T. A. Babin, Louis Miguez, Derelle Romero, Sylvester Romero, and Lacroix Hebert travelled to Breaux Bridge to watch a challenge race between horses owned by Louis Delcambre, a New Iberian, and Emile Babin of Pont Breaux." (this bit of information was taken from the weekly newspaper Louisiana Sugar Bowl, May 1, 1873)
But it was Grandpa Segura who settled in the Spanish Lake area. (one of my fourth great grandfathers) Could it have been one of his descendants who lost the land?
Then there is Grandpa Landry (reportedly a "mean man") who I am told liked to gamble. Grandpa Theaux was also from the area, it could have been him the story was about as he was married a very strong woman.
About the area itself...that is almost as much a mystery.
I'll tell more of the story of my Segura and Romero families and the settlement of this part of Louisiana in a later post. For now let me say that I can find a small amount of information on Spanish Lake during the time of its settlement but not much after that. (See below)
From the book "New Iberia" compiled by Glenn R. Conrad, "...most of the remaining Malagueño families moved away from the original area of settlement and secured tracts of virgin land, particularly in the area of Lake Flammand, which now came to be known as Spanish Lake."
That (and various versions of that kind) and the information below (found online) has been just about all I could find on Spanish Lake. I find this strange as it is a Louisiana Historical Site and the site of a fort.
Where's all the information?
So I have a research problem that will take some untangling and a whole lot of work. Want to help? See what you can find out about Spanish Lake. Consider it this weeks challenge.
According to Wikipedia:
Spanish Lake (French: Lac Espagnol) is located in the Bluff Swamp on the Iberville - Ascension Parish line. It is fed into by Alligator Bayou, Brand Bayou, Bayou Braud, and Bayou Paul. Spanish Lake is a part of the Bluff Swamp Wildlife Refuge and Botanical Gardens, a national non-profit organization which has preserved 901 acres (3.65 km2) of Bluff Swamp.
Spanish Lake, originally called Lake Flamand and then Lake Tasse, is located off of LA Hwy 182 in Iberia Parish and St. Martin Parish,Louisiana.
According to a 1936 Works Project paper
Spanish Lake had a population of 200 in 1936. (Figures can't be much higher now.)
According to Stopping Points.com
First known as Lake Flamand for Jean B. Grevenberg, one of the earliest settlers in this area; called Lake Tasse by the French because of its round cup shape, later known as Spanish Lake for the Seguras, Romeros, Villatoros and others who lived by its shores.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Marguerite Irma Domingue
Marguerite, or some form of the name, has always been present in my family tree at least once in every generation. In my generation we have my cousin Peggy (Margaret Odette,) in my mother's generation it was my mother Margaret Audrey. My grandmother's generation Flavie Margarite (my grandmother,) her mother had a sister named Victoria Marguerite and Flavie's grandmother was Marguerite Irma. It keeps on going like that for many more generations. But I'm going to stop at Marguerite Irma.
Needless to say, with all those Marguerites or Margarets running around the "girls" were called by their other name. Marguerite Irma was always Irma or Erema, Margaret Audrey was Audrey, and Flavie Margarite was called Fly, although I don't know if that is how she would have spelled it.
I don't know why my attention has been drawn to Irma lately. Perhaps she is wanting me to discover her story. Do you ever feel like that...that they are reaching out to you, trying to get you to find them or find out something about them? Well, that's how I have felt for the last couple of months concerning Irma and her mother Marguerite Tonton Broussard. Actually Tonton has been on my mind or in my heart now for about a year and she will get my undivided attention soon; but we have to work backwards right? So it's Irma's turn.
On this trip to Louisiana I was determined to find the death date and place of death for my great great grandmother. That in itself is not too difficult. Not really.
There was this priest a while back named Father Hebert. He had a passion for genealogy and those of us who research South West Louisiana records are forever in his debt. He transcribed all the church records for the Catholic Churches in South West Louisiana and some of the Protestant ones too. Forty-Seven Volumes. All the births, marriages and deaths that the Church had recorded and a lot of court house records too. The only tricky part is those 47 Volumes are readily available in Louisiana and a little harder to come by in California. So I spent a great deal of time during my visit to Louisiana looking up records in Fr. Hebert's books.
There she was on page 122 of Volume 25.
DOMINGUE, Marguerite Irma m. Sylvestre ROMERO d. 30 Aug. 1894 at age 54 yrs. (NI Ch. : Fun. Reg.: v. 3, p. 35
Also:
DOMINGUE, Irma wid. of Sylvester ROMERO Succ.: 20 Nov 1894 (NI Ct. Hse.: Succ. #743)
This confirms she was married to Sylvestre Romero (as well as confirming I have the right Marguerite Irma Domingue) and tells me her death record was transcribed from the New Iberia Church (NI Ch) record Funeral Register Vol. 3, page 35. The second record told me that she had Succession Records (Succ.) in the New Iberia Court House (NI Ct. Hse.) and that the record number was #743 filed in 1894.
Jackpot!
Now some researchers might stop there. I had "proven" her death date. But I did not really...what if Fr. Hebert had made a mistake in his transcription? So I went to the Catholic Church in New Iberia.
Now, New Iberia is small but not so small as to only have one Catholic Church. It has three public libraries for heavens sake. So I had to dig a little to find out which church was the one that would have been around in the 1890s. I went to the library and that librarian told me to go to another library (the second one having a genealogy collection) and there I found, once again, that genealogists are a great collection of human beings. One woman stopped her research and started digging with me to help me find "my church." We found out which one it was in a little over 20 minutes and I was off.
I made a beeline to St. Peter's Catholic Church in New Iberia. A wonderful woman working behind the counter pulled the old books and made copies of Irma and Sylvestre's entries. They're in French. I don't read French...at least not very well...not yet. But obviously I will be learning it.
I could not believe that St. Peter's Church was still actually allowing copies to be made from these books. They are in danger of falling apart. I would have understood had they told me they no longer were making copies. But, no, they happily made my copies for me.
So now I had a copy of the original record. Hot Dog!
"Do you happen to know the location of the grave?" I asked the nice lady. She checked her book that lists all the people buried in St. Peter's Cemetery and sadly informed me that she did not.
I called my cousin Eric and he agreed to meet me that afternoon and help me look for the graves.
Eric and I are the two genealogists in the family. He has been working on one of the other lines that we share for more than a decade now. He and I both share that same "craziness" that makes us think "tomb hunting" is a great way to spend an afternoon.
So I picked him up and we went to St. Peter's Cemetery to find Irma.
St. Peter's Cemetery is a huge cemetery and has hundreds of graves in it. Where to start. Eric and I decided that the cemetery would have been started either in the back or in the center and grown outward. So we decided to start in the center. Luckily for us the center was marked with a big cross. About 20 minutes and about 6 rows later I found her. The tomb is clearly marked. Eric and I gave each other hugs and a high 5.
Several hours and a sunburn later we decided we could not find Irma's mother and father who should be buried in the same cemetery. Of course they could have been buried out on the farm but these were highly religious people and they would have wanted to be buried in sacred soil. So my vote is for them being in St. Peter's, but the tombstone may long ago have deteriorated.
So Irma has been found. She lays at rest in St. Peter's Cemetery with her husband Sylvestre, in a grave marked Romero.
Needless to say, with all those Marguerites or Margarets running around the "girls" were called by their other name. Marguerite Irma was always Irma or Erema, Margaret Audrey was Audrey, and Flavie Margarite was called Fly, although I don't know if that is how she would have spelled it.
I don't know why my attention has been drawn to Irma lately. Perhaps she is wanting me to discover her story. Do you ever feel like that...that they are reaching out to you, trying to get you to find them or find out something about them? Well, that's how I have felt for the last couple of months concerning Irma and her mother Marguerite Tonton Broussard. Actually Tonton has been on my mind or in my heart now for about a year and she will get my undivided attention soon; but we have to work backwards right? So it's Irma's turn.
On this trip to Louisiana I was determined to find the death date and place of death for my great great grandmother. That in itself is not too difficult. Not really.
There was this priest a while back named Father Hebert. He had a passion for genealogy and those of us who research South West Louisiana records are forever in his debt. He transcribed all the church records for the Catholic Churches in South West Louisiana and some of the Protestant ones too. Forty-Seven Volumes. All the births, marriages and deaths that the Church had recorded and a lot of court house records too. The only tricky part is those 47 Volumes are readily available in Louisiana and a little harder to come by in California. So I spent a great deal of time during my visit to Louisiana looking up records in Fr. Hebert's books.
There she was on page 122 of Volume 25.
DOMINGUE, Marguerite Irma m. Sylvestre ROMERO d. 30 Aug. 1894 at age 54 yrs. (NI Ch. : Fun. Reg.: v. 3, p. 35
Also:
DOMINGUE, Irma wid. of Sylvester ROMERO Succ.: 20 Nov 1894 (NI Ct. Hse.: Succ. #743)
This confirms she was married to Sylvestre Romero (as well as confirming I have the right Marguerite Irma Domingue) and tells me her death record was transcribed from the New Iberia Church (NI Ch) record Funeral Register Vol. 3, page 35. The second record told me that she had Succession Records (Succ.) in the New Iberia Court House (NI Ct. Hse.) and that the record number was #743 filed in 1894.
Jackpot!
Now some researchers might stop there. I had "proven" her death date. But I did not really...what if Fr. Hebert had made a mistake in his transcription? So I went to the Catholic Church in New Iberia.
Now, New Iberia is small but not so small as to only have one Catholic Church. It has three public libraries for heavens sake. So I had to dig a little to find out which church was the one that would have been around in the 1890s. I went to the library and that librarian told me to go to another library (the second one having a genealogy collection) and there I found, once again, that genealogists are a great collection of human beings. One woman stopped her research and started digging with me to help me find "my church." We found out which one it was in a little over 20 minutes and I was off.
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| St. Peter's Catholic Church New Iberia, LA |
I could not believe that St. Peter's Church was still actually allowing copies to be made from these books. They are in danger of falling apart. I would have understood had they told me they no longer were making copies. But, no, they happily made my copies for me.
So now I had a copy of the original record. Hot Dog!
"Do you happen to know the location of the grave?" I asked the nice lady. She checked her book that lists all the people buried in St. Peter's Cemetery and sadly informed me that she did not.
I called my cousin Eric and he agreed to meet me that afternoon and help me look for the graves.
 |
| Eric Wilkerson-Theaux |
 |
| St. Peter's Cemetery |
St. Peter's Cemetery is a huge cemetery and has hundreds of graves in it. Where to start. Eric and I decided that the cemetery would have been started either in the back or in the center and grown outward. So we decided to start in the center. Luckily for us the center was marked with a big cross. About 20 minutes and about 6 rows later I found her. The tomb is clearly marked. Eric and I gave each other hugs and a high 5.
 |
| The Romero Tomb where Irma is buried |
 |
| Marguerite Irma Domingue Romero's grave |
 |
| Headstone for the tomb |
Several hours and a sunburn later we decided we could not find Irma's mother and father who should be buried in the same cemetery. Of course they could have been buried out on the farm but these were highly religious people and they would have wanted to be buried in sacred soil. So my vote is for them being in St. Peter's, but the tombstone may long ago have deteriorated.
So Irma has been found. She lays at rest in St. Peter's Cemetery with her husband Sylvestre, in a grave marked Romero.
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