Wordless Wednesday

Hurricane evacuation route sign, Sulphur, LA, Feb. 2009. Digital photo by the author.

Tombstone Tuesday: Tombstone Trekking Tips Edition

(Yes, it's Wednesday now. Better late than never!)

Tip #1: If a cousin offers to take you to a cemetery, go! Don't worry that you don't have "enough" time to spend there or don't have all your genealogy info with you, just GO.

I was in Scott, LA, in February, visiting recently-discovered second cousins after a mutual cousin's funeral. One of them offered to show me where her grandfather (my great-uncle) and grandmother were buried. It was late in the day, and I didn't have all my info with me, but I went anyway and took my camera. Here are my great-uncle and great-aunt's graves.


Mrs. Euclide (Eugenie Légère) Légère, Nov. 6, 1863 - Feb. 13, 1939
Euclide Légère, Sept. 22, 1863 - Jan. 16, 1949
Sts. Peter & Paul Roman Catholic Church Cemetery, Scott, LA, Feb. 2009.
[Note: Hebert's Southwest Louisiana Records gives Eugenie's birth as 15 Nov. 1862 and Euclide's as Sept. 22, 1862. These years are probably correct; it's possible that Eugenie was baptized on Nov. 15. I need to follow up on this.]

(Tip #1a: Tombstones aren't always correct.)

Serendipity then rewarded me--or perhaps it was our dearly departed cousin smiling down on us. As I looked up from the Légères' gravesite, I spotted another familiar name: McBride. I walked over and found the grave of my great-great grandmother, Melasie Hollier McBride! I didn't even know she was buried in Scott! (See Tip #1.)



Mrs. Wm. McBride, née Melasie Hollier, Dec. 11, 1825 - Aug. 19, 1925
Sts. Peter & Paul Roman Catholic Church Cemetery, Scott, LA, Feb. 2009.
[Note: Southwest Louisiana Records gives her birth as Dec. 11, 1830. See Tip #1a.]

Tip #2: Look on both sides of the headstone.

I made time for another brief visit to Sts. Peter & Paul Cemetery before I left Louisiana. This time, I happened to approach my great-great grandmother's grave from the opposite side, and found two great-uncles who were buried with Melasie. She was their grandmother, and their names were listed on the reverse of her headstone, which I neglected to investigate on my first visit. And no, I didn't know they were buried in Scott, either! [It was a last-minute trip, and I hadn't expected to have any genealogy time.]



Fabian [or Fabien] Légère, Dec. 1, 1896 - Dec. 5, 1916
Henry [Joseph Henri, a.k.a. "Pete"] Stemmans [or Stemmann], Oct. 4, 1877 - Oct. 17, 1942
Reverse of headstone for Melasie Hollier McBride, their grandmother.
Sts. Peter & Paul Roman Catholic Church Cemetery, Scott, LA, Feb. 2009.

Both were sons of Marie Octavie "Tavie" McBride, who married Cyprien Stemmann, and then Constant Légère. Euclide Légère of the top photo in this post became Tavie's stepson.
[Note: Southwest Louisiana Records gives Fabian's birth as Dec. 1, 1895.]

More Tombstone Tips to come -- learning the hard way so you don't have to!

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

Cross Roads Basketball Team, Rural Champions, by Langdon Photo, Claiborne Parish, LA, 1924. Digital scan of original photograph owned by author's family, slightly edited & enlarged.

I have no idea who these men are, but maybe someone else will know. My grandmother, Edna Maud Pate Stevenson, a teacher, was coach of the girls' team the same year. Crossroads or Cross Roads is a community near Athens, in Northwest Louisiana.

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

Edna Maud Pate, Natchitoches, La., c. 1921.  Scan of photo privately held by Liz Hall Morgan.

A belated birthday & St. Patrick's Day salute to my maternal grandmother, Edna Maud Pate Stevenson. She was born on St. Paddy's, her favorite color was green, and she died her hair back to its natural red until she died just before her 90th birthday, in 1986. A true (part-)Irish lassie for the ages.

Wordless Wednesday

Barn adjacent to St. Peter Roman Catholic Church Cemetery, Carencro, LA, Nov. 2007. Digital photo by author.

Tombstone Tuesday

Rusted Cross, St. Peter Roman Catholic Church Cemetery, Carencro, LA, Nov. 2007. Digital photo by author.

This cross sits in front of a Civil War headstone for Valerien Prejean, so it probably marks the grave of a Prejean family member. I recently uploaded 70+ photos taken in the same cemetery to the Find A Grave website. Some of my Legere relatives and allied families are buried there, in the heart of "Cajun Country" near Lafayette, LA.

Grandma Elia's French New Testament

This post was composed for the 13th Edition of the "Cabinet of Curiosities," hosted at Walking the Berkshires.

I suppose it's fitting that my first post about my family be about Elia Legere Hall, my paternal grandmother. She represents the link to my Legere family, my nearest Cajun French ancestors, and the ethnic group with which I most identify, having grown up in Southwest Louisiana. Unfortunately, both she and my paternal grandfather died before I was born, so they are also subjects of my unending curiosity. "What were their personalities like?" "What were their lives like?" "Why did they do the things they did?" are questions I've often asked relatives.

This artifact, a French New Testament, brings me immediately to a thorny subject -- religion -- and it raises as many questions as it answers. The French New Testament was given to my bilingual grandmother in 1935, presumably by a clergyman, and my father gave it to me in 2007.

In September, 1918, Elia Legere was a 29-year-old Catholic Cajun woman who lived with her parents near Scott, Louisiana, taught catechism and kept the account books for her father's farm. Then she met Robert Bunyan Hall, an Irish Protestant brick mason at least 11 years her senior, of mysterious background from Virginia, who previously was known only to her brother-in-law, and then merely as a fishing buddy.

Six weeks or so later, they were married and living in Southeast Texas, Elia no longer teaching catechism or even allowed by her new husband Robert to practice Catholicism. He wasn't having any "idols" in his house, he said, about the accoutrements of rosary and crucifix. Needless to say, Elia's parents were not thrilled, and she probably wasn't, either.

(Left, L-R:) Ovilia Legere Guidry, Elia Legere Hall, Robert Bunyan Hall, Gerome Guidry, c. 1918, near Orange, Texas.

Why would Elia change her life so dramatically? Perhaps at 29, she was despairing of gaining permanent status as an old maid, taking care of her father's farm instead of children and a husband. Perhaps Robert had his charms, despite his faults. They did seem to have affection for one another, it's said, and Grandpa reportedly demanded great respect for Grandma from their children.

Elia did manage to bring religion to her children, and back into her own life, by attending a presumably Robert-sanctioned local Baptist church. Despite her husband's opinions, she did find a way to continue something important to her. For that, I admire her. And she eventually mended fences with her parents, though I'm not sure things were ever exactly the same. My dad said just the other day that the Legeres "never had much use for Daddy." We laughed, though, at the thought that Grandpa probably didn't have much use for them, either, though our Legere relatives are certainly close to our own hearts.

(Left) Bible inscription page

Interestingly, a page of the Bible is turned down, marking I Corinthians, Chapter 7. My dad says he didn't dog-ear the page, and he's the only one besides Grandma, I think, who would have read this Bible. The chapter speaks about problems in marriage; could Elia have taken comfort in scripture during rough times? Perhaps. Robert and Elia's marriage lasted 34 years, until his death in 1952.

I have a feeling this blog may bring up as many questions as it answers; after writing this, I want to talk to more relatives about Robert & Elia. Was she swept off her feet when she left her family for a non-Cajun Protestant? Did he attend church? Was it important to him, or was it important only that Elia not be Catholic? Was she ever accepted by her parents again? Why did Dad think the Legeres "didn't have much use" for Robert?

I have more interviewing to do, it seems ...