The first two pictures were taken in the 1950s of my paternal great grandparents in Evangeline Parish Louisiana. The second picture is my great grandparents doing some sort of Cajun jig at their 60th wedding anniversary. The band is made up of their grandchildren. They lived on about 3,000 acres that my great grandfather inherited and acquired and that they farmed in a place called Pointe aux Pins (Pine Point) along Bayou de Cannes (Bamboo Bayou) between Ville Platte and Mamou. My grandfather was born in the house seen in this picture. The house was built in the late 1800s. My dad was born a rifle shot away in 1941 in a small house my grandfather built in the late 1930s. None of these houses had electricity or running water. I recall my dad telling me that my great grandfather's house got a phone in the late 1950s. I also recall him telling me that the walls of the house were filled with bousillage, which is a mixture of clay and straw or Spanish moss, that is used to fill the gaps between the timber in the frame. Great insulation for a house with no air conditioning.
That's my great grandmother on the spinning wheel turning their own cotton into thread. She died at 93 in 1973 when I was 7. He died in 1958. Both came from huge Catholic families of 10 and 12. She was a Fontenot. So I have cousins all over the place in that part of Louisiana. Literally all over the parish.
Neither my great grandmother nor my great grandfather spoke a word of English. All Cajun french. She also played Cajun fiddle as did my grandfather and a few of her grandsons, who also played Cajun accordion. I also got the music gene and play guitar and a little accordion. All self taught.
If you've ever heard of Fred's Lounge in Mamou, LA, that's my grandfather's first cousin. Fred's is legendary for its Saturday morning live Cajun music and radio simulcast, all in French.
My great grandfather was also quite the horseman. The picture of him below on a horse was taken when he was 74 years old and was helping to revive an equine competition called the Tournoi as part of the Cotton Festival in Ville Platte. My grandfather was also a jockey when he was young.
My grandfather and grandmother moved to Port Arthur in the 1950s having had enough of picking cotton and hoeing corn. So I was born in Texas by the grace of God. I was the first person in my dad's family to be born outside of St. Landry or Evangeline Parish since the 1780s. Sadly, I am also the first person in my family to not speak French since forever, literally.
The last picture is my GG grandfather, Joseph Boyd Tate. I don't know much about him but this picture of him is kind of cool. He is was born on the other side of the parish in the 1850s. He would have been the third generation born in the same part of Louisiana since ca1780. His grandfather was born in current day Mobile Bay when it was briefly Spanish territory. His GG grandfather (my 7 great grandfather) was from North Carolina and was in Mobile Bay area during the American Revolution after being dispossessed of his land and accused of being a Tory. He went back to NC petition for return of his land and was not heard from again. His wife, my 7 great grandmother was the daughter of a French soldier in the Mobile area. She and her parents, being French Catholics, left for Spanish Louisiana when he didn't return. She and her three sons got a homestead from the Spanish government and settled just north of Ville Platte LA around 1781 or so. Catholic Church records are a big help.
