Wordless Wednesday- New Orleans Ladies

Retired Nurses of New Orleans getting together to reminisce.

1971

Surname Saturday- Withan

In Diamond, La lived my great grandaunt and uncle, Emma Wiese Withan and her husband David Withan. Dave as he was known to his friends and family, was born in Germany. His history was given in the local newspaper at one time:

Born in Baden, Germany in December 1860 and after receiving a high school education left the old country at the age of 13 to try for his fortune in the New World. He first settled in Tennessee. Here he remained for two years plus his majority, when he conceived that Louisiana was a better place and Plaquemines Parish best of all, He liked the place and stayed. He is now engaged in the mercantile business in the 8th Ward, which he has represented in the capacity of his present incumbency being re-elected as an independent Democrat. Mr. Witham, long ago married and is the father of a baby girl.

 He was also the postmaster in Diamond, La and his house was located across from the depot station there. His daughter Elsie was photographed sitting on the veranda with her dog, as was her habit each day to watch the loading and unloading of passengers. They ran her photo and a story in the paper entitled, "Elsie and her dog Pert"

Dave Withan died on September 15, 1934 and was buried in Diamond Cemetery in Plaquemines Parish.

Wordless Wednesday- Working for a Living

My Grandmother and coworkers at the National Hosiery Mills in 1929, New Orleans, La

Tombstone Tuesday- Becker /Cordes family

Joseph Becker and Spouse Margaret Cordes

Greenwood Cemetery, New Orleans

Jelly Donuts for Fat Tuesday

My grandmother who was born and raised in New Orleans, often talked about Mardi Gras and what it was like for her as a kid growing up in the middle of it all. The one tradition that she passed on to us all was eating jelly donuts on Fat Tuesday. Sure we had King Cake and all, but what was even better to us was those jelly donuts.

It is something that I have passed down to my own children, and this morning I was expected to get up early and make the drive to go get the donuts in the rain. I am sure that my sister who is pretty much snowbound in Connecticut right now will manage to find a way to get her jelly donuts today. Since it is just not Mardi Gras without them!

I am guessing the tradition has something to do with my grandmother's German heritage since many German's celebrate Shrove Tuesday with donuts called fastnacts and the Polish with paczki.


Whatever the reason, I am stuffing myself with jelly donuts as I sit watching the Moose on WWL today  as the parades roll on in the rain, all from the comfort of my home!

Tomorrow will be here soon enough, time for ashes, penance and fasting. Til then I hear a raspberry filled donut calling my name.......

Facebook Creates A Roadblock For Genealogists

 I have written before on how to use Facebook as a tool in your genealogical research. I have myself made many family connections simply by searching for them on Facebook and then sending them a private message. I send a general message stating that I am their 2nd cousin or what ever, they do not know me, but we share the same family tree and that I would like to be able to know more about them if possible to further my research. I always let them know that it is completely up to them to reply or not, that I am not a stalker, and only wish to make a family connection.

In this way, I have more often than not received immediate replies saying, "Oh my goodness I remember your grandparents, and your mother, we played together as children. How are they?" and so on. We then send each other friend requests and have since then kept up with one another. 

Even Ancestry has gotten into the Facebook and genealogy game by adding a little Facebook logo to check to see if  this person is on Facebook.

Now however, Facebook has changed this simple process by charging folks a dollar to send a message to a non friend on Facebook. So, how are you supposed to get someone to answer your friend request if they don't know you from Adam? You can't send a message first telling them who you are and WHY you are sending this request. Instead they give you the option of either spending a dollar or sending it to the users OTHER folder. I didn't even know I had an OTHER folder, and I doubt most people do either.

Now many of you are going to put this to a test today and you will see that you are asked to pay a dollar or that you still may be able to send messages normally since they are still in the test stages. I am unfortunately one who is being tested and frankly they are testing my patience!!

You can read about this change here at CBS NEWS.
Here is the link for Ancestry's Blog explaining how the Ancestry/Facebook connection works.

Sadly I will not be making any more genealogy connections through Facebook since I refuse to pay a dollar to send a message to a person. Hopefully, they will realize that this charge is a huge FAIL and will remove the dollar charge.

I would like to add that although some may argue that you could just as easily send a message to a person's other inbox... The problem with that is that most people you are sending messages to have no idea that there is another place to view and receive messages on Facebook. Most of us do not fully click into our mailbox page when we receive a message notification, usually you just hit the tab at the top, read and reply to any messages there. You would not see the "other" box unless you fully opened your page and then you would have to know to look for it. I myself had 12 messages in mine that I had no clue were there. Sadly many were from 2011. Poor folks thought I was ignoring them. This is what would likely happen to a person sending a message for a genealogy inquiry if having to send to the "other" inbox.

I should also state that before the decision to charge the dollar, I often received messages from complete strangers to my regular inbox whether they were in network or not. Which is where I decided to read them or place them in a spam folder. I honestly had no idea the "other" inbox existed.

Surname Saturday- Castanedo

Jose Manuel Castanedo was born in Santander, Spain around 1769. He came to the Louisiana territory; when under Spanish Colonial rule, with Galvez. The Castanedo family owned a large tract of land in New Orleans known as Faubourg Castanedo. The land being sold to him by his father in law Antonio Ramis who was one of the major speculators in the Faubourg Treme project.

The  Castanedo House on N. Galvez

Jose Castanedo married Marie Rosa Ramis in 1797. They had the following children:
Marie Ignacia Castanedo
Pedro Castanedo
Marie Rose Castanedo
Raymond Castanedo
Josepha Castanedo
Marie Josephine Castanedo
Hermine Castanedo
Calixto Castanedo
Francisca Antonia Castaendo

Raymond Castanedo married Louise Aimee Pivert. They had:
Louise Castanedo
Marie Castanedo
Elizabeth Castanedo
Jean Adolph Castanedo
Arthur Castanedo
Edouard Raymond Castanedo
Emile Castanedo
Jean Gustave Castanedo
Philomene Castanedo
Jean Arthur Castanedo

Jean Adolph Castanedo was born July 17, 1832 in New Orleans. He was a merchant. He served in the Civil War in the 6th Regt. French Brig. La Militia as a Lieutenant. He married Marie Felecie Fortier in 1855 and they had:
Raymond Castanedo
Paul Castanedo
Louis Adolph Castanedo
Alice Louise Castanedo
Marie Felicie Castanedo
Albert A. Castanedo

May 1887

Albert A. Castanedo married Clementine Ladner, my grandfather's aunt, in Hancock County, Ms on November 16, 1895. They had 6 children:
Anthony Milton Castanedo
Wesley Joseph Castanedo
Marie Alice Castanedo
Antoinette Lillie Castanedo
Sheldon Castanedo
Loretta Castanedo

My grandfather Victor Ladner and his first cousin Loretta Castanedo Dubuisson were very close being born one day apart, they were like a sister and brother to one another.

Wordless Wednesday- Fishing Trip to Lake St. Catherine

Showing off the big catch!

Harold Delherbe

Lake St. Catherine, New Orleans, La

Tombstone Tuesday- Edwin J. Roth

Edwin Joseph Roth and spouse Agnes Sevin; Greenwood Cemetery, New Orleans, La

Surname Saturday- LeGrande

 John LeGrande and Dolores Saucier were married on April 23, 1930 at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church in New Orleans. John was born and raised in White Castle, Louisiana. He was the son of Ulysses Pierre LeGrande and Anaise Melancon. They had one son Leonard LeGrande born on May 26, 1940 in New Orleans.

Ulysses LeGrande was he son of Jean Baptiste LeGrande who was born in France and came to Louisiana on 15 Feb 1848. Jean B. LeGrande married Renee Marie Dugas in Paincourtville, La, on
December 26, 1867. They had six children:

Ulysses Pierre LeGrande

Therese Aglae LeGrande

Jean Gustave LeGrande

Catherine LeGrande

Maurgerite LeGrande

Mary Elisa LeGrande

Jean Baptiste LeGrande died in Donaldsonville on September 29, 1878.

When I was growing up I often heard the story of how my grandparents met, it was always a funny and sort of confusing type of story since it involved friends and relatives. It went like this; cousin Johnny LeGrande was married to cousin Dolores Saucier and Dolores was my grandfather's first cousin, and my grandmother's best friend. Johnny was my grandmother's relative and my grandfather's good friend. One day, cousin Johnny said to my grandfather, "Vic, I want you to met this girl "Red", I think she would be perfect for you." Johnny called my grandmother Irma "Red" as his pet name for her. My grandfather always said, "I was expecting to see this girl with flaming red hair, and instead I met a girl with beautiful soft auburn hair instead, boy that Johnny he had me worried!" Johnny stood for my grandfather and Dolores for my grandmother when they married. They always had a close relationship.