Hi there!

My name is Lori Lyons and I am a genealogy addict.

The first step is to admit it, right? I am one of those people who stays up to the wee hours of the morning, trying to find the missing pieces of my family puzzle. I'm also not too shy to ask "who were your people?" to see if we may have a family connection.

I am the daughter of an English-Cajun man and an Irish-German woman. Their parents -- all born in Louisiana -- were a mixture of Cajun, English, French, Irish and German. Half of them were born in the big city of New Orleans, the other half down the bayou in Houma.

Here in Louisiana, we call people like me a Heinz 57.



For 57 varieties. Or a gumbo... maybe a spicy jambalaya.

I also am a Mayflower descendant and can claim a very thin link to the Royal Family of England (Queen Liz and I are 20th cousins once removed.). Some trees have me as the 15th great-granddaughter of King Ferdinand I and Queen Isabella II of Spain (but probably not).

I belong to the 31st generation of Lyons descended from Roger de Leonne, the first known of our esteemed line. I am the 12th generation of Lyon/Lyons in America, descendent from William Lyon, "The Immigrant," who came to Massachusetts from Harrow, England in 1635.

I belong to the 5th generation of Lyons in Louisiana, descended from Joseph Lucius Cincinatus Pitt Lyon, who came south from Illinois in 1849.

I have been putting together my family tree since the early 1990s. It was my grandmother who did all the work. The granddaughter of three different Louisiana plantation owners, she spent much of her free time chasing down relatives.

I would walk into her house and find her slumped over her dining room table, surrounded by books and scraps of paper. Sometimes she was asleep. I found quite a few papers with her pen mark scribbling off the page as she dozed off. I can only imagine what she might have accomplished if she had the Internet.

When she died in 1988, my mother asked me to go through Grannie's papers to see what was there. I spent a weekend hunched over my own dining room table -- and dozed off a few times myself. And I was hooked.

I think we have a fascinating story -- Knights, queens, kings, orphaned children placed on ships to the new world, entire families wiped out in a single shipwreck, soldiers, Patriots, plantations, Cajuns expelled from their homes, Civil War rebels.

And yes, slave-owners.

I spent my life as a journalist -- a storyteller. It's up to me to tell this one.

Like all good recipes, this will be a work in progress. Feel free to add your own ingredients -- give a little, take a little. And don't be afraid to let me know if you find a mistake. Genealogy is not an exact science.

So come on in. Sit a spell and take a look around. You might be related -- an ingredient in our family gumbo.

If so, welcome to the family!


Lori Lyons
Louisiana
email: thelyonsdin@gmail.com

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Making friends

If you mosey on over to the "Cross" page listed just above, and scroll down to the comments section, you can eavesdrop on a little conversation between me and, well, a cousin.

It seems someone found my little genealogy blog, found a connection and left me a piece of this giant jigsaw puzzle called the Family Tree.

And I am thrilled! That's exactly what I hoped would happen when I started this little project.  I hoped that people would find it, read it, find their connection to it and add to it. That's really how this whole genealogy thing works.

I also had a longtime hometown friend realize that we are connected through one of our lines. We are, indeed, cousins.

So, please. Don't be shy. Leave your comments, your questions, your critiques (be nice) and your pieces of the puzzle so we can all put this thing together.

LO

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Fighting for the Confederacy

There was nothing civil about the Civil War.

And even now, 150 years later, it seems sometimes we're still fighting it -- its causes, its effects and what it all means. It still pits brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor. But these days, the battlefields are the various social media platforms where people can exercise their right of free speech -- sometimes too much.

The Confederacy is under fire again because of what it stood for, what it fought for and what it brought to the battle. Mainly, its flag. The Battle Flag, once borne into battle by soldiers from the south, it has become a symbol of hatred and racism.



The flag has always been a part of the scenery in Cajun Country, where I grew up.  It hung on the walls in restaurants and bars in my hometown and others. They were sold at K&B, Woolworth's and the gas station. Boys had them painted on their cars and trucks or flew them from their antennas. Lots of people had them as tattoos. They were printed on beach towels and t-shirts. And not everyone who bought them were racist jerks.

I had one, a giant one, on my bedroom wall. My parents probably bought it at a Stuckey's on one of our many trips to Mississippi or Alabama. I pinned it up next to Donny Osmond, not because I was a racist white supremacist, but because I thought it looked cool. It was just a thing to me. But then, no one ever waved it in my face in anger or hate. I have family members, friends and acquaintances who will die boasting that their ancestors fought for that flag and that it doesn't mean what you (and I) think it means.

When I was in the fifth grade (circa, 1972) our class began to study the Civil War. My teacher, Mrs. Smart, put together a display of photos, faux Dixie bills (also probably bought at Stuckey's) and other historical items. I offered the loan of my flag, which was made the centerpiece of the display. One night after school hours, someone broke into the window of the classroom and stole my flag. I never did buy another one.

But in 2015, that flag means something else entirely to so many people. Hate groups have adopted it as their symbol of white supremacy, brought it to anti-integration rallies, waved it as a message to those born darker than they. They didn't pick up the pirate flag or the flag of China or Japan. They picked up the Confederate flag. And there is a reason for that. What it stood for.

So now, nearly 200 years after the end of the Civil War, we are fighting a new war over that flag. People are demanding it come down from where it still flies, to this day, over state capitols. People are demanding that statues and monuments to southern heroes from the war be removed or changed or even destroyed. People are demanding that history be changed.

But what about those of us who can't change their history?

I spend a great deal of my free time searching for my ancestors. I know that I had three great-grandfathers who owned plantations and, in at least one case, yes, slaves. I had several relatives who fought on the losing side.



This is Simeon Dupre,


Born Sept. 23, 1939 in Lafourche or Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana. Died about 1905 in Houma, Louisiana. He was my father's mother's grandfather, one of 14 children born to Jean Mathurin Fortunat Dupre and Azelie Edmire Pitre. (*In a rather odd footnote, his sister, Pauline Carmelite Dupre was my father's, father's grandmother. Yes, my grandparents were cousins. I am not sure if they knew this.) Simeon's grandfather had come to America from France in the mid-1700s and settled in the German-Acadian Coast area.

 He lived somewhere down the bayou in Terrebonne Parish. Census records list his occupation as a farmer. I do not know if he ever owned a slave.  I do know he was a private in Company H of the 26th Regimen of the Louisiana Infantry. His son, Germain Dupre, applied for and received a Confederate headstone in 1931 for his father's grave in Bisland Cemetery.  Simeon's son, my great-grandfather Germain, spoke very little English well into his senior years. I'm guessing his father didn't either.

This is Joseph Lucius Cincinatus Pitt Lyon






Born, 13 May, 1823, Essex County, New York, Died 16 October, 1884, Little Caillou, Louisiana. My father's paternal grandfather.

In 1849, Lucius' family moved to DeKalb, Illinois. But Lucius chose to join his cousin, George Newell, in a move to Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana. George was married to Emily Davis Semple of Terrebonne Parish, and they lived on Semple Plantation, which was located near the present day Bisland Cemetery on Bayou Terrebonne. 

George and his family did not stay in Louisiana long, but left for California during the Gold Rush. Lucius stayed behind, however, and worked as an overseer on Woodlawn Plantation in Terrebonne Parish for the Cage family. The overseer was the person who directed the slaves to do their daily work and kept them in line.  It was there that he met his first wife, Elizabeth Drumwright of Boydton, Virginia, Mecklinburg County. Eliza was a friend of the Cages. 

Lucius and Eliza settled in upper Little Caillou in Terrebonne Parish, adjacent to the present Catholic Chapel on Little Caillou.  

On March 21, 1862, Lucius enlisted in the Confederate Army, Company H, 26th Regiment.  He was wounded and captured at Vicksburg, but survived and returned to Little Caillou.   He signed the oath of allegiance to the United States and was released on July 14, 1866. My cousin, Jerry Lyons, relayed some of the stories Lucius told his children and grandchildren, including that he and his friend walked back to Terrebonne Parish from Vicksburg, a trip of more than 240 miles.

Lucius was the only member of his family to move south to Louisiana. All the other Lyon family members remained in Massachusetts, Illinois and Connecticut. It is entirely possible -- probably even -- that Lucius fought against his own cousins.

Lucius lived 58 years and had 7 children by three of his four wives.   He died on October 16, 1894, and is buried at St. Elie Cemetery in Little Caillou.   




(Most of this is from "family legend" --- a.k.a., my Grannie Evelyn.)

This is Oscar Joseph Himel


Oscar Joseph Himel
Owner of Himelaya Planttion in Labadieville
Born about 1850 in Assumption Parish, Louisiana, he had gone to school in Bowling Green, Kentucky, where he became enamored of the thoroughbred horses there. He had some sent home. He was but 16 years old when the Civil War began. Too young to enlist, he volunteered to be a "runner" and use his horses to bring messages the front lines. Eventually, he was captured and imprisoned in Thibodaux (my grandmother used to point out the very building). He also suffered a stab wound in his side (by "The Yankees," Grannie said.) Upon his release, his uncle, Clairville Himel, brought Oscar one of his horses, $50 and the deed to Himelaya Plantation located in Labadieville on 750 acres. Oscar kept the plantation, known as "Oscar's Place," until 1904, when it was sold to the Supreme Sugar Company. The land itself is now mapped as "Supreme."

There is, of course, no official military record for Oscar.

Clairville's brother, Lovincy, was a Captain in the 26th Infantry. Also captured at Vicksburg. His brother Pierre Himel also served, as did numerous Himel cousins.


This is William Wallace Cross





Born May 27, 1841 in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, on the family-owned Orange Grove Plantation. He was the son of Benjamin  Cross,  born in Gates County, North Carolina. Benjamin moved to Louisiana in the early 1800s and began acquiring lands which became Orange Grove. He did own several slaves.

Benjamin was not a nice plantation owner and is reported to have treated his slaves horribly. When he died in 1848, he was buried in a family cemetery on the lands. The slaves were so terrified of him, they refused to cut the grass around his tomb.

William was a doctor. He received his Doctorate of Medicine on March 19, 1862, from the New Orleans School of Medicine. He enlisted in the Confederate Army as an Assistant Surgeon, F. and S., 30th Regiment, Louisiana Infantry, on November 13, 1862 in New Orleans. He was captured at Vicksburg and forced into service treating wounded from both sides. He was paroled at Meridian, Mississippi, on May 12, 1862.

There also was, allegedly, a French relative who was believed to have been a bugler in the Civil War. I have no record of that.

~~~~~~~~~~
 These are the branches of my family tree. They are a part of my history as well as America's. I'm assuming I had Lyon relatives who fought for the North, as well as Lucius, who fought for the South. I had ancestors who fought and died in the American Revolution (and possibly one who died at Bunker Hill), as well as the Mexican-American War.