Saints on Fire

As can well be imagined, the talk down here on the bayou is reaching fever pitch about the New Orleans Saints having a realistic shot at making it to the Superbowl this year. With home field advantage, this is the closest they have ever come to making it into a Superbowl game, and it is getting crazy down here. I thought about wearing my Vikings sweatshirt to work today just to get a reaction, but realized that it might not be the safest thing to do. Besides, I really do want the Saints to win. There was a time in my life that I was a big fan of the Vikings, back when I was a graduate student at the University of Minnesota between 1972-1977, but they let me down by going to the Superbowl three times in four years (1974, 1975, and 1977) and coming away empty. If the Saints make it to the Superbowl, I wish them well. On the other hand, if the Vikings make it, I only hope they don't disappoint again. They would be the only team to have gone to the Superbowl as many as five times only to lose every time.

There are many twists, turns, and ironies as each NFL season comes to a close, and this one is no exception. Three of the final four quarterbacks have at least some connection with the Saints. Brett Favre (Minnesota Vikings) grew up a fan of the Saints in Kiln, Mississippi, only 57 miles from New Orleans. Peyton Manning (Indianapolis Colts) was born and raised in New Orleans while his dad, Archie, played with the Saints. And, of course Drew Brees is the Saints' current quarterback. If you live in Kiln, MS, who do you root for this weekend? The town is divided between home-grown Favre vs. the Saints, according to the news. Another twist is that, if the Jets and Vikings somehow managed to make it to the Superbowl, the Jets would be facing the very quarterback that they said good riddance to just one year ago. This is just a tiny sampling. Share your own favorite if you like.

On another football note, Nicholls State University next door in Thibodaux, LA, just hired a new football coach. Charlie Stubbs is a BYU graduate, with 31 years of coaching experience at several schools, most recently, he was the University of Central Missouri offensive coordinator. He and his family will be attending Thibodaux Ward, the church ward we belong to. One of the assistant coaches coming in with him is, Justin Anderson, a son-in-law of Greg Stock (current member of the New Orleans Stake Presidency, CEO of Thibodaux Regional Medical Center, and a close friend of mine).

Freezing on the Bayou

Finally, we are getting relief from the freezing weather down here in southern Louisiana. I have lived in this area for just over 10 years, and this is without question the coldest week I have encountered since moving here. In the last eight days, we have been significantly below freezing at night, as cold as 22 degrees (F) early Sunday morning (January 10). I was amazed at the number of schools that have shut down around this area because of the cold temperatures. I suppose this has as much to do with bursting frozen pipes as anything else.

All of the sugarcane froze above ground, so at work, we finally have an opportunity to really take advantage of a sugarcane freeze test that we install annually. On Thursday, Jan 7, we cut stalks out of every plot in a fully replicated test that has all of the important varieties that our industry either currently relies on or will shortly be planting in their fields. For the next several weeks, until there is no further change in deterioration, we will be repeatedly re-sampling this test. The expectation is that the freeze this year will have been extreme enough (hopefully, not too extreme) to show which varieties are the most freeze tolerant and the least freeze tolerant. Those that are the most freeze tolerant will obviously tend to be left in the field the longest during future harvest seasons. Thankfully, much of the cane has already been harvested this season, and many of the mills have already shut down. What is interesting is that even though the cane stalks may freeze and thus be subject to rapid deterioration, especially the more sensitive varieties, not very much deterioration will occur until the cane in the field is significantly above normal refrigeration temperatures, so I think our farmers, for the most part, dodged the bullet this year, at least as far as harvesting goes. There is some question as to whether the below-ground temperatures got cold enough in places as far north as Bunkie and New Roads to severely affect stubble crops, as they did in 1989.

Our garden, and many of our more temperature sensitive plants around our home got whacked pretty hard. We probably lost some of our weaker citrus trees. A guava tree we planted next to the road last year looks pretty miserable as well. I have heard that in Florida, where several cold temperature records were set, iguanas are falling out of trees, and the pythons have become an easy catch for those trying to reduce their numbers. Since I don't care for either one, this is welcome news.

Revisiting my French Connection -- Louis Roy

On April 6, 2008, I wrote a blog about my French connection, which went back as far as Louis Roy, who was presumably pure French, but that's as far back as we were able to go. There was plenty of speculation about where his roots went, but we didn't know for sure. On January 5, 2009, I entitled my blog, "50 things I would like to do." Number 44 reads as follows, "Determine with certainty the ancestry of Louis Roy (my great-great grandfather on my mother’s (LeRoy) side) all the way back to France."

Over the holidays, my cousin, Jayne Kerr (Phoenix, AZ), forwarded a letter she had received from another cousin, Judith (Judy) Ipsen (Willard, UT), about the success she had in discovering the roots of Louis Roy. Judy had put in a lot of hours of research, and while she did not have hard documentation, such as a birth certificate, she did have overwhelming evidence that met the list of criteria used by genealogists to go ahead and declare that Louis had to have been the Louis Roy that was associated with a specific Roy family living in the area that he lived and at the time he lived there.

I called Judy up and we had a lively conversation about old times when we as cousins used to get together and do things together, etc. She shared with me that she had prepared a 310-page book entitled, "Louis Roy, A Book of His Ancestors and Descendants," which had exhaustive documentation and many pictures that she had collected during her pursuit for information on the Louis Roy line. She said the book could be purchased for $30 (covers printing and postage costs), and that she only had a few copies left. I went ahead and purchased one for myself, so that I could see for my self what she had gathered. It is truly impressive.

So now the Roy line goes from Louis Roy to his father Louis Roy (mother, Julia Royer) to Andre Amable Roy (paternal grandmother, Francoise Chapart) to Francois Roy to Andre Roy, and finally to Jean Roy who was born in 1633 in De Marans, Aunis, France, and who died in 1676 in Lachine, Montreal, Canada. Louis Roy's mother, Julia Royer, it turns out, was half American Indian. Her father's (Nicholas Royer) mother was a Kaw Indian. Her mother's (Francoise Leduc) mother was an Osage Indian, making her half Indian, and the younger Louis (my GG grandfather) one-quarter native American Indian, and therefore not pure French as previously thought.

The Louis Roy family moved from Missouri to Oregon on the Oregon Trail in 1852. Louis was 37 at the time. Louis Roy's son, Daniel Vestal LeRoy, from whom I descend, was 12. Daniel married Sarah Priscilla Morrison and they had five children together. Then Daniel got into trouble and ended up getting a divorce. Divorce papers showed that he was guilty of petty larceny (stealing chickens) and grounds of abandonment and desertion were cited. Daniel left abruptly and didn't tell anyone where he was going. Oregon Roys descending from Daniel probably have a rather negative view of their ancestor.

The next we hear of Daniel is when he surfaces in southern Utah. LDS Church records indicate that he was baptized and confirmed into the the LDS Church in August 1873. In those records, his birth date is nine years off (1848, not 1839) and his name had changed from Roy to LeRoy. Daniel was courting a young Mormon girl named Sarah Melissa Allen, 15 years his junior, and he passed himself of as being several years younger than he really was. The name LeRoy may have been used somewhat as an alias. So that is how all of us descending from Daniel and Sarah, have the name, LeRoy, until we go as far back as Louis Roy. One final note: In the for-what-it's-worth department, the town of Roy, Oregon was named after Louis Roy's son, Lewis (my great-grand uncle), who was born after the move to Oregon

New Year Traditions

We have a tradition of going over to Vic & Bebe McElroy's home for New Year's Eve, along with a couple of other families. We enjoy eating finger foods, playing games, having lively conversation, and watching the countdown in TV up to the New Year. Their son, Joe Fox, usually has a fireworks show immediately after midnight, but not this year. It seems that just about everyone has cut back on their fireworks budget. Vic & Bebe make their income conducting safety training classes for offshore oilfield personnel. They have a camp in Cocodrie that they go to regularly. They enjoy Cajun dancing on weekends, and are active in the community.

The following day, we have the tradition (10-years running) of going over to the Ron & Stacy Mangels home, where we have New Year's dinner with them and their family, consisting of black eyed peas, cabbage, and roast pork. A New Year's tradition in the South has it that if black eyed peas, cabbage, and ham/pork are consumed on the 1st day of the year, they bring good luck and prosperity. According to some, this practice dates back to the Civil War period. Ron also works in an oil-related industry, and has more recently spent time on offshore oil platforms. Ron & Stacy have a son, Jon, who is the only missionary serving from our ward at the moment. He is serving in Chili, and has a little over 8 months left on his mission.

Both of these families have gone out of their way to make us feel at home down here in Cajun Country, and we greatly appreciate it. Now it's time to start loosing the weight I picked up over the holidays!

Christmas in Indiana

Matt and Julie sent us airline tickets so that we could spend Christmas with them and our three grandchildren. What a wonderful Christmas gift. They were wonderful hosts. Somehow, Judy and I both ended up being sick during the trip. Nevertheless, we really enjoyed the time we had with Matt and Julie and our grandchildren. Santa was very generous to all on Christmas morning. We got to go into Chicago during the front and back ends of the trip, and while there, got to drive through the heart of the Windy City at Christmastime, walk around Millenium Park in the famed lakefront area of Chicago and walk under Cloud Gate (the big bean) and watch ice skaters skating from above, enjoy hot dogs at a downtown hot dog eatery, go to the Lincoln Park Zoo at nighttime in the winter (a rather different experience), drive around Wrigley Park (home of the Cubs) and more.

It was a white Christmas, but at least not a white out Christmas in Indiana. I tried to make a big snowman with the grand kids, but the snow was so dry, I ended up making a miniature snowman with three snowballs. When we got back, I couldn't believe I had only taken four pictures on the whole trip, Allison on the computer, Lauren being silly, and Megan with Julie nearby, and one of Maestro Snowman.

Mississippi and Tennessee Reports

Mississippi. We really enjoyed the time we had with Lori and James. On Sunday, after Church, we traveled up to Natchez, MS, and stayed there overnight. On Monday morning, it was already raining, so we decided not to rush to Vicksburg, but to follow our original plans. We spent some time in the morning looking at some of the historically significant buildings in downtown Natchez that make this town on the Mississippi River so special.

We followed the picturesque Natchez Trace (trail) up to Emerald Mound, the 2^nd largest Indian mound in the U.S. The rain actually stopped long enough for us to climb up the mound. Further up the road, we went to Sunken Trace, which gave a sense of the importance of the original trail that the road follows and that early American Indians used. Again, the rain subsided long enough for us to enjoy this experience.

We finally made our way up to the Vicksburg National Military Park. While it was raining off and on, we had a thoroughly enjoyable experience there, with very few others in the park while we were there. James took some impressive pictures and video segments that the overcast day actually enhanced.

The following day, we went to the WWII Museum in downtown New Orleans. The new movie that Tom Hanks narrates was an otherworldly experience, and truly helped me appreciate the scope of that war that was fought on several fronts. There was so much about WWII that I had was oblivious to, so the whole experience (movie and exhibition) was quite an education. We all enjoyed the time we had together, and we were all thrilled about how well this trip went. Lori posted some of the pics that James took during our time together on her Facebook page (Lori Ure > Photos > Mississippi & Louisiana 2009).


Tennessee. I took three days off to make some person-to-person contacts with potential contractors to build our future home in Tennessee. One day was spent getting there, one doing business on site, and one getting back home. I was very happy to be able to make some important contacts, and to get a better handle on what steps need to be taken in order for us to move forward with our home building.

What was meant to be a whirlwind trip, however, got stalled in a record-setting snowstorm in Washington D.C. I had the misfortune of having D.C. as the leg between Nashville and New Orleans in both directions. In coming back, our jet got as far as being de-iced and on the tarmac, but the snow was coming down so fast that snow plows couldn’t keep up, so we never got clearance to take off Friday evening. It continued to snow through Saturday, and Dulles ended up with 18+ inches of snow, eclipsing the previous snowstorm record of 12.1 inches in the month of December, and the 6^th greatest overall snowfall from a single snowstorm on record for the area. I finally got out Sunday evening. What a relief!

Plans through December

My agenda for the remainder of the Month of December is as follows:

Dec 6 - 12 (Sun - Sat): Making sugarcane crosses at Canal Point, FL (see last year's blog this time of year).

Dec 12 - 16 (Sat - Wed): Spending time with Lori & James, who are coming into town. We're excited.

Dec 17 - 19 (Thu - Sat): Whirlwind trip to our future home site in Tracy City, TN, meeting with Grant Miller, and other people we will be contracting work out to.

Dec 22 - 28 (Tue - Mon): Judy and I will be spending Christmas with Julie, Matt, and three granddaughters, Allison, Lauren, and Megan, the youngest of whom I will be introducing myself to for the very first time.

On another note: I am updating the book, "Tew Heritage," which is a history of Wm. Thos. Tew and his wife, Clara, and their descendants. I had conversations with descendants of each of his seven children last night, and was amazed at the level of interest there is in me pursuing this project. It will probably take several months to complete. When completed, it may very well go on line, so I may be looking for some "family" expertise.