Jared Tew - Putting the name "Tew" on the map

Caption: Air Force running back Jared Tew (42) scores against the Houston defense in the Armed Services Bowl. Tew rushed for 173 yards and two TDs to help the Falcons control the clock.

Air Force profile of Jared. ESPN Stats on Jared in 2009. Footage from the Armed Forces Bowl game, Dec 31, 2009.

Tew football fans originating from Utah and Idaho, including myself, became curious as to our pedigree connection with Jared Tew, who hails from Park City, Utah, after he starred in this game. I decided to make contact with Jared's father, Steve, in Park City, and he was gracious enough to get back with me. It turns out that Jared comes from a different Tew line than do the vast majority of Utah/Idaho Tews. I always thought that the only Utah/Idaho Tews were those descending from my great-great-grandfather, Thomas Tew, Sr. who immigrated to Utah in the mid-1800's having been converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in England.

Steve informed me that his grandfather (Jared's GGFather), Arthur George Tew (1903-1999), was born in England and immigrated to the inter-mountain west in his youth. He married Larue Morris from the Malad City, Idaho area, and settled down in Malad.

This is what Steve shared with me, "My grandfather was a dairy farmer most of his life in Malad, Idaho. My father [Farrell Eugene Tew] entered the military when he was 17 and went to WWII in the Navy. Following the war, he transferred to the army and we lived in El Paso, TX, where I was born. We then went to Germany for four years with the army, then back to Fort Bliss in El Paso. When my father retired from the army, we ended up in Ogden, Utah, where we would be close to my parent's hometown of Malad. A few years after I was married, we moved to the Park City area where we have been for almost 20 years. My mother did a fair amount of genealogy but never connected us closely with the other Tews we heard of in Utah and Idaho, so who knows the connection. "

We may never know our pedigree connection with Jared but I'm sure that at some generation not too far back in England, we share a common ancestor. We wish Jared well during his Senior year at Air Force. Many of the Tews from Utah and Idaho in particular, will be his fans this coming fall, and wish him well in his future military career as he serves our country.

Saints are still Alive!

From the agony of the badly damaged Superdome with huddled masses inside of it following Hurricane Katrina...to the ecstasy of the New Orleans Saints cheering their beloved team on to their first ever appearance in a Superbowl four years later, it doesn't get any better than this. The Saints are actually going to the Superbowl!!!

The two teams were so evenly matched that the outcome of the game essentially came down to who would win the flip of the coin in overtime. Of course, the Saints and their fans deserve all the credit in the world for making it actually happen!

Can you imagine what New Orleans is going to be like between now and Mardi Gras, which happens this year on February 16, with the Superbowl being on February 7. As was said on our local news cast early this morning, "After last night's victory, there are going to be a lot of people calling in sick because they have "black and gold fever," over the next three weeks.

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!