Invitation to Dinner

Sarah Ann Gonzales Begue, 1950

Sarah Ann Gonzales Begue 
1888-1965

Sarah Ann Gonzales was born on 26 December 1888 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her Father, John Henry Gonzales, was Spanish and Irish and her mother, Anna Hattaway, was Danish and German. In 1907 she married John Louis Begue (1887-1951). His father, John Blaise Begue was French and Irish and his mother was German. So their family was representative of the melting pot that was New Orleans. Her cooking combined dishes from all those traditions.

Throughout most of my childhood we lived within walking distance of Grandma's house so I spent a lot of time there, much of it in the kitchen watching her cook. So I'm inviting you to join me at Grandma's house for dinner by sharing some of her recipes.

Red Beans and Rice   

If it's Monday she would be cooking Red Beans and Rice. You can make it the way Grandma did by washing and soaking dried red beans over night or you can take a short cut by buying a big can of Blue Runner Creole Style Red Beans made in Gonzales, Louisiana.
Here's the way Grandma made them.

Put one pound of red beans in cold water and boil for about 2 hours.
Chop 2 medium onions, 1 Bell pepper and 2 garlic cloves.
Melt 1 heaping tablespoon of shortening in a skillet and add a heaping tablespoon of flour.
Stir to make a dark brown roux. (Stir slowly over low heat, being careful not to burn.)
Add chopped onions, pepper and garlic and sir until tender.
Stir in some of the water from the beans until thickened and stir all into the beans.
Add chopped cooked ham or sausage.
Add Creole Seasoning (or salt, pepper, and red pepper) and a dash of Tabasco.
Cook about 20 minutes and serve over rice with French bread.

We had a rhyme we used to chant when we played jump rope:
I love you once, I love you twice, I love you better than Red Beans and Rice.

Seafood Gumbo

If it's Friday we'll be having Gumbo. There are many different recipes for gumbo. In fact I have one whole cookbook full of  nothing but Gumbo recipes. This is the one I use most often because it tastes like Grandma's gumbo.

2 pounds raw shrimp                     Bay leaves
2 quarts water                               Thyme
6 tablespoons bacon fat                Parsley
6 tablespoons flour                        Salt and Pepper
2 large onions                                Red pepper (or Creole Seasoning)
1 Bell pepper                                 Garlic - as much as you like
2 stalks celery (about 1 cup)           Optional: 6 crabs  cleaned and broken in half
2 8 oz. cans of Rotel tomatoes                        or 1 pound of crab meat
   or plain chopped tomatoes         Tabasco                     

Clean and peel shrimp. (Boil heads in 2 quarts of water with dash of lemon juice for stock.)
Melt bacon fat in skillet. Add flour and make a dark brown roux.
Add onions, pepper, and celery (known in New Orleans as the Holy Trinity) and saute. 
Add 2 cups of stock or water. Put in a large soup pot.
Add the  rest of the seasonings, garlic and Rotel tomatoes. 
Add remaining stock and additional water to make about 12 cups.
Simmer on low for about 2 hours, stirring often to prevent sticking.
Add Tabasco and shrimp and cook about 30 minutes.
If you are using crabs, add to gumbo with shrimp. Add crab meat just before serving.
Serve over rice with French bread and a good French wine.

Pecan Pralines

If you have room for dessert you might like some of Grandma's pralines.

2 cups Brown Sugar

1/2 pound pecan halves

1 tablespoon of butter

Enough water to melt the sugar, about 4 tablespoons

Set the sugar, butter and water to boil and as it begins to boil stir in the pecans.

Let all boil until the mixture begins to bubble, stirring constantly until the sugar begins to thicken. (Soft ball stage - 238 degrees - but Grandma did it by instinct.)

Drop by tablespoons onto wax paper lined surface - or a marble slab if you have one.

If you want to cheat, you can make Microwave Pralines. They're not bad but they're

Not Grandma's Pralines

Here's to you, Grandma!

John Louis Begue Family, 1927

Longevity

Wilton Tisdale Booksh Sr.
1886-1985

    The oldest-lived ancestor that we know of in our Begue Booksh family tree is my grandfather Wilton Tisdale Booksh Sr. 

     Born 7 February 1886 in Grosse Tete, Iberville Parish, Louisiana, to Samuel Walker Booksh and Arabella Maria Tisdale, he was 99 years old when he died on 9 June 1985 in New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana.

     I was lucky enough to have been able to listen him tell stories of his family and to sit with him and look through old family photos. Much of what I knew about the Booksh family came from him and his sister, my great aunt Vera Booksh Ventress.
     
    Wilton was a sugar chemist and spent many years working "in the tropics," Cuba, Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras, as well as at sugar mills in Louisiana.  I remember as a child that he spent the fall grinding season in Louisiana and the winter season in the tropics. 



    On 16 July 1912 Wilton married Emma Collins Francis in New Orleans. A newspaper article in the Times Picayune described the event:

   "The marriage of Miss Emma Collins Francis, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Francis to Mr. Wilton T. Booksh, both of this city was quietly celebrated on Tuesday, July 16, at 4 o'clock, at St. George's Church, in the presence of the families and a few intimate friends. After the solemn and beautiful wedding services, which was performed by Rev. Byron Holley, The bridal [couple re]ceived the congratulations [of those] present. Later a dinner [took place at An]toine's restaurant..." New Orleans Times Picayune, 1912-07-21 p.18

   Wilton and Emma had four children: my father Wilton Tisdale Jr, William Francis, Marie Ernestine, and Emma Francis.

      In October 1916 the Louisiana Sugar Planters' Association newsletter contained a notice that said:
 "CHEMIST now employed in Louisiana factory desires engagement in the tropics, eight years experience, speaks the Spanish language, Address Wilton Booksh, care Belleview Plantation Company, Franklin, La., USA"

    In November 1917 Wilton applied for a passport for himself, his wife and two sons, Wilton and William, to travel to a sugar mill is El Salto, Guatemala, for the 1917-1918 sugar season. He gave his address as 7102 Birch Street in New Orleans, the home of Emma's parents, Charles Alfred and Anna Belle Francis. Wilton and his family appear on several ships passenger lists, including one in 1918 returning from Puerto Barrios, Guatemala and in 1919 returning from Havana, Cuba to New Orleans.

   On 19 February 1918 Wilton registered for the draft (World War I). He gave the same 7102 Birch Street address in New Orleans.  He was described as tall and slender with brown hair and grey eyes.

William and Wilton Booksh, Guatemala, c1918

   In the 1920 census the family is living on Benachi Avenue  in Biloxi, Mississippi. Listed are Wilton, age 33; his wife Emma, age 31; sons Wilton, age 6; William, age 4; and baby daughter Ernestine, 6 months old.  The surname on that census is spelled Bocksch, the same spelling as his great grandfather Carl Frederick Bocksch, who was born in Baden, Germany, about 1775. His parents were Johan Bocksch and Maria Lang. The family story is that he was a German soldier.

  On 7 February 1925 daughter Emma Francis Booksh was born in New Orleans and the next day Emma died. On 3 November 1926 Wilton married Agnes Gladys Lincoln in New Orleans. They had three children including twins Charles Leonard and Thomas Lincoln. Thomas died a few months later. Their last child was John Richard.

   When I was a child Grandpa Booksh came for Sunday dinner every other week when he wasn't working at the sugar mill. He always had interesting stories and even taught me a little Spanish. I also remember many interesting trips to visit him at the sugar mill at Cedar Grove, Louisiana, in the 1950s. After I married and moved to Florida, we always enjoyed visits to Grandpa and Noo (my great Aunt Vera) whenever we came back. 

   I remember one time asking him about the family story that we were related to Benjamin Franklin. He said, "Well, that's what my mother told me, but when I asked Louisiana Light and Power for free electricity, they wouldn't give it to me." It wasn't until I got interested in genealogy that I found out the story was true. Benjamin Franklin was our sixth great grandmother's first cousin. Benjamin Franklin's grandmother, Abiah Folger, and our ancestor, Joanna Folger, were sisters.

   There were many other surprises in that family tree. For more on the Tisdale branch see Belle's Letters


 

Booksh or Tisdale Photo

Booksh or Tisdale family group, circa 1895

This is my Photo for the second week of the 52 Ancestors Challenge.

Who are these people? The only one I can identify positively is Samuel Walker Booksh, the man in the first row with the handlebar mustache, fourth from the left, and possibly his son Sam Jr., second from the left.

Judging from the women's clothes and hats and the two military uniforms the gathering occurred in about 1895. It could be Booksh family members in New Orleans or Grosse Tete, Louisiana or Tisdale family members in New Orleans, Louisiana, or Mobile, Alabama. The large photo is 8" x 14" and was pasted to a dark cardboard backing. When I copied the photo it was in the possession of my aunt Emma Frances Booksh Sarradet in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is now probably in the possession of her son Steve Sarradet, Jr.

Great Grandpa Samuel Walker Booksh would have been about 42 years old in 1895. His wife Belle Tisdale Booksh, maybe the woman to his right, would have been about 40 years old. Next to her is oldest son Sam Jr., about 14. Sons Leonard, 12, and Wilton, 9, and daughter Belle, 6, are not in the photo.

I have shown the photo to many members of the Booksh and Tisdale extended families but no one had ever seen a copy of the photo or knew which family it was. Does anyone out there recognize it?

52 Ancestors Challenge

I started this blog to use for postings in Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge. It's a series of weekly prompts to get you to think about an ancestor and share something about them.

The prompts for January are:
     Week 1: Start
     Week 2: Favorite Photo
     Week 3: Longevity
     Week 4: Invite to Dinner
     Week 5: In the Census

So let's get started...

This story starts in April 1988 when the National Genealogical Society had their annual conference in Biloxi, Mississippi. My mother, Vera Begue Booksh, lived in Long Beach, Mississippi then and I drove up from Florida to take her to the conference.

Vera Begue Booksh stands by the second largest Live Oak in Mississippi in Long Beach.

She and my Aunt Marie had been doing genealogy for about 20 years and I offered to put their information on the computer. I never intended to get into it myself, just put their research into a genealogy program and print it out for the family.


Finally we sat down with all the family group sheets, pedigree charts, papers, and photocopies that she had accumulated. I turned on the tape recorder, and we started climbing into our family tree. I picked up one of the photocopies and asked, "Now where did you find this information?"

Mama said, "Oh, that was from the New Orleans Library. We did a lot of research there...

"OK," I said, "Do you remember what book you got this information from?"

"It was a big red book."

"I need to put down the name of the book as the source of the information."

"I don't know the name of the book!" Mama was indignant. "What? You don't believe me!"

I could see this was not going to be as easy as I had thought.  I could put all Mama's data into the computer, but I was going to have to go out onto some shaky limbs to document the sources. Soon I was hooked and I've been doing genealogy ever since.

Fast forward to 2009 when I finished the first draft of a book on the Begue family. Mama and Aunt Marie were both still alive and able to read the draft and offer corrections and additions. Other relatives also added information and at last we were ready to publish. In 2012 I got my first copies of  "Mama Said:The Mostly True Story of the Begue Family of Louisiana and Mississippi." (It's available at Amazon.com.)

As I say in my introduction, If Mama's family had a motto, it would have been, "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." Her family had a lot of good stories. There were stories of lost fortunes and disinheritance, stories of larcenous lawyers and disreputable relatives, stories of mysterious apparitions and ghostly happenings. They were passed down from mother to daughter like treasured pieces of needlework. I remember hearing many of these stories told and retold, as we sat on Grandma's porch on summer evenings.

But putting those stories into a book was not the end of the story. I had started in on doing more research on my father's Booksh side of the family. There was so much information that it would require more than one book. One particular ancestor called out to me. Great Grandma Belle Tisdale had left a trunk full of letters and photos of her family. I decided to start a blog as a way of organizing the transcriptions of letters and my research on the letter writers and people mentioned in the letters as well as a little history of what was happening in the Louisiana area at the time. I'm up to 1875 if you would like to take a look at belletisdale.blogspot.com

Now fast forward again to just a few days ago when I got a phone call from a man named Begue who lives here in Central Florida. His son had a genealogy project for school and he wanted to get a copy of my book. He turns out to be my third cousin once removed. So this story has come full circle to a new start for a new genealogist.