Thursday, July 7, 2011

Treasure Chest Thursday: Melasie Hollier McBride portrait

Melasie Hollier McBride (1830-1925), "photo portrait" on paper?, digital photo by Liz Hall Morgan, Nov. 2006.  Original owned by cousins in Louisiana.

This is the only portrait known to me of my great-great-grandmother, Melasie Hollier McBride, daughter of Isidore Hollier and Arthémise Trahan

She was born 11 Dec. 1830, probably in Opelousas, Louisiana, where she was christened in St. Landry Catholic Church on 16 Feb. 1831.  She married William McBride in the same church on 20 Jan. 1852, bore him 10 children, and lived to the ripe old age of 94, surviving her husband by 50 years.  A cousin wrote my family in 1990 that Melasie “lost her property during the flood of 1882. At present there is oil on the property; it was sold for delinquent tax payments. She had no income, all was lost in the flood.” She no doubt relied a lot on the kindness of her family, as she never remarried.  She died 19 Aug 1925, probably in the Ossun community near Scott, Louisiana, where she lived with her daughter Octavie's family (my great-grandparents) at the end of her life.

Melasie's children and some of her grandchildren are enumerated here, and I describe the happy  accident of finding her grave while looking for another here.

Sources include Southwest Louisiana Records, "Louisiana Deaths" at familysearch.org--see "Wm McBride [sic]", correspondence from Paul Ashton Legere, and Melasie's headstone at Sts. Peter & Paul Cemetery in Scott, La.  If you find her in the 1870, 1900 or 1920 census, please let me know; I'm still looking!

Photo/text copyright 2011, Liz Hall Morgan, all rights reserved.