Comments from Paul Martel - According to my grandmother's baptismal certificate her father was Felicien Simien and her mother was Azelie Simien. These people only spoke French and could not read or write, so the census takers recorded whatever they could understand or interpret. Names were misunderstood, often misspelled, and therefore not that accurate.

One sunny fall day in October of 1991, when we were cleaning the family burial plot in St. Landry Cemetery, my mother had pointed out to me the graves of her grandfather Felicien, her grandmother Azelie, and where everyone else was burried, so I went home and recorded their locations on my Mac LC computer which I had been allowed to bring home from school to practice using.

My grandmother Eva had two sisters, Lydia and Elizabeth and two brothers, Joe and Simon.

No other brother or sisters were ever mentioned by either my grandmother, my mother, or anyone else in the family. Maybe there were two who died in infancy.

Elizabeth was called "poor Zabeth" by my grandmother who built a small room attached to her house where she took her sister in and cared for her until she died.

Joe (Joseph Simien) was married to "Bum" Emily Pitre. I was told that he was a "hoodoo man" but I don't remember why.

My grandmother referred to her younger brother as "poor" Simon. He was killed by a train. He is listed on the 1910 census.

Those who had problems or had died were referred to as "poor" an expression of sympathy.

The title was even applied to me (poor Paul) sometimes by my mother (to which I took no offense). According to my sister Connie my mom had had a difficult pregnancy with me (Rh incompatability) and had to take shots. I remember being told that I was taken from her by c-section.. Also, there were some other health concerns. I guess I was not the healthiest baby, but I well taken care of.