Friday's Faces From the Past - Frank Banet

Francis Isidore Banet

15 Aug 1863 - 09 Apr 1948

Francis (Frank) Isidore Banet was born 15 Aug 1863 in Floyd County, Indiana. He was the son of Isidore Banet (1832-1901) and Rosalie Sprigler (1836-1904). His father had been born in France. His mother in Floyd County.

Frank met a lovely woman named Adeline Josephine Eve (11 Feb 1867 - 05 Nov 1958). She had lost her mother, Annette DuBois, when she was only 4 years of age, and her mother's sister came to live with the family, and take care of Annette's 6 children. Instead of simply moving in, which would have been unseemly at the time, a single woman living with a widowed man, she ended up marrying Adeline's father. This aunt, now step-mother, was also named Adeline. She would then add another 7 children to the family, for a total of 13.

Frank and Adeline Eve were married 31 Oct 1893, in Floyd County.  They went on to have 8 children:

* Robert (1894-1970)

* Arthur (1896-1974)

* Charles (1898-1976)

* Augustin "Gus" (1900-1978)

* Frank E. (1902-1983)

* Clarence (1904-1986)

* Irene (1906-1989)  (Irene was my grandmother.)

* Lorene (1909-2005) 

Frank was a master carpenter. His fine craftsman tools, all hand tools, and none were motorized or electric, were passed to my Grandfather, Henry C. Dreher (1902-1977). Those tools, in their finely made tool chest (a very large, and very heavy chest) are now in my sister's possession, as my Grandfather passed them on to my Dad, who wasn't too shabby with woodworking, either!

Frank was a very tall man, well over six-feet, and Adeline was a very short woman, barely reaching five-feet tall. Both were slender in build, and worked hard on their farm.

I have never found out what Frank's cause of death was. Perhaps simply old age, he was nearly 85 years old when he passed. (Adeline was 91!)

The couple are buried in the Edwardsville Cemetery, in Georgetown, Floyd County, Indiana.

Do you have a family heirloom photo that means a lot to you? (I can honestly say that ALL of my photographs mean the world to me!)

Are you taking good care of them? Let me recommend "Preserving Your Family Photographs" by Maureen A. Taylor (2010) available on Amazon  for $24.99 paperback, or $10.99 Kindle. Taylor gives you alot of good advice and how-to's on preserving those precious photographs! This book has been my go-to guide for all of my photographs!

Take good care of those photographs. Once gone, or lost, they cannot be retrieved!

Those Places Thursday - The Banet Farm

This is the old Banet Farm, located on Floyd's Knobs, Indiana.

This is the home my Great Great Great Grandparents, set about raising their children. They were Etienne Banet and Francois Bidaine Banet.

The couple had 12 children. Seven of these children were born in France, prior to the immigration to America. The last 5 were born in Indiana, and were much younger than the older 7. The couple had a son Isadore (born in France) who married Rosalie Sprigler.

Irene(my grandmother) was the 7th of 8 children born to Francis Isidore Banet (Isidore and Rosalie's son) and his wife, Adeline Josephine Eve.

Adeline was the daughter of Joseph Eve, and Annette DuBois. She was the youngest of 6 children. Her mother, Annette, died giving birth to her, in 1867. Adeline's Aunt Adaline DuBois, Annette's younger sister came to care for her sister's children. In 1871, when Adaline DuBois finally turned 21, Joseph married Adaline. She had already been in the home taking care of her sister's children since the time of her sister's death. Adaline DuBoise Eve, and Joseph, went on to have another 7 children, which gave Joseph a total of 13 children.

From Joseph and Annette DuBois were these 6 children:
Nicholas (b.1858)
Joseph (b. Jan 1870)
Lawrence (b. 1860)
Alfred (b. 1863)
Charles (b. 1865)
Adeline Josephine (11 Feb. 1867-05 Nov. 1958)

From Joseph and Adeline DuBois were these 7 children:
Louise (1877-1968)
Mary (b. Jul. 1878)
James (b. Apr. 1882)
Hattie (b. Dec. 1883)
John Edward (b. Aug. 1886)
Gilbert (22 Jun 1888-Apr 1969)
Flora (b. Mar. 1890)

Adeline died at the age of 91. My grandmother told me she had coal black hair when she died, and had never dyed a hair on her head. (I don't take after that part of my ancestors! I've got snow white hair, at 57, and this matches up with my Dad's family, the Bean's.)

Irene, Adeline's daughter, and my Grandmother, had very few gray hairs when she died at the age of 83. Irene's daughter, my mother, Lois (1938-2015) also had more dark hair than gray when she passed at the age of 77. (Actually 2 days before her 77th birthday.)

Grandmother told me about growing up with her family in the Banet home. It was a fairly relaxed family for the times. Both sides of her family, the Eve's and the Banet's had immigrated from France (the Alsace region), and knew one another in France.

Sadly, the elder Banet's, my great-great-great-grandparent's, left France and came to the United States. They, of course, brought their children with them. However, after a few years, they traveled back to France, to settle property claims and get their finances settled. They left the children in Indiana with family members. When they returned to Indiana, the now nearly adult children became enraged that their younger siblings  were to be given equal shares in the family property that they (the older children) had worked so hard to preserve for their. And that is how their Will was settled when the parents passed. The younger children obtaining an equal portion of the rather large property. The family split. The older children moving into town, while the younger kept the farm and property on the Knobs.

When I first began working on genealogy, and asked my Grandmother about the family split, she insisted that her family was NOT related to the Banet's on the Knobs. (Does the phrase, "Even unto the next generation..." come to mind?) Even though the matter should have died off with the parents, my Grandmother insisted to her dying day that she was of no relation to "those" Banet's. (I find it all rather amusing at best, and at worst I do empathize with the older children who had labored to preserve the land for their parents, and as an inheritance for themselves, just to have it knocked down from a small split in acreage, to a rather large split, with them feeling let down.) By the time the youngest child was born, in 1844, the eldest was already 22, and had spent his youth working very hard to make a profitable farm that he would share with his older siblings. Then along came the last 5 children, and instead of a 7 way split, they were expected to split it 12 ways. I suppose the elder didn't think the property was large enough to make it a profitable venture if split 12 ways. (I haven't been to Floyd County yet to research the property.)

Such a pretty little farm house for such a nasty, nasty split in family.

Uh, but then, am I related or not? Granny (as we called my Grandmother) would tell me of course I am not. Ahhh, but we know better, don't we!

Do you have a history of a family split in your ancestry? Life is so fleeting, it is so sad to believe family could be that way to one another. How could they have reached an amical settlement in the best way?

What would you have done? Would you have thrown it all away to just make a point? Or would you have accepted your portion, and been happy to have received whatever it was?

A little something to ponder on.