Family reunions
Do your relatives have family reunions? Are they big, worldwide affairs or just local gatherings in your home town? Do you get out the genealogy charts and talk about your ancestors? Share your stories of family reunions!
7 Responses to “Family reunions”
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June 26th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
I’ve only been to one family reunion. It was for the Foreman family and was held in Missouri. My father was one of the core group of 8 cousins whose extended families were the reunion attendees. It was wonderful to meet all these people I’d never met before, and to look for physical similarities between us. But the best part was getting to meet my father’s Aunt Eunice Foreman Weddel, whose father fought in the Civil War. Not only was she a really nice and interesting person, but I couldn’t get over the fact that I was talking to someone who had such a direct connection to the Civil War. She has since passed away, which is a great loss for the whole family.
June 26th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
I forgot to mention that, on our way to the reunion from Southern California, my dad said that the local Missouri-area relatives would all bring baskets of home-made fried chicken. Well, they brought fried chicken, all right, but it was in KFC buckets!
June 26th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
My second wife Charlotte Young Fitch Sidorski’s mother was an Ely and I went to quite a few of them but the top off was the trip to Ely England where Ely Cathedral was located, it was a lot of fun because I went to Bath and Stonehenge and one day I even went to a golf course and when the golf game was over I was in the bar and my stepdaughter Sue comes and grabs my glass of beer and proceeds to drink it, all of the men and bar tender were aghast as the name of gold is Gentel men only ladies forbiden see GOLF.
As far as the Sidorski family we were only 1st generation so no reunions there but I did post a Sidorski Family picture on AYIMP on my 80th birthday party.
June 27th, 2008 at 8:11 am
We have a Lawrence Family Reunion at various locations, once a year. This year, Queen Creek Arizona. Over one hundred are coming in November. Ten children & spouses plus 47 grandchildren & over 20 great grand ones. A few friends have been adopted and will also be here.
June 28th, 2008 at 9:36 am
We have a very small family and are not in touch at all with distant relatives so we never have reunions. My younger daughter is envious of people with big families, and when we saw the movie “Dan in Real Life” she was almost heartsick with desire for a large, fun family like the one in the movie. Sigh.
July 10th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Every year , around Easter, while my Grandmother was alive we would have a family reunion. It was held in different parks according to where people were living at the time. My Grandmother had 6 children and each of them had their own motley crew. By the time I came along there were also great grandchildren so I wouldn’t be surprized if there were 40 or 50 people at any one of these shindigs. As I look back on it now what really comes to the forefront is how it taught you as a youngster of the continuity of life. New Babys were passed around for all of the family to hold, engagements were announced or new in-laws were introduced. Everyone joked and laughed and the kids would run off to go play in small groups or have softball games. Everyone brought enough food to feed everyone and it was funny to see the women pulling out tupperware and spreading the goodies across 2 or 3 picnic tables. At some point in the day you were expected to go spend a few moments with grandma, and I’ll never forget my Mom saying to me in the car on the way there: “Be sure and pay attention to Grandma today, You don’t know how many more of these she’ll be at” I was 15 when Grandma passed and though we tried to revive the tradition the next year it just wasn’t the same. Some of the families moved out of state so getting together wasn’t as easy. Now I hold those memories of those spring days with my “clan” like beautiful photographs. Great food, great fun, and great people; my tribe!
July 11th, 2008 at 12:11 am
Wow, what I wouldn’t give to have had a family reunion like that! And what a great set of memories to keep for the rest of your life. It sounds like you come from a very wonderful “tribe” indeed.