Saturday, October 4, 2008

Seven


Earlier this week I helped my friend, Red, set up a family reunion site. She showed me stuff about her family that goes back some 300 years. To one who is only second generation in this country and can trace her family back as far as grandparents, I find stuff like this fascinating. So seven facts about Red's family.


1. Red is a descendant of a man who settled in Ipswich, MA (near Salem of the famed witch trials) in 1693!


2. Members of Red's family fought in the Revolutionary war.


3. The first family reunion was held at the farm of her great, great, grandfather next town over in 1887


4. Her family has had a reunion every year since 1887. This year marked their 121 reunion.


5. For the 100th reunion, a book was printed with all the begats from the first ancestor with pictures of past reunions.


6. Red attended her first reunion when she was 7 mos old. A picture of her with a bunch of cousins was in the book.


7. Red's mom grew up on the farm at the top of the hill on my street. The farm is still a working farm, and still in the family owned by one of Red's cousins.


Do you know your family history? How far back can you trace your family?
The gentleman in the photograph without a hat is my maternal grandfather. The tall gentleman directly behind him is my paternal grandfather. Don't they look like the Godfather and his hit men? (-;


3 comments:

  1. HA! Were you listening in at the dinner table this very night? For some insane reason, which frustrates the bejeepers out of me... My family, on both sides, seems to care VERY little for ancestry... Not a wit.

    On one side, it is kind of deliberate. The great grandpappy hauled off and left the family hanging high and dry... No one likes to talk about him, so things stagnated, BUT seriously... My mom doesn't even know where her family for sure came from. She said Luxemburg for years, but just this weekend found out Germany. INSANE! I WISH we knew anything!

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  2. Red has a cool family history. I don't have anything nearly as cool in my history that I know of. Perhaps it is up to this generation to make its mark. ;)

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  3. I have a cousin in Montreal who has traced my paternal grandfather's ancestors back to 1669 in France. If my cousin Andre hadn't done all the legwork I never would have known!

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