Boy, did I have a great time! Two days of meeting all those people I did not know before, except Karl, and telling non-stop stories, and visiting locations where the family members had lived, learning more about those generations who were pioneers in that area about 150 years ago. As soon as I walked in the door, they knew my name and where I belonged on the decendant chart. I felt accepted immediately and not a stranger at all. I was welcomed in as a “long lost cousin” who I guess I am, and was included in all the family story telling. That weekend was one of the best memories of this past year.
I knew of a printing company close to me in Cedar Hills who prints wall charts of families from GEDCOM files, and so I offered to have one printed for the reunion. Karl had the most recent information about the 1900 or so descendants and when the chart was printed out, it was 78 feet long! It wrapped around two walls of our meeting room near Hamburg. (See last photo below...)
Lois Ann and 3rd cousin Karl Jaeckel who wrote our wonderful book about Granville Cox's family and descendants. He still keeps track of us all today, and writes me every Christmas. Our common ancestors are Granville and Nancy Cox.
Sisters who gave the tour of the Susan Johnson home in Hamburg - Judy Johnson and Kay Johnson Burris
Cousins telling stories by the fireplace - Judy Johnson, Lois Ann, Kay Johnson Burris, and Jeanne Backland
I'll bet you wonder what the photo of this lunch has to do with anything. It has to do with the fried chicken. My Cox grandmother, Anna Allen Cox and her daughter my Aunt Helen (my dad's sister) would always cook up a big batch of fried chicken for family "uprisings" when I was growing up in Sheridan, Wyoming. So when I saw that this Iowa picnic was serving fried chicken, I knew I was in the right group.
Karl Jaeckel and his parents - Henry Ferdinand Jaeckel and Ruth Elaine Johnson. Henry's grandmother was a Cox, a daughter of Granville. He grew up just west of Hamburg, and contibuted quit a bit to the historical storytelling.
It is pretty flat country, right next to the Missouri River's flood plane.What is a family reunion without a trip to the cemetery to visit the ancestors? These are the stones for Granville H. and Nancy Choate Cox in Hamburg, Iowa.
Lois Ann is in the orange jacket next to Nancy's headstone.
On Jeanie's chart, our family names are the green ones.
Two kinds of family charts so all attendees can figure out where they belong in the 1900 person decendant list.
