Week 18 - Social (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

There are so many ways to be social.  Organizations that you belong to.  Family or school reunions.  The Gossip Columns in older newspapers to name a few.  I am going to focus on family reunions because this is the summer that my Dad's family will have their next reunion.  

My Dad was the oldest of eight children so today there are alot of us.  Our reunion usually has at least 100 people attending on average lately.  There always seems to be some members missing  due to conflicts with other things in their lives, but they attend when they can.  All eight children married and moved away from the town where they grew up, so now, sometimes the reunion is the only time we cousins see each other, but we seem to pickup where we left off the last time we saw each other.  

The first several reunions were held at my grandparent's home with it's large wraparound porch and huge yard.  Everyone brought food and we grandkids played and played. In 1991 with the family growing, many of the grandkids had  families of their own and the gathering was held at a lake location near one of Dad's sisters.  By 1996 both of our grandparents had passed on, Grandma just weeks before the reunion.  That year we began having the reunion at the Lake Raystown Resort where we would rent the picnic pavilion with the sand volleyball court near the waterpark and mini golf course. Lots to do with each other.  It has been held there ever since always in the same pavilion.  The lake is centrally located in Pennsylvania and is convenient to most of us.  Some family members make a weekend of it now by camping or staying at the resort's lodge or a local hotel.  When I began my interest in genealogy, I became one of our family's members who brought family binders and photos etc to the reunion.  I always tried to have something newly found since the last reunion to share with the family and had an updated sheet of births, marriages and deaths since the last reunion to have available for anyone else who wanted to keep track of those things.  Today, there are 121 Floyd & Elizabeth Heacock descendants (5 already deceased) plus currently about 44 living spouses or significant others. 

1968 - 35 of us in Grandma's backyard

2019 - about 100 of us at the Lake Resort

There have been reunions in other branches of my family, but they are no longer held.  We do have photos from some of them.  

1949 - My grandmother's siblings - she was one of 10 children

And again in 1952 for her parent's 50th Anniversary

In 1921, my great grandmother's family got together.  She was one of 10 children also.

My Mom's family had a reunion of siblings who had not seen each other in 32 years. In the early 2000's, mom's family started having reunions every other year, but they ended a few years ago.

1940

And not to leave my husband's family out, his mom was one of 13 children and that family had several annual family picnics, one at which she became engaged at in 1945.  We have no group photos of this family at reunions but have some from other gatherings. 

The other family gathering that is still held today is my husband and his 6 siblings and their families annual picnic.  But this family was also known for it's Thanksgiving dinners.  At first all of us would gather at his parent's house with tables stretched through two rooms.  Soon we were too large for that and moved to his sister's larger home.  Our last Thanksgiving gathering was held in a church hall.  Everyone has their own traditions now.

All of these reunions hold many great memories of not only familiar family faces but of meeting new family members as well. 

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