Connecting with Cousins

Week 32: #52Ancestors – Reunion

By Eilene Lyon

Because I was an “Army brat” we rarely gathered with family over the years. We had an occasional Thanksgiving or Christmas at Grandma Halse’s place in Corvallis, which included aunts, uncles, and cousins on my dad’s side.

I met more relatives on Dad’s side when Grandma celebrated her 80^th birthday and when my aunt and uncle celebrated their 50^th wedding anniversary.

I’ve only ever been to one official family reunion. I intended to write about it in 2019, but never got around to it. My second cousin, Bonnie, was the primary organizer, but her brother and I helped out a bit, too. None of us live in Moscow, Idaho, where we held the event.

Aside from Bonnie’s dad and uncle (my mom’s first cousins), I had never met any of the attendees. This was a reunion of descendants of Melville and Sarah Davis (my 2^nd great-grandparents). Some of them Bonnie and I had connected with through Ancestry.

We got to visit the Sterling and Clara Davis family farm. It’s no longer in the family, but the owner is an honorary family member and welcomes reunions. We had a history tour of downtown Moscow by someone from the Latah County Historical Society. Bonnie also put together a self-guided driving/walking tour of homes in town that had belonged to Davises at one time.

One of the great things about meeting with these relatives (in addition to getting to know them) was the opportunity to see the family documents and heirlooms they brought.

A highlight was a visit to Texas Ridge to see the Davis homestead. Also in that part of the county, a local gave us a tour of a one-room school that’s been restored to be a community center, and visited a nearby cemetery where a couple Davis children are buried. We also stopped at the Moscow Cemetery to see many family plots.

After the reunion, Bonnie put together a remembrance book.

We had hoped to have another reunion a couple years later, but the  pandemic and life just kept it from happening. Maybe in another year or two, we can get it together again.

 

P.S. I will be taking a break from blogging for the next six weeks. I have a manuscript deadline and then a much-needed vacation.