Reunions

Reunion: The state or act of reuniting. A gathering of relatives, friends, or associates, at regular intervals, or after separation. A family reunion. 

Earlier in August Tim and I flew to Geneva, Illinois, close to Chicago, for a Stanton Family weekend reunion.Tim's cousins, children of his aunt Sis, have been meeting like this for years. This was our second reunion and the first time a representative of all four Stantons, Tim's father, his two brothers and Sis, were together. 

What made the weekend extra special was the visit to White Thorn, home of the Stanton family from 1930 on. Not only that, Bill and Jane Van Nortwick, organizers of the weekend, live in Bill's mother, Sis's home in Geneva.

White Thorn in Wayne, Illinois

Family Archery - that's Tim's dad with the bow and arrow

An air of strong connection prevailed over the weekend and we left radiating history and family memories recorded in our minds and on photos, all of which we took with us on a visit to Jim and Lucy, Tim's mum and dad, in Boca Grande, Florida. We spent a week with Tim's remarkable parents, hearing their stories and passing on some that we'd learned in Geneva.

The Stanton family reunion really linked into the obsession I've had this past year with Ancestry.com, searching for my relatives, building up a family tree, seeing how many descendants branched out from those initial couplings, so many years ago. I have gone back as many as 7 generations and met a lot of cousins online via Ancestry.com's message service, which resulted in actually meeting up with four in England, as per my June blog. Earlier this month, I added a fifth, 4th cousin once removed, Tom Miller, whose ancestor is the brother of my great grandfather, John Garlick's father-in-law. Doesn't seem too far removed, does it!

In front of the gorgeous garden at Tom Miller's Mountainview home in the San Francisco Bay Area