[speaker001:] planned a family reunion recently
[speaker002:] the last family reunion I did not plan I only participated and enjoyed about two years ago how about you
[speaker001:] you know I really haven't and I know of friends who've done it recently and have really enjoyed um the the planning process but uh most of our family see each other fairly frequently so it's it's uh you know not a a major event to to try and plan it because we're all fairly close um
[speaker002:] it often depends how far you want to go back on on our particular family reunion they went back to my great-great-grandfather so that it was quite um spread out and there were many families um and there were many people we didn't know I think the total participation I don't know how many were invited but there were about two hundred and fifty people there
[speaker001:] that's wonderful
[speaker002:] and some of the families one of the cutest things that some of the the families families did was to get T-shirts that identified themselves as that branch of the family
[speaker001:] oh that's great
[speaker002:] it was fun
[speaker001:] so your great-grandfather was still living and everyone up to that point was invited
[speaker002:] actually he was not he has gone but they decided to go ahead and take the family reunion back that far so that it wouldn't just be people meeting third cousins but people meeting I guess whatever fifth and seventh cousins
[speaker001:] uh-huh wow
[speaker002:] and the other thing that I thought was particularly fun was uh the huge they had a huge family tree uh that was posted so you could sort of everybody could sort of see who married whom and
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] so that was fun
[speaker001:] that's wonderful two hundred people who organized it who was the one that instigated the the planning process
[speaker002:] you know in every family there's usually one person that is gifted to do these things I have a cousin who never marries who is a librarian sounds like a bad novel um and she did she was she's always been interested in genealogy and she's kind of kept track and so
[speaker001:] I was gonna ask next how she was familiar with where everyone was
[speaker002:] um I think she just started out writing to key people in the different branches of families and asking them to contact everyone and I really on the family tree there really was everyone except there was just some one group that had sort of gotten lost
[speaker001:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker002:] in Missouri but this is was in Indiana and it was a lot of the people had kind of stayed in one area
[speaker001:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker002:] so it wasn't like they were necessarily from all over the country but
[speaker001:] now given the size of the group were there people were most of the families fairly large is that what contributed to that
[speaker002:] we're a good Catholic German stock and so yes the original family that I eluded to my great-grandfather had twelve children and they had some pictures of that that was another thing they did that I thought was fun
[speaker001:] that's great
[speaker002:] sounds like the trelve twelve tribes of Israel or something
[speaker001:] that's wonderful I'm sure that was a wonderful experience for the kids too and even if they didn't appreciate it at the moment they'll probably really appreciate it later
[speaker002:] that's always true they remember most the games they had lots of games and competitions which were fun well are you planning a family reunion
[speaker001:] no uh uh
[speaker002:] oh do you how your relatives you're from San you're in San Francisco
[speaker001:] yeah my folks uh moved from Michigan to San Diego and that's where they raised the three of us my daughter my sisters and myself but uh
[speaker002:] sometimes when you've moved perhaps your family reunion if there ever one would would be back in Michigan I mean that would be where your roots would be
[speaker001:] I would expect yeah yeah and I know that my grandparents' families were fairly large but my father has just one brother and my mom has one brother so we've kept in touch those first cousins very pretty closely um I'm not quite sure how I'd even pursue finding the rest of the folks in Michigan
[speaker002:] this is a little office
[speaker001:] I think I think each of my grandparents had ten siblings
[speaker002:] that sounds
[speaker001:] so there's got to be a few of those second does that make second cousin or third cousin I'm not sure
[speaker002:] typical I never knew that I I always I thought the children like the children of your first cousins I always called those second cousins and my children and my cousins' children I called third cousins
[speaker001:] oh okay okay
[speaker002:] that's how I've always named it some people have this once removed stuff and I don't know what that means
[speaker001:] so perhaps my grandparents siblings would be my great great
[speaker002:] they'd just be your great-aunts great-aunt your grandparents' siblings would be your great aunts and uncles
[speaker001:] aunts and uncles right right
[speaker002:] and so but it it is interesting sometimes a little sad when families branch out quite so much but I don't know that's the American way
[speaker001:] did you find that you had a lot in common did people find out things about each other that they hadn't been aware
[speaker002:] I had two distant relatives who lived in the Dallas Fort Worth area that that I never had met and didn't know they were here and we we all laughed how it was funny to go back to Indiana to meet people who lived
[speaker001:] really
[speaker002:] ten miles from you so that was sort of funny in fact one of them it's like my father I don't remember how this was I guess it was actually just my father's cousin so it's not all that far away turns out he even goes to our church here in Dallas so
[speaker001:] uh-huh