On and off for two decades, my husband's Larimer ancestors gathered with their Work and Short cousins/in-laws/friends for reunions in and around Elkhart, Indiana. Cynthia H. Larimer (1814-1882) married Abel Everett Work (1815-1898) in Fairfield County, Ohio, in 1836, and her niece Margaret Larimer (1825-1877) married Thomas Short (1820-1885) in Elkhart County, Indiana in 1842. Each of the news items reporting on these reunions added a few clues to help me identify children, grandchildren, and in-laws as I researched relationships, full names, and dates for this part of the family tree.
The three families of Work, Larimer, and Short "are bound by ties of blood and early friendships," as reported in the reunion coverage by the Elkhart Daily Review of June 26, 1901. This news item listed some of the 110 reunion attendees, including the "dean of the party," my hubby's 2d great-grandpa, Brice Larimer (1819-1906), the oldest participant. At this time, the three families had an actual organization, with elected officers who planned the reunions in advance.
Some creative math is used to count the number of annual reunions held. The 1901 news item said the Work, Larimer, and Short families were holding their second annual reunion. When the same newspaper covered the three-family reunion in 1903, it was called the fifth annual reunion. 😉
A scaled-down reunion was held in 1904, according to this same newspaper, with only Work relatives in attendance instead of all three families being represented. In 1906, the Elkhart Weekly Review reported that up to 50 attendees were expected at a three-family reunion in August.
Finally, the Elkhart Truth of May 20, 1920 described a Work-Larimer reunion held by "descendants of Abel Everett Work and Isaac Larimer." The Work, Larimer, and Short branches of the family tree were all represented. Maybe that was the last reunion, because I haven't found further news coverage. I'm grateful for any news coverage at all, adding to the clues as I check every name, age, family connection, and location.
To commemorate these intertwined families, including surnames of earlier and later generations, I created the colorful word cloud at top. Here's the free site I used.
"Reunion" is this week's genealogy prompt for #52Ancestors, from Amy Johnson Crow.
Isn't it great to find newspaper reporting on family reunions. I have found a couple myself.
ReplyDeleteThis is very interesting and congratulations on finding newspaper articles to verify the information. In my Kolberg family, they had reunions from 1937-1955 with officers and a secretary taking the minutes. I was fortunate to receive the meeting binder in 1998 with all the minutes. The information was really helpful and the costs for these reunions would make one laugh in light of today's economy. In 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 my mother and I re-activated the reunions with tremendous turnouts. In the 2000 and 2001 reunions we had newly discovered cousins attend from Germany.
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