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Tennessee Germanna Descendants Reunion 2008 |
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| To Be Held on 13 & 14 September, 2008. |
(The link to the page containing a list of Tennessee Germanna Families, maps of the area, driving directions, hotels/motels, etc., is found at the bottom of this page, or can be accessed directly by clicking here.)
(As of this date, there are no registration, or other, fees required. If this changes due to any expenses we may have, we will let you know early.)
This page contains information on the Tennessee Germanna Families Reunion, which will be held at the Philadelphia Cumberland Presbyterian Church, in Washington Co., TN, on the 13th & 14th of September, 2008. This Reunion is held in conjunction with the annual BROYLES Descendants Reunion.
A LITTLE BACKGROUND.
The Philadelphia Cumberland Presbyterian Church has been holding an annual BROYLES Reunion and Family Dinner on the second weekend in September for many years. Saturday was usually devoted to a hamburger and hot dog cookout, sponsored and put on by the youth of the Church, some old-fashioned country singing, and just a nice get-together of all the "cousins" in the area. Sunday was for attending Church services, and participation in a "pot-luck" dinner on the grounds, with various religious singers performing for everyone.
Gradually, over the years, cousins from other areas and states started visiting also. Then, some of those who attended started talking about all the other "cousins", those who descended from various BROYLES brothers and sisters, and on back through the generations. It soon became apparent that just about everyone in lower Washington County and upper Greene County was related, not only through the BROYLES clan, but through most of the other Germanna families that had settled in the area at the same time the Broyles did.
Then, after several Tennessee Germanna descendants really became genealogy addicts, and started communicating with cousins from all over the country, it was found that many, many Tennessee Germanna descendants were extremely interested in the area from which their ancestors had come. This included not only BROYLES descendants, but descendants from virtually all other Tennessee Germanna families, and Germanna-related families. It is a rare East Tennessee descendant who does not have an ancestor from one of the families in East Tennessee Germanna Families table, in his/her family tree. In fact, most have several of these families in their ancestry.
All Tennessee Germanna descendants are invited to next year's Reunion and we hope to have at least 100 "cousins" attend. In addition to cousins from the immediate area, we want to see repeat visitors from past Reunions, as well new cousins who have not attended before, from all over the country.
The following Germanna families were represented at past Reunions. (Keep in mind that most of the cousins attending had several families in their ancestry.)
(If I omitted any families above, it was inadvertent.)
Bitner Blankenbaker Bowman Briles Brown Broyles Burgner Click Clore Cook Copp Crecelius Crim Crum Fellers Fillers Fleshman G'Fellers Hoffman Holt Huffman Klug Kupp Martin Mauk Miller Painter Patton Rush Patton Snapp Waddell Walters Wayland Wilhite Wilhoit Yeager Yowell
SATURDAY:We have not yet set an agenda for the 2008 Reunion. We hope we can persuade John Blankenbaker, Thom Faircloth, Jim Albin, Betty Jane Hylton, and others to speak to us in their areas of expertise.
We are going to start early next year with advertising for the Reunion and continue the advertising throughout the year. We want to have as many Germanna descendants as possible, especially those who have Germanna ancestors that came from Greene Co., TN. In working with Broyles genealogy, Jim Albin (our representative on the Germanna Council) and I have discovered that just about every family in the south-eastern corner of Greene Co., whether their surname is Germannan or not, is related to at least one Germanna family! Please look at the table of East Tennessee Germanna families here.
We plan to gather on Saturday at 9:00 A.M. Our probably itinerary is to meet each other and informally discuss our ancesors -- in other words, just get to know each other. We will probably go to a local restaurant, The Farmer's Daughter, owned by the local Mennonite Community, for a family style lunch (we call it "dinner" in this part of the country because it's a HEAVY meal). We'll meet back at the church around 1:00 P.M. to listen to presentations by visiting speakers.
For those who wish to travel to nearby cemeteries (or other family sites) to look for their ancestors, we will arrange tours to those areas. In order to plan properly, we MUST know who will attend and which ancestors they are interested in. If we know beforehand who your ancestors were, we can locate the cemeteries in which they are located and plan accordingly.
SUNDAY:
At about 10:00 AM on Sunday (exact time will be announced on Saturday) everyone is invited to join the local congregation at the church. We will enjoy choir singing, devotional services, and gospel singing. For this special Sunday the church always has local gospel singing groups perform and it is something you don't want to miss.
About 12:00 Noon we will all adjourn to the picnic area for a table-breaking-dinner. All our cousins will bring their favorite dishes and we will have a feast. In addition to all the kinfolk we have met on Saturday, we will get to meet several hundred more local cousins.
(NOTE: For those of you who come from "out of the area", DON'T worry about bringing a dish. I assure you there will be more than enough to go around. Should any of you absolutely insist, you can always stop by Kentucky Fried Chicken, or other fast-food restaurant, or the deli at a local supermarket, and pick up something -- but, REALLY, you DON'T need to bring anything.)
If you plan to attend the 2008 Reunion, PLEASE RSVP early (it's not too early now), AND start making your plans NOW!!!!! Since we need to know how many cousins to reserve tables for at the restaurant on Saturday, we ask you to reply as soon as possible if you plan to attend. I'll be keeping a list of all out-of-the-area visitors, and would appreciate the following information:
Name
Address
Germanna Connections
Number in Party
Any other information you would like to send
(To send me your RSVP, click here.)
(If you can possibly make it, we WANT to see you at the Reunion. Start planning NOW !!!!! SgtGeorge, George W. Durman)
(You can email me at either of the following addresses:
georgewdurman@comcast.net
germannaresearch@comcast.net
(Maps, driving directions, and area lodging are found here.)
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