For all that are out here, and out there

Greetings All and to all I pray that you are basking in the peace and love of the Lord.
I am again making a call for information,  this time I am going to make a different offer. I will share what I have and I ask that you share what you can.

I will send out a couple of emails with reports this weekend, if you could do me two favors. First let me know that you have gotten this and then, look it over and share what you can. Help me fill in the holes. Call me on what I might have wrong.

Peace

David

New Discoveries

Greetings all, Last night proved to be an exceptional night in my quest to unearth family ties, roots, branches, shoots, and what not. In doing some of this research, I discovered two long never known about relatives, and while there may need to be some more verification in the offing, I have added two more souls in the Gibbs branch of the Jones tree. My(Our) Great-Grandfather William and Great-Grandmother Trichilda (they have managed to butcher this fine lady's name so often, the only way I can figure out what is what is to look at the dates. I have her listed as Trischilda, Prischilda and Friscilda, if I see anything else I am afraid that my head is going to explode. Not trying to digress, they had a little boy in 1911, he did not make it to his first birthday, passing from this earth a few weeks shy of the date. At the other end of the branch, I have found an approximate date of birth for Great-Grandmother Trichilda's parents, which would make them the Great-Great Grandparents of our distinguished crew. They appear to have been born in the British West Indies, around the 1840s. Which would make them free people for those that are paying attention to all that, the British found enslaving folks so distasteful, that they started making all of those black folk go free, no more enslavement, plus they were also seriously outnumbered in the islands, so it only made sense. And the Irish were no help to them either, as they treated the Irish almost as badly as we were in many cases. The other discovery, I need someone to help me verify this, our Great Aunt, the fine lady that was born in Cuba, well she passed away before any of our current brood was around, including Grandmother. It turns out that she was married to a young man by the name of Romain, (his first name is in my database which is not running as I am doing this typing.

And for the other folks that have names in my database, for the record, I am up to 160 or 170 in the pond, I am still looking for surnames for a bunch of folks and I would like to find a set of parents for at least one cousin. That's all for now.

Request for data

I am resuming work on the genealogy project, I am making a request for stories, tales of woe, recollections of experiences during the past 50 to 60 years. I am seeking to make this collection accessible before and during the family reunion and while I have reservations with regard to publishing vast amounts of this information on the Internet.  There will be amounts available so that others may use what I have found to expand and continue thier own searches.  My grand plan is to expand and collaborate  in order that we have a very large expansive picture to share with our sucessors. Like the griot projects.

All of that being said.
I am making a call for documents such as birth certificates, marriage licenses, anything that I can use to clear up the picture, who came where and when.
Please email me or call.

David

Book exchange

For those that may be interested I have a few books that I am planning on giving away. I have one by Eric Jerome dickey and a couple by e Lynn Harris. If you are interested. Please let me know soonest.

Since I did not go sailing off into the wild blue yonder

What I am seeking in short is whatever documentation that you can share, whatever information that you can forward to me would be useful. I will be working with folks about obtaining photographs of some events. I would like clear descriptive photographs as opposed just anything. We have photographers in  our brood, so we can make this really nice. One of the projects I am working on is some manner of displaying this so that we can learn about members of the family through a sort of multimedia display. I don't have a specific time frame for this, I would like to gather material for this and delegate some of the work off to the family members who would be the best suited for accomplishing the various tasks.

A plea for information and communication.....

This fall, I am planning to resume working on researching our family history. One of the issues I have encountered is lack of documentation. One of the last times that I spoke, I had located the ship and the manifest in which great-grandparents to many of us and grandparents to some of us landed at Ellis Island, New York. I have the census records for Aunt Edith, and Uncle(cousin) Bill when they lived with every one else. There are a few things that I am trying to round up is, this. Cousin Louise, whose child is she ? Everyone stated that she was Gramda's cousin, she was the correct age and everything, but who were her parents. I am also reviewing some documentation regarding cousin Monique, her daughter and some other folks. Anyone out there that may be able to enlighten me a little bit, please contact me soonest.

David

Rest

This afternoon, our Heavenly Father summoned home my godfather Howard, uncle Howard to most all of us, brother and close friend to my father, he was a man of much talent and range, his life touched us all in whole and in part, I am still speechless at the word of his passing and his presence will be greatly missed. I miss him so much already. He was a distinguished man, with much love and generosity for all. I realize that his time here was long and sorted in spots and all that knew him, were fortunate and blessed to have made his acquaintance.

Rest in peace Uncle Howard.

The Reunion

As the new morning begins to crawl out of the darkness and the morning light brings us to a different destination and time. As we all must return to the rat race on Monday, oh yeah we say, that day that heralds the end of our weekend bliss, our peace and quiet. Yes Monday. It will be here soon enough.
em
I want to offer our sincere thanks for the time and the work that Uncle Al and Aunt Cindy in getting us there, for Julie and Zaire for running the evenings events, Zaire and Anthony for running video production portion.

And for the littlest Jones' contribution for a memorable moment this evening.
Yeah I thought that David was in the mix there somewhere.

When I reach home, I will post a couple of photographs for those that could not make it to the event, and those that could make it, will be able to replay the event.

That final thoughts that I would like to add are these, please, please, please if you can add this blog as a location to follow, that you do, this way you can keep up without even trying,
That if I do not see you at breakfast, that I need to talk to you with this family tree thing and how the data will look as a finished product. I will need some of your photographs, some music and lots data and support.

the tree

For those that have missed a this and that, I am in the process of collecting names and looking for folks that are in our heritage, our past. Recently I stumbled across the ship's manifest for the ship that

grandmother Jones's mother and father arrived on, I have the census record for 1920, showing the family of William and Trisilda Gibbs, along with Olga (who by the way was born in Cuba), Edith and Mary(gramda for the rest of us). I have these and some other documents stored in a central location on the internet so that they can be reviewed by more than just me.

Again I put out the call, please help with any information that may provide some insight into where and which places folks lived. I am still looking for when and where Grampop came ashore here. And even more curious is who his father and grandfather are.

For my brood, I found some interesting stuff about the Williams and Roberts clans, and I am looking in Missouri for more about Emmanuel. Some specifics I will not put here, but I will publish generalities and always a request for help.

The program that I am using is called gramps, it is an open source program that runs mainly on Linux, however there is a version that will run on windows. I use this program, because it has a good looking output and it is free.

So here is the call out, please if you can, help me out, call me on my cell, I think that everyone has the number, I need birthdates for about a dozen of you living folks, some dates for folks that are here someplace in the tree and more names, call me and talk with me, educate me, help me, help us.

What is a Family Reunion

The time that we are able to spend together is special. This is what a family reunion is supposed to be about. We have so much to share, so much to tell, much more to reflect. All that I really want is to spend time with you, sharing and reflecting.

With this in mind, I would like to inquire with each of you to explore your own ideas of family, of gathering, of a reunion and the time that we can spend TOGETHER as a group of related individuals better known as a family.
I want to reflect on those that have gone before us, those that will join us later either in birth, marriage, adoption, or inertia.

I am consulting with Uncle Alfonso, my father (Uncle Arnold) and my kid brother (Jason) about where and what, but we need real credible input. from everyone. I am not saying that you should not go on vacation, we want to see and share and enjoy, we don't all live down the block or around the corner. To date our clan encompasses nine different states, at least three foreign countries, and I do not know how many cities. We have enormous resources at our disposal, and we need to be able to share with each other, our time, our love and our company. We have elders that are becoming more elderly, and it would benefit all of us if we could all spend more time with each other. I am not on Facebook right now, because of professional requirements. I have built the beginnings of a substantial family tree that I am willing to share, it is able to accomplish a many things, most importantly we can see the road on we have trod and those that have preceeded us and enabled us to arrive where we are now.


As far as hotels in the area, there are several. There are a couple of Marriott properties and couple of Hilton properties, that are near the house and for most folks, walking distance to the mall. And no I still don't shop at the mall.

Here is a quick list of the area accommodations:


Hotels Available in Chesapeake, Va ( all are within minutes from 544 Stillwater )

Hilton Garden Inn ,
Chesapeake,Va
1565 Crossways Blvd
email: lorisantiago@hiton.com

Hampton Inn & Suites
1421 N Battlefield Blvd
Chesapeake Va
email: lisawood3@hilton.com
king/doubles $139 + tax.....suite $160 + tax.....10% AAA AARP

Comfort Suites
1550 Crossways Blvd.
Chesapeake, Va
Robin 757 405 3100
email: gmva122@choicehotels.com
king/doubles $119 $99 group rate 10 or more rooms


Homewood Suites ( Hilton )
1560 Crossways Blvd
Chesapeake,Va
email; nona.aragon@hilton.com


Value Place
137 Kempsville Rd
Chesapeake, Va ( about 750 feet from 544 Stillwater Dr)
weekly rate $229.99 (seven days) two per room max. studio full kitchen
email: local ...orf23320@valueplace.com local 757 410.0006


More to follow.

stay well, alfonso,j

Family Tree

Good Evening, I am writing this in the middle of ignoring some movie that Antoinette picked out with the thought that it was going to be fun to watch. Anyway, I am in the process of assembling a family tree, I have about three generations of Jones's and two of the Shade's and only one of several odds and ends, of some others of folks that help round out our equation. I have been contacting several folks here and there with questions regarding family members. I would like to have something substantial by July. I am also willing to share the output of what I have with everyone in an effort to make this project better.

In this program we have the ability to capture and record significant events in our lives, I am looking into what else can be shoe horned into this program in the name of multimedia.

This is the program that I am using, it runs very well under Linux, which is my primary operating system, it will run under Windows. Gramps genealogical research software.

Please feel free to email me if you have any questions, comments, suggestions.

Reunion

Hi guys our next family reunion will be in July of 2011. We are looking for information regarding some entertainment things....

More Joneses

For those that read these pages from time to time, Antoinette (aka Aunt Squeaky) and I (aka Uncle Grumpy) have decided to adopt some children, and for everybody that knows me, knows that I don't do anything easy. Not at all, soooooo, we're in the process of adopting six (6) children ranging in age from five to sixteen, yes we have enough room. We purchased a five bedroom shack with an unfinished basement last year when the market was beginning to tumble. So wish us well, come by and see us. And yes Antoinette does know how to cook for that many people. Just call first.

On to other business, some of our elders are gathering this summer in Pennsylvania, I don't have the details handy, I'll talk to Uncle Al and my Pops to see what is going on and what information that they are willing to share.

Call for Information

Here is the latest folks, I am presently working on a database with family tree information, if there is anything that you would like to share like birth dates, wedding dates, additions, subtractions what have you. Please send to me as soon as possible. I have quite a bit, but memory does fade over time, and I would sure hate to get your birth date wrong in this. When its closer to being done, then I can publish it for all to see. And if you want to add to your branch then please do so, and if you like forward that to me as well so that it may be included in the collective family one.

David

Reunion Newsletter

This space reserved for the new Newsletter..... I am coordinating with the editors in order to have it released. Please I need email addresses in order that I may spread the word a little further.

D

Ideas and things

By now, some of you have seen this and have thoughtfully sent a comment or two my way, please, please let everyone know about this site. We can use it like this for a while, at least until our needs and technology changes again. I can put pictures up here, thats actually no big deal, we can post some video material and I can link to other sites in order to share and collaborate with one another. By the way spread the word.

New Music

Good Evening, Afternoon, Morning......
What have you, this is a new gathering place for all things Jones or Gibbs or Shade, we intend to use this place to share information, large and small, a place to plan and talk and collaborate. If you have any questions please call me.