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