In 1988, we were invited to a Gorrell Family Reunion being held over the Memorial Day weekend in Odessa, Missouri. We decided to go.
Most of the attendees were there on the first day, May 28. The party was held at the senior center in Odessa. Those invited were the descendants of Amos Gorrell and Catharine Shotts’ five children:
- Louella Gorrell, who married William E. McMahon
- Linnie Sarah Gorrell, who married William P. Netherton
- Joseph Norman Gorrell, who married Matilda P. Davey
- Ada Leah Gorrell, who married John Whitlow
- Arthur L. Gorrell, who married Minnie Gillespie
Of the five children, only three of the children had offspring. Arthur died in 1916 and left no children. Lou & William McMahan also had no children.
The Nethertons had five children, with only two living to adulthood. Linnie & William had five grandchildren.
The Gorrells had four children, all living to adulthood. Joe and Matilda had thirteen grandchildren. My husband is one of those grandchildren.
The Whitlows had seven children, six living to adulthood. John and Ada had two grandchildren.
A family history was passed out to all the attendees which included a genealogy of the Gorrell and Shotts families. The pages were color coded for each of the children of Amos and Catharine. These pages gave vital statistics and current addresses. I used this information when I started building a family tree once I got interested in family history.
I knew only a few people at the reunion: my husband’s parents, his sister and brother-in-law, and his aunt, Ada, who shared a birthday with me. It was very overwhelming to meet all these people and I couldn’t possibly keep them straight, though everyone had nametags shaped in the state we came from, which helped. On a wall was also a big family tree where families could make corrections and I used those corrections to fix my booklet.
One of the last things that happened on that first day was photos taken of the whole group and then three photos of the descendants of the three children. Not everyone was present at the reunion, so the photos are not of the whole families. The photos I have are not labeled, so I do not know any of the people in the Netherton family photo.
On one of the weekend days was a trip to the old Gorrell homestead. It was not a true homestead from the federal government but just the land that Amos Gorrell owned before giving up farming and moving into Blackwater in Cooper County. We also stopped at the cemetery to view their markers. I did take photos of the markers.
Two years later, a smaller reunion was celebrated at Linnie Oma Hackley’s home. She was a Whitlow and probably the one who planned the first reunion with the help of her siblings. Fewer people came but it was easier getting to know people. More of my husband’s family came this time.
Over time, though, we kept up with the Whitlow siblings of Linnie Oma, and in 1999, my daughters and I stayed with Linnie Oma and her sister Louise for a couple of days. We still keep up with the Gorrell cousins, who live in Missouri and Florida. There are no more Whitlow descendants living and we have lost contact with the Nethertons. But what I have in this booklet might help me discover where everyone is today by using newspapers, Find a Grave, and Facebook. Who knows, maybe my husband matches some of them at Ancestry.
#52Ancestors-Week 43: Lost Contact
This is my seventh year working on this
year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow (https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/) at Generations Cafe.
I write each week in one of my two blogs,
either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or My Trails into
the Past. I have enjoyed writing about my children’s
ancestors in new and exciting ways.
Wonderful that there were a couple of reunions, too bad no names were listed on those original photos. I bet you'll be able to reconstruct a lot of tree connections with today's resources!
ReplyDeleteIt's sad to read that they didn't label the photos with everyone's names, but that would be an amazing gift for members of the family if you can figure them all out.
ReplyDeleteI also have three family photos and on some of them I can read the name badges but the Netherton families weren't wearing their nametags for the photo.
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