I belong to many genealogy Facebook groups. Some of these groups are formed for specific families, like Mayflower Descendants, Felton Family Association, Descendants of New England Phelps, Descendants of Mayflower Passengers John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley, and many others. One lively group is Descendants of William Berry Strawberry Bank - Rye, NH. We have a lot of fun online posting photos, drawing up lineage charts, and finding cousins. No matter how much fun it can be to meetup with cousins on line, it is even more fun to meet up in person. Jeane Berry, all the way over in Colorado, organized a mini-BERRY reunion at Warren's restaurant in Kittery, Maine. This is the crew of cousins who showed up!
We had a lot of fun comparing notes! Even though the restaurant was noisy and full on a Saturday night, we were a small group and able to carry on a conversation about our BERRY ancestors. Jeane, from Colorado, and Susan Ann Schweim from Minnesota had spent Friday being toured around Rye, New Hampshire and the seacoast by Dave Wilson from Manchester, New Hampshire. They came the furthest, and were able to visit some of the local cemeteries and places where the BERRYs had lived.
Other local cousins included Priscilla Foss Littlefield, from Stow, Massachusetts and James Elliott Reid from South Hampton, New Hampshire. We found that many of us had other ancestors in common including PROCTOR, FOSS, CAVERLY, WATERS, and other New England surnames.
It was great to meet up with these cousins for the first time. We are already planning to do this again another time. How many of you belong to chat groups on line for certain families, or to Facebook groups? Do you ever "break the third wall" and decide to meetup in person instead of virtually on line? Did you have as much fun as we did this weekend?
For the truly curious:
Descendants of William BERRY of Strawberry Bank- Rye, NH
My three BERRY lineages (from three of William Berry's children)!
William Berry (1610 - 1654) & Jane Unknown
Elizabeth Berry (b. 1636) & John Locke (1627 - 1696)
John Locke & Elizabeth Unknown
John Locke & Sarah Unknown
Richard Locke & Elizabeth Garland
Simon Locke & Abigail Mace
Richard Locke & Margaret Welch
Abigail Locke & George Batchelder
George Batchelder & Mary Katharine Emerson
Carrie Maude Batchelder & Joseph Elmer Allen
Stanley Elmer Allen & Gertrude Matilda Hitchings (my grandparents)
William Berry & Jane Unknown
Mary Berry (b. 1641) & John Foss
Elizabeth Foss & Nathaniel Batchelder
Josiah Batchelder & Sarah Page
David Batchelder & Elizabeth Swett
Elisha Batchelder & Sarah Lane
Jonathan Batchelder & Nancy Thompson
George Batchelder and Mary Katharine Emerson (see above)
William Berry & Jane Unknown
James Berry & Eleanor Wallis
Samuel Berry & Abigail Webster
Jotham Berry &Mary Bates
Rachel Berry & Ithamar Mace
Abigail Mace and Simon Locke (see above)
------------------------------
The URL for this post is
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/07/berry-cousins-reunion-in-kittery-maine.html
Copyright (c) 2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo
Great Story! I found two of my third cousins through Facebook. We now meet about twice a year for lunch and catch up.
ReplyDeleteHello again, Heather. Taking this morning to catch up on missed blog posts. Here again we are swimming in the same gene pool. I am from William Berry and John Locke as well! Monica
ReplyDelete