King Family Picnic 2017

Family Picnics/Reunions are the greatest way to stay in touch with relatives and learn about the ancestors that came before.  (See blog posts Family Reunions-Warner Family Picnic and Warner Family Picnic 2017)  In July while visiting family in New York and Connecticut I was also able to make the King Family Picnic which I hadn’t been able to for years.

The King Family picnic, I believe, came about as a way for the children of George Washington King and Sarah Rowan King

to keep in touch and honor their parents.  (See post What Can You Find in Grandma’s Scrapbook) I remember when I was growing up that the picnics were held around the third Sunday in August to also honor the birthday of Sarah Rowan King who’s birthday was August 15th, 1879.  This week will mark the 138th Anniversary of her birth.  Happy Birthday Nanny!

George and Sarah had 8 children: George Jr., Lillian, Agnes (my grandmother), Louisa, Anna, Sadie, John, and Robert.  All would live to adulthood and have their own families except for Louisa who died at age 13 of Polio.  (see post Polio Epidemic of 1916 in Brooklyn, NY).  Nanny and Poppy would live to celebrate their 50th Wedding Anniversary.

Over the years Nanny and Poppy passed as have all their children.  As families have grown and our society became more mobile we spread out, had families of our own and it became harder and harder to make those yearly family reunions.  Many of our branches have become so spread out that it’s even been difficult to keep in touch with each other. 

Several of the grandchildren started camping out at Wildwood State Park and enjoying a week of renewing family bonds and making new memories for themselves and their children.  Currently, it’s several of the great-grandchildren that maintain this tradition but several of the cousins still come for the day and can get together to reminisce and share each others’ lives and family happenings.  

Here is this year’s photo of several of those who were able to enjoy some time together:

                                          3 of the original 17 grandchildren of Sarah & George - Olin, Geri and Barbara

         oh… and there were Brownies there too…….of course…..as well as other special treats.

Closing thoughts:

• One of my goals is to make contact with several of the branches that we have lost all contact with.  Of Nanny and Poppy’s 8 children there were 17 grandchildren and many more great-grandchildren.  I am so happy that this year I was able to make contact with 2 grandchildren of Lillian that everyone had lost contact with!  I hope we will continue to be in touch.  One cousin I had briefly met as a child and wondered over the years where she was.  It felt so good to find her and establish contact again!!  Now I  wonder how many I will be able to find in this next year?
• I find it ironic that the Warner Picnics of my youth were at Wildwood State Park and now it’s the King Picnics that are there.
• I love hearing the stories about Nanny, Poppy and other family members that are shared, like a story about one of the many times that Nanny & Poppy were fighting and Poppy purposely brought manure through Nanny’s beautifully kept house to take it to the garden in the back.  Hmmm….real people with real lives and not just birth and death dates. Really adds to the life story.

A very special thank-you to my cousins who keep the Picnic’s going!  And for the stories you share….I have a few more leads to pursue thanks to other remembered stories.

If you have any corrections or additions or stories to share I look forward to hearing them.

Enjoy the journey,
Debby

Warner Family Picnic 2017

I was fortunate this year to be able to attend the Warner Family Picnic in Riverhead, New York.  (See previous blog post Family Reunions-Warner Family Picnic.) The picnic started, I believe as a get together for the descendants of Eleanor Howell and Daniel Warner, my paternal great-great-grandparents.  Daniel and Eleanor had a total of 13 children: Allen, Frances, Josephine, Martha, Eunice, Mary Agnes, Julia, Waldo, Charles, Eleanor, John, Eugene and Franklin.  Josephine died at age 2 and Julia died at age 18.  The remainder of the children married with Eleanor and Franklin not having any children.  In total Daniel and Eleanor would have 31 grandchildren as a result of those 13 children.

At the gathering I was asked to share some of the research I have done on the family and tell about Carrie’s Letters (see posts labeled Carrie’s Letters.)


The family started holding the picnics in 1921.  Through Live-brary I was able to find the following clipping  in The County Review dated Friday, August 1, 1921 under the Baiting Hollow section:

“The annual Warner Picnic will be held Thursday afternoon, August 7, at Fresh Pond beach. 

If stormy on Thursday, come Friday.  Bring basket of good things to eat and a smiling face.”

After I shared the clipping my cousin Jane pointed out that unlike today the picnic was held on a Thursday which seems odd to us  but back then the majority of the 13 siblings and children were farmers and taking off on a Thursday afternoon versus a Saturday was not a problem.  The picnic was held at one of the local beaches on the Long Island Sound near the family homestead and where a lot of the family still resided and farmed.  I also liked the ‘smiling faces’ to go along with the basket of food.

At this year’s picnic there were a total of 46 people.  The Eugene Warner family line had the most attendants.  They always give out gifts for the oldest, youngest, most current graduate, etc.  This year coming from CA to NY I won the gift for the family member coming the farthest to the picnic.  Thank-you to my cousin Hollis for being the MC for the evening.  He did a great job!  Marybeth Ryder did a great job coming up with the fun gifts for all, Jane for being Treasurer yet again and keeping us ahead on the money, Kallie for being the Secretary (and helping me out) and the family Historian Bruce for the information he shared.



Some thoughts following the picnic:
I was happy to have sat at the table with Justine Warner Wells’ (grand-daughter of Eugene) granddaughter and family.  Justine passed several years ago and I owe her so much.  Justine’s research and book entitled The Descendants of Daniel Jr. & Eleanor Howell Warner of Baiting Hollow LI, NY and the Warner Ancestors in England and America has been a tremendous help to me as I work on Carrie’s Letters and general Warner ancestry.

It was great to catch up with cousins I haven’t seen in a while:

Kallie, Marie and I

I did wind up making the brownies (chocolate and butterscotch) my mother always made for the picnic and they were a hit:

Thanks to everyone for all the good food! The food was great …as only a family picnic can be.  I think I heard someone is collecting recipes for a family cookbook…what a great idea to preserve all those great recipes!

It’s so important to keep up with the family connections despite our busy schedules.  I wonder what our ancestors would think, all these years later, of us getting together and still sharing a meal?  I’m definitely looking forward to some rekindled and new family connections.  Thank-you everyone for making this a special time!

If you have any corrections or additions or stories to share I look forward to hearing them.
Enjoy the journey,
Debby

Family Reunions-Warner Family Picnic

Growing up I remember the highlights of my Summer Vacations were 2 family reunions.  About the 3rd week of July was the Warner Family Picnic which I can remember always being held at Wildwood State Park in Wading River, New York.  About the 3rd week of August was the King Family Picnic that I remember being held at Belmont Lake State Park in North Babylon, New York.  These were always great times with my parents, siblings, grandparents, cousins and extended family.  The amazing food was always packed in picnic baskets (I can still remember my grandparents green woven picnic basket) with care and my mother always made the best chocolate and butterscotch brownies.  It was a time of fun playing with cousins and eating lots of great food. 

I remember trying to put together who extended family members were at the picnics and how we were connected as I got older.  (Really wish I had written down some of the many things I had heard at the picnics over the years.)

I decided to take a look at what I could find out about the Warner Family Picnic first.  Since the picnics were held in the same area over the years I thought I would see what I could find about the picnic in the local newspapers where many of which are now available digitally.  I know the Warner Picnic was reportedly first held in 1921.

Here are some of the articles I found in the local newspapers through Live-brary.com
This is what I found in The County Review from 21 July 1938 under the Baiting Hollow section:
                 

Then there were times that I found something like this in The Northport Journal  from 21 July 1955 under the Local News section:

I never would have thought to search in this newspaper since it isn’t in the area where the picnic was held but it is an area that family lived in.

But the best was when I found one like this in the Mid-Island Mail on July 20, 1938:


The wealth of family information in this last article is wonderful!  Again not a local newspaper but what great information.

As I read all of these newspaper clippings about the previous picnics I have to figure out how all the people mentioned in the newspaper fit in to my family tree.  I recognize a lot of the names but there are some I am definitely not sure of.  It’s also interesting to see that the location was not always at Wildwood State Park.


Now living 3,000 miles away it has been difficult to get to the Warner Family Picnic as often as I’d like.  This year it works that I will be able to go again.  I really look forward to seeing familiar cousins that I haven’t seen in a while and in meeting some of the younger new ones.  I will be sure to make and bring some chocolate and butterscotch brownies using my mother’s recipes.

   I can almost taste them.  YUM! 

If you have any corrections or additions or stories to share I look forward to hearing them.
Enjoy the journey,
Debby