Oklahoma Days - A Gathering of Cousins

A bunch of geese are a gaggle, crows - a murder, eagles - a convocation, goldfish - a troubling, or there is a charm of finches. You get the idea - every group of animals has a collective name.

So - when trying to name a get together that we had on Sunday, July 8, I decided on the obvious - A Gathering of Cousins.

I have not been surrounded by so many of my cousins since I was a small child and still lived in Oklahoma. Some of these cousins I knew fairly well, others I had met, and a couple I was meeting for the first time. The day was fantastic. We talked, told stories, ate quiche, and swapped lies – not really lies, just probably embellished tales or the simple fact that so many of the stories occurred 70 years ago or more. 

 Anna Lilac, Cheryl, Norma, Shelley, Susan

 Susan, Cheryl

 Norma, Anna Lilac

  Echo (back to photo), Imogene, Susan, George and Peggy, Norma, Anna Lilac

We paged through photo albums and albums filled with genealogy research. Peggy brought a boat load of information with her from New Mexico. Peggy's dad, Neal Weekes, had spent much time, effort and $$ in the days before the Internet researching family ties and roots.

 Shelley, Susan

 Norma, Imogene

 Cheryl, Anna Lilac, Shelley, Susan, DeAnn

Cheryl, DeAnn, Tom, Cheryl Merritt, Hank and Echo Backlund

The three family history books that Cheryl has put together are phenomenal.

I spent most of the day picking the brains of all of the older cousins so that I could fill in blanks on our family tree that Cheryl and I share on Ancestry.com. While I was documenting family info on the computer, friend Becky (honorary cousin), was running the video camera and interviewing everyone and capturing the day in general. Eventually I will upload the video to Youtube but that won't happen until I get back to my home in Florida. For the time being this one video will have to satisfy your curiosity. Keep in mind that everyone in this short video is between 86 and 89 years of age.

I could not figure out how to draw a family tree in the blog which would have been much more instructive so this is the best I could come up with.

As I list people I will try to indicated what their relation ship is to my brother Tom and I.

My dad's mother, Gladys Weekes Carpenter had 3 sisters and 3 brothers.
Cousins that descended from that generation on the Weekes side that attended were:

Anna Lilac Carpenter Richardson Swihart (aunt), Cañon City, CO
Imogene Weekes Cambron (1st cousin once removed) Oklahoma City, OK
Shirley Cambron Hielman (Imogene's daughter, 2nd cousin) Oklahoma City, OK
Echo Lipe Backlund (1st cousin once removed) Oklahoma City, OK
Norma Harris Black (1st cousin once removed) Oklahoma City, OK
Peggy Weekes Gervais (1st cousin once removed) Maxwell, NM

My dad's dad, Pearl Eugene Carpenter, Sr. had numerous brothers and sisters. His brother Dan's granddaughter attended: (Dan's son, Daniel Clay was my dad's and Anna Lilac's 1st cousin)

Susan Carpenter Pettit (1st cousin once removed) Edmond, OK

Trying to explain all this is too confusing!

1st cousins from my generation:
DeAnn Merritt Parham, Oklahoma City, OK
David Merritt, Oklahoma City, OK
Tom Carpenter, (brother) Broomfield, CO
Cheryl Richardson Monaghan, Bellevue, WA

Cousins from a generation or two (makes me feel old) after mine

Michaela (Anna Lilac's great granddaughter, Cheryl's granddaughter) Bellevue, WA (1st cousin twice removed)
Merritt Parham, Oklahoma City, OK (1st cousin once removed - DeAnn's son)
Carpenter Parham, Oklahoma City, OK (1st cousin once removed - DeAnn's son)
I think I got everyone (not spouses in attendance just cousins)...but I don't have pictures of everyone.  I did not get a chance to take many pictures and did not keep track of what I had/had not taken.  I still cannot believe that not one person thought of taking a group picture.  That is really sad as there is a good chance that this group will not be together again...Hard copy pictures or not - the real pictures are engraved in each of our memories - and those memories are very special.