Another one bites the dust...

Yep, it was The first Saturday in August, again. The Phend Family Reunion has come and gone for another year. Attendance was at an all-time low (35 or so) but those of us there certainly enjoyed ourselves! A few new faces did show up and there were descendants of three of the children of Jacob and Louisa (Fisher) Phend - John, Christian, and Henry. They came from Texas, Ohio and Illinois as well as Leesburg, Goshen, Mishawaka, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Auburn, North Manchester and Columbia City (all in Indiana).

After 25 years of organizing the reunion I decided that this year was the last year for me to do so. Hopefully someone will step up and they won't let it fall by the wayside, but attendance has been dropping considerably the last few years. The old folk are getting older making it more difficult for them to attend and the young folk don't seem to be all that interested. It's sad, but that's the way it is.

Regardless of how many people show up, I always consider it a success when people depart with smiles on their faces! And here are a few of those smiling faces...

1st Cousins - Josephine & Phyllis.

Husband and Wife - Rich & Kathy.

Mother and Daughter - Sunny & Dee.

Little Imp.

Third cousins once removed - Jackie and Matt

They found each other on Facebook a few weeks ago.

My brother.

Two of the three sections of family charts and photos.

The beginning. The first five generations.