Just a note to let everyone know that the 2nd Annual East Tennessee Germanna Reunion is going to take place in Washington Co., TN, on 8 and 9 September. We haven't firmed up plans, but will send a detailed notice by Sunday, 22 July. (NOTE: Last year we called it the BROYLES Reunion, but, from the cousins that attended, we learned that we really shouldn't have restricted it to BROYLES. There are many Germanna descendants of other families who can trace their lines back to the counties of Washington and Greene in TN.) This Reunion is being held in "Broyles and Wilhoit" country, but we want descendants of ALL TN and NC Germanna immigrants to attend. This includes, but is certainly not limited to, the following families (by whatever spelling variant): BROYLES/BRILES WILHOIT/WILHITE YAGER/YEAGER BROWN CRIM/CRUM CUPP/COPP PAINTER WADDELL KEEBLER MARTIN MAUK/MAWK/MAUCK/MOCK SNAPP FELLERS/FILLERS/G'FELLERS DOAK (And probably many others) John Blankenbaker, our undisputed Germanna "guru", will be there, and we have asked him to make a presentation Saturday night or late Saturday afternoon. His talk will probably center around the Germanna descendants who left the Germanna area of VA and migrated to what was then NC. (John has several Germanna family ties in his ancestry, including a BROYLES umpteenth-great-grandmother way back there.) John "Ken" Broyles, Sr., will also be there. Ken is publisher of several publications on Germanna and Germanna-related families, including BROYLES, BRILES, BROILES, FLESHMAN, WAYLAND, WILHITE, WILHOIT, BLANKENBAKER, KINDLE, FOX, BIRD, and many other family names associated with the BROYLES family. Keep in mind that all of what is now Eastern TN was then NC. Due to pressure and threats of revolting from the citizens of then Washington Co., NC, NC gave up that part of the state and it became Washington Co., TN. That TN county covered the present-day part of TN from the easternmost tip of the state to about Sevier Co. in the west. The Germanna descendants originally migrated mostly to what is now Washington and Greene Counties, TN, and to various counties in NC. From these locales, they and/or their descendants migrated all over the country. If you have a BROYLES in your ancestry, chances are about 99% that ancestor came through Washington or Greene County, TN. If you have a WILHOIT ancestor, chances are about 90% he/she came through the same counties. Even if your main line of descent isn't one of the Germanna families, if you can trace back to these two counties in the late 1700's or early 1800's, chances are you DO have a marriage back there somewhere to one of the Germanna families. And, even though most of the BRILES Germannans were over in Randolph Co., NC, they maintained contact with their cousins in TN, and even married back and forth. One of the major BROYLES branches in Washington Co. were from Adam BROYLES, Sr., who was the son of Conrad BRILES, and who left Randolph Co., NC, and joined his cousins living near what is now Limestone, TN. He founded Broylesville, TN, and built the Broylesville Inn, which was one of the major stops on the old stage road from Washington, D.C. to Atlanta, GA. The Inn is still standing and has been restored. What we would like is for you to look at the list of families above and, if you can trace your ancestry back to one of these families in either Washington or Greene County, we WANT you to attend. ALL of the listed families have ancestral marriages to one or more of the Germanna-related families. If you belong to other surname Mailing Lists at Rootsweb, or elsewhere, and descendants of those surnames have ties in the two counties mentioned, please feel free to copy this invitation to those Lists. (Examples of this are the families in the list in paragraph 2 above.) We will give more details later this week, but, just for planning purposes, here is a very short description of the 2-day Reunion: 8 Sept: Get-Together of all the "Cousins"; tours of graveyards in Washington and Greene Counties where Germanna descendants are buried; talks by John Blankenbaker and Ken Broyles; a tour of Broylesville; and, informal trading of genealogy information, databases, etc. 9 Sept: An invitation for all to attend services at the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, followed by a "Pot Luck" repast. Everyone brings a dish. This get-together is ostensibly a "reunion" of all the BROYLES descendants from Washington and Greene Counties, but really includes just about every everyone who has an ancestor from these two counties. Motel accommodations are available in Johnson City and in Greeneville. More on this later. We will also be providing maps for travel from Johnson City and Greeneville. More later, SgtGeorge George W. Durman