Let all your cousins, aunts, uncles and other kinfolk know we will be having a great time in Kentucky this Fall and we hope they can join us. I encourage you to try to arrive on Thursday and stay till Monday so you can take it all in. Friday-Sunday, September 28, 29, and 30, 2007, Shelbyville Kentucky. Shelbyville is located about halfway between Louisville and Lexington off I-64, about a 40-minute drive from either airport. It is an hour and half or so from Cincinnati, I am told. We have a couple new "cousins" living in Shelbyville who have been helping us set up. Thanks to Missi Mercer and Bridwell Terhune. Everything is going to cost a little more than it did in Harrodsburg, but I was able to confirm SPECIAL RATES for Dutch Cousins at four motels (you must call the manager – NOT a 1-800 number -- to get the special rate) so if you are interested, send me an email and request the list. If you have an RV I will find out about parking for you also, so let me know. Friday we will do some touring and sightseeing in this beautiful Derby region at the edge of Appalachia. Options include a tour of Saddlebred Horse Farm (Shelbyville is center of Horse industry and our Dutch loved horses), seeing the Low Dutch Tract around Pleasureville (15 miles), the site of Painted Stone Station of Squire Boone, the old Dutch cemetery and a visit to the Six-Mile Meeting House built by our ancestors, recently restored. I hope to set up a low cost bus tour (leave the driving to them) with historians to give a talk at each stop. May be able to have our evening meal catered (this food is highly recommended) at a remote but very nice church camp in the woods, which will give us an idea of what the country was like when our ancestors settled there. Plans are all still tentative at this point. Saturday, we will be meeting at the Stratton Center in Shelbyville, all day, with lots of Low Dutch history and hugs for all. More information will be available as plans fall into place. There are some nice places to eat and I am still working on special prices for that. Hoping to squeeze in a book-signing event for authors of early Kentucky and family history, and also a visit to the HistoryMobile with a big walk-through display on Daniel Boone (Tourism Director is working on setting this up). We want each family group (Van Arsdales, Rikers, Cozines, Westerfields, Bantas, Terhunes, etc) to provide a display about their family's Low Dutch Kentucky history so we can see how we all tie together, so please start working on that. Would like to have a genealogist or two from each family who can help newbies find their place in history. (volunteers?) If you are wanting to hold a smaller separate family meeting in addition to the Dutch Cousins, each of the motels have a small meeting room where you could set up your separate family gathering place as well. (let me know and I'll work on it) The door prizes provided by family member from the different states were popular last time, so this time we want to continue that as a silent auction. (volunteer to be in charge of this?) Sunday, We hope to hold morning services in Mercer County at the Old Mud Meeting House, and afterward a special dedication ceremony at the Old Mud cemetery for our deceased Revolutionary war veterans buried there. (More about this later, as each family will need to buy the $100 marker for their ancestor) More to follow! Hugs, Carolyn Remember you have a friend in Oklahoma -- endlessly sorting out dead relatives! Researching COZINE in Kentucky, Kansas, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Nieuw Amsterdam (New York) and the Netherlands. See the photos of our DUTCH COUSINS gathering in Kentucky in 2005 here: http://homepage.mac.com/carolynleonard/Dutch_Cousins/PhotoAlbum33.html and The Anderson Cow Palace meeting house http://homepage.mac.com/carolynleonard/Dutch_Cousins/PhotoAlbum32.html