Roy, How was the family reunion? Did you meet any new rellies? I love to hear about families, even if they aren't mine! Nice to have you back, your information is always appreciated. Cindy Brewer Dooley, in Colorado _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail

"Cindy Dooley" <cinsings@hotmail.com> wrote..... > Roy, > How was the family reunion? Did you meet any new rellies? I love to > hear about families, even if they aren't mine! > Nice to have you back, your information is always appreciated. > Cindy Brewer Dooley, in Colorado> THANKS for asking, Cindy, it was splendid! There were about 60 of us altogether, mostly from the US (Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky, Georgia, one of the Carolinas - forget which - Florida, Connecticut and Colorado), plus two new Canadian cousins we hadn't met before, with their spouses, from Edmonton, Alberta, and seven of us from the UK, myself, wife and younger son from Hertfordshire, and my cousin Garry Stockdill, wife and two sons from Bradford. We had four Stockdills from Boulder, Colorado, who are not actually related to me, at least as far as I've been able to discover. They stem from the Irish Stockdales/dills. We also had some Stockdills from PA who I have been in touch with for a few years, but despite having traced their ancestry back to Leeds in the 19th C. I have yet to establish a connection with. However, we regard them all as honorary family. We held the reunion - which is named for James Henry Ambler (1855-1923) from Leeds and Fanny Jane Stockdill (1862-1946), a cousin of my grandfather, who married in London in 1885 and migrated to America in 1906/7, founding the US family - at a very nice country resort in rural Pennsylvania. It's called the Allenberry Inn Resort & Playhouse (it has a 400-seat theatre in which we saw a professional production of the musical "Annie") at Boiling Springs PA (near the town of Carlisle in Cumberland County) over a couple of days. I can thoroughly recommend the resort for a reunion or similar event, as it has comfortable lodges, pool, tennis courts, trout fishing and many function rooms, plus the theatre as mentioned. Prior to the reunion we spent a few days in Philadelphia, which we hadn't been to before, It's a very nice city (nowhere near as dreary as W. C. Fields always depicted it!) but I am bound to say that I found it supremely incongruous queueing to see icons of freedom such as Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, and the famous Liberty Bell, and being subjected to airport-style security, X-ray and body searches etc and being hassled and shouted at by security guards who are not always the most sensitive people in the world. Freedom? What is it these days? I was also mildly surprised at having to produce a passport just to purchase rail tickets for a simple 100-mile trip from Philadelphia to Harrisburg by Amtrak. Perhaps they thought I was going to hijack the train! I spoke to several Americans who agreed that official paranoia is now rampant since 9/11. Understandable, perhaps, but a sad comment on the state of the world, all the same. However, it was only a very minor blip. After the reunion, we were transported by some of our US cousins down to Washington, stopping off en route to see the Gettysburg battlefield, which I found overwhelming. I've never seen so many memorials (there are over 1,300) and the actual battle site is considerably larger than I'd imagined. We took the car tour with a CD that guides you round. We had a few days in Washington, including a couple of nights in Alexandria VA - a gem of a place which we discovered on previous visits - and had a day excursion by train to Baltimore. Got home to land at Heathrow the day before all hell broke loose with the BA strike! Roy Stockdill (Editor, Journal of One-Name Studies) SoG Executive & Director of Projects, FFHS Guild of One-Name Studies:- www.one-name.org Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History:- www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html Never ask a man if he comes from Yorkshire. If he does he will tell you, if he does not why humiliate him? - Canon Sydney Smith