Hi! I am back in Maui now and here's the report of my Calif Hamrick reunion~ The family reunion portion of the trip was awesome! The Aparaicio's were fantastic! We saw all of the old homestead and they had copies of deeds, the property has only been Hamrick then Aparicio, I saw the wagon ruts from a distance, the old doors from the orginial home and the locust trees Hamrick's planted, I got a rock to bring home, quartz. The old plank bridge is still there, part of the original Hamrick Toll Road. I nearly did a nose dive, down a hill in the scooter I was riding, I wished I felt better during the weekend, it was tough. The banquet was fun, my neice played mc and got lots of folks to talk. My sis Judi matched up folks who looked alike and had them stand up, I talked about beginning a genealogical search. folks seemed to like my 257 page book. We got there late on Friday cause my other sister Janet was in a 5 car pile up near Crockett, 30 minutes after she landed from Honolulu on the night before so everything we had to do got pushed back by hours. She was the only one to walk away, no one was terribly hurt. The Amador Ledger Dispatch published an article written by Larry Cenotto about the reunion Aug 12 and a couple came to the picnic on Sunday, descendants of one of the lines I did not have a contact for Lavina Hamrick Dillian, that was great! I wished Larry had come to part of the reunion! Our Friday-Sunday reunion was the right length, any longer would not of been good, the Gold Rush Living History Alliance was amazing on Sunday morning, their talk and artifacts tremendous and my son loved standing in Jackson Creek panning, the children found several flakes of gold! The Amador Museum on Saturday was great, perfect for a meet and greet. Bob Davis of the Ione Mason's gave us Jesse's history and I got to see original documents! One of the stars of the weekend was my third cousin Eldon Hamrcik 84 years young, the happiest man I have seen in a long time, he lived on the homestead as a child and worked all the areas mines, his wonderful stories and memories very rich. I found out from him that when he was a youngster the toll was 25 cents on the toll road, and that when Jesse Hamrick first arrived in Amador and settled in Jackson Valley he built a three story house that was there when Eldon was alive, later that old house was gone. After the Arroyo Seco fiasco and Jesse was forced to move or pay for the land he had already settled, they moved to NY Ranch where the Aparicio's live now. I got a copy of the homestead certificate from the Aparicio's. Eldon said he thought they traded land? The reunion was a sucess and we made plans to do it again in 2000, for the sesqucentennial of the Hamrick's overland trail crossing and arrival in Amador! The Alliance may help with a camp! The most amazing thing is that this family got together! many who had not seen each other in years, others that never met before, we had descendants from 7 of the 11 children of our pioneer couple. This project happened fast too, just last year was when I began this descendants project, after finding my cousins book and adding to it by hundreds of names. There were at least 100 people at the various activites, maybe more, hard to tell cause they came and went I got to talk to alot of folks, wish I had more time with some tho. I hope folks will send me copies of the photos and videos, and will remind me who exactly needs more copies of the book, I did 65 copies and we ran out! I also need current addresses for EVERYONE who came AND I FAILED TO GET THEM. Help? I heard alot of nice comments from so many people, I hope everyone will send me more of their memories and also material for the 3rd edition, to be produced for the 150th anniversary of Hamrick's CA arrival and the year 2000 reunion to be arranged, I want to hear ideas for it! I had a great time and need a nap. <3 Jilly -------- ~aloha~ from jill in maui http://www.maui.net/~mauifun/genweb.htm