Hello RAGAN-ROOTERS! First let me apologize for the typo the other day. I said "Forth of July" instead of "Fourth of July". None of you eagle eyes seemed to catch it though, or at least nobody critiqued me. That happens quite often (and that's okay). I caught it myself. I hate it when that happens. I'm not really an illiterate. I really can spell, I just can't tipe ;-) Anyhoo ... Tonight my wife & I are packing for a small trip. We leave in the morning heading up north. We'll be attending a family reunion in New York. It's not a RAGAN/REAGAN reunion, but quite a few of these people are RAGAN descendants, and cousins of mine! (Actually I consider all of you cousins of mine.) This group ties into my family like this: My g-grandfather was William Henry RAGAN, 1871-1927. He had a sister named Nerissa, "Rissa" was what they called her. Nerissa lived 1876-1902. She married Geo. Washington STILES. They had five children: Ethel, 1895-1986, m. James Syrene FULKERSON Ernest, b. 1897 Pearl, 1900-1963, m. Arthur Allen BAGGERLY Sr. They also had two unamed twin boys born 28 Mar 1902. Nerissa died giving birth to the twins and they died a few days later. For some reason the children went to live with their grandmother, Mariah Jackson MARTIN/RAGAN, daughter of Isaac L. MARTIN. I'm not sure why their father didn't keep them. He went on to marry another lady and have one child by her. Mariah was my 2g-grandmother & the wife of Isaiah RAGAN, 1842-1877 (son of William RAGAN & Mary LEEPER). Anyway she kept the children for the rest of her life, which was only about 3 years. The story I've heard was that one day the children didn't show up at school. Someone noticed and went over to the house to check on them. It turned out that Mariah woke up that morning (6 Nov 1905) and started to light the fire in the fireplace. As she was doing this she must have had a heart attack, died and fell face down into the fireplace. Apparently the children awoke, found her dead and were very frightened. They were huddled in the corner of the house and crying when they were found. I think that was so sad. Anyway the children were split up between family members and raised with their cousins. Apparently these families all lived near one another in and around Eddyville, IL. Eddyville is a very small town in southern Illinois (Pope County). That's where my grandfather, Hubert L. RAGAN Sr, was born. I visited there a couple times a few years ago and had a blast looking over the cemeteries and pouring through all the records at the courthouse. I also met some RAGAN third cousins (Steve, Danny & Elizabeth) that live in Harrisburg, IL. Two of them are members of our discussion group (Hi Steve & Danny!). Steve, Danny & Elizabeth's g-grandfather was John L. RAGAN. He was a brother to Nerissa & William Henry. This reunion is actually for the BAGGERLY family, but since so many of them are descendants of the sister of my g-grandfather I thought I'd make the trip and meet some cousins I previously knew nothing about. I met one of these cousins (Edna Elizabeth BAGGERLY/SCHULTZE) via snailmail a year ago and have been swapping family information with her since then. She has been researching our family for about 25 years! And has a wealth of information on our family. I'm really looking forward to meeting her. So we'll be leaving in the morning, heading through Tennessee, Virginia, part of West Virginia & Maryland and on into Pennsylvania. Whether we make it (tomorrow) to PA or not remains to be seen, but we should drive into the small town of Gillette, PA sometime Friday afternoon. The reunion will take place on Saturday, just across the state line in New York at a KOA campground. I'll be bringing a camera, some lights and lots of film. Maybe I can do a large group photograph and sell a few. Then I should be able to deduct some of the trip expenses ;-) So if you don't hear from me for a few days that's where I'll be. I will be taking a laptop along and should be able to make a connection to check my email while at the motels, but I'm not sure what kind of phone plugs Edna has so I'm not sure if I'll be able to check the mail while there. (We'll be spending Friday & Saturday night with her & her husband Harold.) Goodnight everyone, Michael W. RAGAN ============== RAGAN-ROOTS List Moderator ============== When you go into court, you're putting your fate into the hands of twelve people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty. --Norm Crosby =============