Descendants of Asa Freeman Ellingwood and Florilla (Dunham)Ellingwood
(West Paris, Maine, 1979) many times on this blog. It's been the source
of information and a guidepost for much of my family research and I really
appreciatehaving it, thanks to the generosity of Florence and the work of
cousin Jerry Ellingwood. The book was originally published as a hardcover
and I had one of that edition but lost it somewhere along the way during
moving from place to place. So I was happy to find a new edition was
available from the Ellingwood Family Reunion. This one is inexpensive
compared to the prices of many genealogy books today, and it's by
design. As Jerry notes in his introduction it was Florence O'Connor's
condition for having her book reprinted:
"Just before her death she gave her permission for her work to be
copied and re-sold to the family so long as no one made a profit off
of all her work."
Jerry photographed the original book and in this edition there are two
pages of the original on every page . It's printed to fit into a three ring
binder which makes it very convenient to use along side a computer,
but it also makes adding pages to the orginal very easy.
The Ellingwood Family Reunion is held every year on the second Saturday
in August in Norway, Maine and Jerry encourages the family members
to send him news about their family: births, deaths, achievements. He
also asks us to list the page number in the original book the update should
be placed near. For example, the Wests are descended from Clara Ellingwood
and appear on pages 116-117 so we would mark any updates to be placed
after those pages. Jerry prints all those updates and makes them available
to those who attend the Reunion and sends them out by mail to those who
are unable to attend. Then we just add the new pages to our books. This
means that even though the original book was published 1979 it's being
constantly updated and improved.
But as they say on tv, ah, wait, there's more!
Along with the book and Jerry's updates there is the Ellingwood Family
Newsletter from cousin Loria A. Barnes-Grippo. It;s been available at
the reunions every year since 2002 and contains family stories, recipes,
genealogy tips and family news. Like the updates, it's available by mail
for those who can't attend the reunion. There's also the Ellingwood Family
Reunion Cookbook published in 2005 with recipes from different family
members.
And finally, cousin Bonnie Atkinson started the Ellingwood Reunions!
page on Facebook where reunion and family pictures are shared along
with information for those tracing their Ellingwood ancestry.
So if you have Ellingwood ancestors, email me and I'll gladly put you in
touch with Jerry and Lori, or if you are a Facebook member, drop in at
the Ellingwood Reunions! page and introduce yourself.
And thanks to Jerry, Lori, and Bonnie for all the hard work they've done
for the Ellingwood family!
1 comment:
That book is a wonderful thing, but its even better to have an active family association to keep up the family stories and to add to the genealogy. You are lucky to be part of the Ellingwoods, Bill!
Post a Comment