Land Records in Missouri for Solon H McGee

The Bureau of Land Management (the original BLM) maintains records of land grants and purchases.  These can be used to piece together family history.  Here is a document I found today.  A land patent from 1882 with William Micager McGee and his brother Solon H McGee (our Great Grand father).  William was 14 years older than Solon so its interesting they went in together on this land. I think they moved to Oklahoma and then to New Mexico also.

Virtual Reunion 2020

John asked everyone to fill out this questionnaire to help arrange an activity for the 2020 reunion... being held online spread over several afternoons.

Questions for 2020 Family Reunion. Return  by Aug 1st 2020.
In order to better understand family, we decided to ask the following questions and have a trivia
contest.
Name ______________________________________________________________________________
Where and when were you born? ________________________________________________________
Anything unusual about the circumstances surrounding your birth: _____________________________
First memory/story of your childhood: ____________________________________________________
Favorite memory from childhood: ________________________________________________________
Education, Schools attended, degree(s): ___________________________________________________
How/where did you meet your spouse: ____________________________________________________
When / Where were you married/sealed: __________________________________________________
Where have you lived: _________________________________________________________________
How many states have you visited: _______________________________________________________
How many countries have you visited: _____________________________________________________
Favorite color: ________________________________________________________________________
Favorite food: ________________________________________________________________________
Dream Job: __________________________________________________________________________
Dream Vacation: ______________________________________________________________________
What are your plans for retirement: ______________________________________________________
Most memorable story about Dad: _______________________________________________________
Most memorable story about Mom: ______________________________________________________
Broken bones/stitches: _________________________________________________________________
Collections: __________________________________________________________________________
Favorite Movie/book/author: ____________________________________________________________
Favorite Holiday: ______________________________________________________________________
Favorite Music Genre/Song/Singer/Composer: ______________________________________________

Storyworth

For Christmas 2018, Anna and Chris Casey, arranged for me a gift called "Storyworth".. Each week for one year, I received an email prompt to respond to.  The responses were saved and then available to be compiled into a book of the memories that had been recorded. 

Thanks to Anna and Chris!

For me, this was very stressful...like having a major assignment from school due each and every week during the year. At Thanksgiving, I had completed about 15 or so of 48 till then.  I began a marathon push to finish before the year expired.  I padded some of the stories with lots of pictures.

Then I hit on the idea of including my church talks given over the course of several years.  Many of these talks have snippets of personal experiences woven into the theme.  Even now they are interesting for me and I hope will be read by some of you.

Then finally to finish my project, I added family group sheet information for Anna and Katie covering five generations going back and then also a chapter listing all descendants of Mom and Dad, Marna Maynes and Lloyd McGee. (three generations)  along with my Priesthood lines of authority and pictures from family reunions.

The initial copy included with Anna and Chris's gift has black and white photos inside to be used as a proof copy.  After correction and multiple revisions, the 'final' version was submitted. I obtained 7 copies for myself and my kids with color pictures. For anyone else who might be interested, there is a color PDF version that I will share.

Proof and Final editions

Small world

Michele and Larry traveled 3000 miles from Pacifica to find a small historical plaque that tells the story of Larry's 10th Great Grandfather being aided by Michele's 10th great grandfather in 1637.
Lion Gardiner and Mohegan Chief Uncas.

Studio Pictures from 1954

Mom has lots of photo albums at home.  I'm starting to make digital copies of them.  here are two of the best pictures ca 1954. 

Another Family Reunion Picture

Here is an interesting Picture I found on my hard drive. I don't remember where this came from.

RossMcGeeReunion_1953

Although the label says 1954, the picture seems to be from 1953. David McGee was born in Jan 1953 and seems on his mother's lap to be a lot younger than 1 year old. (He passed away in 1970). The baby in Russell's arms is not labeled but is likely to be LaRaine and Dolly's son  Gary born 8 days before me.  Both he and I look like we're still under 1 year old.  With no sign of Karen, I doubt this is 1954. Colleen married Fred in 1954, but he is not in the picture here, while Leola and Roger Ball were married in 1953 and he is here. My best guess is July of 1953.  There were some older kids for Russell and for Solon and Louise that are not showing. also the oldest two sisters and their families were not here. and Russell's wife Alice was missing.  Those grandkids would have been from 22 to 13 and perhaps too busy to come to a reunion. Also Irene McGee Despain and her family is missing.

Family Reunion Time

We held the annual reunion for the Lloyd R and Marna McGee family at the home of Heidi Pickrell in West Ogden Utah on Saturday June 22, 2019. Separately, I took Mom on Monday 25 June to visit her brother as the last two children of their family. Here are the pictures. All Mom's living kids and about half of the grandkids and great grandkids were able to come.

Generation 0: Fred and Colleen Maynes  with Marna McGee

Mom's family:

Generation 1

left to right: Back row: Heidi Pickrell, Patti Kasten, Bob McGee, John McGee, Linda Anderton

Front row: Jim McGee, Marna Maynes McGee, Larry McGee

Generation 2 and 3

15 (of 30) grandchildren and 5 (of 16) great grandchildren

back row: Rach Atwood, Trishel,  Ben, Catie, Katie, David, Isaac, Cherry Wolf, Andy Chow, Brittany

middle row: Carson, Josh, Grandma, Emree, Noelle, Ariah, Cade 

front row: Jaya, Brianna, Jasmine, Elise, Sam Anderton

Thanks to Linda Anderton and Cherry Wolf for coordinating everything and to Heidi and Monty Pickrell for hosting at their home. 

and with spouses. Rachel McGee, Carla McGee, Catie McGee, Monty Pickrell, Michele McGee, Frank Kasten, Dave Anderton and Julie McGee.  Thanks for coming.