Family Reunions

I used to really love the family reunions that we used to have at my grandfather's house on Bedford Road, in Urbandale, Michigan.  Actually, I think there was only one, but it was pretty great.  All my cousins were there:  Charlene, Dee and Kay.  That's right.  Three measly cousins.  Charlene was way older than us, Kay and my little brother Mike Drake were practically babies and worthless.  So that left me, Dee and Dob.  And Dob didn't have much use for us and went off to hang out with my dad and Uncle Jack.  Dee or Deeter as we called him, laid in the hammock and talked about how much we hated Dob.  There was always a ton of great food, no naps unless we accidentally fell asleep.  And this set the stage on how family reunions were supposed to be. 

In another direction -- and stay with me -- when tracing your family tree, we sometimes forget that we are not all descending from only child homes.  That most generations had more than one child and when you get back past the turn of the century (the 1900s not the 2000s) there were many, many children and many children that died and are long buried. 

When I get stuck, I will sometimes take a couple and list all their siblings, like I was getting ready to send out invites for a family reunion.  I recently did that with my great grand parents Allison Royce Drake and Jane Myers Drake.  For as much as I know about them, I certainly don't know very much about them.  And this kills me because I knew people that knew them, that could have told me a lot, I'm sure, if I had only been so inclined to ask.  But I wasn't into family trees at that time.  The only thing I was interested in about families is how to get away from mine.

So here's what I discovered and you can see the glaring gaps:

Allison Royce Drake had 9 siblings:

1. James Amos Drake
2. Ann Drake
3. Sidney Drake
4. Mary Cerenus Drake
5. Alfred Bird Drake
6. Jane Drake
7. Lucy Drake
8. John C Drake

 I might note here that there are some people that will claim that there were 10 Drake kids in all, but I believe that Alfred Bird Drake and Bird A Drake are the same person in spite of the 1820 US Federal Census that lists them both, 2 years apart.  And I will prove that before I die.

Jane Myers Drake had 7 siblings:

1. Eveline Myers
2. Huldah Myers
3. Stephan Myers
4. Mary Myers
5. John H Myers
6. Joshua Myers
7. Mattie Bell Myers

So you'd think that if they all got together that it would be a helluva a family reunion, right?

So far, this is what my quick research has discovered.  And I haven't run down every single lead, with every single piece of information at Ancestry and the Internet.  This might not be 100% accurate, which is why I'm putting it here, until I can verify.

Here we go:

1. Allison Royce Drake married Jane Myers and had 4 children -- Hattie, Don Dee, Allison Royce and Lucia
2. James Amos Drake married Mary A Wright and had 4 children -- Ethie, Hiram, Carrie and John Haight.
3. Eugene Emery Drake married a gal named Amelia and had 5 children:  Minie F, Issa May, Clarance, Lloyd B and Eva.
4. Ann Drake never married.
5. Sidney Drake married Sarrah and had one daughter: Lucredia
6. Mary Cerenus Drake -- I have no record of her marrying or having a child.
7. Alfred Bird Drake married Eugenia Priestly.  Eugenia may have been nicknamed Mattie.  I have no record of them having any children.
8. Jane Drake married George Priestly.  George and Eugenia were brother and sister.  They had three children:  Earl, Katie and Fern.
9. Lucy Drake, died at 23 years old of consumption.  I have no record of her marrying or having children.
10. John C Drake was born and died in 1871 and is buried with his mom, Lucia Cahoon Drake.  There still seems to be controversy over the spelling of Cahoon.  I am wondering if the C initial in John's name would be her maiden name.  I should order the birth certificate.

For all the Drake siblings, there are a total of 17 cousins.  For the time and the number of people that were involved, that wasn't very many.

On to Jane Myers siblings:

1. Eveline Myers married David Cope and had 5 children:  Clarence Earl, Edgar Floyd, Albert Roy, Harriet L, Iva B.
2. Huldah Myers married Elisha M. McElhenie and had two sons:  Walter Scott and Charles Edgar.
3. Stephan Myers I believe died in 1874 at 12 years old with no wife or issue.
4. Mary Myers -- I can find no records at all.
5. John H Myers -- no record.
6. Joshua Myers -- no record.
7. Mattie Belle Myers married Edward Collins Schwartzwaller.  She was 42 when they got married and I find no record of there being any children. 

For all the Myers siblings, there are a total of 11 cousins.

So, what did all this rigmarole do for me?  I noticed that John C Drake has the middle initial "C."  I've seen the grave with my own eye.  The boy and Lucia share the same side of ol' John Stout Drake's tombstone.  I don't know why, but for many years, I just assumed the C stood for Converse, another side of the family.  So that is a lead to pursue.  It also shows me how much I don't know.