The Family Forest

Hello!  I see that it has been a while since my last post... but no apologies, I have been busy living this summer!

 My Mother's family gets together every 2 or 3 years for a summer reunion, and this year my aunt asked me to make a cover for the family "archives" album she has been working on.

This is the cover I made, featuring my Grandparents:

The photo was taken on their 40th Wedding Anniversary, in 1978.

 

a couple of close-ups:

 

And this is our family prayer, for the inside of the front cover:

 

A bit of background info:  My Grandparents, Adam and Emelia in the photo above, had 17 children. (That is NOT a typo). Seventeen kids, 2 sets of twins, 11 boys and 6 girls.  The oldest and youngest are 20 years apart.  And they supported them without a reality TV show for income. They grew them on a farm, raised their own food, made their own clothes, and saw that each of them had a full education.  (They did this without pampers, microwave ovens, televisions or computers.) My grandparents are guardian angels now, and they have a lot to look after...at last count I believe there are 129 of us...their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

 

Here are a few pics from the reunion, so I can prove I didn't make this up:

 

Their living children:

These would be my aunts and uncles on my mother's side, my mom is front row, center

With their spouses (also known as the outlaws):

This would be more aunts and uncles for me

 

 These are some of their grandchildren:

That would be me in white in the front row, with my sisters on either side

 And here are just some of the great-grandchildren:

My daughter is back row, 3rd from left. My son is middle row, 2nd from right

So, you can see why it is necessary for someone to be in charge of the family archives (photos and important info).  I can't wait to see what she puts into this binder.  With such a large group, I'm lucky if I can remember all of their names. It sure helps that we make the effort to get together every couple of years. And this is just my mom's clan, my dad has 8 brothers and sisters and 8 step-brothers and sisters, plus all of their offspring.

 

Fit THAT on a family tree!

 

Lorrinda