It's Our Platinum Anniversary!
Happy New Year!
We hope all of you had a happy holiday season, spent with family. It’s now 2023 and we are starting the countdown to our annual family reunion, held as always on the third Sunday in July. We only have 6 months to go and this year that third Sunday will fall on July 16th. This year’s gathering is a celebration of not only our 70th McGraw Reunion, but it is also a celebration of the 70th Anniversary of the opening of the Milam Methodist Church. The celebration of the opening of this church, founded and built by the Brooks and McGraw families gave rise to the Reunion tradition that we carry on today.
With this Platinum Anniversary for both of these, we want to go a little above and beyond this year and that’s why we’re reaching out early to give you an idea of what we’re planning. In addition to our Sunday Reunion, we’re working on some additional activities for Saturday for those who may be interested in joining us. While plans are still ongoing, we would like to do some sightseeing of some places of family interest: some cemeteries, some spots of significance in John & Mahala’s life and Milam Methodist Church to name a few. If you have ideas or suggestions, we would love to hear them. You can contact us at mcgrawreunion@gmail.com.
One thing that we are definitely working on is attempting to have some repairs made to John & Mahala’s headstones at Pine Grove Cemetery. Both of them are falling into disrepair after over a century of service and as their ancestors we feel it falls upon us to do something to preserve these for future generations of our family. At our 2022 reunion last summer we discussed this with those in attendance and there was overwhelming support for this. We are working with a monument company to get pricing and a few people have made donations toward this work. We would love to have these repairs complete in time to include some type of ceremony to honor them and reveal the repaired headstones as part of our reunion festivities, but this like everything else is still in the initial stages. When we get a final quote for the work, we will share this with you should you wish to donate toward the costs.
We are emailing this to everyone on our mailing list and posting it to our Facebook page. We will likely be reaching out a few more times between now and July as all of our plans start coming together.
One last item we wanted to share with you, this time about an event in 2024. Those of you who were at our last reunion heard the announcement, but the McGraw Reunion Association will be hosting the 2024 United States McCraw Family Association Reunion in Beckley. John was born a McCraw and changed our name. This Association is the group of descendants, like John (and all of us who descend from John), who belong to the line that descends from William Maccraw who is believed to be our first American ancestor. This is a Friday and Saturday event where we have lectures planned about family history and genealogy and discussion of the Association’s DNA program and our quest to determine William Maccraw’s true origins, be it Scotland or more likely Ireland. There will also be evening social events and a banquet where you can get to know cousins from across the United States. There will be more information to come on this as well.
So please forward and share this email with your family and mark your calendars for July 16, 2023, for the 70th Annual McGraw Reunion. What can you get us for our Platinum Anniversary? All we want is for you and your family to attend!
Thank You and we look forward to seeing you there!
The McGraw Reunion on Facebook
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