Carnival of Genealogy, 79th Edition--"Family Reunions"

The topic for the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is: Family Reunions! Have you been to a family reunion recently? What do you know about past family reunions? If your family doesn't have reunions, why do you think that is - family skeletons or feuds, perhaps, or just geography? Or, has there been an important or intriguing family or other reunion in your community that you can tell us about? This edition will be hosted by M. Diane Rogers at CanadaGenealogy, or, 'Jane's Your Aunt'.

     Over the years my own family has taken advantage of many events….weddings, holidays, graduations, funerals….to have a reunion. We try to get together annually with a gazillion photos snapped. The reunion I am featuring in this blog is the annual Pool or Poole Reunion that was held in Morgantown, West Virginia.

     The Pool’s are on my father’s side of the family tree. My paternal Great Grandmother VanGilder was a Pool….Jessie Pool….someone who I have spent countless hours researching, tracing and writing about. She is my entry going backwards into this rather sizeable family.

     A fellow Pool/Poole researcher, Robert Poole Wilkins, sent me the Pool Family Reunion photo displayed on the blog. The original photograph is somewhat long, so I decided to divide it into three sections. I am ballparking it to be about 1923 using the size and age of the children I know who are pictured.

     Both spellings of the surname are used. It was Pool until about 1900 and even after that date, the “old timers” continued to write their name as Pool. The “younger” generation decided to add the final “e”.
     I was able to locate two newspaper articles, in the Charleroi Mail, mentioning Jessie’s sister, Sarah Pool Pinyard as having been to Morgantown, West Virginia for the Pool Reunion.

My Direct Pool Line:

William Pool—my paternal GGGGG Grandfather
Rev. Asby Pool—my paternal GGGG Grandfather
Rev. William Lanham Pool—my paternal GGG Grandfather
Sampson Frum Pool—my paternal Great Great Grandfather
Jessica Pool VanGilder—my paternal Great Grandmother
Sarah VanGilder Hughes—my paternal Grandmother
George VanGilder Hughes—my Father

     I do have a partial listing of some of the folks in the photos. Surnames listed are: Bashaw, Dutton, Reeves, Totten, Pool and Poole, Price, Robison, McClure, DeLancey, Conley, Grubb and Kern. If you think you relate to this family, I'd love to hear from you.

     I just remembered this reunion story which was told to me by my Dad's Cousin Kae. There was family tale that at one of the Pool Reunions, my paternal great grand uncle, Philip Albert Poole, spiked the lemonade. I guess there is always someone that gives that trick a go. For the Poole's, it was Bert Poole.

Notes:

Pool Family Reunion photograph, courtesy of Dr. Robert Poole Wilkins

“The Charleroi Mail,” Charleroi” Pennsylvania, August 9, 1926, page 3.

“The Charleroi Mail,” Charleroi” Pennsylvania, August 27, 1928, page 4.

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. All comments are welcome; however, if they are inappropriate, they will not be published.    PLEASE post your e-mail in the comment section if you would like to network about a particular surname or topic. I will capture it for my use only and not include it when I publish your comment.

© 2009, copyright Linda Hughes Hiser