More Photos

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These photos are courtesy of Shellee Morning:

THE FAMILY GATHERED!!

The turnout was fabulous. I'll let the group photo by Shellee Morning speak for itself:

50th = 150+ !!!

The day was sunny, despite forecasts of possible thundershowers. But the only thunder was that of horseshoes clunking in the sand pit, of feet pounding the earth in the three-legged and potato sack races, of great food hitting happy bellies, of OOHs at the Memorabilia Table and laughter at the photo slide show; most especially there was thunder in the standing ovation for the committee which organised the 5oth Annual Family Reunion.

Well done team, and Thank You for all that work!

The overall attendance numbers are still being sorted out: not everyone signed the attendance book, some folks came, went away, then came back; we had to add extra seating on top of the 120 originally laid out; the group photo --which is probably missing some folks-- seems to show about 150 people. No matter how you count it, the turnout was fabulous.

Lots of fun was had by all.

Some notable mentions from the day's events:

Alexandra (Morning family) broke her little finger playing football, but not before she impressed everyone with her athletic prowess -- that girl has an ARM!

Olivia (Brooks) and ___ (Moynihan) won the 3-legged race. Their form was great: watch them next year to see if they can challenge the record for the most annually consecutive wins (3 years straight) set in the 70s by the team of Penny (Brooks) and Heather (Morning).

Mackensie (Morning) and Katy Rose (Moynihan) played on the team that won the team ball toss, and came a close 2nd in the 3-legged race.

We just won't mention the adults who flopped, tripped and fell in the races (but the pictures will show who we are talking about).

The eldest descendent in attendance was Mid Watson, aged 80 years (and looking GREAT).

The youngest descendents were Mason Cefai (Moynihan) who is just one year old, and Dan's (Moynihan) & Jenn's beautifully behaved newborn.

The family member who travelled the furthest was Heather (Morning) who flew in from Papua New Guinea.

The family member living closest was Doug (Dennis) who could have walked from his Zephyr farm.

Between 15 and 20 teen/young adults came on their own accord, including some from BC: Ceilidh (Morning) and Jonathon (Watson).

We all sang Happy Birthday to Cassandra (Richards).

The food table groaned with delicious salads, meat balls, spanikopita, cheese, buns, baked beans, pasta, and a whole roasted pig. Pizza was set up on the stage for the littles ones. Desserts included the Nan's famous butter tarts, Blanche's famous carrot cake and Audrey's famous lemon merangue pie; Betty brought a cake frosted with a Moynihan family photo.

The Zephyr town hall never looked more inviting: Rosemary (Brooks) and crew had the tables laid out with flowers and napkins in the family colours. What a joy it was to have to add tables and place-settings to accomodate the extra 20 or so family members who arrived unexpectedly!

The auction fund-raiser went well, with Canadian Champion Auctioneer Gary (Dennis), selling donated family memorabilia including an antique wooden pull-toy for $100, and an historic auction flyer for $250. Proceeds go to the Moynihan Family Reunion Fund.

George (Watson) won the 50-50 draw, and since he's the oldest out-law, that's only fair.

Photos and a copy of the Reunion feedback-evaluation form will follow.

If you have stories, photos or memories about the reunion you want to share, email them to me and I'll put them into a blog posting. The email address is Moynihan.Family(at)gmail.com {replace the (at) with the @ sign}. If you want to leave comments on what's written already, click on the comments link and follow the instructions (you will have to complete some security proceedures, just to protect the blog from spam-bots and other internet hassles, but after the 1st time signing in, you shouldn't have to do it any more).

The Day Before The Day Of

Well All My Relations, tomorrow is The Day. The Big 50th. The extended family has gathered each summer for 50 years, honouring the tradition of family summer picnics set in Con & Cora's time. One great thing about this year's reunion is the number of Moynihan clan members who are coming from distant places. Indeed, folks are in town from all over: from the East Coast, the West, and the South (though I think I'll win the distance-travelled award). I'm excited at the opportunity to re-acquaint with clan-cousins, even as I re-acquaint myself with Southern Ontario.

It's interesting being back in Ontario again. Summer climate that I grew up thinking of as 'humid' feels dry by comparison to where I live now. My wavy and curly PNG hairstyle is almost straight here in Ontario. Traffic is more congested than when I took my driver's license exam in Aurora (in the 70s). In some areas it's busier even than when I was here just a year ago. Side-roads I remember as graveled, with the odd Massey-Ferguson tractor or Ford truck for traffic are now renamed, paved, and feature Boxters, Volvos and Land Rovers. Wooded copses and farmers' fields where I sighted deer and coyotes or raced my snowmachine are home now to elegant neo-Victorian semi-detached houses. Song birds are less evident. Quite the difference! But some of these changes are exciting. Victoria Corners and Gormley are definitely looking swankier. Stouffville has several 'spa' health businesses, plus a funky cafe with open mic nights and free wireless. Newmarket has a great hospital and all sorts of cool restaraunts. The place is definitely more multi-ethnic. The influx of new people provided the critical mass needed for more urban amenities and the kind of fun gear we associate with 'modernity'. As the owner of Stouffville's fabric and sewing shop (Ann's) remarked "finally, people are asking for things I wanted to bring in 15 years ago!" So, the Ontario Moynihan clan's stomping grounds have traded simple farm scenery for sophistication.

Probably the nostalgia and mixed feelings I feel when I see the changes in the landscape echo what people of Cornelius' and Cora's era must have felt. Because Southern Ontario has seen a lot of changes: Imagine the time to which Toronto's name refers. It was a First Nations' hunting, farming and trading area where all sorts of intra- and international deals were made between Anishnaabe, Iroquoisan, French, English, and others. That Southern Ontario was changed a lot by the effects of the United Statesians' cession war from Britain and the Loyalists' flight north. Then there were the changes caused by the Depression, followed by the booms in immigration of the 1960s and 1970s and the Trudeau-era emphasis on "Canadian content", which gave us much-improved Canadian music, literature and film industries. The most recent shift is coming from Canadians, plus Yankees and others living south of the boarder trading New York and L.A. for Toronto and environs. We Moynihan Descendants have been part of it all.

Within our individual families there have been changes too. A whole new generation has finished high school and is setting off on the education / career trail. We've lost several of our Elders and had some scares about others. Those for whom Con and Cora were Grampa and Gramma are now facing the tough but normal gamut of adult health issues. It ain't easy! But the clan has new members too -- at least one great-great-great grandchild was born in the past year! So the Family carries on, and tomorow is our day to catch up on it all.

To honour this ongoing continuity within change, one of the great-great granddaughters has designed a logo for the reunion of 2008. Based on the classic "Tree of Life" symbolism, the graphic designed by Ceilidh Evans depicts Cornelius and Cora as the intertwined roots to six trees, standing side-by-side as siblings do, with their branches intertwined even as they reach to all corners of the sky, as the Ontario Moynihan clan has done. But we're coming back together for the annual family picnic! Look for this logo on some T-shirts tomorrow in Zephyr.

50TH ANNIVERSARY REUNION BULLETIN

Hi everyone.

Here is a message from your Reunion Committee (Rosemary Scott, Donna Blakely, Betty Jean Moynihan, Barbara Connor, Janice James, Ida Richards, Penny Rudolfo, Nan Hill, Mid Watson and Lynda Litwin):

"We are looking forward to seeing all of you at the Reunion. It’s hard to believe we’ll be playing games, chatting with everyone AND HAVING LOTS OF FUN in just a little over a month."

Your Reunion Committee have been working on the plan for the festivities for almost 2 years. They claim the time has gone by very quickly.

Here is a sneak peak at some of the things that have been planned for July 19th:

1pm: Families gather and greet each other at the Zephyr Town Hall
2pm: Official Opening Ceremonies
3pm: Games including traditional favourites like 3-legged race; shoe toss; hammering the nail, and, of course, the great Elders Vs Juniors Basebal Game:

So Don’t forget to bring your baseball gloves/bats/balls

Later in the afternoon, we will have a proper auction, with our very own family auctioneer, who'll manage the sale of two special family items, originally belonging to Con and Cora.

The culmination, of course, is the famous Endless Table Pot Luck Supper …..

FAMILY COLOURS:
Please remember that in order for others to easily recognise which family branch you
belong to (this is especially helpful for the youth and out-of-towners), we have requested family groups to wear specific colours. Here's your colour list:

Brooks: GREEN

Dennis: BLUE

Morning: RED

Richards: WHITE

Moynihan: GREY

Watson: ORANGE

Audrey Morning checked out places for ordering T-shirts and found a place where you can order online at a reasonable prices: Lynda Litwin sent this website url:
http://www.dixieuniform.net/


MEMORABELIA TABLE:
Please bring your different family keepsakes to share with the rest of us. Most of you have old pictures and items, so dig them out, dust them off, label them and bring them for the table. We suggest taking pictures of items that are just too big to transport. It's a good idea to label and name the item with a note as to the significance of it; also please put your name on the label so that if anyone would like to learn more about the keepsake, they know who to speak to about it.

Coming from a Long Way Away?
If you need to find accomodation around Zephyr, you can check out www.greatertoronto.worldweb.com. In the top left corner of the website, you will find a listing of the different towns located just outside of Toronto. Choose the town and then choose B&B or hotels/motels. The nearest towns are Uxbridge and Port Perry, with Aurora and Newmarket the next closest. There is also a nearby RV park recommended by Nan Hill; for their information go to info@grangeways.com


WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING YOU ON JULY 19th

The 50th Reunion is Coming!!!

Well, all my relations, it has been a while -- about a year? -- since I've posted anything on the blog. Partly it was due to me waiting for some of you to provide promised anecdotes and or stories about some of our recently departed (still waiting....), part of it was that I moved to Papua New Guinea and suffered a severe depletion of internet access, and the other part was that family stuff stated to pre-occupy my e-mail time & bandwidth.

Apologies to those of you who missed the Family blog!!!

Thankfully, things technical are sort of resolved (the power still goes off with unpredictable frequency here, but I can now dial in from home). I may also begin sharing the blog supervision with 'cousin Barb' (Brooks) who still lives in an internet un-challenged part of the globe. All of this means that there is more coming soon, especially announcements about the upcoming events for the 50th Reunion. So stay tuned!

Reunion 2007

This is it, the year before the Big 5-0. The last chance to be 49. Remember that? Being 49? Ok, so some of you are dreading turning 40. That means you get to come and lawd your 30-somethingness over us middle-aged cousins. It also means you have the kidlets to bring to entertain us and run errands for us all! What ever age, this is clearly going to be there or be square kind of event. Check out the invite:

YOU'RE INVITED TO THE

49th Annual
MOYNIHAN FAMILY
Reunion

Sunday, June 3, 2007
Zephyr Community Park
11:30 a.m.

Please bring your baseball equipment,
pot luck lunch
and smiling faces.
Beverages will be provided.

Next year is the 50th reunion
(July 19, 2008)

In order to raise funds to help make
this a very special celebration,
we will be selling 50/50 tickets
and auctioning the

Original Bill of Sale
for Grandma and Grandpa Moynihan’s farm.

Cost per family: $10.00
[All funds for the Moynihan 50th Celebration]

Map of Moynihans Away

This is a big experiment. I'm still figuring out how the code works, but eventually, I hope that you will be able to click the "Join!" button and put your own location on the map. In the meantime, just click on the title of this post. It is a link you can use to sign up for a free Frappr map name, and put yourselves on this map. ('m going to ask that only members of the Moynihan Family Reunion actually join the map.) If you do, eventually, the map will show where everyone who belongs to the 'clann of Cornelius' is from -- in the whole world!

Identify These People

A challenge for you, oh aunties, uncles & cousins:

 Can you identify these children? When were the photos taken? Where? What were the occasions? Who took each photo? Does the cat have a name? 

Respond with your answers in the comments section, and be sure *not* to click in as 'anonymous'! The blog software will protect your e-mail address, but you need to type in your name -- or we won't know who answered correctly!

The Year of the 1st Family Reunion

Nan Hill and Marg Heater helped write this:

The first Moynihan Family Reunion was organized by Ron Brooks (son of Lena Moynihan) and Nan Hill with help from Marg Heater (daughters of Gwen Moynihan). A picnic was held at Aurora Park, on the first Sunday after Labour Day, September 1958. Nan remembers that Ron was the instigator but because they were close, they took on the challenge together.

As Marg recalls, the idea for a Moynihan Family Reunion happened after the funerals of Jim Brooks and Bessie Moynihan: She says, “we had all gathered in the stairwell after Uncle Jim’s funeral, telling jokes –especially John Watson– and we were all laughing and Grandma M. gave us hell; then the same thing happened following Aunt Bessie's funeral. We were all out on the front porch at the farm and I can still see Grandma's face through the screen door, giving us hell. It was decided then and there that we had to get together more often!”

They both remember that the picnic was only for the descendants of Cora and Con (Cornelius), and there was to be “NO ALCOHOL: it was STRICTLY A FAMILY DAY”. It rained and got very windy that day at Aurora Park, and that broke up the event. “Some folks went to Lena’s and some to Gwen’s and Mike’s, and goodness knows where else”. So the following year, the picnic was moved to the Mount Albert hall, just in case of rain. Eventually, in the late 70’s, I think, the families decided to move the picnic to the Zephyr community hall because, as a township resident, Nan could get a discount.

From those sad, loving, funny (and soggy) beginnings, a committee and the idea of an annual Moynihan Family reunion was formed. For several years the committee was made up of one member from each family, with Lena and Gwen being in charge of the funds and coaching everyone along. Ron Brooks was a major stalwart. Sadly, they’re gone from us now. But not forgotten!

I put out a call to the aunts & uncles & cousins and you answered! Having access to these memories has been really exciting – and enlightening. Though of course, they just stimulate more questions. What were your lives like, then? Do you remember those years? Hurricane Hazel was just a memory, Marie and Lena were widows; Marie, Blanche, Jim, and Cora had lost their mom; Margaret, Ron, Jack, Rosemary and Barb had lost their dad. The baby boom ended and hula hoops were the rage. The Chevy Impala came on the market; the British Empire Motor Club (BEMC) formed Mosport Limited and began designing a track; baseball catcher Roy Campanella was paralyzed in a car accident. BOAC introduced trans-Atlantic jet flights, Sputnik fell from space, and the Avro Arrow made its first test flight. JFK had just won the Pulitzer and beatniks were reading Jack Kerouac. Mao was implementing the Great Leap Forward and Nikita Khrushchev became Soviet Premier. John Diefenbaker called a snap election and won a majority government, even sweeping Quebec. This was the year of the first Moynihan Family Reunion.

Cornelius & Cora

Blanche and Marie, daughters of Bessie (Moynihan) Morning sent me this info:

Cornelius Moynihan married Cora Stephens and they farmed in the York region of Ontario. They had six children, five daughters and one son, born as follows: Bessie (August 10, 1902 - June 2, 1957), Annie, (June 14, 1905 - July 16, 1976), Eric 'Pete' (March 27, 1907 - 1965 ), Ruth (September 3, 1908 - January 15, 1983), Lena (August 27, 1911 -May 3, 1999 ), and Gwen (March 20, 1918 - February 19, 1995). If you click on the space below, you'll see a chart that shows Cornelius, Cora, their children and spouses.

Calling the dir shliochtacht (lineal descendants)

Being a novice blogger, I’m learning this technology at the same time as some of you. So I hope you’ll forgive the inevitable glitches as they happen. We're also just beginning to consolidate what we know about the Moynihan clann in Ontario, so do tell us when you notice errors of fact. It's heartening to see the positive responses from Bessie’s and Gwen's dir shliochtacht so far, but it’s also clear that there’s lots of info out there among the Brooks, Dennises, Moynihans, Mornings, Richards & Watsons who make up the Ontario clann. So make this your own space!

You can post comments with suggestions and info for the blog by using the link at the bottom of each post. Just click on the 'comments' link, then type your message in the window provided. After that you choose how you want your comment identified. Your choices are either 'anonymous' or 'other'. Choose 'other', then type your name in the little box that appears. Then there is a 'word identification' step where some random letters are shown - that's to prevent spambots from accessing the blog. Just type the letters or numbers you see on the screen. The final step is 'preview', which lets you see how your comment will look on the blog. If you want, you can change things, if you like it, click on 'publish' and you're done!

If you have family info, or something that would make a good item for a blog, you can e-mail that to me and I'll put it up as a new blog posting. Maybe you have a grandmother's favorite recipe, or a memory, or a photo, maybe a family notice like a graduation or obituary? Maybe you have an idea for another website that would interest the family? Whatever you are willing to share, you can always contact me by following the Profile link (left side of the page), which leads to an e-mail link.

Thanks for sharing the excitement, and the memories!

ps: Check out some of the links on the left side of the page. Sonas Ort!

Early Family Reunion Memories

My earliest memories of the family reunion date from when it was held in Mount Albert, at a church hall. It may have been an old schoolhouse? These memories are probably from the mid-60s.

Beside the hall, there was a baseball diamond, and an area with trees and swings nearby. The church hall had a kitchen downstairs and the upstairs had wooden floors, big windows and a stage at one end. As kids we loved the stage, partly for its elevated position, but also for the stage doors which lead to secret staircases. We were not supposed to sneak into the mysterious stairs, but of course we did!

The hall was set up with long tables, one of which was always laden with the food that each family brought: potato salads, deviled eggs, casseroles, pies and carrot cake stick out in my memories.

The baseball field was a guy place: I can remember my older cousins Norm and Ed Dennis, and Ron and Don James playing baseball with our uncles. I think if I ever did get to play, it was probably way out in left field. But I did get to have some ownership of that field, with the help of my 2nd cousin Penny Ford. For a few years, we were the queens of the three-legged race. There were a lot of fun games in those years, and lots of kids to participate in them: we raced on two feet, we jumped in sacks, we tossed eggs, and we did this stupid race which involved tying a stocking with a ball knotted in one end around our waist, with the ball hanging down the back like a tail. Then we had to use our 'tail' to knock another ball along the ground.... sheesh!

Well, this is just a start. The next Moynihan Family Reunion will be in the summer of 2006. So there is lots of time between now and then to get this blog whipped into shape. That means, oh my cousins, aunts & uncles: time to share your memories!