Hi, I am Renee Burmley, daughter of Rennie and Hazel Root. Thank you so much for all the work you did on putting the reunion together, and thank all who helped. Mom and I had a great time. And now that she had to go to a nursing home, the good time we both had, makes doubly special.
It was great seeing cousins that i had not seen in years.
Bill is looking forward to coming to this years with me.
Again THANKS

Good luck Della on your new blog.

Good Morning! Well we are well on our way to blogging!
We now have 7 followers and 3 authors. I have tried to send everyone an invitation to be a author. If you except the invitation, you will be able to post directly to our blog. As a follower you should be updated whenever the blog has new posts made to it.

Larry, thank you for posting, this is what will make the blog come alive, we need family participation. So glad you are able to come and bring your Mom. You have been put on my list, with your offer of help. Thank You!

You might want to watch under each post made, there is a link labeled comments, you can click on it to read comments that may have been made on each post. I have not figured out yet how to get the comments where they are visible without clicking on the link.

I received a call from Floyd and Muriel Root last night. They had received their newsletter in the mail and gave me an update:

They are engaging a DJ for Saturday night dance. Thank You! Our sound system last year was not good.

We will not have a whole hog roast as we did last year. It will be covered dish's as usual, but the meat will not be provided.

In the works is: A special dance contest's for the children, on Saturday night.

Thanks for all your efforts, and

First, I'm Myrtle Akers grandson, Gerldine Stephens is my mother.
With that said, it was great to see so many people that are part of my childhood memories, and reunite with them. I'll certainly be anxious to see and talk to all of the family again.
It was also great to see my mom enjoy herself for a change. Between my sister's failing health and giving up her car she doesn't get out much or have much fun.
I am also very interested in my genealogy, so the Brakebill gene logy was great to see. I would love to have a copy but that doesn't seem likely. I would love to pursue the Root/Ryan genealogy with you, or perhaps I should say through you? My wife knows so much of her ancestry, I'm so jealous.
I certainly hope we can attend this year. I want to help if I can. With us living in TN and having to go KC to pick up mom, being there to help before or after is problematic. But whatever I could do during the reunion and perhaps helping with $$?

Getting Our Blog Rolling

Well, this blogging is going to be a learning experience for me. I am Internet savvy but have never blogged before. This old dog is slow at learning new tricks.

I have sent invites to our family members to be added as authors of the blog. If you chose to join the author's of the Root Ryan Blog (would love everyone to) then you will be able to post to the blog as well. Which will make it a family blog, not just, my blog. You will be able to post updates about your family to keep everyone informed like: births, birthday, marriages, family history, stories, etc. You do need to have a google account, and that is easy to do.

You can also follow the blog by adding yourself to the followers list. I think this will notify you when the blog is updated.

Our first follower is Michele. So glad she jumped right in. Here is what Michele wrote:
"3/8/09...I updated information about myself at ROOT RYAN FAMILY- About me: I am the daughter of Billiejean (Root) Oxford and John Dice, the great granddaughter of Donald Root and Dorothy Morlanon"

These are pictures from 2008 Reunion...

Reunion NewsLetter March 2009

Hello to all family members of the Root/Ryan Clan

Wow! Where has the last 6 months gone? August of '08 seems like yesterday, and we are only 5 months away from our next Reunion.

It is set for Labor Day Weekend,

September 5 & 6, 2009
Where: Eagle’s Building
3310 E 380 Rd
El Dorado Springs MO

First, let's recap our great Reunion from 2008

We had an amazing turn out for our 2008 Reunion. There was lots of fun, games and dancing on Saturday night. If you only attended on Sunday, you missed a good time and lots of laughter. Rick Wooldridge won the "Chicken Dance" and will bring the prize back this year (with clothes on it) Will he pass it on, or win again? There was something fun for all ages.

Sunday we had many more in attendance, and soooooo much food! Thanks to all who brought dishes. A great big thanks to Floyd & Muriel Root for providing "The Pig". Thank you to Steve Bailey and those who helped him with the all night job of roasting it. There were many who helped. Thank you! I can not list all of you, but know it could not have happened without each and every one. Anything you may have done was so appreciated!

Total money raised from the Raffle's and 50/50 $ 235.00

Expenses

Building $ 30.00

Games $ 25.00

Postage & Misc $ 40.00

Deposit For Building for 2009 $100.00

In our fund for 2009= $40.00

I think we all enjoyed having the reunion in the old park building, for me it brought back a lot of memories. But, we know I am kind of a nostalgia/history nut anyway.

Because of the heat and lack of a kitchen etc., I have reserved the Eagles Building for our 2009 Reunion. We will have access to a full kitchen, air conditioning & lots of tables. Last year, was a long time coming and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. (remember without family there is no reunion). We need to grab our batons and keep running, so we can continue the momentum that was kick-started in 2008. Since I am neck-deep with life as everyone is, I will gladly welcome anyone who wants to help in 2009. I hope that all of you may come to feel as passionately as I do about the need to keep the reunion going for the next generations. If you can help, please let me know. (I'm slowing down -- any young people out there?!)

"Cousins" Reconnect and Families Expand

As grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren of our Root & Ryan ancestors met with each other, many for the first time, the answer to the most asked question of the reunion--"how are we related?", was simplified to just plain "Cousins." As near as I can compute, 98 "cousins" "meeted, greeted, and eated" over the 2 days at the beautiful El Dorado Springs City Park. Our Ancestors would of been so proud! Here's an Ancestor break down of each family represented at the reunion.

Charley Root & Lula Ryan: 76, Harley Root & Nettie Ryan: 8, Willa Ryan & Harry Griswould: 7, James Ryan (Day Line): 3, May Root & Robert Ryan 5. I may be off on my counting, so if I missed a family, I apologize. (Sign the guest book!) Can you name the 5 oldest and 5 youngest? Send me your guesses!

• Help Wanted!
  
  

  I am looking for family members who would want to help in the following areas: decorating building, donating items for raffle, setting up food tables, helping with paper products, being in charge of the music, organizing games for Saturday, donating gift prizes, helping at sign in table. I can use anyone who would like to pitch in to make it a great Reunion in 2009. I also would appreciate any ideas you may have. Would you like another slide show? Maybe of the 2008 Reunion pictures? (you will need to send me yours) Or a slide show of old pictures that may not have been in the 2008 slide show. (you will need to send these also).
  

It was brought to my attention by some of the younger generation that they would like to know where their Ancestors are buried in the El Dorado Springs. We could take those interested on a cemetery tour on Saturday morning. Let me know if this is of interst.

If you know of someone's email address I need to add to my database, let me know.

I will try and update this to give you a progression of planning over the next 5 months.

Until later,

Love ya

Your Cousin Della