[Eleanor and I returned yesterday afternoon from a swing through the Midwest. The point most of interest here was attending the Peter Weaver III Reunion in Lafayette, Indiana.]
The Peter Weaver III Reunion was well organized and well attended. Peter III was the son of Peter, Jr. (sometimes referred to as Peter II), who was the son of the immigrant Peter, Sr. (sometimes referred to as Peter I or even more simply as Peter Weaver), the young boy who came to Virginia in 1717. He had been christened as Hannss Dieterich Weber in Gemmingen.
A highlight of the program for many of the people was a chart of the descendants of Peter III. It stretched about eighteen feet across one wall and was about eighteen inches tall. By now there are some eight generations below Peter III. Individuals are shown in small boxes with lines connecting the children to their parents. Above Peter III, his ancestors, with his aunts and uncles, were shown up to Peter I.
Several people were able to add information to this chart. One person was able to add the eleven children of a certain person. Of course, like all genealogy work, there is always more and new information. If possible, it is desired to update the chart but the production of the chart is now a problem. The software for doing so will not run on modern operating systems. One thought is to buy an old computer with an old operating system to run this one program. (If anyone knows of software that will produce a chart of indefinite “width” to show descendants, please speak up.)
I spoke to the group which met in a church. I concentrated on the ancestors of Peter Weaver I, the immigrant. His father was Philip Joseph Weber, and his mother was Susanna Klaar. Having just spoken at the Germanna Foundation Reunion on Susanna Klaar (Clore) I was able to use some of my material from that talk. A point that I tried to emphasize was that Peter Weaver I was not an isolated individual, but that he had many relatives and connections to other families in Virginia.
The night before the Reunion, several of us met at a restaurant where I was able to talk for a while about the social conditions which existed in the century up to the departure of Joseph Weber and his wife Susanna.
It was a pleasure to have Virginia Craw in attendance. She has done more research on the Weaver/Weber family than anyone. We used to hear more from Virginia, but health and age considerations have forced her to reduce her activities.
The Peter Weaver III descendants try to meet about every three years. One of their ongoing projects is to care for the cemetery where Peter III is buried. They would like to purchase this cemetery but the owner does not want to sell. The owner, who lives in the Peter Weaver III house, does allow the descendants to care for the cemetery. Meanwhile, the “association” of Peter Weaver III descendants is trying to build a fund for the care and perhaps the future purchase of the cemetery.
(14 Aug 06)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.