It’s that time of year again. The Descendants of the Jersey Settlers of Adams County will have their reunion April 20 through the 22.

This is a special year as we begin planning for our 75th Jubilee Reunion in 2014. The organization had its first meeting in 1940 and meets every Spring in Kingston. The primary goals of the organization are to maintain two cemetery properties and serve as a resource for genealogical research.

We begin the weekend Friday afternoon with a gathering at Kingston Methodist Church where we will have an orientation to the organization and a tour of the many sites near the church where our ancestors lived, worked and were buried. The sites include Oakwood Plantation and the historic Kingston and Frogmore cemeteries.

On Saturday, we will have a genealogy workshop in the afternoon followed by a banquet at the Natchez Grand Hotel. The genealogy workshop will feature a program on the family of J.W. Swayze, a riverboat pilot and descendant of both Samuel and Richard Swayze.

The workshop will also be an opportunity to learn about the genealogical resources available to our organization.

If you are related to a Swayze, King, Coleman, Griffing, Cory, Luse, Ogden, Carter, Callendar, Farrar, Eaton, McCaleb, McCraine, Sojourner, Drane, Tarver or other families I might be forgetting, join us and do some digging. You could learn a lot about your family.

On Sunday, we will wrap up with our annual General Assembly meeting at Kingston Methodist Church followed by a luncheon. There will be a presentation about George Dougharty, who was an early surveyor in the Natchez District.

In addition to our annual reunion, we have merchandise available all year, including Volumes I, II and III of “The History of the Descendants of the Jersey Settlers.” We have a cookbook, “Cooking Cousins,” first published in 1996. It is filled with great recipes you will want to try.

We also have a DJS patch, a beautiful colorful depiction of the DJS crest, suitable for wear on shirts, blazers, jackets and other apparel. All proceeds from the sale of the cookbooks and patches go to the DJS Cemetery Fund.

For more information about the reunion or to purchase merchandise, visit our website at www.djs.org or contact Karen O’Neal at 601-446-5742 or onealkaren@bellsouth.net.

 

Karen O’Neal is the vice president for publicity for the Descendants of the Jersey Settlers.