Family History & Genealogy

One of our many interests over the past few years has been researching the history of our families. Delores and I can both trace at least one of our ancestral lines back to the Revolutionary War. Our main interest in family history has been in working with the more current generations and trying to build up family data on all of our living relatives. That way we work on setting up family reunions and picnics. As we come across information, we also work on those ancestors further back in time. At present we have just over 6,500 individuals (past and present) in our genealogical data base.

Godfrey Family Reunion - Denver 1989

1989 National Godfrey Family Reunion

Holon Godfrey In 1989 we organized the first ever national reunion for the descendants of Holon and Matilda Godfrey (shown in these photos), Delores' great great grandfather. Holon was a celebrated Indian fighter in northeastern Colorado in the 1860s, being know by the Indians as "Old Wicked." The reunion was held in Denver, Colorado and was a pretty big success for a first effort. Held at the Airport Hilton Hotel, we had 50 members of the family present for several days of activities and fun. Our database currently has the names of almost 900 past and present members of this family, all descended from Holon and Matilda.

Stearns Family Picnic - Bay View WA 1994

1994 Stearns Family Picnic

Sheldon & Mary Stearns The summer of 1994 Delores and I organized a picnic for the descendants of Sheldon and Mary Stearns (shown at left). Sheldon and Mary are Chet's ancestors and we had just over 100 members of the family at the picnic which was held at the Bay View State Park in Skagit County, Washington. Sheldon and his family were pioneers moving from northeastern Pennsylvania to Iowa and then into southeastern Kansas right after the end of the Civil War. At this time we have information on about 1,100 members of this family, past and present.

In 1995 I published a book on the family of Sheldon and Mary Stearns with all the information I currently had available on the family. Due to the unexpected demand, an updated version was printed in 1996. Copies of this book are available at some libraries, mostly in the Washington State area. The Seattle Public Library, Seattle Genealogical Society, Stilliguamish Genealogical Society, Skagit Valley Genealogical Society and Whatcom County Genealogical Society all have copies of the book. Also the Wayne County Historical Society in Honesdale, Pennsylvania has a copy of the book.

If you would like a copy of this book, without photographs, I can send you a copy of the book electronically. The file is in Microsoft Word 97 format and your word processor would need to be able to read this format. I also have a GEDCOM file available with the information on either the GODFREY or the STEARNS family. These files are all compressed to save space, with the book file being about 260 KB in size, the STEARNS GEDCOM being about 110 KB in size, and the GODFREY GEDCOM being just over 30KB in size. If you are interested in getting any or all of these files, I can attach them to an email for you. Or, if you send me a diskette, and return postage, I'll send the files to you via the postal system. Contact me for additional information.