R Family Reunion

Today was the R Family Reunion. It started out as the 3 R Family Reunion for the three different spellings of the family name: Ridnour (ours), Ritnour and Ridenour. It was soon discovered there were many more spellings of what may have orignally been Rittenauer back in Germany.
Most of us attending today trace our family back to the two brothers who came to Page County, IA in the 1800's. The ones descended from Samuel Jr. are Ritnours while those of us descended from his brother Benjamin are Ridnours. To further complicate matters some Ritnours married Ridnours back in PA where they left the e in Ridenour and kept two t's and an e in Rittenour.
History has always been my favourite subject and family history is even moreso. I love hearing stories about great grandparents, great aunts, great uncles, cousins and I love telling my memories. With so many descendants working on their family trees, there are bound to be errors. (One I caught today in someone's geneology book was "Dawn Gray" standing next to her cousin "Norman Anderson" when in reality it was [previously blogged about] "Don Gray" next to his cousin "Norma Anderson".)
Growing up, my Grandma Delphia Means Ridnour always adamantly denied we were related to any of the Ritnours except for her niece, Delilah Means who married Floyd Ritnour. Grandma's brother Orphas had been married to Laura Brock who left him to marry Dick Ritnour. Hard feelings on Grandma's part on behalf of her brother kept us in the dark about our Ritnour cousins other than Dee's children. Ain't it fun?
I missed last year's reunion. Two years ago my two sons, three of my grandchildren and both my brothers were there. This year only my cousin Larry's widow, Ruth, & I were there representing all the many descendants of our grandparents. In the past we have had people from all over the U.S. - Oregon, Washington, Montana, Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, California, Colorado. This year the attendance was very low. My generation is now 'the old ones' and 'the young ones' just aren't interested.
I can understand that. I remember when I went to family reunions with my parents and grandparents and was bored out of my gourd. Who were all those people? And if I was brave enough to talk to the other kids and play with them for awhile, so what? I'd probably never see them again. How I wish now I had paid more attention then. How I wish I had Grandma or Mom to ask who someone was and how we were related.
In the meantime, I will try to keep my stories straight for my kids and I vow once again to write the names of people on the backs of all those pictures.