A family picture from around 1925 of Grandma Delphia, Ruth, Evelyn, Lois (seated) and Grandpa Joe Ridnour.
A family picture from around 1923 of Murl, Chester, Cleo, Thelbert (seated) and Martha Kendrick.
Grandpa Joe Ridnour and Martha Mauderly Kendrick were double cousins. Joe's parents were Kathryn Mauderly and Rufus Ridnour. Martha's parents were Joseph Mauderly and Ida Ridnour. Sister Kathryn and her brother Joseph Mauderly married brother Rufus and sister Ida Ridnour; making Joe and Martha double cousins.
January 25, 2013, ten and a half years ago, Cleo Kendrick Lessner's daughter Judy sent me an email introducing herself and saying who she was. Her interest in family history and a search for Mauderly's and Ridnour's had led her to one of my blog posts. (Memorial Day Part II, May, 2012). We emailed back and forth a few times and then became Facebook friends in February 2013. Since then we have exchanged family history past and present, family photos, etc. We became friends and I hoped to one day meet her in person.
Ten and a half years after that first email, June of this year, Judy messaged me that she was working on a Kendrick/Mauderly cousins reunion in New Market, Iowa and extended an invitation to me. And would I notify my brothers and cousins? I hadn't realized how few of us were left that would remember the Kendrick's other than Aunt Evelyn's children (only two still living) and Aunt Lois' children as well as my brothers. Even if none of my first cousins attended I still wanted to go just to meet Judy in person.
Yesterday it happened. Judy and I met in person. I don't think we could have been any happier.
And while I can't recall ever meeting Judy before, I do have a vague memory of meeting her sister Martha when we were quite young. Their mother Cleo came to Iowa from Michigan to visit her parents often. Martha and her husband live in Wyoming. Judy and her husband live in Michigan.
Neither of my brothers was able to attend but my first cousins Glen and Lila, Aunt Evelyn's two surviving children did come along with Glen's wife Mary Lou and Lila's daughter Valerie. (Left to right, Val, Lila, Mary Lou, Glen and me.
Judy's cousin Marilyn, who lives in Clarinda, helped her schedule things in Iowa. Marilyn (left) is the daughter of Chester Kendrick. I can't recall ever meeting her, but I did know her sister Beverly who died in May, 2022.
These two are the sons of Thelbert and Melba Kendrick. I have a childhood memory of playing with their older brother Jackie when I attended a neighborhood club meeting with my grandma. (Jackie died in 2018.) And I had met Randy (seated) several times at the Ridnour family reunions. But I had no memory of Denny (standing) even though he was the middle one of the three boys. I remembered that Thelbert and Melba had three sons, but I couldn't even remember the third one's name. Randy has an extensive amount of family history on his computer and in his photo albums. I'm hoping to receive copies of some of the photos digitally.
While my focus was on connecting with the older generation, Bud took a number of other pictures for me including this one of the younger generations playing on some pretty fun looking equipment. Most of these people were introduced to me, but I couldn't remember all the names or family connections. I think most of them were Marilyn's children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Other random photos: Martha and Denny on the left, Marilyn at the end and Glen and I looking over Randy's shoulder at family history on the computer.
Lila, Glen and me. I hadn't seen Lila and Glen in ages probably at the funeral of our cousin Gary Mitchell's wife, Marilyn. Glen and Lila's younger sisters, Glenna, Janet and Mary all died in the last three years. Their older brother Larry died in 2004.
It was such a nice day. The weather was perfect. The connections we made were great. The memories of those gone before us, respectful. The memories we made today, wonderful.
Wouldn't our grandparents be happy to know their descendants still got together and talked about them with such affection?
(Judy, Martha, Marilyn, Denny, Randy would all be my third cousins.) [I think.]
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