Easter 2010

Yesterday was Easter.  It was a beautiful, unusually warm day for Cincinnati in early April.  This year we did something a little different.  Instead of a formal sit-down dinner, Tom and Linda graciously agreed to allow us to come to their home and we all contributed various hors d'oeuvres and deserts.  It was wonderful.  The second generation includes some quite creative cooks and their contributions must be "healthy".  We all benefited.

A couple of the kids could not attend at this time, but Savannah, Mae, Ian, and John represented the "grandchildren".  We all missed Will and Quentin -- but then there is always Christmas when we will have yet another boy added to the mix, thanks to Chip and Lisa.  How my parents would have loved it!

We had an appearance by the Easter Bunny -- aka Don. The younger kids differed in their reactions, ranging from delight to fear.

Despite what is a less than stellar economy, the whole family seems to be doing pretty well, and we are blessed with healthy, bright and joyful children and grandchildren.
(I can tell you as a parent that there is nothing more pleasurable than watching your children parent your grandchildren -- they seem to do such a great job)!

The day before the entire family got together, Roland, Liz and Ian came down from Columbus.  We decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and try out the newly-opened playground at Lake Isabella.  Ian loved it, as did we, and Bill (Pa-ga) got to introduce Ian to fishing.  I don't know who was more impressed with the minnow being put on the hook -- Ian or Zippy.




Perhaps at a later date I'll put together a photoshow of many of the pictures from that day and include a link on this post.  For now, I'll end with one last picture from the Lake Isabella playground.  I hope that all of my family and friends enjoyed their families as much as I did mine.

The All-American "Stew" or Hungarian Goulash

When I first started putting together this family history last spring, I had to make a decision about which of my mixed family lines I should address first.  It only made sense that since I was a Jones, I should start with  my paternal lines.  Besides -- they were an interesting group and I had a lot of information.  They were mainly English, with some Irish thrown in beginning with Norine and a little "Pennsylvania Dutch" compliments of Elizabeth Kinley (Alexander Jones' wife).  

From time to time one of my cousins on the "Ryan" side of the family would ask me when I was going to write something about the Irish.  My mother's sister, Evelyn, married a McCafferty.  Her brother, Jim, married a Cunningham.  I guess that definitely makes those two families more Irish than anything else -- but I love to needle Uncle Jim about his own mother's German roots.  Can you say "Vonderheide"?

I am fascinated by my all-American, Cincinnati mixed ancestry.  I actually believe it is a good thing to mix up the genes a little bit.  So I present to you Exhibit A -- my beautiful grandson -- Imre "Ian" Varga.  He is wearing his "Kiss Me I'm Irish" shirt.  I asked my daughter, Liz, if the people at his daycare have difficulty thinking of him as Irish.  (Ian's father, Imre "Roland", grew up in Venezuela and is of Hungarian descent). She told me that, in fact, the teachers refer to Ian as their "little Irish boy" because of his reddish-colored hair, bright blue eyes, and his clear preference for all things green (or "geen" as he pronounces it).

His name should be a dead give away that there is more to this story.  In fact, Ian's heritage is a mix of German, English, Irish, Swiss, Hungarian and Romanian -- and that's the ancestry we know about. Imre is a common Hungarian name and the name given to the first-born son of the first-born son for several generations in his father's family.   How about that for the "family of man"!

So my blog postings are going to go in a new direction.  I am going to begin discussing my maternal lines, beginning with the Irish.  It's an interesting story -- and one I am still working to unravel. Come along with me and share the trip.