The 2013 Barfield Family Reunion

     We couldn't have asked for more beautiful weather for this year's Barfield Family Reunion.  Descendants of Sarah Barfield (1851-1936) met at the Savannah Rapids Park in Augusta, Georgia, last Saturday for our second family reunion.  The first reunion, which was in the fall of 2011, had a little less than 30 attendees. This year we had a little more than 40!

     Last year's reunion was attended only by descendants of Sarah Barfield's son, William, and his wife, Frances Boatright.  This year I was excited to see descendants of Sarah's daughter, Amanda, so the focused moved back a generation to Sarah Barfield.

   To that effect, I made name tags with Sarah's photo and a spot to list your relationship to her. So mine read "3x Great Grandmother."  I was surprised to learn how many people didn't know who Sarah Barfield was.  I took to saying, "You know who William Barfield and Granny Frances were to you, right? Ok, now go back a generation and that was Sarah Barfield."  It did not help that there were also three different Sarah's in attendance (or SAY-rah in the southern vernacular).

     In part, we organized the reunion using a Facebook group.  It allowed me to share information with a large group of people all at once and share photos.  During the reunion I posted photos of the attendees and those who could not attend were able to "follow along at home."  One of the great things about the group is that I can share things on Facebook with people who aren't my "friends," but it's still a controlled environment.

     Like we had done at the last reunion, we took a number of group photos. One of all of the descendants and then photos by family group. For example, William and Frances had nine children. Their daughter, Thelma, had four children, all of whom attended. We took their photo. Click. Then we added their spouses. Click.  Then we took the spouses out and added kids and grandkids. Click.  Then we added the spouses back of all the kids and grandkids. Click.  It took a bit, but in the end it really helps to learn who everyone is.

     If you are a descendant of Sarah Barfield and her children Josephine, William, Emma Susan or Amanda we would love to have you attend the next reunion. Please contact me at valeriesfamilytree@gmail.com or on Facebook.

     Here are some photos from the reunion, starting with a photo of (almost) all of the blood descendants of William and Frances Barfield: