The Loughrey Lines
Autumn 1998 Vol. 1, No. 1

WELCOME...

...to the new "Loughrey Lines," the newsletter for the Loughrey Family of America Association. We've got a new look, and some expanded content, but our mission will be the same as that of the old newsletter - to keep you up to date on all the news from the LFA. We'll feature items of interest from the association board, membership and reunion information, news from members and their families, and - as we get going - articles about Loughrey ancestors and members' research into various family lines of descent. "Loughrey Lines" will be published four times a year and distributed to all paid members, with non-paid members on our mailing list receiving one issue per year. "Loughrey Lines" will also be available on the LFA website, at www.loughrey.org Most important is that this is YOUR newsletter...so please let us know how you like it...and please let us know whenever you have an item you'd like to include (historical articles, family anecdotes, birth announcements, obituaries, other family news, research questions, requests for the membership, etc.) Leters and newsletter notices can be sent to Liz Fuller, 903 S. Sycamore Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90036, (323) 939-6193, or e-mailed to: [email protected]

1997 REUNION A HUGE SUCCESS

According to outgoing president Delores Loughrey-Larson, the 1997 LFA reunion in Rochester, Minn., was the largest Loughrey gathering since the "originals" back in the early 1940s. More than 60 descendants were present by the night of the final banquet...and people came from 9 different states to attend. Tours of the Rochester/Chatfield area and our traditional evening reception with bagpipe music highlighted the first day. On the second day, the Rev. Ted Schoewe led a short service at the Loughrey cemetery near Chatfield, and then, back at the hotel, we held our business meeting...and refilled the organization's coffers with a rousing auction. There was also a raffle of a hand-knit afghan, donated by Viola Kinyon. That night, the reunion came to a close with the largest group we've ever gathered for a banquet, along with entertainment that included a sing-along and an original historical skit performed by Julia Ribbens and Hilda Brekke (and friends). Also, we were thrilled, during the reunion, to see the fruits of several members' genealogical labors: Bruce Samoore's wall-length family tree printout, containing almost every known Loughrey descendant...Mary Hagen's extremely detailed print version of Julia Ribbens' grandmother's diary...and the inclusion of Delores Loughrey-Larson's family tree among those available in add-on CD-ROMs for the popular "Family Tree Maker" software. (Delores' tree is available on FTM's CD #8, published in October, 1996).

THANKS TO DELORES LOUGHREY LARSON

Our warmest and most heartfelt thanks to our outgoing president, Delores Loughrey-Larson, who has also been the newsletter editor and reunion coordinator for the past several years. Delores' hard work has been one of the major factors in creating the strong ongoing organization that the LFA has become today.

Delores writes of the 1997 reunion: "I was very happy to see so many of you there. It was so nice to meet all the newcomers and renew our ties with the old timers. I wish to thank everyone who helped at the Kahler. Believe me, your help was greatly appreciated and without it, I would certainly have been a worse "basket case" than I was. I certainly have enjoyed coordinating these events, but I am sure you will be more than pleased with the 1999 gathering...in beautiful Dubuque, Iowa."

COUNTDOWN TO DUBUQUE

The 1999 LFA reunion will be held June 17-19 in Dubuque, Iowa, and plans are already well underway. Last fall, reunion committee members took a scouting trip to Dubuque and selected the Holiday Inn as the reunion site. The hotel has a large meeting room for group functions, and several wheelchair-accessible rooms for attendees who may need facilities with wider doorways and lower fixtures. And making our reservations early allowed us to lock in 1997 prices for the event...instead of paying higher rates in 1999.

Among the highlights of the 1999 reunion will be an optional outing to the Dubuque Greyhound Park and Casino, with a private buffet dinner. Those who enjoy the races and slot machines will be only a few feet away from the entertainment, while those who do not care to gamble can stay in the dining room to visit and get reacquainted with family members. The dinner will cost $8.50 per person, which includes food, beverage, dessert and tip. There will also be a cash bar. Park admission, parking and an on-site supervised play area for children are all free. (Children can remain in the play room as long as a parent checks on them every half an hour.)

In future editions of "Loughrey Lines," we'll have more news about the upcoming reunion...and let you know more details about the activities planned.

LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

Dear Loughrey Family Members:

We took a big step forward at the reunion in 1997 by adding more people to our Board and creating several new committees. I'm particularly excited about advances in LFA communications.

On of our most important communications innovations is our web page. Although still in its infancy, this new tool will eventually become our central family link -- a place for members of the LFA to record information and a place where we can trade information with each other. This is an important step for us, because, since we're all working on a common family history, we can't just keep the information we find in our own binders any longer. We need to ask questions and get answers from other family members...and we need to post our information for the whole group to see and use. Each of you should be proud of the information you discover...and we hope that you'll want to share it with the rest of the family. Eventually, we hope that everything we find will cross reference into one large family genealogy. Your information - and the credit you receive for posting it - will make it easy for others to contact you for follow-up.

E-mail provides another new way to exchange ideas and information quickly, and at little or no cost, whether your note is posted to one person or 20 at a time. The information you exchange may provide the key to unlocking a big problem for another researcher...so please stay in touch with each other as much as possible. And please make sure we have your latest e-mail address on file at the LFA.

Finally, this new newsletter will also provide family communication...and everyone is welcome to contact Liz Fuller, the editor, with questions, comments or news for the next issue.

I'm excited about this new phase of our organization, and we have a very talented group of Officers, Board Members and Committee Members leading the way. I hope you'll all send in your 1998 dues to Lee Gartner, so that we can remain financially stable and accomplish the goals we set at the 1997 reunion. (Of course, any donations above and beyond the standard $15 dues would be both appreciated and recognized, as well.)

Please mark your calendars now so that you can plan to come to the 1999 reunion in Dubuque. It's June 17-19...and we hope to see you there!

Sincerely,
Bob Loughrey

DUES ARE DUE!!!!!

Just a reminder: your 1998 association dues are now due. Please make checks for $15 payable to the "Loughrey Family of America Association" and send them to our treasurer, Lee Gartner, at 4947 Garfield Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55409. If you're not sure whether or not you have renewed, please contact Lee at (612) 925-1449, or e-mail her at [email protected]

NEW BOARD MEMBERS

The following officers were elected at the 1997 LFA reunion in Rochester:

LOUGHREY FAMILY WEB SITE

Yes, the LFA web site is officially up and running! Thanks to Jim Loughrey, our Web Master, for setting us up with our new home in cyberspace: www.loughrey.org According to Jim, content posted so far is minimal, but includes the names and addresses of our officers...and a copy of this newsletter. Reunion news and updates, as well as LFA genealogy information will be coming soon, however, so check in regularly!

MORE CYBER NEWS

If anyone knows of other Loughrey sites on the Web, or of family members with their own sites, we'd love to hear about them. Mary Hagen writes that Mike Tonder and his wife, Jody Freij-Tonder, have their own site at www.lakenet.com/~glass4mj (Mike is a great-great-grandson of Peter and Margaret Loughrey's daughter Rhoda Loughrey, and her husband, Adam Best.)

E-MAIL ALERT!

If you have access to e-mail and we don't yet have your address - or you're unsure whether or not we have a current address - please drop a note to newsletter editor Liz Fuller ([email protected]) and let us know where we can reach you. Electronic communications are becoming more and more important to our organization...don't miss out!

LINEAGE PROJECT

Tom Loughrey is working on a project to figure out the relationships of Loughrey members who are on-line using America On-line. If you did not receive (or forgot to respond to) Tom's e-mail questionnaire, please take a moment to do so now. His address is [email protected], and he'd like to know your: Name, Address, City, Family Members (with ages and birth dates), and your direct Loughrey line of descent (from parents to most distant relative known).

ANOTHER CLAN REUNITES

Loughrey descendants just love reunions. In June, 1997, while we were meeting in Rochester, more than 200 descendants of Peter Loughrey (through his son John Loughrey, his daughter Florence Loughrey Townsend, her daughter Nora Townsend Wagner and her daughter Ruth Wagner Darwin) gathered at a resort on Mille Lacs Lake in Minnesota. The group is planning another reunion for 1999. More information is available from Pam Darwin, who can be reached at P.O. Box 1692, Palmer, AK, 99645, (907) 746-2497, or [email protected]

LANDMARK ANNIVERSARY

Ken and Mary (Mealey) Hagen were honored by their children on the occasion of their 50th wedding anniversary in 1997. The younger Hagens threw a party and gave their parents a trip to Branson, MO to mark the milestone event.

OBITUARY

Nellie (Carrell) Follensbee, mother of Vera Jean Saxton and Maryeon Panton, and great aunt to Mary Hagen, died on Tuesday, October 28, 1997 at St. Luke's South Shore Hospital in Milwaukee, WI. Ms. Follensbee was born July 17, 1909 in Forman, ND and graduated from Chatfield (MN) High School in 1928. She married William Follensbee (whom she later divorced) in Cody, WY, and lived there until moving back to Chatfield in 1931. Ms. Follensbee later moved to the state of Washington, and was employed by Bell Telephone until her retirement. In addition to her daughters, survivors include six grandchildren and 13 great-grand children. (Five brothers and four sisters preceded her in death.)

RESEARCH TIP: ANY WAY YOU SPELL IT...

According to our mailing list, there are at least four different ways to spell our family name: Laughery, Laughrey, Loughery and Loughrey. If anyone knows of any others, please let us know. Alternate spellings can be very important when searching old genealogical records!
Volume 1, No. 1
Elizabeth Fuller
July 25, 1998

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