Family News

On June 29th we began planning for our next family reunion event scheduled for July 4th 2015 weekend. This meeting was to design to vote on officers and discuss location selection. The door is open to anyone in the family who would like to provide input or ideas. I will post the meeting notes after each meeting on the Brown Family Reunion web site, twitter @ourbrownfamily and my Facebook page. Our next meeting is scheduled for Sunday July 20th.

Please contact me at brownfamilyreunion.org@gmail.com.

Officers are as follows:

James Conner – President

Derunda Hunter – Vice President

Teresa Conner – Secretary

Rosetta Lewis – Assist. Secretary

Rose Foley – Chaplin

Eric Lewis – Assist. Chaplin

Betty Conner – Treasurer

Alberta Lewis – Treasurer

Gun toting granny

 

By Lisa Rantala – bio | email

A 20 year old burglary caused a Toledo grandmother to be dubbed a “Senior Sharp Shooter.”  Now that grandmother says one man apparently didn’t know her reputation and broke into her home.

According to Toledo Police, 50 year old Byron Layson broke a window in 82 year old Mattie Snow’s Hamilton Street home Sunday morning.  Snow has lived in the home since 1957, has been burglarized before and knew exactly what to do.  “I hollered who is it and they didn’t say anything so I shot,” Snow said.

Police say Snow fired two shots before she called 911.  When police arrived, they say they found Layson laying near Snow’s car outside the home.  They say Layson jumped out the same window he came in to dodge the gunshots, hit his head and knocked himself unconscious.  Layson was charged with burglary.

Snow had an almost identical experience 20 years ago, and reacted in the exact same way.  Snow said a neighbor broke a window and crawled through. “I could see him dodging like this and I was steady pulling the trigger,” Snow said.  “He ran to police and jumped up in their arms saying there’s a crazy woman in that house.”

Snow’s daughter, Pat Parker says her mother has not fired the gun since that day.  “It has not been shot since the last incident 20 years ago.  It had the same bullets in it.”

Snow said her husband made her keep the gun in the nightstand since their neighborhood was experiencing more crime.  Her using it generated praise from her community and a featured spot on the CBS show Rescue 911.

She said she has not been a crime victim since, until this weekend.  While she laughed at the irony, “Maybe he hadn’t heard it.  Maybe he hadn’t heard the story. I’m sure he knows the story now,” Snow says she wants to retire from her “sharp shooting” days.

Layson is now on a $20,000 bond and could face up to eight years in prison if found guilty.

Copyright 2011 WTOL. All rights reserved.

 

http://southtoledo.wtol.com/news/crime/gun-toting-granny-not-fazed-would-be-burglar/59245

New photo uploaded

Hope everyone had a great time this weekend. I know I did. All the Photo that I have were upload on July 6th. If you have more photos that you would like to add,  please send them to mrjamesconner@gmail.com. I have also made several updates and additions to the family tree. I will update the genealogy page very soon.  I will also edit and upload video clips taken over the weekend soon.

I would like to thank Pat and her family for all their hard work and hosting a great reunion weekend. God bless.

Family Tree. pdf

We have just added a copy of our family tree with about 389 members. It can be downloaded from the genealogy page of our web site. It starts with our oldest known relative Joseph Brown born 1827 in North Carolina.

It is a work in progress, so feel free to contact me for any additions or corrections. I would love to hear from you. God Bless.

Sorry Sorry Sorry

Hi Family
As you probably know by now the brownfamilyreunion.org web site sent out a large
number of e-mails overnight. I sincerely apologize for this mistake. I uploaded
a new family tree program overnight and the site automatically sent out an
update for every person upload. The automatic updates have been deactivated and
you should not receive any more updates. If it makes you feel any better I got the same e-mail one two personal accounts.
Thanks

2011 Toledo Ohio

Greetings Family,

As you all know the 2011 Family Reunion will be held in beautiful Toledo, Ohio. The dates are Friday, July 1st  through Monday, July 4th.

Due to the economic downturn we are planning to have as much fun for as little money as possible.

We want as many people to attend as possible, so we are asking each group of families to get creative and make sure they have as much participation as possible.

By creative we mean, garage sales, bake sales, raffles, etc. to help family members that might not be able to attend otherwise. However, we will not sacrifice tradition.

– Pat Parker – patriciaparker@yahoo.com

 

Just click on the the 2011 Event Info tab at the top of the page for full details.

 

New Genealogy Research


Hi family, I have some exciting news to share with you. In researching our family tree through the Federal census from 1870 to 1930, I found some new branches to the tree. I found that our oldest known Brown (Henry Brown) had a father and mother Joseph and Adline brown as well as four brother and three sisters.
Also Henry had three older daughter Stella, Bessie and Mary and three Grand children before he was married to Annie. There are many other relatives and Military document that have been uncovered. I have provided links to download copies of the census forms and Military draft cards from WWI and WWII. I have color coded in green newly found family members and coded in Red family connections that I need more time to research and verify.
Just click on the new link mark Genealogy to browses through the new family information.

2010 Reunion pictures are up with more to come!

Group

If you didn’t make it to this years’ reunion in California you missed a great time. I have posted over a hundred pictures documenting our activities for your enjoyment. If you have any pictures you would like to add like the meet and greet night in particular. Please send pictures to me at brownfamilyreunion.org@gmail.com or  mrjamesconner@gmail.com . Soon I will be posting some video clips from the reunion as soon as I finish sifting through five days of video. I have also put together a family tree that I will post soon. I’m trying to fill in a few gaps in the information I have. So expect to hear from me soon with family history questions. Any help with this project would be greatly appreciated.

I would like to send a special thanks to Otis Brown, Betty Douglas and all those who played a part in planning a great reunion. To all those who selected a pen pal, lets follow through on a great and important idea. I hope to see all of you in Ohio (2011).

Brown Family Reunion 2010 Update !!!!!

Dear Family,

Mark your calenders! It’s time again in 2010 for an awesome family reunion. Let’s get prepared to celebrate our Brown Family legacy & have a fabulous time together. If you haven’t attended a reunion in the past you really don’t want to miss this one. This reunion will be a treat to remember. We hope, for every family member’s attendance because your presence at the reunion is important. This is a great opportunity for family who haven’t met, to meet each other.  We will have delicious food, exciting activities and lots of fun and games for all ages. Check out the tag marked 2010 Event Info for more details.

ATTENTION FAMILY: The Reunion letter that was mailed listed the website at www.brownfamilyreunion.com instead of .org.  Please help spread the word.