Back during the fall/winter of 1991-1992 your webmaster was contacted by two distant cousins connecting through our Smith ancestry. Our common ancestors were Jonathan Smith and Jane Hollingsworth, my great (4x) grandparents, whom I hadn't known about previously. I didn't know anything prior to their son Hiram J. which I got from old Bible records. The two cousins were Rosemary (Smith) Stout and Lynn (Gilbert) Dougherty.

Through their research it opened up additional ancestry back to the Hollingsworth, Parkins and other related families. Hiram's daughter Rebecca Jane Smith married Joseph Steer Robinson and are my great (2x) grandparents. I was already aware I had Hollingsworth & Parkins ancestry through Grandpa Joseph as he descended through Abraham Hollingsworth, of Abram's Delight, through his son Isaac who married Rachel Parkins, daughter of Isaac Parkins. This made Joseph and Rebecca 4th cousins.

Initially it was proposed to me that we should have some kind of Smith reunion bringing together descendants of Jonathan and Jane Hollingsworth Smith. I then suggested why not just make it a Valentine Hollingsworth Reunion and include related families like Steer and others. This would cover a large swath of the families I was connected to through my grandmother, Mary Robinson McKay.

I was in my 20s at the time and had gotten into genealogy at a very early age as compared to other people. Both Rosemary and Lynn were a good bit older than I was. I was well aware of the McKay connection through the reunions and Cousin Dee Ann Buck's work but I wanted to establish something for my grandmother's side. This is where the Steer Genealogy part of the website comes in. It represents the central collection on that side of the family.

We held a couple of meetings over the next few months to lay out plans for the gathering. I am not sure if I was the one who proposed that we have a picnic but that ended up being the direction we went with. I probably proposed that idea because I had been to the Collett-McKay Picnic in Clinton County, Ohio in 1990 and figured that would be the best option.

The location of Abram's Delight was selected. The curators of Abram's Delight were more than thrilled we were doing this and were happy to help in any way they could. They provided us with their visitors guest book containing the names and addresses of various Hollingsworth descendants who had visited over the years. I had added to the list, various Steer Genealogy contacts I had from gathering family information. Rosemary and Lynn both provided names and addresses from their contact lists. As a result, a master list was put together and stored on my, now ancient, Apple IIe computer on a floppy disc.

A letter was put together explaining about the reunion with the date of Saturday, July 11, 1992 was selected and sent out to the entire list. The response was tremendous. Overall it was said 180 people attended.

At the writing of this, Friday, 30 August 2024, I have become aware that both Rosemary and Lynn have passed away, leaving me as the only one left of the original crew.

To see another account of that day, click on this link. From there you can see more information about the Descendants of Valentine Hollingsworth Sr. Society which emerged from those early reunions as well as additional reunions that were held later.