by The Editor

Q. What interested you in the family association, Gerald?

Curiosity. We received a mailing from Springfield. It seemed credible and I could tell that a lot of work had gone into it. I could tell that things were not just thrown together. Dad and I talked and said, "Hey, we want to see what is going on here." We knew some of the family settled in the Springfield area, but we had never had any contact with them

Q. What is your evaluation of the 1995 reunion?

I was very pleased with the reunion and honored to be elected President. I had never thought of being selected to be President, but I wanted to see the association move forward. I wouldn't want it on my conscience to turn it down. I want to help the association grow. I see the new people coming who want to know what it going on. I see that some of the young people who came forward. 1 see those things come out of the 95 reunion. We can build on that. We can have the people come and get involved who want to come to meet their cousins. We need the people who want to come and do the research. The rest of us who don't have the time to do that can support their efforts. I saw a good cross section of people. We have a good solid base. They are committed. Everything was just excellent.

Q. What direction would you like to see the family association take in the next four or five years?

I would like to see us be able to first keep Springfield as our base. It is kind of like where you are born. It is where we originated. It should remain our home base. I see us widening our base by meeting in other states like Arkansas and North Carolina. We have our local family trees. We can get those to our historian, Ed Stout. We can let the family tree become as full as possible. I am working on my grandfather and his family. I am looking for all of us to work with our families and get them to a central point to build the family tree. The next thing is our young people who will carry this thing forward. Many of us are not as young as we used to be, I am 50. We need young people to carry on. We can build this in our young people. They can come back to it later in life and keep the family tree going.

We need to build a local mailing list in Arkansas and other local areas. We need to get local people involved in North Central Ark. The same is true for other areas. They may not make a meeting in Springfield. They can get the newsletter and share their family information. There is interest which needs to be cultivated. The mailings help. I know it is what got me started.