Hunnisett Family History

'Hunnisett' Family Gathering

Saturday 23^rd July 2005
Windmill Hill Tennis & Golf Academy, Sussex

In September 2004 Joanne Becker, who lives in New York but has relatives in the Herstmonceux area, came to England to visit family and do some research. During her visit eight of us met for dinner at the Yew Tree in Arlington and the idea of a family gathering was born. So this year invitations were sent out to lots of 'Hunnisett' researchers and Joanne booked the Windmill Hill Tennis and Golf Academy for the afternoon of Saturday 23^rd July. In the end about 75 people turned up, most of whom are pictured below (photo by Andrew Friend). Very few had met up before although some had been in contact with each other in the course of their research. I printed off a set of colour-coded name tags and created a simplified chart showing how everybody was related. About 90% were either descended from the main tree or married to someone who was!

As we arrived everyone was given their name badge and then we congregated at the pool-side bar and as it was such a lovely day we were able to sit outside around the pool or inside in the shade. Everyone mingled and began to find other people who were descended from the same branch of the family, charts were compared, photographs pored over and information swapped. People met up with other researchers they had sometimes been corresponding with for years but never met before.

We then moved into the dining hall for a buffet lunch and coffee, following which Joanne and I said a few words and then we all went outside to have the group photo taken. After that we continued to mingle for a while until, all too soon, it was time to break up the party and go home. Everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy the day and the feedback we got was very positive.

Our thanks go to Gary, Manfred and the rest of the staff of Windmill Hill who made us feel very welcome, took care of all the registration procedure and provided us with an absolutely first-class buffet lunch.

Below the photograph is a key identifying all the people.