MAULE FAMILY NEWSLETTER
Vol. VII, No. 2
December, 1986
*** 1986 REUNION REPORT ***
On September 6, 1986, about 36 Maule cousins gathered at
Sadsbury Monthly Meeting in Chester County for the 1986 Maule
Family Reunion. The weather was ideal, and after enjoying a picnic
lunch and interesting conversations, those in attendance were
treated to several delightful presentations. Mary Louise Maule
told us about the history of the Meeting and the Maule connection
to it, and described the history of the meetinghouse. Virginia
Trexler brought a collection of photographs mounted on a large
posterboard; the photographs portrayed places and things in
Scotland pertaining to the early history of the Maule family.
Virginia described the circumstances surrounding some of the
pictures, and made the collection available for inspection by
those in attendance. Several cousins came from rather great
distances, such as Cincinnati, Ohio, Moultrie, Georgia, and
Sterling, Virginia.
On September 13, 1986, the descendants of Randolph A. Maule
held their fourth annual reunion, at the Mayfair Athletic Club in
northeast Philadelphia, Pa. At least 70 people attended; I don't
think anyone made an actual count. Everyone had an opportunity to
see cousins that they hadn't seen since the previous reunion and to
meet the babies most recently joining the family. My understanding
is that the Randolph A. Maule reunion will be held again in early
September 1987.
NEW NEWSLETTER DATE
This newsletter is not late. I am changing the dates from April and
October to January and June, by gradually changing the length of
time between issues. See the items inside concerning the reasons
for the change and the question of how often the NEWSLETTER should
or can be published.
*** REUNION PLANS ***
I would welcome your comments concerning the biennial Maule
Family Reunion. Those of you who have been on the mailing list
since 1978 are aware that the attendance has dropped steadily from
at least 100 persons in 1978 to 36 people in 1986. The location has
been rotated from one geographic area to another, but many people
who request a shift in the location do not attend even when the
location is near their residence. Here are some questions that I
have:
- (1) Is a biennial reunion too frequent? Should it be held
every three or five years?
- (2) Has the novelty of reunions and genealogy worn thin?
- (3) Are the reunion programs too boring or of too little
interest? Should we adopt the approach of some families and meet
for a week or weekend at a resort where there are recreational
activities available?
- (4) Is the timing of the reunions (they have been held in
July and in September) inappropriate?
- (5) Who should make the decisions? Should there be a
Reunion Committee? Should there be a more formal Maule Family
Association similar to associations formed by other families?
- (6) Was the notice in the April 1986 newsletter too "soon",
leading people to forget that the reunion had been scheduled? (This
is one of the reasons that I have shifted the dates of the
newsletter.)
Your comments are more than welcome; they are desperately needed.
I would appreciate your help, because frankly I am not comfortable
making decisions unilaterally and I am not certain that there is an
effective mechanism for determining the sentiments of people who
have ideas about the details of the Reunion planning.
*** CURRENT STATUS OF FAMILY PROJECTS ***
As described in the preceding newsletter, I was trying to put
the 800 pages of the book onto my word processing system. At
present, the pages describing the descendants of Thomas Maule of
Salem, Mass., are on the computer. I have not yet had time to add
the information that I have received or discovered since 1981; my
teaching and publishing schedule has been hectic, because of the
new tax law and the death of one of my colleagues. I also have been
spending time with Susan and the children, so many of the
genealogical tasks have been set to the side until my professional
life eases up in the spring and summer. It may be late 1987 or even
1988 before I can send to each person a sheet showing his or her
entry (and entries for parents, children, etc.) for proofing and
updating. Then I will focus on publishing a supplement or a second
edition. All of this will take time, and it will almost certainly
be near the end of the decade before it is ready.
As a test of the new indexing and publishing process that
eventually will be used for a revised or supplemented MAULE
genealogy, and because I thought it would be a good idea, I
published a genealogy of the descendants of my mother's
grandparents. It is relatively small and provided a manageable
group of information for checking the system. Fortunately, my
mother, aunt and their cousin gathered the information and
pictures, leaving me with only the publishing. Much of the
information had been placed on the computer in 1985 when I was
testing the old computer system. The good news is that the next
MAULE book will be a very good-looking book.
As I mentioned in the last newsletter, the picture collection
must be updated. It is clear from my experience with my mother's
genealogy that risks of mistakes increase when everything must be
reset to accommodate pictures that arrive at the last minute from
people who somehow didn't realize that pictures were needed. With
a family the size of ours, I have visions of hundreds of pictures
arriving in 1989 (or whenever) moments before the book goes to the
printer. It will be easier to begin accumulating pictures sooner
rather than later.
What should be done is a listing of all of us, with a check mark
next to those whose pictures appear in the book or have since been
sent since 1981. Then, each person without a check mark needs to be
contacted for a picture. Frankly, I don't have time to do this. If
anyone would like to pursue this task, please let me know.
Otherwise, we will simply use whatever pictures each of you chooses
to provide.
As I mentioned in the last newsletter, I have written computer
programs to index the names. I have now developed a way to include
page numbers. I no longer need to alter my commercially prepared
word processing program to permit inclusion of more than 120 pages
of information in one "file" (which forces me to jump from file to
file and that is time consuming), because I have a new and more
useful Word Processing program that includes everything in one
file. Guess how many characters (letters, numbers, spaces, tabs,
etc.) there are in the 1981 version of the Thomas Maule
descendants? More than 1,000,000!!
In the October 1985 newsletter I published a list of people in
the post-1940 generations about whom updated information is needed.
I received a dozen replies (thank you for the help), but there are
hundreds of you who still have not replied. I cannot do anything
until you reply because public records and libraries do not usually
contain available information on people born after 1940.
In the April 1986 newsletter, I published the missing branch
list. A missing branch is a situation in which I have not been able
to completely trace or fill in information on the descendants of a
Maule cousin down to at least 1950. I should also point out that I
have made contact with cousins in some of these branches but that
all I know is that they belong to the branch. THERE ARE CURRENTLY
OUTSTANDING MORE THAN 200 LETTERS REQUESTING INFORMATION THAT I
HAVE SENT SINE 1983. Since April, I received three replies. There
are times when I begin to wonder what I have done that I shouldn't
have done or haven't done that I should have done, but again, I
(and the completeness and accuracy of the next book) are at the
mercy of your decision to reply or not to reply.
*** THE NEWSLETTER'S FUTURE ***
Originally, the newsletter served as a vehicle to deliver
reunion reports and reunion notices. I then appended requests for
help, names of "missing" cousins, and other messages that I found
easier to send to everyone in one mailing rather than individually.
(This was an aspect of my inability to continue one-on-one
correspondence as much as I would like to do.) Thereafter, I began
to include information that supplemented the book. However, the
volume of that information made supplementation via a newsletter
very inefficient (and of little interest to those who had not
purchased the book).
Now, my question for you is this: what sorts of things do you
want to include in the newsletter? I don't mind typing and editing
it, but I would enjoy seeing other authors' material in it. I don't
believe in filling it with information just for the sake of filling
it; not when it costs almost $250 to photocopy and mail an issue.
Should it be published just once a year? Only as a Reunion notice
and report? Should it be discontinued after two more issues when
the newsletter fund (now at less than $500) runs out?
In this issue I have included part of the MAULE Directory (it
doesn't fit into one newsletter. The May 1987 newsletter will
contain the second part). You must decide what will be in the
following issue and when it should be published.
*** MAULE DIRECTORY: PART I***
Although the mailing list is not available to anyone else (because
it is of little interest to outsiders anyway), I have decided to
include it in the newsletter because many of the addresses in the
1981 book are obsolete. I think that this directory will be of
interest to you. PLEASE TELL ME OF ANY OMISSIONS OR MISTAKES. I
continue my plans to REFRAIN FROM SELLING it or making it available
to anyone else.
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