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We have held two Crye Genealogy Conferences/Get-Togethers at my home in La Crosse, Wisconsin. The first was the result of a planned Spring meeting between Irene Morgan and me that simply grew (like Topsy) as prior knowledge of it spread to other interested Crye researchers via the internet. And the second occurred as a result of the fun we had at the first meeting and the desire of all participants to "do it again" when Irene returned in the Fall.

I have been corresponding via the internet with most of the conference attendees (particularly Irene Morgan) for about a year as we cooperated in our efforts to document and develope the pedigree of our common Crye ancestors. We were greatly aided in this effort by the remarkable work done by Anita Green who published the first issue of the Crye Family Newsletter in mid-winter and followed with Volume 2 in late Spring. The latter appeared just in time for our first conference on 21 May.

Attendees at the May meeting (all except Irene were from various parts of Wisconsin) included myself, Molly Sorlie, her mother Esther Lightfoot, and Steve Emerson (descendants of John and Edith Davis Crye) plus Irene Morgan and Ed Morgan (descendants of Cinthay Ann Crye and Adam Smith). We spent a morning of lively discussion and sharing, followed by lunch at a nearby restaurant, more sharing in the afternoon and a visit to the UW-La Crosse Area Research Center, (an extension of the Wisconsin Historical Society) for some pick and spade research. We parted vowing to "do it again".

The second conference on 22 Aug was scheduled to coincide with Irene's visit with her cousin Ed Morgan who also lives here in La Crosse. Irene lives in Virginia and gets to Wisconsin only once or twice a year. Attendees at the August conference included myself, Steve Emerson, Irene Morgan and Ed Morgan from the previous meeting with new additions: MeriKate Morgan (Irene's sister), plus Faye Crye, his son James Crye (descendants of Zachariah Crye and Mary Bowman), and Bertha Yeomans (also a descendant of Cinthay Ann Crye/Adam Smith). Included among a crowd of accompanying observers who appeared somewhat bemused at the strange delight of their genealogy enthusiasts/kinfolk were several accompanying spouses, a mother and a sister - all of whom were becoming noticeably weary of our seemingly endless discourse. But we just ignored them and plowed through session after session of reports, discussion and data exchanges. What fun!! And thanks to the efforts of Steve Emerson, who photographed all the individual photos that everyone else brought, we hope to have and distribute a complete collection of old snap shots and portraits from the family history.

While we were obviously interested in (and discussed) the entire Crye line going back thru Indiana, the Carolinas, Pennsylvania, the Isle of Man and Scotland; the primary focus of most of our discussions was on the family and descendants of Joseph (1789-1860) and Anna Crye, since they were our latest common ancestors. Within that area we made a lot of progress and were able to exchange a great deal of information. But there is quite obviously a lot more to learn, not to mention several mysteries to solve. We hope to expand our efforts by continued e-mail contact and possibly through another meeting next summer.

Mike Shaver
La Crosse, Wisconsin