Thank you for Gravely reunion

Dear Editor,

Thank you for your generous coverage of the multi-state Gravely reunion that we had to miss when I was hospitalized with sepsis on July 20.

I was able to connect on Zoom for the last hour of the event and greet some relatives.

Genealogy is not everyone’s cup of tea, but it can yield interesting stories.

In 1820, for example, the migrating relative from Virginia, John Gravely Sr. (married to Margaret “Peggy” Ballenger) and son, John Jr., signed a petition to the Pendleton District Grand Jury complaining about “peddlers and hawkers” wandering the countryside.

My uncle Horace began family history searches and was intent on connecting with English Gravelys, but was lost at sea Feb. 7, 1943. My father Marvin had similar interest, in part because he knew into his twenties his grandfather Ballenger, born in 1828!

PHS history teacher Lucille Hallum said frequently, “We are what we are because we have been what we have been.”

Will Gravely

Littleton, Colo.