A number of family members have asked how the Rhode Island Larkins and the rest of us happened upon each other and how the idea of a family gathering got started. This is the story of how it all came about..

Buoys in Cyberspace

In the early days of the Internet I came across a couple of genealogy sites that had message boards. I'd always had (with some reason) a notion that my father and uncle had been, in their younger days, pretty colorful characters (read revolutionaries) back in Ireland during the Revolution. For this and other less adventurous and derring-do reasons, it occurred to me that there might be someone out there in cyberspace who had some recollection of them.

So I hung out a few "missing persons" signs as it were. Over the years, I'd check back at the sites to make sure my "cyberspace buoys" were still in place and to see if there were any likely prospects.

Most of the early sites are gone now. Roots.com, for example, went out of business and the domain is now owned by a Canadian clothing store. Genealogy.com is one of the few useful, general sites that as of this writing is still up (and still sending its junk mail).

The Larkin Genealogy Forum is another and it was there that I posted one of my missing persons signs. The last message was update June 01, 2001.

Family Gathering Idea

For years, Kathi has entertained the notion of a family get together but until very recently, aside from Aunt Maureen, there was not a whole lot of interest. But I did get the sense that families were becoming a bit more interested, so in June, 2001 I set up CyberLarkins with the idea of making it easier for us to get to know one another -- and to locate some family members with whom I at least had not been in touch for a long time.

Eureka!

Then, just last November (believe it!), from out of the blue, into my emailbox popped a message with this date: At 08:45 AM 11/1/2001 -0800. It was a note from Tracy Larkin Cole who had been searching for relatives and had spotted my cyberspace buoy.

"Hello," Tracy began, "I am very excited to come across your posting. I have been searching for my grandfather Charles Joseph Larkin for over a year now."

You know the rest of the story. Kathi, Caitlin, Aunt Maureen, and Tracy Larkin-Thomason in particular immediately embraced the idea of a family get together and suddenly, the Larkin Family Convocation 2002 was an event waiting to happen.

Love to all,

Dad / Granddad / Unc / Uncle Brian / BigBro / Brother / Cousin / BJL / Other