2007 Family Reunion Information

***This Post will remain at the top of the list. As information is made available it will be posted here. Please scroll down for the latest and greatest from the planners desk bellow.***

Official Information regarding Miller Family Reunion 2007

The 2007 Family Reunion is currently scheduled for June, 22-25 2007 in Colorado Springs At The Hampton Inn - Interquest Park 719-598-6911

More specific hotel information can be found here.

If you want to volunteer (hint, hint, nudge, nudge), go here.

Reunion Agenda and Food Information

Friday, 22 June 2007
Hotel Check In
Check in family reunion hospitality room
Get hospitality bags with reunion information
Buy food tickets
6:00 pm Light finger foods/snacks provided
Family Updates
Ancestor Bingo
Kids swim with supervision (hiring babysitters)

Saturday, 23 June 2007
7:30 am Golf Tournament Tee Time
Hourly Casino buses available to go to Cripple Creek
Sight-Seeing on your own
5:30 pm BBQ at Rock Ledge Ranch
Approximate cost $10 per person ($5.00 under 10)
BBQ sandwich
2 sides
Dessert
Drink
6:30-8:30 pm
Square Dance & Music

Sunday, 24 June 2007
10:00 am Non-denominational Service at Garden of the Gods
11:00 am Picnic at Garden of the Gods
-Bring enough food and drink for your family and one other person
6:00 pm Carabba’s catered to the hotel
Approximate cost $12 per person ($6.00 under 10)
Penne pasta with alfredo sauce and chicken
- OR-
Penne pasta with meat sauce
Caesar Salad
Drink & Dessert
Traditional Bingo and Visiting with Family

MILLER FAMILY REUNION GOLF TOURNAMENT

Hi to everyone!

We need non refundable commitments and an exact head count on how many players we are going to have? Please respond to Chris or David Colling ASAP, with the number of your family members who will be golfing. We also would like you to give us your average score for 18 holes so we can match everyone up for teams.

We have decided on the golf course for the Miller Reunion Tournament. We are going to be playing at:

Gleneagle Golf Club

345 Mission Hill Way

Colorado Springs, CO 80921

719-488-0900

http://www.gleneaglegolfclub.com/layout9.asp?id=433&page=25812

Follow the link above for a course layout of each hole, and links to other course information. It is very close to our hotel. It will be a Shotgun start at 7:30 AM on Saturday June 23, 2007. It's a public established course with great views and wide fairways and big greens, so it should be fun for golfers of all playing skills. Don Colling will be putting teams together, based on handicaps, or lack there of, like me! Cost for the tournament will be $60.00 per person, which includes range balls, cart and golf. It will be a best ball scramble format, with each person hitting and then everyone moving to the best shot for the next shot. There will be five (5) prize holes; Best Drive-Men; Best Drive- Women; Closest to the Pin-Men; Closest to the Pin -Women; and Longest Putt-Men & Women Combined.

The course has rental clubs available, but it would be a good idea to reserve them in advance at 719-488-0900.

The shotgun start should allow us all to finish within the same time frame, so we can have a little lunch and awards banquet around noon, still allowing time for us to return to our rooms for rest and clean up prior to the evenings activities which I believe dinner is at 4-5pm?

Email me with any additional questions, and or players names at dcolling@pitman.com.

We look forward to seeing you all on the links in Colorado!!

Family Reunion Update

1 March 2007

Spring is in the air and our family reunion is quickly approaching. Thought you would appreciate an update. We now have 41 rooms reserved. The hotel is excited with the response we have received.

Tentatively we are working on a golf tournament, barn dance (with square dance caller and fiddles), a non-denominational service at the Garden of the Gods followed by a picnic, ancestor bingo and traditional bingo events. This isn't the order of events, but just to give you an idea of the events that are being planned.

The catered meals under consideration are italian and bbq. Events will start Friday night and conclude Sunday night.

Please bring your dancing shoes and appropriate barn dance attire! We have rented a barn at a living history farm so that will take you can experience the social life of Chris Miller's era. Hiking/picnic attire would be a smart bet for the Sunday afternoon picnic. Bring your folding chairs if you are driving!!

Tax time slowed me down so I'm still taking any pictures you want to add to the family tree or think would be fun for the ancestor bingo game!!

Ideas are always appreciated!! Additionally, we can use items for "door prizes" and other "prize" events. If you have something to add to the welcome package (little "give aways"); let me know! Looking forward to seeing you all in Colorado!!

Family Reunion Update

1 March 2007

Spring is in the air and our family reunion is quickly approaching. Thought you would appreciate an update. We now have 41 rooms reserved. The hotel is excited with the response we have received.

Tentatively we are working on a golf tournament, barn dance (with square dance caller and fiddles), a non-denominational service at the Garden of the Gods followed by a picnic, ancestor bingo and traditional bingo events. This isn't the order of events, but just to give you an idea of the events that are being planned.

The catered meals under consideration are italian and bbq. Events will start Friday night and conclude Sunday night.

Please bring your dancing shoes and appropriate barn dance attire! We have rented a barn at a living history farm so that will take you can experience the social life of Chris Miller's era. Hiking/picnic attire would be a smart bet for the Sunday afternoon picnic. Bring your folding chairs if you are driving!!

Tax time slowed me down so I'm still taking any pictures you want to add to the family tree or think would be fun for the ancestor bingo game!!

Ideas are always appreciated!! Additionally, we can use items for "door prizes" and other "prize" events. If you have something to add to the welcome package (little "give aways"); let me know! Looking forward to seeing you all in Colorado!!

Reunion Information Update

Hello All! You should have received your newsletter by now.

I'm in the process of finishing up the family tree and wanted to share a few more statistics with you. According to the program I am using (it is far from complete), our family tree has 755 members, 277 marriages, an average lifespan of 58 years and 7 months, the earliest birth date is 15 Aug 1743, 12 generations and a total of 281 surnames. If you wish to add pictures, change the picture that I currently have, add birth dates, death dates, etc, you MUST get the information to me by 15 February. After that date I will be in a publishing mode and not making any additional changes.

Please understand that this product will have mistakes in it. It will have pictures you do not like. If you do not provide me the information I cannot change it. Your participation is vital to making this a product our children can laugh at and learn from someday!!

I have only received 2 letters back as undeliverable. If you would add me to your list of people to contact when you move I'll try to keep our address list updated until someone else takes this task on!!

If you know of something you want to do while in Colorado Springs, please let me know and we will try to add it to the agenda for the reunion. Looking forward to having you all here!!

You can contact me via mitnikt1@aol.com or mail to 1147 Meadow Oaks Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80921 or call 719-640-4510.

Kate & Chris Miller Descendents

Of eight children one is alive today and seven have passed away. There are 42 grandchildren of which 30 are alive, 12 have passed on. 90 of 95 great grand children are living. There are 88 great great grand children and 20 great great great grandkids. In addition, there may be a few more great great great grandkids not accounted for yet. That's 253 descendents of which 229 are with us today. God bless the 24 that aren't with us anymore and the many new generations that are to come.

Update: Thanks to June for pointing out that I had transposed the numbers of grandkids. I have fixed it above.

From the Bowels of The Earth

Since we are relatively close to next year's reunion location, we took it upon ourselves to "sacrifice" a weekend and check out one of Colorado Springs' attractions.....

P.S. I don't like to use real names 'cause I'm a parinoied freak about protecting my kids. Sorry.

Whew, finally in Mom's arms.

We went on a journey into the Earth last weekend. I lobbied pretty heavily to go; I love caves and being down in the earth. Apparently, My Youngest disagrees. Hopefully I’ve not made him claustrophobic. His favorite word of the journey was no, heard almost in an uninterruptible stream, especially when they turned out the lights. I was in the very back of the crowd in a long corridor; I had an inkling of what was about to happen. I wanted to distance myself from the others as best I could. It got a little darker as they turned on the simulated lanterns used in the old days and turned off the modern lighting. “No, no lights off. No lights off.”

Then, it got under the Earth dark. “NO NOO NOOOOOOOO! NO LIGHTS OFF!” I tried my best to calm him to no avail. Our Youngest kept yelling. I couldn’t hear a thing the tour guide said. Though she tried valiantly, picking her volume up over the sound of my child, I only heard her when he was taking a breath to fill his lungs for more no’s.

Suck it in!

You can't tell, but I am carryng Yoda through this narrow opening. Not once did his feet touch the ground durring the hour long tour.

Thanks for keeping an eye on me.

Fortunately, we went with some cousins of ours that live near the cave. They kept an eye on Our Eldest, so I didn’t have to worry about him too. Despite having to carry Our Youngest through the whole cave system I enjoyed myself a lot. The best part for the kids was the souvenir shop. Hopefully that will be the memory Our Youngest takes away from our excursion into the Earth, or it may be a while before I get to go back and see the buried treasure in the bowels of the Earth…

Modern Day McCook Citizen

Siggy and Walter Bell on their wedding day

Reprinted from the McCook Daily Gazette:

The power of a mother's love
Walt Sehnert
Monday, November 6, 2006

In this column we frequently refer to the courage of the early pioneers to this region -- of the sacrifices they endured to carve out a living on the prairie. These were equal opportunity hardships that spared none, but we can imagine that the women went through particularly difficult times in their attempts to keep their families safe and together under those adverse conditions.
Today we take a look at the wartime experiences of another family, that of a modern day McCook citizen, Siegrid (Siggy) Wilmot (Mrs. Duane). Siggy was born at the time Hitler's German Army invaded Poland (1938) in a suburb of Breslau, Germany (roughly the size of Omaha and the principal city of the Silesia region of Eastern Germany).
Siggy's father, Reinhard Ringel worked in various phases of the building industry to support his wife, Erna, and two children, Siegrid, and her brother, Arnfried, who was four years her senior. By the time Siggy celebrated her third birthday her father had been drafted into the German Army, and had been captured by the French.
Erna and her two children had lost touch with him and could only hope that he was still alive. For the next seven years, until 1948, Erna, against long odds, kept Siggy and her brother, Arnfried, together, safe and nourished, through the Hitler regime, through the Russian occupation of her home region, until the family was at last united in West Germany.
As the war progressed, Breslau became the target for mass bombings. Mrs. Ringel and her two children, along with a sister-in-law and her daughter, fled to stay with relatives in Czechoslovakia. Here they were taken in by a relative who was the proprietor of a rather large "Bed and Breakfast" operation.
This proved to be a very poor place to be. The refugees had not been there very long when Ziggy's cousin, a girl of perhaps 10 years was kidnapped by one of the Russian soldiers who controlled the village.
The girl's mother was beside herself with fright and pleaded at length with the soldier to release her daughter, to no avail. It was then that the relative, who managed the Bed and Breakfast, invited the soldiers into his establishment and plied them with beer and wine. It was only when the soldiers were inattentive from too much liquor that the mothers got the little girl away from the men.
For some months the two women and their children took refuge in the Bed and Breakfast, in a small room hidden from view by a large display case. Here their relative brought them food. Only at night were they allowed freedom from their dingy quarters, and then for only short periods of time. Days and nights were long. The children were forced to remain quiet, for fear of being discovered. There were no books. There were no toys for the children's play.
In spite of these hardships, Erna was invariably upbeat and optimistic with her children, making them feel that they were participating in a great game. (This is a trait, which Siggy inherited and exhibits to this day.) Erna had long hair, which she combed at night.
To provide diversion for the children she broke her comb in half, giving one half to each child, and allowed each child to comb her hair, and then braid it endlessly. As children are want to do, they quarreled, each thinking that the other was taking more than his half of the mother's hair to comb.
Toward the end of the war orders came for the German children to be sent to either Sweden or Switzerland. Erna would not hear of it. She felt that if they were separated there would be no chance to ever be reunited. Instead, Erna decided to return with her children to their home in Breslau -- the place where their father would surely come to look for them.
With no transportation, they had to walk, with the many thousands of other displaced persons. The journey back took more than two weeks. What they found there was a very different place from the one from which they had left.
Breslau was no longer in Germany. The Allies, in their wisdom, had taken a narrow strip of Silesia, Germany including the city of Breslau, and made it part of Poland. Breslau was renamed, Wroclaw, Poland. Germans were no longer welcome in the city, and had left Breslau in droves, to be replaced by incoming Poles.
Miraculously, the Ringel home, in a large apartment complex was still there, the only building in the area still standing. What is more, the Ringel apartment in the building was unoccupied, though it had been stripped of furniture and furnishings. The reason it was unoccupied, they soon saw, was that there was a large bomb in their living room. The bomb had penetrated through two brick walls, but somehow had not exploded. The occupants of the complex were civilians and no one knew how to defuse the bomb. Erna and the children lived in the flat -- with the bomb! -- for sometime before soldier technicians came to the apartment, defused the bomb and took it away.
The Ringels set up their home in their old apartment, but life was not good. Erna tried to resume her work as a milliner, but there was little work for her. The Germans were still considered the enemy by the Poles -- though it was through the kindness of a Polish woman in their building, who left food outside their door almost every day, that they were able to live.
To Siggy and her brother, soldiers were soldiers. They did not distinguish between the German soldiers, whom they had been accustomed to seeing, and the new Russian soldiers, who had replaced them. One day, when their mother was gone, they went to the street to watch soldiers parade past. As they had seen others do before, they gave the soldiers their best German salute and shouted Heil Hitler. Just then Erna came home and led them away -- "What are you doing? Do you want to have us shot?"
Erna felt that their days in Breslau (Wroclaw) were numbered and each night instructed the children to be prepared to leave on a moment's notice -- to put on all the clothing that they could possibly wear, and pick up the family's few treasures. The fateful day arrived. Soldiers went through the building, commanding all the Germans to leave immediately. They were going to seal the apartment. No one could go back in.
When Erna returned the children were standing on the sidewalk, shivering in the cold. Arnfried was enough older that he had understood the reason for the instructions. Siggy did not. He was dressed as his mother had instructed, but had been unable to compel Siggy to do the same. She had not brought a coat, nor shoes -- she was only concerned with saving her Teddy Bear.
Mrs. Ringel was appalled. She started into the building for warm clothes and shoes for Siggy, but was blocked by a guard with a rifle. Pleading with the guard did no good.
Finally, she brushed past him, saying, "I will not leave here without shoes for my child. Shoot me in you must, but then, you take care of my children!" The guard let her pass.
The Ringels were herded into freight cars and transported to northern Germany, into the zone controlled by the English. The journey was hard. A child, whom they did not know, died of the cold clutched in her mother's arms, but Erna, with constant encouragement and hugs, was able to keep her children, Siggy and Arnfried, alive.
In the English Zone, Erna was able to work, making hats. The children resumed their schooling and the family fared reasonably well for the next three years. In 1948, Reinhard, through the efforts of the Red Cross, was able to reunite his family in Frankfurt, where Siggy remained until she immigrated to America.

This modern day McCook citizen was brought to the United States by her new husband Walter Bell (son of Violet Miller)!

Violet, Ralph & Dorothy

Violet, Ralph & Dorothy Miller 1926

Chris Miller's Farm

The Farm

Out Back

Here are a few from my collection, I'll post more soon.

Violet Bell's Children

Here is the first photo sent in to post! Pictured here are Violet's children: Virginia, Walter, Delores, Patricia, June, Linda and Clyde. If someone knows their order of appearance, leave a comment and I'll update the picture.

Start digging through those old photographs and scan them in. Let's get some more up here.

Hotel Information

Here is some information regarding the Hampton Inn we will be staying at. It's the Interquest park Hampton, across from the Air Force academy. Their number is 719-598-6911. Their address is 1370 Republic Drive.

For their website, Click Here


Hotel Specifics:

1. Ask for the Miller Family Reunion. The hotel originally had it listed as "Mitnik".

2. Check in 22 June; Check out on 25 June 2007.

3. Most standard rooms are king or double queen. The rate for these rooms is $75 per night. You may put 4 people in each room. A 5th may be added for an extra $10. No more than 5 can be in a room due to safety issues.

4. There ae some king suites available at $99 per night. The suite is a larger room with a sofa sleeper, chair and ottoman, and wet bar.

5. You MUST make your reservation prior to 1 May or you will be charged the regular rate.

6. We will have use of the conference room and limited kitchen access (mainly storage).

7. Click Here and you will see the hotel pictures.

8. Telephone number is 719-598-6911.

9. Hotel address is:
1307 Republic Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80921 this is the north end of town, 5 miles from Monument, Colorado and directly east of the Air Force Academy.

10. Features/Amenities
Free high speed internet (Woo hoo!)
free hot breakfast
40 ft indoor pool with lap lane
outdoor hot tub
large exercise room overlooking pool
business center with PCs & Copier
free USA Today in lobby
guest laundry
microwave and refrigerator in each room
Cloud 9 bed with Douvet cover
granite countertops in bathrooms
marble in tubs/showers

Miller Family Reunion

Miller Family Reunion

The 2007 Reunion will be held 22-25 June 2007. We had to move up a day to accommodate the Hampton Inn. The Hampton is brand new and very eager to host their first family reunion. Mark your calendars now!!

Things to do

I have added a link to the The Official Site of the Colorado Springs Convention & Visitors Bureau. It is over there on the right side. I will be adding more links as we gather them. For those of you who have blogs of your own or other interesting links leave me a comment and I'll post a link.

Join a Committee!!

Looking for Committee Members for the following Committees:

Scrapbook Event
Decorations
Golf Tournament
Reception
Bingo
Tourist Information packages
Kid Activities
Transportation
Catering
Prizes
Hospitality Items

First Post

Welcome to the Miller family Blog. Look for important information to follow concerning the upcoming reunion in 2007.