On a bitterly cold and windswept day in central London fourteen people gathered for the annual Craxford family get together. The chosen venue was the Montague Restaurant at the Churchill Hyatt Regency Hotel in Portman Square. Lunch was served from a set three course menu providing a choice that suited every taste and palate. It was accompanied by wine and rounded off with tea and coffee. This page is a photographic record of the day.

This was the second such event (the first being a much more tentative meeting at Christmas 2004) and drew representatives from three distinct family lines, all of whom shared great, great, great, great grandparents – John Craxford (born 1733) and Mary Woodcock of Gretton, Northampton. The relationships between us ranged from first to fifth cousins and for several it was an opportunity to meet another family member for the first time. For others it was a time to renew contact after separation by time and distance. The coincidence of names did not go unnoticed either with two Alans and two Lyndsay / Linzis together in the same room. The other Craxfords present were Brenda (Eldridge), Maureen (Bird) and Raymond. Andrew Wainwright's great great grandmother was Rachel Kate Craxford.

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Talk was inevitably about ancestors, family trees and relationships. The website was made available for scrutiny and discussion on a laptop computer and generated much interest despite the rather flaky Wifi internet connection. Several packets of photographs (both old and recent) and documents were produced and passed around for identification. Some of these were copied and will find their way into the pages of the magazine in due course.

By six o’clock the afternoon was drawing to a close and the participants went their separate ways. Before doing so there was the hope that this would become an annual event and a strong resolve to arrange another event next year which would appeal to a wider audience.

We will be in contact with all known family members during the Summer months to assess the level of interest and to choose a suitable venue.

Newfloridian - Site Administrator
(Alan D. Craxford) February 28th 2006.

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