Do you realize how fortunate you are to be a member of the Hiram McAdams family? Ask your friends and business / school associates how long they have lived in one place as a united family and how often their families meet for large family reunions! Ask them if they have reunion grounds, chapels and family cemeteries!

You have a family history in Texas that dates back for 160 years! It is a rich and interesting family history that you can be proud of. There are currently 324 descendants, living and deceased, of Hiram McAdams in eleven family groups. We are a clan -- the clan Hiram McAdams -- similar to the old Scottish clans, but based in Walker county, Texas.

A major concern for many in the family is the prevention of the disintegration of the Hiram McAdams family unity due to the size, geographic distribution, and the lack of personal relationships between many of the younger members of the eleven family groups. We must find ways to increase the interest and participation of the members of the Hiram McAdams family in their clan in order to ensure its continuance as a group of related individuals with common interests who cherish and preserve their heritage -- their roots.

A continual decrease in reunion attendance over the past few years is a major concern for the preservation of family unity. If you don’t come to the annual reunion, how can you learn the very interesting details about your family history? How can you build relationships with your cousins or provide that opportunity for your young children if you don’t attend this once-a-year meeting? If you don’t attend, then there will be little motivation for your older children and their families to attend.

It is only one day out of 365 every year. Surely, you can plan and make it your top priority to attend the next family reunion on April 25, 1999. (The reunion is always held on the last Sunday in April). That will be your next chance to renew old acquaintances or build new relationships with your cousins. Be there!

By Thomas H. McAdams

"You don't have to remember Thanksgiving and you don't have to remember Christmas. But I want you to remember reunion day."

I overheard this comment from a father to a grown and married child at the reunion this past April (1998). I praise that parent, because that father knows what parental leadership is all about. That parent sees the importance of family unity and also understands what vital roles heritage, tradition, and reunion attendance play in building that unity. You know who you are, and your father would have been very proud!

"Where the body goes, the mind will follow." Have you ever heard that phrase before? Parents, teach your children now about this wonderful group of related individuals who call themselves McAdams. Bring them to the reunion. If you do it right, they will come back year after year, and guess what -- it won't be long before they are the leaders. If you fail to teach, if you fail to lead, if you fail to force, then you are going to raise kids who don't know their roots.

Perhaps this isn't important in your life, but, in my humble opinion, it should be. We have a very rich, special, and unique heritage which we absolutely must pass on to our children. Otherwise we are cheating them out of their birthright!

I'm scared. Reunion attendance was down this year. I don't know why, and because I can't explain it, I worry. I worry that we will fragment. I worry that individual reunion groups will split off and form their own gatherings. I worry that we are losing our bond with Hiram. My mother taught me this kind of worry, and I owe it to her to verbalize my fears to you.

By Charles M. Cole