The Collyge's and their extended family (which extends pretty far) had their family reunion in Tulsa over Labor Day weekend.
I, for one, had a great time talking with all of the extended relatives about the legendary Cecil Collyge, Corky's father. For those of you who don't know, Cecil was a man of many loves throughout his life. He had 4 wives throughout his life and 10 known children (I think I'm getting all of this right...I learned a lot). He had children in 3 of these marriages. Corky, his brother Pete, and his 2 sisters were children of his last marriage to Joyce Collyge. Cecil was older when he was married and had children with Joyce, but he died in his 50s when Corky was a teenager. It gets pretty confusing from here....Corky has 2 half sisters in their 80s and Dustin has a cousin that is a grandfather himself. Corky and his sisters even have a nephew that is older than them....confused yet?
With any blended family, it is sometimes difficult to bring a sense of closeness, a feeling of togetherness to the whole family. To bridge all of these children from different marriages and different parts of Cecil's life together would seem difficult, but I was amazed at how everyone sees everybody else as family, despite the fact they didn't grow up together or know each other for that matter.
Here is our part of the Collyge clan...
Corky and his living siblings minus his brother, Pete
The two on the left are full sisters of Corky and Dustin's two aunts, CeCe and Jeanie.
The two to the right are Corky's half sisters. They are from Grandpa Cecil's second marriage to Ruth.
Here is a modge-podged family tree...
The question mark is another possible child of Cecil's. It would've been when he was very young, so its hard to trace that back.
Dustin and his Aunt Jeanie
Corky reading Granny Pearl's bible, which would be Dustin's great grandmother.
We were given the honor of carrying this bible on for the next generation since Dustin is one of the few to carry on the Collyge name. We feel very honored to do so.
Aunt Jeanie and her husband, Mike
Aunt Cece and her husband, Curtis
The lady in this picture is Liz Collyge. She is the widow of Bert Collyge, who was Corky's half brother. The man in the picture is Jeff Collyge, Liz's son and Corky's newphew. The children are Jeff's kids, and his one granddaughter.
The two older women in the picture are Billie and RayDean, Corky's half sisters. The man and woman to each of their side's are their respective children.
Some of you may not have found this post that interesting, but for me, I find it fascinating to learn about my new married name, and I will try to hold on to each and every story I heard about the Collyge name to carry on to my future children so they can do the same. It may not be a perfect family history, but its full of love!
