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Saturday 16th August 1997 was a day to remember for the 85 people who gathered
at St Michael's Church Hall, Lyneham, Wiltshire for the Second Scull/Skull Family
Reunion. Many had travelled some distance to be there, most notably Maureen
Hauser from the USA, Rodney and Neil Pyke from Australia and Rene Scull from
Venezuela..
Family Trees of the various branches were on display, the credit for these must go to
Daphne and Norman Thompson who spent many hours inputting data and printing.
Numerous files of information and albums of photographs were available for
consultation. During the day several short talks were given about the research
currently being undertaken by different members of the group and Rene Scull
entertained us with an outline of his descent from Nicholas Scull who emigrated to
America from England in 1685 and how his family came to Venezuela via
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia and Cuba.
After a buffet lunch the group assembled in front of the church for the official
photograph.Apart from the organised events there was plenty of time to swap notes,
chat with family and friends, make new acquaintances and discover family
connections, It was unanimously agreed that a good time had been had by all and
that the reunion should be repeated in September 2000.
When Hannah Skull from Calne attended a family gathering at Lyneham on Saturday
she met a cousin she had not seen for 55years. Maureen Hauser, 62, flew In from
California because she remembered Hannah and Raymond Skull, from her childhood
when she used to spend holidays at her cousin Raymond's parents' small-holding.
They had always lived locally and Maureen loved to come and spend time on the
farm.
Hannah said "It was very strange, this lady came and sat by the side of me I could
tell she was an American lady and I asked her 'have you come over from America?'
She said: 'Yes, I'm looking for cousins of mine, Raymond and Hannah." "I told her
that my husband passed away 12 years ago but that I was Hannah.You ought to
have seen her face!"
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