Mock Family History Conference

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Thursday, October 20th. Left for Gallipolis, Ohio from the Waverly Wal-mart. Starting mileage was 18517 and it was still raining.

Traveled back down highway 35, a very nice 4-lane, toward Gallipolis and turned off to Bob Evans Farm to check if they had found my shirt. No luck. Continued on from there on a narrow windy farm road to enter Gallipolis from the north. Gallipolis sits right on the Ohio River and has some interesting old historic buildings. The town was originally laid out by a party of French aristocrats known as the "French Five hundred." They were escaping punishment after Bastille Day. However, the French were swindled in the deal by an American Company and G. Washington had to send men to help them out by building log cabins and setting up a town.

We were headed here to meet with a group of individuals that all have some variation of the German Mock name as an ancestor for what we call a Mock Family Reunion. It was held from Friday morning the 21st until Sunday night the 23rd at the Quality Inn. We have attended a couple of other reunions and have met many of the people who came this time. We met some new "cousins", one of which was really a new cousin, but many times removed. Our common ancestor lived 5 plus generations back in the 1700's.

The woman who hosted the event had arranged with the nearby community of Chester to serve us lunch on Saturday at the community center. One Mock family had moved here in the 1800's from Virginia and had been very active in settling the town. We toured the church that Mocks had helped to establish and build and took pictures of the power plant that now dominates the area. Because of its' pollution the plant has purchased the town and has begun to tear down some of the homes making green spaces where they had been.

A good time was had by all!

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