2008 Neff Family Reunion Report

John Neff Family Organization 2008 Reunion and Meeting
September 19, 2008
Brighton Stake Center, 2895 East Creek Road, Cottonwood Heights, Utah
Dinner at 6 p.m., bring your own picnic
Family Meeting 7:30 in the Relief Society Room
Alice Neff, president
832 East Grenoble, Midvale, Utah 84047
801-255-1617
neff1617@comcast.net
JohnNeffFamily.blogspot.com

Thanks to all who attended the John Neff Family Reunion September 19th at the Brighton Stake Center. I am so sorry I transposed the address numbers and sent everyone on a wild-goose chase. I was delighted that so many Neffs found us. Because of the problem, we started a little late. We had copies of some of the old “Neff Times” that we were able to sell. We made enough from the sales to pay for the lemonade and cookies. Some of the cousins updated addresses and we visited for a while.

At 7:30 the adults moved into the Relief Society Room for a meeting while the children remained outside with Steve, Corey, Dave and Jamie Neff and Sandy Pick, for games and activities.

I took charge of the meeting, thanking those who helped make the reunion happen; MarShan and Virginia Nelson, Becky Rosander, Cherry Oldroyd, Natalie Brinton, Elwood, Ted and Bob Neff and the crew outside with the children.

My friend Sidney Wells presented information on using Y-Chromosome DNA to prove relationships of males to their male ancestors. I then told a bit about the Neff DNA test. We then explained a little about the newFamilySearch Internet Site the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is developing and asked for assistance from the family in updating the system, with your children, parents, aunts, uncles and cousins information and leaving the problems of the John Neff, Mary Barr, John Neff senior, Jacob Neff and Franz Neff to the family organization to straighten out.

Please read these two reports below.

We have additional back issues of the old “Neff Times” and the printed picture of John Neff and Mary Barr. Each of these is available for $3 plus $1 shipping for each 3 ordered. Some of the back issues are not available, they would have to be reprinted or copied. I would like help scanning or typing the histories contained in the “Neff Times” to this blog. Here are the issues that are available:
Franklin Neff Fall 1996
Amos Herr Neff Winter 1997
Reunion issue, no histories Spring 1997
Amos Herr Neff, continued Fall 1997
Mary Ann Neff Rockwell Spring 1998
Susannah Neff Peirce Booth Summer 1998
Benjamin Barr Neff Spring 1999
John Neff III Summer 1999

There are no back issues available for:
Mary Barr Neff Spring 1995
John Neff II Summer 1995
Elizabeth Neff Stillman Fall 1999
John Neff Story Spring 2000

We had began with Mary Barr and John Neff II because they are the parents of this wonderful family that all joined the church and came west. It is amazing to me that teenage and young adult children would all choose to follow their parents, leaving their wealth behind, to worship God in a new way. The John Neff Story that we began in 2000 should have had 1 or 2 more installments. We were repeating the information researched by Bill Neff and John Murray of the Neff Family Historical Society in Pennsylvania. They presented their research in the “NEFF NEWS” September 1996, February 1997 and May 1997 issues.

The above back issues of the “NEFF NEWS” are available from the Neff Family Historical Society, P. O. Box 6664, Harrisburg, PA 17112-0664, neffnews@ix.netcom.com. Also, you may be interested in the last two issues of the “NEFF NEWS”, May 2005 and May 2006 which cover some history of Franz Neff, our immigrant ancestor, what he brought with him to the US and settling in Germantown. Back Issues are $5, postage included.

Please call or send names and addresses of family members to update our mailing list. Also, we would like to update our family history information. We have many descendants of John Neff and Mary Barr in our database but new babies are born every day, marriages and deaths happen about as fast. I keep the information in my computer. It is not available on the Internet nor will it ever be. I am aware of the dangers of letting personal information out into the public. Having the information on my computer helps us track the family address list and helps me identify who I am talking to when you call. It will never be all up to date, but with your help it can continue to be a useful resource.

Additional information on the Neff family can be found on the NFHS website at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~neff/ . Your cousin John Fisher has
http://www.eternal-links.net/Family_History/ngf/11/2/history/John%20Neff%20II.html which is a history of John Neff and Mary Barr.