On Sunday August 17, 2014 all of the descendants of Charles Hill and Ada Woolgar met for the 54th Hill Family reunion.

The reunion held at the Rockmosa Community Centre in Rockwood, Ontario brought members of the Hill family together from all across Ontario to share stories, learn about our history and to create some new memories.

At the gentle urging of my father, Howie Hill, I put some of my genealogy work to good use. I put together a descendant chart for Charles Edmonds Hill and Ada Elizabeth Woolgar. I had no idea what I was getting into, but I knew that it was possible.

Utilizing Family Tree Maker, which links to my account with www.ancestry.ca, it was fairly easy to pull together all of the information. By playing with all the settings and getting all the names on the chart I was astounded to see the number of pages needed to lay out the chart. 102 pages! All laid out hit was asking for 102 horizontal 8 1/2 x 11 pages. I played around with the settings, changed the orientation to vertical and I was able to fit it all onto 43 pages.

43 pages of family. My family.

At the top were my great-grandparents Charles and Ada followed by their 13 children:

1. Kate Gertrude Hill (1901-1972)
2. Albert William Hill (my grandfather) (1903-1960)
3. Charles Edmond Hill (1905-1923)
4. Lillian Gladys Hill (1907-1996)
5. Minnie Mary Hill (1909-1985)
6. Frank George Hill (1910-1998)
7. Jane Maria Hill (1912-1999)
8. Ada May Hill (1914-2007)
9. James Stewart Hill (1916-2008)
10. Amy Elizabeth Hill (1918-2005)
11. Stanley Roland Hill (1920-2009)
12. Donald Richard Hill (1925-2004)
13. Edward Alexander Hill (1927-2006)

Each of those children had children of their own save one, Charles Edmond Hill, who passed away at a young age due to scarlet fever. Those children had children and even those children had children. The Hill family has grown exponentially since arriving in Canada back in 1908 and nothing proved it more than rolling out the pages across the room for everyone to see.

The chart seemed to keep going and going and as members of the Hill family walked along to find their name it made one thing clear: this wasn’t everyone. Pencils and pens were brought out and the new names of the next generation were added. Issues with spelling and further details were added and the tree continue to grow. In all, 47 extra names were added to the tree.

Looking back over the chart, it is astounding to think of all the names and relationships in the Hill family. 604 names. 604 descendants. I knew the Hill family was big, but I had no idea it was that big. I wonder how many more names will be added next year at the 65th Hill Family reunion, 3rd weekend in August, Sunday in the same location and at the same time. Our family hasn’t been in Canada long but we have sure helped to populate it!