Holdiay and New Years Greetings to you!

Axsom Newsletter Aug-Dec 1999

The end of 1989 approaches-along with the end of a decade, century , and millennium. Our Axsom ancestors surely existed at the beginning of the millennium-we just can't identify them yet.

We can identify most of our Axsom ancestors who lived at the beginning of this century. (We can identify Axsom ancestors as far back as the beginning of the previous century. Prior to that, there are no Axsom names that we can, with certainty, claim as part of our lineage because research has not yet identified the parents of Joseph H. Axsom.)

This century has experienced a tradition of regular, local Axsom reunions in North Caroline/Virginia and in Indiana. In this century, a lot of Axsom descendants have acquired occupations other than farming, woodworking, smithing, and milling. We have Axsom descendants this century who are pharmacists, teachers, scientists, plumbers, engineers, pilots, factory workers, photographers, truck drivers, veterinarians, postal workers, ministers, musicians, and on and on. Louise Wolfe Axsom published, in the ninth decade of this century, one of the first documents containing Axsom-specific genealogy-"Indiana Cousins."

This tenth decade of the century has seen a lot of Axsom family information collected, sifted, analyzed, published, distributed, and discussed. The decade has witnessed: 32 issues of the Axsom Newsletter, three National Axsom Reunions: 1985 Colorado Springs, 1997 Surry County, NC, 1999 Indianapolis, Indiana. The book "From Surry They Came"-published by Larry Axsom in 1992. The founding of the Axsom Association of America in 1995. The creation of a computer database of Axsom genealogy and research notes with major contributions from: Norma Axsom Zanetti, Larry Axsom, Nat Jones, Wayne Campbell, Sandra Axsom Taylor.

And what of the Axsom descendants in the next millennium? We are virtually assured that there will be more Axsom descendants in the future than there are in 1999. And we know that there will be more documentation about our Axsom lineage available to them than was available to us and our parents when they were born. However, there are some other Axsom plans for the new millennium: 2001 Axsom reunion being planned for Branson, MO; new officers for the AAA will take up the banner; research into our roots will continue; preservation of the old Axsom Burial plot in Surry County, NC is under investigation.