Caribbean Cruise-Dec.7th to Dec.28th, 2014
21 days cruising from Tampa, Florida to many islands including stops in Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico on the Holland America "Ryndam". Calm seas, warm breezes, excellent food with service to match. Have arrived back in Tampa and now chilling out in our rental condo in Largo, Florida. A few photos are posted to enjoy. Happy New Year!...Pat and Ted

2014_CROWDER REUNION TRIP

SEPT. 22, 2014

Dear Margaret and Richard, 

We are about to drive home tomorrow and wanted to once say again how terrific it all was on your farm. Everyone was so keen on the reunion and the eats were spectacular. One thing we would like to ask as a favour is the ability to get a copy of everyones e:mail or contact numbers. If that’s ok then I would send our records for those first years of crowders appearing in Jamestown up until the first children of Bartholomew into 1700’s.

Howard already has sent me a note and we had a great visit with Miles on the way out north. What a great adventure for us and your help was supreme….

All our best to you and family….

Pat and Ted (Cousins?)

tedpluspatlarson@aol.com

Ted Crowder Larson

45 Bella Vista Trail

Alliston, Ontario

L9R 2C7

705 434 9217

SEPT. 22, 2014

Hi again,

The Crowder Reunion was a success, well mostly if you count heads. A lot of folks came and brought a lot of home cooking. Some were interested in the book I had brought with me telling the story of how some of the Crowder clan left and went west. I’d say 80 + people came and gathered at different places on the lawn and driveway and of all ages. A couple of Crowders chatted history with us and will keep in touch by e:mail. We all connect back to a Bartholomew born1672 but chase different lines from there. All left at sunset as the back country roads here have a lot of deer about. One person I might call a historical cousin named Nelson “Miles” Crowder invited us to visit his farm up the road aways near Clarksville on Sunday on our way home. So, we did drop in.…100 acres now but was 7000 many years ago. The house was built by Crowder ancestors around or before1740. He and his wife Oriole showed us through the house. It is old and filled with beautiful early Virginian furniture. Apparently William Sherman and his entire army took the house over and stayed there for many days getting ready to fight the next battle during the civil war. A beer on the porch looking down to the lake was a perfect way to say good bye to Virginia. We are welcome to come back again and stay on our next trip that way. The “CROWDERS” can be said to be a very gracious group. Now on our way home.

SEPT. 19, 2014

Hello again,

A great day today with weather that was kind to all at Jamestown. This is where many think was the start of the european colonizing of America. The Museum is spectacular but the best part is the separate dig going on at the original fort of 1607 discovered just a few years ago, starting around 1994. The first group to arrive on the river in 1606. 104 men and boys in three ships, The Susan Constant, The Godspeed and The Discovery. Their first year was a disaster with most dead except for approx: 30 survivors. Amazing details are now being gathered with DNA and other new methods. All the digging is exposing hundreds of pieces to puzzle together. So, the day was better than expected. We found a local free ferry that took us across the James River and a road down to our destination,… South Hill,Virginia. Random photos are attached of the area…

more to come….Pat and Ted

SEPT. 18th, 2014

Friends, 

Day two in Virginia brings a good weather, sunny day looking for 80 degrees. Hotel was great price under 60$ with a highway book of coupons. Breakfast at Perkins $4.00 for egg, bacon and pancakes. Great start to the day….Went to old downtown Winchester and discovered the centre is a great walking mall street. Stopped in at the very large old Courthouse which was a prison during the Civil War. Now a museum with many relics probably picked off the killing fields. Sad history here. Now heading down South to Williamsburg Area. Thought we would start again at the beginnings, the Jamestown Settlement 1607. Drive was easy but did receive some downpour for a while. Again a good deal on coupons staying at Best Western Hotel. Tomorrow hopefully to see the Three Ship reproductions and the original settlement site where the original 104 men and boys set foot in the new world….all on the Banks of the James River. I do not think there were “Crowders” then, but soon after many other ships came in later years and the Crowder name shows up…..

The family mystery begins to unfold…

Pat and Ted “Crowder” Larson

SEPT. 17th, 2014

Dear Friends,…

You may wonder where and what are we doing? Well, here we are entering Winchester, Virginia on our way to visit our long lost “CROWDER” decedents who stayed in Mecklenburg, Virginia when others left during the 1700’s to journey west to Tennessee, Missouri and Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada. My Mother’s father “Newton Crowder” (my Grandfather) came from Missouri at early age in 1890 with his father Joseph P. Crowder and brothers. Having discovered that the family came through the wild west days before Missouri from Tennessee and before that Virginia and maybe connected to the beginnings of European America known as USA and the first landings on the James River of the British Cavaliers of King James,(Early 1600)… here we are trying to make a connection. There is an invitation to appear at a CROWDER reunion dinner near the place known as South Hill in Mecklenburg County, Virginia.. This came about by investigating the area a few years ago and we met a possible relative “Richard Crowder” who always has lived in this area. So here we are driving down to attend and meet some relatives or achieve new information after 400 years. Not sure what to expect other than some good fun and a new adventure into the genealogy my elders could not have known. Saturday will tell us more. The drive down has been really nice, good weather and good roads…..more to come…..

Pat and Ted…”Crowders” Larson