These Are My People

This is my paternal grandfather's mother's people (or my great grandmother's). Elisha was her father. I hope to attend next year and share with my children what a wonderful group of people they come from. This reunion has been going on every year since 1865. 

"Elisha Whitley was married Jan. 7,1855, to Mary Eliza Barnes, daughter of John Elias Barnes II and Jalitha Buxton. They had nine children.

Whitley enlisted in Company G, 31st North Carolina Troops on Sept. 12, 1861, and was paroled on May 2, 1865, after the surrender of Gen. Joseph Johnston to Gen. William Sherman on April 26, 1865, at Bush Hill in Randolph County, N.C.

Tradition has it that when Whitley returned from the Civil War, his sisters gave him a birthday dinner on July 4, 1865, and he asked that this be continued.

Since that time, there has been an annual reunion carried on by his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren." from whitleyfamily.info