2010 Evans Family Reunion UPDATE

Kearney, Nebraska
July 2 - July 4th

WHAT TO BRING!

• Lawn Chairs/Blanket
• Two Picnic meals and drinks for your family/Grills provided. OOPS!

The meal plan has been changed a bit. Chris and Sue will provide Chicken and Sloppy Joes, Iced Tea and Lemonade for the Sat. Evening meal. You are asked to bring a side dish/dessert to share and drinks of your choice.

• White Elephant Item to Auction
• Your family Information sheet for the Family Tree

Friday - July 2nd - 5:00 - Welcome Party -Eagles Club, 17 West 24th Street
The Eagles Club. Cash Bar and Restaurant

Saturday - July 3rd - 9:30 AM- Brunch, Harmon Park, Sertoma Shelter
2nd Ave. & 31st Street
11:00 AM - Family Games and Fun
2:00 PM - BREAK TIME - Go for a swim, check out
your family history, nap under a shade tree.
4:00 PM - More games, Open MIC'. recite a poem,
do a skit, sing a song, do a magic trick.
Please be prepared and keep it short and keep it "clean".
* Plan the next reunion
* Silent Auction results
* Blessings on our family
* Set up your Tripod for a Family Portrait
* Saturday Evening Meal.
7:30 PM - Fireworks Tailgater - Yanney Park Parking Lot
2020 West 11th Street
Bring your own Food * Grill provided

Sunday - July 4th - 9:30 AM - Brunch at Donna's - 10 West 46th Street
Donna's Phone # 308-233-5035
10:00 AM - BRIEF, Alexander Family History Presentation
Learn about your Royal History.
Are you a King or Queen?
GO HOME!

Please feel free to contact Nancy trough e-mail at: nnixon2000@comcast.net or through "comments" section of this blog site. Nancy's Phone # 720-216-1989

Whose that Ancestor?

Aud

The Deeply Wealthy and Deeply Minded.

Aud was the second daughter of Ketil Flatnose, a Norwegian hersir, and Yngvid Ketilsdóttir, daughter of Ketill Wether, a hersir from Ringarike. Aud married Olaf the White (Oleif), son of King Ingjald, who had named himself King of Dublin after going on voyages to Britain and then conquering the shire of Dublin. They had a son named Thorstein the Red. After Oleif was killed in battle in Ireland, Aud and Thorstein journeyed to the Hebrides. Thorstein married there and had many children; he also became a great warrior king, conquering over half of Scotland; however, he was killed in battle after being betrayed by his people. After this happened Aud, who was at Caithness, learned of her son’s death and built a Knarr, a Viking era ship commonly built for Atlantic voyages. She did this secretly in the forest possibly because women were not allowed to be in possession of these ships, or because she did not want anyone to know that she was building one. After its completion, Aud sailed to the Orkneys. There she married off one of her granddaughters, Groa, the daughter of Thorstein the Red. Aud then set off for Iceland.[2]

On her ship were twenty men, all of which were free, but she was still the leader of them, proving that she was respected, but also that she was strong-willed enough to command a ship alone without the help of a man. She also a great deal of other men on her ship, who were prisoners from Viking raids near and around Britain. They all came from good families, and were called bondsmen. Aud gave these men their freedom once they were in Iceland, making them freed-men, a class between slave and free, where they were not owned, but did not have all the rights of a free man. She also gave them all a great deal of land to farm on and make a living. One of these men was Vifil, who was given Vifilsdal, part of Hvammur í Skeggjadal (commonly translated as "Hvamm"), the area in which Aud settled. When she arrived in Iceland, she claimed all the land in the Dales (Dalasýsla) between the Dagverdara and Skraumuhlaupsa. [3]

Aud is a very important figure in Icelandic history because she was one of the first settlers and claimed a great deal of land. However, more importantly, is the fact that she did this and was a woman. Women, who did not have all the capabilities of men at the time, but Aud was a very important figure for her time, as her name would suggest, and she took control of her circumstances, and became one of the legendary settlers of Iceland. Unlike most other Icelandic settlers Aud was a baptized and devout Christian. Aud put up crosses on her land and prayed regularly at Krossholar hill, now known as Krosshólaborg.[4]