Family reunions are often seen as a source of great fun, food and fellowship. But these events can also be educational for adults and children alike. At the Butler Center, Genealogy and Local History Specialist Rhonda Stewart helps people sift through the sinewy limbs of their family trees for secrets that bind them to history.

“My aunts and uncles used to say that they could have attended Central [High School] if they wanted to, but nobody could explain to me how or why that was,” Stewart says. “When I started digging into the documentary evidence for my family; I found the court case Aaron v. Cooper, which listed five of those aunts and uncles as plaintiffs in the case. This is why they could have gone to Central High School. Now, this is a story that we share with the younger generations. This is our connection to the Central High crisis.”

Stewart says that stories like this are more common than not in Arkansas. History seems distant and stale when it’s read from a textbook, but when a relative is involved, these stories gain traction. For Stewart, genealogy is like throwing a stone into the water and watching the ripples fan out, she says. “The seeds keep blowin’ in the wind and spreadin’ a little farther, but they’re all gonna be tracked back to the same tree,” she says.

Stewart says that when getting involved with genealogy, people should start with themselves and work backward. She also implores people to visit her at the Butler Center, where she can use her expertise to help uncover the roots of the trees.

Part of the fun of family reunions is discovering old family photos—like these and the ones at the beginning of this article from Little Rock Family’s Senior Art Director Waynette Traub’s personal collection—and learning about the people and stories behind them.

And, of course, family reunions are another way to discover your family tree.

Carla Smith, mother of three, organizes a family reunion that originated with her and her 12 siblings. A Facebook page has helped Smith connect with more family members and common threads that connect them.

“That’s how I found out that my mom loved to dance,” Smith says. “When we had the ‘Soul Train’ line. My mom is 83, she still dances. When you see her, it makes everybody get up. We see where we got it from.”

Stories often rule the day at reunions. When family members get together, they piece together stories they heard growing up and stories about their upbringing. Thus, history travels to another generation by word-of-mouth.

“My maternal grandmother’s family meets every October at the Strayhorn Landing campgrounds on Tenkiller Lake in Gore, Oklahoma,” says Jessica Finley Ballou, a Bryant mom and Little Rock Family reader. “It is a beautiful and peaceful setting. And is worthwhile because of the opportunity it provides for family members to reunite and share stories about family, current and past.”

So, whether or not families are looking to record their history, there’s something for everyone at these events. Adults and children have an opportunity to teach and exercise reverence for their elders at reunions. They may even find themselves transported to the past.

For more information about the Butler Center’s genealogy research, call (501) 320-5700 or visit ButlerCenter.org.