Our Scattered Families

[Bear Up North]

Reading the RANDOM thread this morning I felt bad for Richmond Jake . He had to put his son on an airplane, ending what must have been a fun and emotional visit. Back to northern Idaho, if I remember correctly.

In the first three-quarters of the 20th Century, American families pretty much stayed in the same locales. In my family, on my dad's side, the entire family was scattered in metropolitan Toledo. On my mom's side, the entire (huge) family was centered in Toledo's Lagrange Street Polish neighborhood.

Family reunions, picnics, weddings, holiday celebrations meant piling in the car and driving a few miles.

How things have changed.

American families are more separated than ever before. Easy to list the reasons: We love opportunity and opportunity beckons at distant places.....divorce.....the lure of warmer and sunnier climes.....corporate transfers.

My younger brother is still in the Swanton, OH area. His children, adults now for more than a dozen years, are in the District of Columbia area. My older brother spent some years in Aberdeen, SD and then spent more than twenty (20) years in the far eastern suburbs of Cleveland, OH, teaching at Fairport Harbor, OH.

My cousins are scattered to places such as Connecticut, California, southern Indiana (Greater Cincy area), northern Detroit suburbs.

My son is in the planning stages to move his family to Portland, OR. Their move has been rescheduled to 2006, because of his wife's school schedule. (I will miss my grand-daughters!)

How scattered is your family?

Bear

[Zoning Goddess]

My mom lives just around the corner and my brother and his family are about 30 min. away.

My only remaining aunt and uncle are in Tampa, two cousins live nearby, and the rest are scattered from New Orleans to Pennsylvania. The last time we were all together was in August at my uncle's 90th birthday party.

[Budgie]

My 3 children are 2.5 hours east of here and my brothers family (5 in all) live an addition 1.5 hours east of my kids in Missouri. This isn't too bad. I've got a cousin living here in town --- actually I have cousins in nearly every city, town and hamlet in this state. My parents are 7.5 hours away in north Texas. My paternal grandfather is near Ft. Smith Arkansas and my maternal grandparents live near Canton, Mississippi.

I get my children almost every weekend, but I still miss them during the week. My Cyburbia family is always close. Keep in mind --- Friends are family you pick for yourself.

[JNA]

Mom and brother in NJ, sister in NYC, brother in CA,
Great Aunt in CA, Uncle and Aunt in FL
Cousins in CA, FL, OR
extended in CO, FL, GA,

[donk]

Parents in Nw Brunswick

Cousins in California, Yukon, NWT, Florida, Maryland, BC

Aunt and Uncle in New Jersey

Aunt in NWT

Sister about 120km north of where I live.

[Richmond Jake]

Thanks, Bear (difficult morning for me). My 2 sons are in northern Idaho (the youngest still living with the adulteress). My mom, sister, and 2 brothers are in California. Good thing I've got friends here in Florida. (Of all places, why do I wear my emotions on my shoulder here?)

[giff57]

My oldest son is 1.5 hrs East of me. My Mom, one brother and my sister live about another hour north of that place. My other brother is in Dawsonille Ga.

[Queen B]

My daughter is here in town with me, for now but I know they are going to move away.
King Bs girls are 2 hrs away and we get to see them once a month.
His parents are on the way to and from getting his girls so we see them about the same time.
My mom and brother are 1.5 hours away.
My soldier brother is headed back to Iraq this weekend his family is 1.5 hrs away also.
I have an Aunt and Uncle in Branson, Mo that I don't get to see often enough.
King's Sister is in Seattle and Brother is in SanFranciso.

[Super Amputee Cat]

In the late 1990s, I had a brother living Ithaca, NY, another brother in Australia, and a sister in Houston. Today that first brother lives in Athens, GA (he also lived in Austria for a while) and the second brother lives in Madison.

I have never left Toledo. It's OK though because all of my in laws live here.

[abrowne]

My immediate family is all in Vancouver. Most of my father's family is in the Vancouver area, with exception of some cousins who reside in Texas. My mother's family is mostly in Ontario, but also Alberta and Nova Scotia. I'm in Waterloo for eight months out of every year. A bit scattered, but not remarkably so.

[zman]

Well, I have family all over, although do live only 90 miles away from my folks, who live south of Denver. But I have extened family in Montreal, Vermont, Ohio (Cincy), Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, else where in Denver and Colorado, still have extended family back in Hungary, I had an aunt that lived all over in Africa.

My Girlfriend's family lives in North Idaho (I also consider thm my family too) as well as California, Washington, and Arizona.

I; however, have not strayed too far frm where I grew up and I have only lived in Colorado my whole life (not too shabby) but sometimes I would like to live elsewhere, not know experience the country or even Canada. There are beautiful places in every state.

Maybe I'll go to Toledo, get a job with Bear, go to the Hungarian Fest and shoot hoops after work. Sound good?

But, alas, there is biking to be done here at the edge of the Rockies, and I must go before the snow comes..

[skyfire]

I think my family has pretty much gone with the flow of the urbanization of Atlanta. My grandparents grew up on farms in the far north and west of the state. As young adults they (and many of their siblings) moved to Atlanta in the 1920s and 1930s. When they had families they were in the first suburbs (still in the city itself) in the 1950s. Their children and grandchildren have progressively moved out of the city to its suburbs and exurbs, as far as Athens and NW SC, (and a few to the DC area). Most still in the same metro area, but far enough away from each other that it's a couple hours drive to see each other.

[nerudite]

My dad moved from Florida to Los Angeles in the early 1960s. He has 10 brothers and sisters with numerous offspring, and they are (for the most part) scattered around the South: Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina. I have only met my cousins on my dad's side a few times. I've been to two family reunions in 'central' locations: Valdosta & Waycross, Ga and Franklin, NC.

On my mom's side, my grandfather was from the Detroit area and my grandmother was from Nebraska. They both moved to Los Angeles when they left their respective houses and met at a roller rink in L.A. (My mom and dad later met at the same roller rink, which is kind of cool). One uncle and aunt still live in Los Angeles, as do my parents and my grandmother. They all grew up in the Hollywood Hills, and they have gravitated outwards to Warner Center and the Altadena hills. One other uncle lives up in the Seattle area (Issaquah hills I think).

And here I am... Edmonton, Alberta. What a freak!

[Cardinal]

Most of my immediate family are within fifty miles of each other in the Chicago area. I am out in Colorado. The generation just getting into/graduating from college are likely to scatter further.

[biscuit]

Most of my large “immediate” family (aunts, uncles, and first and second cousins) back in South Carolina still lives within 10 or so miles of each other. That means lots of family dinners and, due to being a rural community, not being able to get away with anything resembling bad behavior without getting ratted out. They all have stayed there because they love the area have chosen to, which is a major change from just the preceding generation. Up until the 1950’s or so the area of Upstate South Carolina from which I hail had no economy to speak of and was, for the most part, secluded and still dependent upon small scale agriculture (my paternal Grandfather was a share cropper in his youth), as the majority of living wage jobs were based in textile manufacturing and most of those were hardly what we would consider good jobs. Things were even worse during the Great Depression when many a man, if he didn’t go off to war, left to join the WPA, CCC or to find work in other more prosperous parts of the country. Because of this diaspora I have great-aunts, uncles and more cousins than I could actually even begin to count living throughout the US.

Currently they can be found in Tennessee, North Carolina, Atlanta, Spokane, Seattle, Eureka and other parts of Northern California, Michigan, Toledo and places I’ve yet to hear of.

[BKM]

Brother and sister followed me out to California. The rest of my immediate family is still in northeastern Indiana, except for one cousin in Milwaukee. Mom lives in the same house she bought with my father in 1957.

[pete-rock]

My parents are in mid-Michigan, and I have numerous aunts, uncles and cousins throughout the Detroit area. My sister lives in Loudoun County, VA. My brother is here in Chicago, but he's on the North Side, which can seem like a world away from me.

[Hceux]

While my paternal extended family is mostly concentrated in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) with some northeast of Quebec, Quebec, my maternal extended family is much more scattered, stretching from Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Escondido, CA, to northern Ontario. I've not met my uncles, aunts, and cousins down in the States.

It's kinda too bad that my family is not tight at all because if it were, then there would be more traveling going on.

[kms]

My mom lives 2 miles away; sisters are within 10 miles; brother is 20 miles away. For the past eight years,a cousin has lived 40 miles away. The rest live in KY, WV, NC, IL and CA.

[GISgal]

Most of the family lives within a 30 mile radii of Milwaukee including my mom, dad, sister, grandmother, and most of aunts, uncles, and cousins. But I have an aunt and uncle near Cleveland, Ohio. While their daughter lives near Akron. My grandfather lives near Iron Mountain, Michigan. I have great aunts and uncles in Florida and Montana and second cousins in California, Alaska, Colorado, and New Jersey. I live 100 miles from Milwaukee.

My fiance's family is likewise scattered. Most of his small family lives near Pe****go-(not an intentional curse word--how it is really spelled)Marinette area of Wisconsin. His mother and uncle live in the Appleton area. But he has uncle in Kansas City, Missouri. And while his grandparents were still living they resided in Florida.

[Trail Nazi]

Mr. TN is in Philly. My mom is 20 minutes north, brother lives parttime with me and in Central Florida. Dad and his parents (as well as my half brother) are out in AZ. Cousin in B'ham, Bama. Rest of the family are within 15 min to 2.5 hours away in the state.

[the north omaha star]

90% of my family (both sides) are still in Omaha. I have first cousins on my Dad's side in Southern California. My Mom's brother and his family are on Chicago's North Side. I'm here in Baltimore. My wife's father and stepmother are in Michigan half the year and Florida's Gulf Coast the other half. Her sister as well as the bulk of her family are in Akron. Her stepbrother and his wife are in Bergen County, NJ and her stepsister is in Los Angeles.

[jsk1983]

Most of my immeadiate family lives in or around Buffalo, NY, although I'm 220 miles SE in Binghamton. I have an aunt in Arizona and an uncle and some cousins in SW NY (1 hr. away). Other than that there is one cousin in Orange county, NY. Back 20 years ago most of my dad's siblings all lived in the same neighborhood on the east side of Buffalo, two of them actually living right next to each other, now they have dispersed, many to the eastern suburbs.

[Whose Yur Planner]

Most of my family is northwest Indiana, near Chicago, though I do have one sister in the Portland, Oregon area. My parents are about 1.5 hours north and east of me, near Fort Wayne. My wife's family is either in Vicksburg or Hatiesburg Mississippi.

[Tranplanner]

My brother and his family live right around the corner from me. My parents are about 45 mins. away by car. The rest of the family (aunts, uncles, cousins) are in the UK, with one uncle in California, and some cousins in Sweden.