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In the 1960's-70s. the four daughters of John Franklin Sloan and Cynthia Esther Gregg Sloan's began to research their ancestors.
Esther Sloan was a walking encyclopedia of information about her Gregg/Scott kin as well as the Sloan/Mays family, so the daughters began a notebook in which they recorded conversations and question/answer sessions with their parents.
The two younger daughters, Gertrude and Myrtle, took upon themselves the task of locating birth, marriage and death certificates as well as other legal documents which would verify the statements of their parents. They also wrote many letters and visited with other descendants securing information to add to their files. Gertrude then used the material to write a manuscript tracing the family back several generations.
Upon Gertrude's death in 1995, the notes and records passed on to her daughters. Jacquelyn Hays Knapp and Kathryn Hays Schaller, and they have continued researching the family history with the aim of learning all the different family lines from which we descend as well as to find out how, where and when our kin came to Texas and settled here.
The four Sloan sisters - Verdie Viola Sloan Puryear, Cora Manie Sloan Elliott, Alice Gertrude Sloan Hays and Myrtle Velma Sloan Land - remained close all their lives. As a result, their children were closely associated all their lives and felt more like brothers and sisters than cousins.
In 1998,a Cousin's Reunion was held in Fredericksbrug, TX, with 6 of the 8 cousins and their spouses as well as Gilmer Hughes, a nephew of Esther Sloan, and his son, Brent Hughes, attending.
In September 2001, a second Cousin's Reunion was held in
Fredericksburg, with all 8 cousins and 5 spouses attending.
The cousins are (in order of age, oldest first):
Esther Elizabeth Elliot Speck, Friendswood, TX
Ruth Miriam Elliott Sellers, Abilene, TX
John Melvin Elliott, Jacksonville, TX
Jacquelyn Valois Hays Knapp, Fredericksburg, TX
Charles Russell Land, Victoria, TX
Gary Paul Land, Menard, TX
Kathryn Damaris Hays Schaller, Lakehills, TX
Florence "Flo" Puryear, Austin, TX
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