Shavers of Ancaster

The 75th annual Shaver Family Reunion was held June 12, 2011 at the Bowman United Church in Ancaster. This was the first year in some time that the reunion was held there, but we understand it may have been at Bowman some time in the past. Certainly the church is a long-standing Ancaster fixture.

The day was sunny but a bit cool and breezy. The church hall was just the right size though for the thirty-odd souls who gathered. That Sunday t he church members were having a bit of a celebration after church so timing was tight, but we managed to get in right at 11 when we were promised, and the church members were happy to do their clean up as we set up for our celebration. We managed to get the registration table, historical displays and food all set up in time to eat for noon. Our speaker Brock Shaver said grace and we all dug in. As usual, all the food was wonderful and there was more than the assembled crowd could consume. Thanks to everyone who prepared and brought their favourite dishes. Such a smorgasboard is always a treat.

Brock Shaver - photo used with permission by Jim ShaverShortly after 1 pm Brock Shaver treated us to a wonderful overview of the life and experiences of our founding ancestor John Shaver. Brock has a real gift for bringing historical facts to life. He helped us truly understand the life experiences of John and how they framed his choices and the context from which his children went on to set the stage for the early development in this part of our province. His description of how the young John experienced wars in his native Germany, came to a new world looking for new life, found he was once again caught up in more war, and then once again emigrated to a new country looking for a new life, made us understand the nature of the ‘fighting spirit’ entrenched in our family history in the fight for peace and free society. The fact that his son William was so successful in establishing both a prosperous new life and setting the stage for founding the new society in Upper Canada is a tribute to the sacrifices of John. We are truly grateful for Brock in helping us understand the family legacy that is ours.

After Brock’s talk we had our brief membership meeting, where we heard updates on the executive’s efforts in establishing a permanent publicly accessible location for our family archives, and the efforts primarily of Craig Sturgeon in establishing our new family website. The 2011-2012 executive was confirmed as myself as president, Rob Wazny as secretary, Marilyn Pout as treasurer, Judith Shaver as first vice president, Peter Shaver as second vice president, Hazel Shaver in genealogy, Craig Sturgeon in website development and Sue LaChapelle in website documentation. We are most grateful for the active partitipation of our members in celebrating our family legacy.

We closed by having a group photograph taken of the assembled family with the backdrop of the church cemetery and surrounding Ancaster rural landscape. There was some discussion of having the markers of Ancaster pioneers as our backdrop but most of those above ground determined that those who had gone before deserved remembering as well. The rural landscape of Ancaster is definitely an important part of our legacy. We all departed invigorated to continue our own journeys in life and looking forward to the opportunity to gather again in the spring of 2012.