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		January 20, 2005 Dear Van Dyke Relative or Friend, It has been more than six months since our last report to the family. We want to bring you up to date.
	For some of you this is the third mailing you have received. Some of you have also received a couple of lengthy emails. But for others, this may be the first time you have heard anything about the reunion and some of you might not even be aware that you are Van Dyke-Swigart descendants! However, one of your relatives assures us that you are! Since our mailing list has grown considerably since our last “report to the family,” we feel we need to bring the new people up to speed before continuing our report. Archibald Van Dyke was born August 1, 1830 in Northumberland County, PA. Esther Swigart was born nearby on May 30, 1831. They got married December 18, 1851, and had fifteen children!
	Mary Susannah 10/18/1852 Eleanor Jane 4/27/1854 Samuel Perry 8/9/1855 Ann Elizabeth 1/4/1857 Christian Swigart 4/13/1858 John Glasgow 5/29/186 Emily Dunmire 1/10/1862 George Henry 9/2/1863	Allen Brown 5/25/1865 William James 1/16/1867 Nelson Archy 9/5/1868 Margaret Hoyt 8/23/1870 Irvin Cloyd 2/2/1873 Esther May 9/9/1875 Lambert Brumbaugh 3/21/1878
	About a year after Lambert was born, “Archie” and Esther packed up the kids (all but one!) and went west to Gage County, Nebraska. There they bought a farm and finished raising the family. About 18 months ago several of us who are descendants of Archie and Esther (our names and how we are related can be found at the end of this letter) began planning a large family reunion in an effort to bring the descendants of all fifteen children together. For the location, we settled on Beatrice, Nebraska, because it is a significant site in the family’s history and because it is centrally located in the United States. And now, on to the progress report. Sections of the report can be accessed by clicking a link in the left margin.