Friday, 25 September 2015

Register now for the August 2016 reunion...


M. P. Hogan's house, 26 Prince Street, Charlottetown, PEI

Grand opening of the house after extensive restoration


Dear Hogan relatives,

Over the past couple of years there has been a burgeoning desire to hold a family reunion on PEI and many have expressed interest in attending on a Facebook page that had been created for this purpose. This website/blog purpose is to register participants, share information, ask questions and receive answers, as well reveal to each other to little known facts about our ancestors. Hopefully this will make the thought of joining us in Charlottetown that much more intriguing. As well, it may be more accessible for family members who are not Facebook users.

We have booked a light itinerary over three days with an optional fourth day to allow people a lot of free time to spend with each other outside of the programming or do other things in the Maritimes not on our calendar.

The family’s first of two notable historians were Caryl Hogan born in 1880 in California and daughter of John Hogan of Brule Nova Scotia, the family’s landing spot in Canada. Thanks to the efforts of Deanna Belyavski (Dolan), daughter of FlorenceHogan/Dolan we were able to secure Caryl’s letters, memorabilia and photographs collected over her lifetime. The other historian was Dorothy Hogan/Coyle of Charlottetown whose files reside on the island with Elizabeth Driscoll, daughter of Dorothy. All of these will be available to see at the family get together at 26 Prince Street on the first day of reunion. We will endeavor to post pieces of these files on this blog over the next year leading up to the event. As well Rosemary Driscoll (creator of the website) has edited a paper she wrote years ago that is posted on this site to give you a synopsis of our Hogan family history.

My wife Susan and I purchased M.P.Hogan’s family home built in 1886 ten years ago assisted by Kier Kenny, another Hogan relative on the Island. The home is full of family heirlooms and paintings of the family by Elizabeth Driscoll including a life size statue of Mary Elizabeth Hogan, M.P.’s wife that Elizabeth created. We look forward to hosting you all in the family home to kick this off and get all completely immersed in family stories and history.

We have access to some significant Island experts on buildings that will be able to tell us more about M.P. Hogan and his family and the time they lived in during a walking tour of Charlottetown. When you read the family history here on the site you will get a deeper understanding of what you will see.

As well the Kenny family will host a family picnic at St. Peters that is sure to be fun. They may even be able to convince a fiddle player or two to show up.

Lastly, for those wanting a day trip, we will drive to Brule, Nova Scotia ( about a two hour drive) to see the Hogan family cemetery and where they landed in 1825.

Please register by clicking on the "Registration" tab above. All registration information will be kept private and will be managed by Rosemary Driscoll and me.

All for now,

Michael Coyle