In the mid-1970s, a number of Clouds who were corresponding and attempting to answer questions about common ancestors began to talk about getting together in more than a casual visit. They decided on a time and place to gather and invited a number of other Clouds to join them. It started with about five families, and it has grown as others have found it to be worthwhile to join forces in chasing Cloud genealogical information. It has been called a “family reunion” by those not familiar with the nature of its membership, and it has indeed become a reunion of sorts as members reminisce about earlier gatherings and experiences in addition to discussing genealogy; but in fact few of the many dozen families involved in the CFA knew each other before getting involved in genealogy. Some are clearly related, some think that they are probably related, and others don’t know.
Pat Cloud, one of our founders, wrote:
“In 1978 Bob and I, with his 1st cousin Bill Cloud and his wife, Gayle, went to Kentucky (Logan Co.) to see if we could find any old records pertaining to our Cloud line.
We found a courthouse FULL, plus a plaque on the courthouse lawn dedicated to Daniel William Cloud and 4 other men from Logan Co. who died at the Alamo. We almost fainted, also found a very elderly man who was a “cousin” (his grandmother and Bob & Bill’s gr.grandfather were brother & sister). He loved family history and we met with he and his wife and had dinner with them.
During this trip, we decided it would be fun to see if we could find other cousins. We knew the gr. grandfather had 7 brothers & sisters and knew about 2 or them. Anyway, we sent postcards to every Cloud in the Texas phone books and I spent 3 months of my lunch hours copying names & addresses. We ended up with 153 people here in Austin at the old American Legion Hall. People had contacted their families in other states, etc. Had 7 states represented. During the meeting, it was decided to form an organization and have a newsletter. Bill Cloud was elected pres., I can’t remember who was Vice-Pres but am sure it’s in the old journal, I was appt. Sec/Treas. and Gayle was appt. Historian. All voted on and official.
The next meeting was held at DeGray State Park in Arkadelphia, Ark. hosted by Ural Cloud and his wife, Ruth. So it continues, year after year.
Oh, yes, we now know descendants from all 8 brothers & sisters and have a great deal of information about the family, before and after.”
