On August 15, 2003, WFA members and their guests gathered in Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love. Philadelphia has many historic places, from Independence Hall to the Liberty Bell. You can see the place where the Declaration of Independence was written and voted on and you can visit the home of Benjamin Franklin and tour Christ Church, as well as several excellent museums. There is one of the largest historical societies in American with an extensive section dealing with genealogy.

Headquarters was the newly remodeled Loews Philadelphia Hotel, within walking distance of the city's major attractions. A new feature this year was a hospitality suite that was available for WFA members to meet socially or just relax with friends and family members between events.

The great northeast blackout kept some of those pre-registerd from coming. But still Friday evening we had a good turnout and a wonderful buffet with a chef and cutting board serving succulent Prime Rib with all the fixings. After dinner our speaker was Karin Kincaid who talked to us about the German branch of the Willard Family, – our theme for the year.  Click here (.pdf 111 kb) , Here (html 50 kb), or here (.doc 52kb) to see the text of her talk.

Saturday morning we met in the hotel for registration followed by the official Annual Meeting at 10 AM. Immediately after the business meeting, there was an election of officers.

(Click here to see a listing of theofficers and board members for the coming year.)

Immediately after the meeting and election, we had a discussion period on Willard genealogy. We will shared information recently discovered about Major Simon Willard as well as more material from the German Willards.

At noontime we had a special buffet luncheon at the hotel. The reunion officially ended after lunch and our afternoon was free for sight-

seeing.

As is the custom, there was a Saturday night dinner this time at a quaint Itallian restaurant within walking distance of our hotel. This social event was a nice conclusion to a great weekend.