his is a very personal history of my mother's family, the Nunans.  It is written from the perspective of a member of the family living away from the day to day interaction that would give other family members perhaps more information and a different perspective.  The recollections are my own, those of my mother, Helen Irene Nunan, and others who have shared their memories with me.

My interest in documenting the history of the Nunan family was the result of an effort to learn the where-abouts of members of the family, particularly cousins I have never met.  It began with Aunt Shirley talking about organizing a family re-union.  I realized that most of my cousins were strangers to me; I would not recognize them if we met on the street.  Nor did I know how to contact them.  This was amazing in view of the feelings of closeness I'd always had for the Nunan branch of my family.

Over ten years have been spent gathering information about the family and doing research.  It is gratifying to find the majority of the cousins (I've met most of them now) share this interest.  I'll attempt to put on paper the information obtained for the benefit of those who want to know about their family.

The chapters are organized in generational sequence starting with the oldest ancestors advancing to my grandparents John Francis Nunan and Anita Juliet Reedy.  I will not include information about their children.  My aunt's and uncles' histories are better written by themselves or their children.

Background material is included in every chapter.  Every life is affected by the time and place in which the person lives.  I've tired to give some information about history so we can better understand the conditions that molded their lives.  A list of the source material is included with each family group sheet at the end of each chapter.

There is nothing especially expository about the outlines of lives included here.  I was not looking for family secrets, and didn't find anything shocking.  What emerges is, for me, an interesting adventure of human perseverance and courage.

Diane A. Mushkin Berge
© 2007 Nunan Family History