Looking Back at our 2022 Daniel Haston Family Association Highlights
1. July 22-23 Haston Family Reunion
Our first-ever Daniel Haston Family Association all-Hastons reunion was a remarkable success. About 150 registered from 17 states–all across the USA. Saturday was an unusually hot and humid day, even for July in Tennessee, but the Fellowship Hall where we met was comfortable. We had 10 interest centers set up around the room, enjoyed an excellent Tennessee country meal, and I (Wayne) gave a 50 minutes overview of our Hiestand-Haston FAMILY history. In spite of the heat, most everyone toured some of the main historical Haston sites in the area.
2. Publication of The Story of the Daniel Haston Family Book
More than 20 years of research and writing culminated in the publication of The Story of the Daniel Haston Family. The book was officially released at our July Haston Reunion, with about 100 copies sold in the day and a half of the reunion.
The book covers our family history from its beginning on the south side of Lake Zürich in Switzerland to the little Rhineland village of Ibersheim in what is now southwestern Germany, to Pennsylvania, Virginia, Tennessee, and all across the United States–especially the pioneering years in Missouri, Texas, California, and Washington State, etc. There are thirty-one chapters in the book, consisting of 474 very colorful pages with lots of photos, maps, graphs, and charts.
3. Posted 70+ new articles
Part 3 – Search for the Man Who Killed Revenue Agent Hugh Lowery
May 3, 2024
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4. Approved as a 501 (c) (7) Non-Profit "Social Club"
The Daniel Haston Family Association is now an IRS-approved 501 (c) (7) organization, a kind of “social club.”
Social clubs may be exempt from federal income taxation if they meet the requirements of section 501 (c) (7) of the Internal Revenue Code. Although they are generally exempt from tax, social clubs are subject to tax on their unrelated business income, which includes income from nonmembers. In addition to being taxed on unrelated income, a social club may lose its exempt status if it receives too much unrelated income.
Tax donations to a 501 (c) (7) are not tax deductible for the donor, but the Daniel Haston Family Association is not required to pay taxes on expenditures.
5. NEW connections to several branches of the Daniel Haston FAMILY
The Daniel Haston FAMILY is much like a huge and complex tree, with descendants of our pioneer Haston ancestor, Daniel Haston, scattered all over the USA, in most if not all states–as well as some non-USA countries.
One of the main goals of the Daniel Haston Family Association (DHFA) is to connect to as many of the FAMILY branches as possible. I wish I could give you an accurate number of new branches of our Haston FAMILY that connected to our DHFA this year. I can’t do that, but I can tell you that it was a very good year in terms of new connections. And every branch has its own network of Hastons and Haston-related family members.
Please help us make many more connections to other branches of the Haston FAMILY tree.
Next year (2023) we will begin to work with these family branches to help them organize their own mini-reunions if they don’t already exist. And we want to participate in some of the mini-reunions as representatives of the Daniel Haston Family Association to help them understand the value of connecting to the entire Haston FAMILY.
6. Core Team has expanded significantly this year
Going into 2022, the group that expressed a serious interest in helping to preserve the history and heritage of the Daniel Haston FAMILY was small–only about six or seven people. But as the year progressed some family members joined our Core Team, filling some significant roles. Others joined the Core Team toward the end of the year and in 2023 we hope to find slots where they can be most productive in helping us reach the goals of this Association.
But we need more committed Core Team members! Please check it out.
7. Initiated the Legacy of Service to honor military veterans from our FAMILY
We can be proud of the many ways our Haston kinfolk have served to protect our country over many years. Many of them served heroically in the heat of battles. Others, though not in combat, stood ready to defend our flag and the country it represents if or when the need arose.
This past year (2022) we launched the DHFA (Daniel Haston Family Association) Legacy of Service to honor military veterans from our extended Haston FAMILY.
If you, a member of the extended Haston FAMILY), served in the military or have (or had) a relative who served, we encourage you to register in the Legacy of Service Honor Gallery.
8. Swiss historians, Dr. Peter Ziegler and Dr. Nicole Billeter
It is 4,080 miles from where I live in Pennsylvania to where our ancestors originated in Zürich, Switzerland. And the documents needed to conduct research on our early Swiss Hiestand family are all written in German. So how could I provide reliable historical information about our Swiss ancestors?
I have been very fortunate to have become acquainted (via. email) with two outstanding Swiss historians who have helped me with research and reviewing my writings about our Swiss ancestors. Dr. Nicole Billeter is from Richterswil and Dr. Peter Ziegler is the official historian for Wädenswil, two locations where our earliest Swiss Hiestand ancestors lived. Throughout 2022, these two eminent Swiss historians provided essential guidance, historical insights, translation, and proofreading for my research and writings about Swiss Hiestands from 1401 and beyond.
Here are seven articles that Dr. Ziegler and I co-authored. He provided much of the content which I organized and designed for publishing as blog articles. They are published in German as well as in English, in an effort to help connect us in the USA with some of our current relatives in Switzerland and Germany.
9. A VERY Big Accomplishment that You Will Learn About Very Soon!
10. Planning for the June 2023 Hiestand-Haston European Heritage Tour
Although the tour happens in June 2023, much work was done in 2022 in promoting and planning this tour to sites of special interest to Hiestands/Hastons and other families with similar family roots and historical interests.
But it is more than a history tour, it’s also packed with very popular tourism sites, including a scenic boat ride up the Rhine River with castles along the hillsides, a night high in the Alps, and breakfast in the rotating restaurant where a James Bond movie was filmed, a tour of downtown Zürich and Bern, etc.
And you won’t beat the features and price of this tour anywhere!
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