Courtesy of Sean Hardy
New Haven descendants keep connection strong for 35th reunion anniversary despite Covid interruption.
Hardy and Dawson are members of the Mills Family Union Connecticut Chapter planning committee. The committee meets two to three times a month.
Courtesy of Sean Hardy
This year is the Connecticut Chapter Mìlls Reunion Committee’s 35th anniversary. The family was going to celebrate Julyu 4 at the Mega Mills Reunion in Greenville, N.C. Then the gathering was canceled due to Covid-19.
So the family kept the traditional alive, virtually, online.
The family has been able to trace their roots back to the Haddocks Crossroads community in Pitt County, N.C.
The first family reunion was in 1973. Connecticut relatives began attending the Mega Mills Reunion 12 years later.
Families 35th Anniversary t-shirts made by relative Ronnie Moye.
The Connecticut Chapter started in 1985 when the late Doris Mìlls Moye and her sister Mary E. Mìlls Green contacted Sean Hardy expressing interest in gathering their family in New Haven and hosting a bus trip to the Annual Mìlls Reunion in Greenville.
What was supposed to only be a one-time trip turned into Connecticut relatives attending the Mega Mìlls Reunion for the past 35 years.
The Mìlls gathering started in Greenville by Charlie Mìlls Sr And Velma Cox Mìlls.
Sean Hardy has served on the Connecticut committee since its start and is a direct Mìlls descendant through his grandparents Kelly And Henrietta Adams Mìlls.
Sean Hardy with pictures of grandparents Kelly And Henrietta Adams Mìlls.
Dawson and Hardy did not always know they were related. The two grew up in the same neighborhood and bonded while children. “We always wondered why we bonded so quickly,” said Dawson, who serves as president of the New Haven Police Commission and is a former city alder. Dawson’s and Hardy’s grandmothers are sisters, making them second cousins.
The two agreed that they would remain invested in learning about their roots because of their ancestors’ hard work and success that has helped them both be where they are today.
“It feels good to be a part of keeping the family alive,” said Dawson. “It’s important that our kids in New Haven know who’s their family.”
The family takes two to three buses to the reunion in Greenville that is hosted every other year. In the past, New Haveners with roots in Greenville have joined the family on the bus ride to visit when extra space was available.
On the Greenville reunion’s off years, smaller reunions are organized in other states such as Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, where the family tree extends.
About 10 years ago, Dawson hosted the reunion at his home in the Hill neighborhood. For about eight hours the family celebrated with nearly 500 visiting relatives filling Dawson’s backyard.
The first Connecticut reunion was hosted at Lighthouse Point Park. The family has since moved the biannual gathering to East Rock Park.
July 11 family prayer on Zoom.
The family stays connected throughout the year by hosting a prayer service on Zoom every Saturday, often with over 100 members attending. A genealogy workshop is also hosted each month to discuss the history of the family and relative updates.
The family has four Facebook groups for different family branches, including Mills, Nelson, Hardy, and Greene. The Mills group alone has about 300 members.
This year is the first time the in-person Mega Mills Reunion has been canceled. The reunions are planned for July each year. The family is now organizing 2022 Mega Mills Reunion.
The Mega Mills Reunion is hosted on a weekend for the family to host a fish fry on Friday, a cookout and banquet on Saturday, and then go to church together on Sunday. In all a total of about 400 participate during the entire weekend of events.
At the start of the Mega Mills Reunion, the family gathered every summer. In 2002 it was decided that the Mega Mills Reunion would be biannual.
For the past month, the family has been sharing old photos from previous reunions in the Facebook groups in place of not being with each other directly.
Dawson and Hardy are active members of the family. They are both listed on the family’s emergency call list for any issues that occur amongst the entire family. The family’s call list is meant for relatives to take care of matters with only the help of other relatives. The call list includes social workers, drug counselors, and police officers within the family that can help.
The motto for the family’s celebration this year was “All In The Family Because We Are One.”
The family even has a family member working on a book about the family’s history.
Much of the research on family history is done by the youth who are purposefully seeking out higher education about genealogy.
From decades of research, the family knows that their ancestors once were ministers, teachers, church organizers, entrepreneurs, politicians, farmers, and more.
“It’s like they never left. They’re on our shoulders,” said Dawson. “Like angels guiding you and instructing you.”
The family has information dating back to ancestry from the mid-1800s. According to documentation from the 1860 census located by the family, Rolin Mìlls was a “free mulatto laborer” whose first wife was Caroline Brooks Mìlls. Caroline was a mulatto slave who had 10 children by Rolin. Rolin’s second wife Emily Corbett was Caucasian and had one child.
The family has a “descendant of Rolin Mìlls” email page to communicate directly with each other about family-related updates.
The family is now organizing for a gathering in July 2021 in Philadelphia.
Also, the Nelson-Mills blossoms is a smaller group that celebrates the Nasby Clarence Mills, Sr.'s Branch of this family yearly in Winterville, NC.