Nance-Rollins Family Reunion -- The Present
Make note, the 66th annual Nance-Rollins Family Reunion is scheduled to take place Sunday, September 16th 2012 at Smith Chapel United Methodist Church in Catoosa County near Ringgold, GA at 12:30 p.m. Start making plans to attend and feel free to email the Rollins Family Archive office with any questions or concerns.
Please remember to send all updated contact information to the Rollins Family Archive office, as we have been receiving numerous documents returned due to outdated mailing addresses.

Nance-Rollins Family Reunion -- The Past
On Sept. 28, 1947, O. Wayne and Grace Crum Rollins organized a party in honor of the birthday of Wayne's mother, Claudia Ann (Nance) Rollins. The event was held at Claudia's home at Catoosa Springs, Ga.

The birthday party turned into an annual gathering at Catoosa Springs, where the families continued to meet every year until 1963--with the exception of the time they met at the Ringgold Recreational Facility swimming pool.

Rollins Memorial Hall at Smith Chapel United Methodist Church was dedicated in 1962, and the following year the reunion was moved to the church grounds.

These Nance and Rollins families, who have been gathering for nearly seven decades to celebrate their family heritage, are descended from the Robert W. Nance and John Franklin Rollins Sr. families.

Interestingly, the Robert W. Nance and John Franklin Rollins Sr. families were neighbors before they were family.

On June 1, 1900, when the census taker passed through the Smith Chapel District of Catoosa County, Ga., Robert W. Nance lived in Dwelling No. 18 with his wife, Mary Emma (Scott) Nance, and their eight children who ranged in age from 17 (Lillie) to 1 (Scott) year old.

Robert's brother William "Will" Osborn Nance, Will's wife, Virginia Elizabeth (Scott) Nance, and their nine children lived on the farm next door, in Dwelling No. 17.

On the other side of Will Nance, in Dwelling No. 16 on the Headrick Property, was the Rollins family--John Franklin Rollins Sr., his wife Roxie Elaine (Tatum) Rollins, their five children and Roxie's father, Edward Tatum. The Rollins' children ranged in age from 10 (Henry) to 2 (Frank) years old.

Ten years later on Oct. 9, 1910, the neighbors became family as John Franklin Rollins Sr.'s son, William Henry, and Robert Nance's daughter, Claudia Ann, were married.

On Christmas Day of that same year, the second wedding between the two families took place when Bessie Rowena Rollins married William Madison "Mack" Nance. Both couples had known each other as neighbors since at least 1900.

Little more than three years later, on April 19, 1914, the third and final marriage between the Robert W. Nance and John Franklin Rollins Sr. families was held with Walter Fredrick "Fred" Rollins marrying Mary Lou Nance.

Between them Robert W. Nance and John Franklin Rollins Sr. produced 18 children who lived to marry and have families of their own. It is the descendants of those 18 children, as well as descendants of earlier Nance and Rollins ancestors, who reunite each September at Smith Chapel United Methodist Church in Catoosa County, Ga., for what is now known as the Nance-Rollins Family Reunion.