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ATTLEBORO

Fifty descendants of Banfield Capron, the man who arrived in Attleboro as a 14-year-old in 1675, held a reunion Saturday at the Attleboro park and zoo named after one of the city's first settlers.

While this is the 10th year of the Capron family holding annual family reunions, this is the first time the family has come to Attleboro for the event. The previous reunions had taken place in Cory, Pa., the residence of Sherry Catalfu, who first began organizing this event with her sisters Cindy Biesemeyer and Suellen Capron a decade ago.

Suellen Capron, the organizer of this year's event, chose the city of Attleboro after recently learning of the park named after her ancestors. She flew in from Snowflake, Ariz., for the event, and while a slight rain began to fall after the lighting of the Capron Torch, she declared:

"The weather won't dampen our spirits regardless." One of the day's main goals was to try to find the more than 1,000 Caprons who are unidentified in the Capron family data base, which has been maintained for the past 35 years by Phil DeSilva of Alexandria, Va., the great-great-great-great-great-great grandson of Banfield.

DeSilva, who calls these the "Unconnected Caprons," is searching for information as to how these 1,000 are related to the family.

"The main reason they're unconnected is because the information I'm receiving doesn't quite match up with the information I already have; maybe a name is misspelled or the relation to the family differs between two sources."

As of now, his 35 years of research have uncovered more than 16,000 identifiable descendants of Banfield Capron.

"There are plenty of us out there," he laughed. "The goal is to gather all of Banfield's descendants into a centralized location so future generations can pick up where I've left off. There's no detailed genealogy - no wills or birth certificates - but the list of names and how they're connected is all in the program I use (Master Genealogy) and uploaded to a Web site."

Sue Ellen Capron notes how gracious and kind everyone in the area has been to the family. To show the family's appreciation to the Attleboro area, Sue Ellen Capron, Cattal and Biesemeyer gave Sonny Almeida, now in his 51st year of being the superintendent of the Attleboro Park and Forestry Department, souvenirs from Arizona, and expressed gratitude for his service and dedication to the upkeep of the park and zoo.

One of the many highlights of the day included a presentation by Mayor Kevin Dumas to the family. He expressed how pleased he was for the Caprons to have their family reunion in Attleboro because of how the legacy of the family had touched thousands of people.

"Living across the street," the mayor said, "I am reminded of that every day."

After being presented gifts of prickly pear cactus jelly - an Arizona delicacy - and a bell - to be rung when the Caprons return once again to Attleboro - the mayor offered his own gift to the Capron family.

Reading a proclamation from his office, Dumas announced, "I proclaim today, July 5th, to be Capron Family Reunion Day in the city of Attleboro." Sue Ellen Capron concluded the ceremony by offering a challenge to the Capron family:

"I want each of you to think of one thing that you learned from someone else at this year's reunion. Something that you will talk about and retell until we meet again next year. Something that inspired you to pay it forward. After all, that's what Caprons are all about."