Members of the Penley, Burns, Lemmons, Wilkerson and Emerick families will get together at the home of Patsy Penley McNair at 2 p.m. Oct. 26, at 19 Mill Wood Circle in Vicksburg.

The Penleys and their descendents spring from the marriage of Ephriam Crockett Penley, who served with the First Maine Volunteers in their Virginia campaigns, and Frances Medora Crowell, born in Alabama. One of the Maine Penleys has prepared a CD of the family history back through the 1600s, and a family tree. Both of these will be presented by Jim Wilson, whose mother was Inez Alberta Penley. She married Edwin Hilton Wilson. Their six children were born in Vicksburg.

Wilson’s maternal grandmother was Anna Robert Burns, a daughter of William J. Burns, who married Rebecca A. Lemmons of Claiborne County. William fought in the Battle of Jackson and was wounded. Anna married Charles Henry Penley.

This will be the first reunion that includes the two Vicksburg families of Penleys; those descended from Charles Henry Penley and those descended from his brother, Frank Newman Penley. Jim Wilson said he isn’t sure if or how the Wilkersons and Emericks are related to the Penleys but recalls his mother visiting with them when he was a child.

Wilson has visited the Penley family church and burying grounds at Penley’s Corner Maine (now part of South Auburn) and the burying grounds at Horsley, near Nailsworth, England. The Maine Penleys have extended an invitation to their Mississippi cousins to come to their 2009 family reunion. Information on the time and place will be available at the reunion.