OJAI : McGrath Family Members Reunite
More than 200 descendants of Dominick and Bridget McGrath, two of Ventura County’s earliest settlers, converged Saturday at the family’s first reunion in 13 years.
On Friday, family members began arriving at Villanova Preparatory School in Ojai. The numbers were expected to swell to about 400 this morning, said Tom McGrath, 45, of Oxnard.
Dominick and Bridget McGrath, who arrived in Ventura County from Ireland in 1876, started with a 5,000-acre ranch. The family holdings grew until, at one point, the McGraths owned all the beachfront property from Ventura to Port Hueneme.
About half of the descendants gathering this weekend still live in Ventura County, Tom McGrath said. Most of the others live scattered throughout the state. Some came from as far away as Colorado.
Both the family’s oldest and its newest member are among those attending the reunion, Tom McGrath said. Tom Leonard, 87, of Camarillo is a grandson of Dominick and Bridget. Three-month-old Conal Harris is one of their great-great-great-grandsons.
While individual families have reunions frequently, the entire clan has not gathered since 1978.
“It’s a big undertaking to get it out to the whole family,” Tom McGrath said.
Activities for the weekend included golf, softball, a watermelon-eating contest and a talent show. The reunion will culminate in an outdoor Roman Catholic Mass this morning.
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