My wife Janet and I took some pictures at the reunion. Hope you enjoy them.

Click here to view the pictures.

Scott

Aunt Lolly's Vigallon Story book

Oh my goodness, I'm so overwhelmed. So impressed. So appreciative. (So mad at myself for dropping the ball with photos from my own family!)

Thank you so much Aunt Lolly for this wonderful book. I loved seeing all the pictures of all of our cousins and aunts and uncles, I loved reading their stories. It's so nice. What a beautiful thing. Thank you.

If there's anyway I can help get copies of the book (even electronic ones) to other members of the family, let me know. I'd be happy to help. My dad mentioned maybe scanning it... how did you make it? What program did you use? It's really amazing. It's really wonderful. I want everyone to see it!

love,
Liz

P.S. The jar and the candy bar are really sweet! (no pun intended) What a great idea!

Vigallon Centennial Reunion article in Stockton Record

By Ellen Thompson
Record Staff Writer
July 01, 2007 6:00 AM
MANTECA - When Constance "Mama Concha" and Rafael "Papa Ralph" Vigallon came to the United States from Spain, they wanted a better life for their young family. One hundred years later, dozens of their 107 descendants gathered at a reunion in Manteca Saturday and toasted their success.

Vigallon descendants from four generations have settled in recent years in Manteca, enjoying more comfortable lives than the couple who brought the family here.

"(Mama and Papa Vigallon) came to the agreement they could make something of themselves in America, where they couldn't in Spain," daughter-in-law Dolores Vigallon said.

The couple loaded themselves and their infant son, the first of 18 children, on a ship bound for Hawaii. The couple paid their passage by agreeing to work for two years at a plantation there.

It was almost two decades later, in 1924, when the family came to California, again seeking opportunity. They found it, though still at a high cost.

"It was survival by prune picking," 79-year-old John Vigallon said. Every year for two months the family would move to the "Coyote Hilton," a shack where they would pick prunes - plums picked to be dried.

Life the rest of the year was also tough for the family, which lived in San Leandro, and then Fremont. John Vigallon recalled getting up at 3 a.m. for his paper route, then working a couple hours at a bakery, all before the school day. After school he would do chores such as feeding the animals that sustained the Vigallon clan.

"Hardworking" is the first description recent generations of Vigallons give their forbearers.

As they celebrated Saturday, Vigallon descendants remarked how happy Mama and Papa Vigallon would be to see their children, their children's children, even a great-great-great granddaughter, all together.

They would be humbled, descendants said, to see their lives still celebrated.

Contact reporter Ellen Thompson at (209) 546-8279 or ethompson@recordnet.com.