When Genevieve Rechner bought her family to Parkes for the Elvis Festival, she didn’t expect her daughter-in-law to discover a unique connection to her hometown.
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It turns out her son Daniel’s wife, Clancy, is the great great granddaughter of Annie Berger – who was the first baby to be registered in Parkes.
“We couldn’t believe it,” they said.
The family were visiting the Henry Parkes Centre and got talking to Yvonne Hutton in the Henry Parkes Museum.
“Mum had told me we had connections to Parkes,” Clancy said.
“I told Yvonne about it and she looked it up. She said my great great grandmother, Annie, married one of the Hodges and my grandmother is Dorothy Hodges.”
Genevieve was born in Parkes.
Her father, Roger, had one of the bigger machinery dealerships in town – Rechner Equipment.
The family moved to Sydney when she was 14 years old.
“I was a teenager, I wasn’t happy about leaving Parkes,” she said.
“I have lots of fond memories of growing up here.”
This is the first Elvis Festival Genevieve has been to.
“We were at a fundraising dinner in Sydney when we first heard about how wonderful the festival is,” she said.
They bought an Elvis Festival package as their contribution to the fundraiser and booked their trip.
“I haven’t had my photo in the Champion Post for 35 years,” Genevieve laughed.
