FOR many people, Easter meant organising a quiet meal with the in-laws and buying chocolate eggs for the kids.

But for one family, celebrating the holiday together meant hiring a hall, preparing hundreds of sandwiches and wearing name badges.

All 105 members of the Rhymes family who gathered at Stanton St John village hall were descendants of Oxford couple Stephen and Lucy, who lived in Marston, Oxford.

And all those attending the reunion were able to place themselves on a giant family tree — 11 metres long.

Stephen and Lucy Rhymes’s granddaughter Mandy Rodway, of Kidlington, helped organise the event on Good Friday.

The 47-year-old said: “In 1991 my late mother Joyce Rhymes thought it was shame we only saw many of our relatives at weddings and funerals, so she decided to hold a family get-together for no other reason than to just see everyone.

“She booked the village hall in Stanton St John, 60 people turned up and that was it, an annual event began.

“This was our 19th Rhymes family get-together and we had a record attendance of 105 people, with ages ranging from babies to 92 years.

“People travelled from as far afield as Devon and Newcastle-upon-Tyne.”

Mrs Rodway said people were given sticky labels when they arrived to write their names and relation to Mr and Mrs Rhymes.

They were also asked to locate themselves on the family tree and stick photos of themselves by their names. When asked whether there were any obvious family traits, she added: “There’s definitely a Rhymes’ nose.”

Her cousin Caroline Walker, a mother-of-four from Marcham, has spent the past 19 years researching the family history and made the family tree.

She said the eldest person on the tree was her 12x great grandmother Ann Symonds who was born in South Leigh, near Witney, in 1601.

The youngest was Mrs Walker’s great niece Ciera Rhymes, aged one, from Brackley.

Mrs Walker said Mr and Mrs Rhymes, who all the people at the reunion were descended from, lived in William Street, Marston, in the middle of last century with their seven children.

Stephen Rhymes, her paternal grandfather, was a chauffeur and served in France during the First World War.

Lucy Rhymes, whose maiden name was Colmer, was a servant at a house in St Margaret’s Road, North Oxford.

Mrs Walker said: “Family history is my passion. Mostly I have been getting names and dates.

“Now I am starting to get more interested in the personal sides of their lives.”

Anyone who thinks they are related to the Rhymes family should contact carolineewalker@aol.com esimmonds@oxfordmail.co.uk