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How the Dillman Family Association Began

The Dillman Family Association began at a two-day gathering at a hotel near the Indianapolis airport on 17–18 August 2002. More than 70 people came to find out who might be related to whom. By the end of the second day they had formed the association, chosen its name, and decided to build a website and to meet again two years later.[1][2][3]

Group photo of the attendees at the 2002 Dillman Mega-Reunion
Attendees of the first Dillman Mega-Reunion, August 2002.

Why the gathering was called

By 2002 many people were researching Dillman families without knowing where their own line fit among the many Dillmans they kept finding. The Internet had made them aware of large numbers of Dillmans, past and present, many of them tied to one family but not necessarily to the others.[3] It was suggested that a gathering could help sort out the Dillmans they knew of, attach them to their trees, and perhaps introduce new cousins.[3] The organizers did not want a typical family reunion. Earl Dillman told the people he wrote to that it would be about genealogy, not hot dogs and T-shirts.[2] Indianapolis was chosen because it was central to the country and close to a major airport.[3]

Who planned it

In his welcome on the first morning, Earl Dillman said that three people had worked on the event for about two years.[1] Phil Dillman came up with the idea and got the project moving. June Riccio gathered and contributed large amounts of family information and decided how it would be organized on a CD. Earl collected the submissions and did the scanning.[1] The goal, he said, was to collect and share as much information as possible about the Dillman family and to give relatives from across the country a chance to meet. The material was to go on a CD sorted into about 20 categories, which he expected to mail in late September or early October.[1] Earl’s letters and emails, sent to as many people named Dillman as could be found, brought more than 70 people to Indianapolis.[2][4]

The weekend of 17–18 August 2002

The gathering was held on 17–18 August 2002 at a hotel in Indianapolis near the airport.[1][2] About 70 people representing about 40 families took part, many after long trips.[2] Marguerite Dillman, who had researched the family for 22 years and travelled from Florida, was the guest speaker and opened the meeting.[1][2][5]

People brought binders, handwritten notes, photographs and posters. Scanners ran through the weekend to copy material for the CD, and the walls were covered with charts of Dillman lines as far as they were known, including a 30-foot scroll of taped-together sheets prepared by June Riccio.[2]

The room also showed the problem the group wanted to solve. At least three attendees had visited Illingen, Germany, thinking it might be the home of their ancestors, and none could connect their own line to the Dillmann family that had lived there.[2] A few attendees concluded that they were not related to anyone else present, and the group learned that not all Dillmans are related to each other.[2][3] June Riccio suggested DNA testing of male descendants, which could show whether participants share a male ancestor.[2]

Many came away with a changed view of the search. A shared effort, combining DNA results, records held by different families and the skills of different researchers, could do more than each person searching alone, and an association to promote that kind of work seemed a promising answer.[2]

What was decided

By the end of the second day the Dillman Family Association had been formed.[2] At a business meeting the group discussed what it hoped to accomplish, chose the name, and planned to meet again two years later.[3] Most of those present paid dues of $5, the group decided to create a website, and someone volunteered to organize a reunion in 2004.[2]

One proposal made in 2002 was a DNA project to help sort out the Dillmans. Frank Dillman offered to find out what was involved, arranged the testing through FamilyTreeDNA, and kept the chart of results.[2][3] The Dillman DNA Project dates its start to October 2002.[6]

The website was built in stages. Daniel Dillman began work on a first version in August 2002, and in June 2004 Judy Hudson reworked it and launched the first DFA website online.[7] That early site is not connected to the current DFA website, which was created several years later.[8]

The first officers

No election of officers was held at the reunion. Afterward June Riccio noticed this, and the association started with Phil Dillman as president, Earl Dillman as vice president, and June Riccio as secretary and treasurer. After a number of emails that arrangement was changed and others were added. The slate for 2002–2004 was Earl Dillman, president; Phil Dillman, vice president; June Riccio, secretary and treasurer; Glenda Dillman, membership contact; Daniel Dillman, web host; Frank Dillman, DNA project coordinator; Don and Joye Dillman, European researchers; and Toby Hurley, American researcher.[9] The page for the 2002 conference links to this list as the interim slate of officers.[10]

The first years

The second gathering, in 2004, was held near Cincinnati. The DNA match between the Dillman and Stillman lines is traced to research and discussion from that period.[11] The third, in 2006, was held in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.[12]

The 2008 gathering returned to Indianapolis under the theme “No Dillman Cousin Left Behind.” Earl Dillman, listed as a DFA founder, gave a talk titled “A History of the Formation of the Dillman Family Association”; no text of it is available on this site. Members adopted a Statement of Purpose and Organization by vote on the third day.[13]

The first issue of the quarterly newsletter appeared in September 2008, with Phil Dillman as editor.[3] Biennial conferences continued, and the 2022 conference in Harrisburg was billed as the 20th anniversary conference.[14] The book Discovering Dillman Families Throughout the World records the association’s history and findings.[15]

Sources

Entries marked “Members-only” are newsletter issues available only to DFA members, through the DFA Newsletters page. The public Newsletter Index summarizes every issue.

  1. Dillman, Earl. “Welcome.” Address presented at the Dillman Mega-Reunion, Indianapolis, August 17–18, 2002. PDF. Dillman Family Association. Accessed November 9, 2026. dillmanfamilyassociation.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/WELCOME-Earl-Dillman.pdf.
  2. Dillman, Don A. “The First Mega-Reunion and Creation of the Dillman Family Association in August 2002.” Dillman Descendants & Ancestors 5, no. 4 (June 2013): 8–11. Members-only. Accessed November 9, 2026.
  3. “The Creation of the DFA in 2002.” Dillman Descendants & Ancestors 1, no. 1 (September 2008): 2–4. Members-only. Accessed November 9, 2026.
  4. Opening column, Dillman News 13, no. 4 (June–August 2021): 2. Members-only. Accessed November 9, 2026.
  5. Dillman, Marguerite. Address at the Dillman Mega-Reunion, August 17, 2002. Transcription. PDF. Dillman Family Association. Accessed November 9, 2026. dillmanfamilyassociation.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/TRANSCRIPTION-MARGUERITE-DILLMAN.pdf.
  6. Dillman Family Association. “Dillman DNA Project.” Page stating figures as of May 2026. Accessed November 9, 2026. dillmanfamilyassociation.org/dillman-dna-project.
  7. Article on the history of the DFA website. Dillman Descendants & Ancestors 3, no. 2 (December 2010): 2. Members-only. Accessed November 9, 2026.
  8. Dillman Family Association. Notes on the early and current DFA websites. Unpublished.
  9. “Past DFA Officers.” Dillman Descendants & Ancestors 3, no. 1 (September 2010): 7. Members-only. Accessed November 9, 2026.
  10. Dillman Family Association. “2002 DFA Genealogical Conference — Inaugural,” with the linked interim officers list. Accessed November 9, 2026. dillmanfamilyassociation.org/genealogical-conferences/plainfield-2002.
  11. Dillman Family Association. “2004 DFA Genealogical Conference.” Accessed November 9, 2026. dillmanfamilyassociation.org/genealogical-conferences/cincinnati-2004.
  12. Dillman Family Association. “2006 DFA Genealogical Conference.” Accessed November 9, 2026. dillmanfamilyassociation.org/genealogical-conferences/harrisburg-2006.
  13. Dillman Family Association. “2008 Dillman Genealogical Conference – Indianapolis.” Accessed November 9, 2026. dillmanfamilyassociation.org/genealogical-conferences/indianapolis-2008.
  14. Dillman Family Association. “Dillman News Newsletter Index.” Entries for Vol. 1, No. 1 (September 2008) and Vol. 14, No. 2 (December 2021–February 2022). Accessed November 9, 2026. dillmanfamilyassociation.org/dillman-newsletter-index.
  15. Dillman Family Association. “Discovering Dillman Families Throughout the World.” Accessed November 9, 2026. dillmanfamilyassociation.org/home/discovering-dillman-families-throughout-the-world.

Image credit: Group photo of attendees at the first Dillman Mega-Reunion, August 2002, from the 2002 conference page. The photographer is not identified there. Accessed November 9, 2026.

AI Disclosure: This page was researched and written with the assistance of Claude, an AI assistant developed by Anthropic. Online sources were accessed in November 2026.

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