Family History Reunion Planning – Tips and Ideas

The most popular reason for planning a family reunion is to reunite extended families in a social setting, but a popular and interesting reason is also to share and even develop your family’s research into your family history.

Inviting only relatives you know is the traditional reunion. But consider inviting relatives you have never met! These family reunions provide some great opportunities to meet extended family but also develop, validate and expand your family history research. These family members might have their own family trees researched, but also may have original documents (wills, diaries, family bibles etc), interesting stories or family myths and photos to share.  The modern popularity of family history research is a driving reason for the increase in many people inviting distant relatives they have never met to their family reunion.

• Have a board with family tree charts for different lines. Perhaps an index to the charts so that reunion attendees can look themselves up and see how they fit!
• Your laptop with your program – so you can tell people how they are related using the relationship calculator!
• Displays:  Family History book?  Family Tree Wall Hanging? Place significant images/posters around the venue as conversation starters.
• A Presentation! A family history researcher (genealogist) can make a formal presentation (slideshow and talk), or just join the mingle and be a good go to resource for interpreting documents, professional history searching to find answers on the spot, historical customs and key historical events context. See the bottom of the article for more info.
• Photographer/photographer booth – your family reunion is creating your family history!  Photograph and document it – what a great opportunity for each family to have their annual family portraits done!  Professional and Easy! Consider asking a photographer friend to make this easier and cheaper.

IDEA 4 – What Should Your Attendees Bring?

When inviting your family, its a good idea to prompt them to bring interesting things – you could ask them to collect and prepare…

• Photos (hardcopy and electronic)
• Historical Wills and Diaries – first hand records of your Family’s Story
• Birth, Death and Marriage Certificates
• Military Records
• Family History Scrapbooks
• News Articles
• Their own family tree research (consider asking them to share the electronic ‘GEDCOM’ file if they use family tree software/online services
• USB Memory Stick - electronic files are easier to share, and pictures can be large and hard to email – if they bring a USB they can share and take away files.
• Some family legends, myths and stories!

IDEA 5 – Tool Tips for Your Family Reunion

Consider having some handy tools at your reunion to make the most of having so much information available in one place:

• Computers:  Have a computer or 2 set up so that people can log into their family history online and share it on the spot, or even connect on Facebook!
• Scanner:  Family members might bring some info/handwritten family trees/photos/birth certificates documents.   What a great opportunity to ensure these primary records are preserved and shared!  TIP:  Don’t forget to record who has possession of the document for future reference!
• Projector/Big Screen:  Show some family pictures in the background?  or a planned powerpoint presentation of the family’s history by a genealogist!
• Computer Techie:  Consider employing a computer techie to do the sweat work of scanning and cataloguing of documents - also having someone dedicated will also ensure quality scans and that it actually gets done! It would also be useful if the techie was familiar with family tree software, to help create, combine and search in files.  Allow family members the time to share, reminisce, and bond!
• Tables to display family artefact, documents and books - don’t forget to let people know that there will space to place these things!

To find relatives that you don’t know there are websites to help you including rootsweb.com, ancestry.com.au and others. These sites can help you find people researching the same family and could lead to you inviting them along!

When it comes time to send your invitations here are some ideas:

• Snail Mail:  Mail posted invitations will get exactly the result that you expect – the family will know, and come, but RSVP rates will be low, and you’ll probably end up chasing up invitees by phone – good enough excuse to get in touch!  A small step forward would be to email the invites! There are loads of websites that can help with invitation formats and ideas!
• Print Advertising:  It is uncommon for people to advertise in local newspapers, but given the internet age and people are much more mobile these days this method is becoming less practical.
• Facebook:  Its very easy!  Facebook is one of the most powerful ways to organise and manage a family reunion is via Facebook Events.  If you aren’t familiar with Facebook I’m confident someone close to you is or you can simply and easily learn yourself! With Facebook, you can send invitations to only selected family members, or you can make it open to anybody to join – very powerful for letting extended family invite relatives they know but you don’t.  Imagine your family being able to invite their cousins and families with a click of the mouse, as they are connected to these people through Facebook.   A very powerful way to find more family groups that you might not have even thought of might attend, and your family reunion might end up needing a sports ground to host! The Events function also allows you to manage RSVPS, update times, locations, supply Google maps images of where the location if the reunion is and more.