General Chat

OK, my side of the family have lost touch with our cousins on our fathers' side. we saw alot of each other when we were kids but growing up and having family of our own...you know how it is.
We met up again last year at my sisters' funeral and said the usual....we should all get together again.
So....I am organising a reunion, at my house in early July. I am making it a long day from 2pm through to the evening so we can have a real good catch-up. nothing too special, putting a buffet on and "bring your own drinks and chairs" There are going to be about 60 people I am estimating at the moment.

Can anyone give me any ideas as to making it a nice event?
Thank you
Dee

Print off some basic easy to follow tree charts with a little write up on them.or give them all a note pad and you grab attention and talk it though..

print off some old family photos and pin them round rooms,a good talking point.

Yes, I had thought about printing the family tree and putting it on view - somehow, not sure how I can achieve this.

print off basic photos pin them up ,they are bound to be asked about then say youll send copies and tree info later that way youll keep in touch...you may even get a tree buddie on board..!

have some files of certs placed about so they can be looked at....just keep it simple as to a novice its hard to grasp all the ins and outs..

I thought I might print some trees of the particular branches so that they could take them home. Some of them are interested in the family tree, others are not.

Sadly, I don't have many photographs of one branch, and they don't either....apparently when their brother moved out of the family home, he had to downsize and burned all the family photos and documents! His sisters have been asking me and my siblings for any photos we have! If my brother had done that.....he wouldn't be able to show his face! What a shame...all those memories...gone!

Beverley
Like the idea, but doubt my lot would go for that, could make it a game later as a topic of conversation....thank you.

Have a Quiz on your family history.
If something is said you don't know about, make a note of what was said and by who. That way you can phone them or see them at a later time and ask about it.

You've said not all are interested in the family tree so you have to try not to alienate those people. Do you have photos of when you were all young that you could put on boards with dates etc for people to look at?

My guess is that people will want to chat and not be organised, but the memory box is a good idea.

I organised one last year. It was supposed to be a cousins reunion, but dads family ended up with my eldest cousin growing up with my youngest 2 aunts, so they all got muddled up, and we ended up with 3 generations turning up. The most popular 'exercise' was when people turned up with photos of relatives or friends who they did not recognise, so everyone got involved trying to identify people.

Now we have 'photo borrowing' from each other, so those of us with computers can scan borrowed photos and also their identity. This is also keeping the older relatives visiting each other more, and the old forgotten stories from years gone by are starting to surface again for younger generations to hear, sometimes for the first time.

Ask all your guests to put their name, address, phone number and e-mail address on a list, then there is a central list of everyone.

Enjoy your day, and make it an annual event. I did that and this year some relatives drove over 100 miles to turn up. We exchanged family history information with those interested, and had a good chat to those who were not.

Regards,

Hazel

Thank you all for your ideas....they are very good, I like the idea of everyone bringing a photograph of themselves....can add them to my files!

Regards
Dee

Was reading a link for the Ancestry page on FB earlier today and it seems that people in America regularly have family Reunions and they do lots of things, like every family takes a plain White apron and somebody takes permanent fabric pens and everyone signs the aprons as a momento of the day. When I go on main pc later I'll copy some of the ideas and post them for you.

that sounds brill helen xxx

Helen
You have got my attention. Looking forward to your post. Thank you

I have spent the evening printing a family tree over 4 pages, joining them together and pasting it onto a large piece of wallpaper.

Then I have gone through all my family photo CDs and printed off copies. These include photots of my aunts and uncles - the parents of all my cousins who are coming to the reunion. Obviously, there are some old photos of themselves and I've also included photos of my "branch" of the family - siblings and children.

I have pasted them onto the blank boarders of the wallpaper in collage format.

Its about 4ft long and I intend to put it up on my living room wall when I have the reunion. I thought it would instigate lots of discussions and those who are interested in the family tree can see it.

I'm gonna ask everyone coming to bring an up-to-date photograph of their own families so I can add them to my album. I know they have children, and some of their children have now had children themselves, but I have no idea who they are or what their names are....an ideal opportunity to get the information from them, I thought.

I'm also going to leave some note paper out so that they can write down any missing dates for me, or things that may be of interest.

It would be nice to think that someone else will have another reunion next year too.

I'm quite looking forward to it all now.

Any other ideas would be most useful, and I am really looking forward to seeing what Helen comes up with.

Best wishes
Dee

Sounds a bit strange, but when my BIL died (far too young at 56 of mesothelioma) my sister asked everyone to send a photo - which was displayed, and write in a 'memory book'.
It's amazing what people remembered!
Other people's photo's seemed to set off memories!

We have regular family reunions now. I vaguely remember my 3rd cousins - but my great niece (aged 3) can't wait to see her 3rd cousin (my grand daughter aged 8). One day she will appreciate her other 3rd cousin when he grows up a bit - he's only 2 1/2 and a bit 'childish' for her sophisticated taste at the moment!
I actually remember my great aunts & uncles with more affection than my aunts & uncle!

I love reminding my great niece that I am Great aunt maggie!!! (sounds sooo much more austere than 'Granny Meow' LOL) - and the 'meow' bit came about because I have cats - not because I deal in methodrone ( a fact [methodrone is known as 'meow'] pointed out to me by my nephew) - which I don't!!!

I would never point such things out to my 'elders'!! LOL

That sounds really good Dee,keep it simple as too much is less absored first time around for those whos knowledge of FH is zero,dont forget the census images if you have any they are a good talking point. any headstone snaps..just leave them casual laying about.
youll be worn out by the end of it answering so many questions.hope you get a few interested.....

oh and any skeletons youve unearthed,:}}}}

Thanks Kay

I did think to put a copy of certificates/census forms in a presentation file to leave lying aroung, then those interested can look at them, but I will need to find time to print them all off as I only have them on a CD at the moment.

I have a couple of weeks to get organised.

I thought I might put a little "guest" book out so people can put comments in as memorabilia for future generations.

Dee

Great Aunt Maggie "meow"

That is a lovely idea, but we have lost so many rellies so it might be hard to do a memory thing for each...great idea though.

I have so many loose photographs which I haven't done anything with yet....no time and all that. I really need to start getting them in albums to look at properly instead of out of an old shoe box!

At least when the photos are in a shoebox they are easier to scan than when they are in an album. Now get busy scanning.

Huia.

Is anyone familier with FTM 2010

I had this as a christmas present last christmas and haven't needed to print off any reports....until now.

Is there any way in which I can "remove" any notes for the individuals in my reports? These are my research notes and don't make good for presentation. I don't want anyone to see these.

Also, How can I print off a "facts" list for individuals ie, occupation, addresses throughout their lives, etc etc?

Dee