General Chat

Sounds like you had a great day.Well done for organising it all.

Marion

So pleased it all went well for you and your family. Have a good holiday.

Thank you both

sounds fantastic Dee, have a lovely holiday xxx

Oh Dee, seems like a good day was had by all and you gained a tree buddy to do research with,,,and who knows someone else may tag on.

have a lovely break , will give you time to plan your meet up.

Update
Well the reunion came...and went...far too quickly.
It was lovely, everyone enjoyed meeting up after so many years. New generations came too and they loved looking at the tree on my wall and all the old photos I had attached to it.
They all had a good look through our family tree file, which I had compiled in event date order, including BMDs, census, and photos. Some of my cousins didn't even know the names of our grandparents let alone gt grandparents and gt gt grandparents. They found it fascinating.

It was a bit hectic, as fast as the food was disapearing from the table, I was topping it up with more as items were being brought in with people, and they all enjoyed the food...given that there were only scraps to clear away.

I gave all my cousins and their children a print out of their own individual tree for 4 generations which they didn't expect. They thought it was a great idea and loved them.

And I found a treasure...my cousin had a photograph of my dad when he was six years old. All be that it was a "mourning" photograph. My grandmother died when he was just 6, his brothers 8 and 10 years and his sister 12 who then had to look after them all. The photograph has all the children and my grandfather in it, in the mourning suits. I haven't seen it yet, as she felt it too precious to bring to such a gathering, but I have arranged to meet up with her and go through all the family photos which my aunt had kept and is now safe in my cousins keep....lots of scanning to get on with. She even has burial receipts with the plot numbers of family graves, so we are going off to look for them.

I can't wait, she is really keen to do it with me and see what we can find together...something I have missed when my sister passed away last year, as she always went researching with me.

Sadly....or not....I am off on holiday on thursday for a week so have had to put our meeting off until I come back....something to look forward to, but I am looking forward to my holiday right now.

I have posted this update onto the success stories for people to be inspired to organise their own family trees....so I apologise if you see it twice!

Thanks everyone for their ideas in the planning stages.
Regards
Dee

What a lovely thread Dee, with some really good ideas.

Hope you have a great day, let us know how it goes. I am thinking of doing something similar myself now.

Thank you

Frances

Thanks Kay

I know I will, I just hope everyone else enjoys it as much. I will report back after Saturday is over!
Dee

Youre in for a real nice day Dee and well done in your organising work,,,,,,hard work will be having 10 mins to yourself,,,just throw a big big bowl of crips and nuts on the table then relax}}}}},,,,,enjoy ,,

Well, I am all set.

Poster tree...Done!
Family tree file....Done!
Photo Albums...Done!
Empty photo album for guests to put their photographs in..Done!
Negotiated who is bringing what food...Done!
Organise the use of a gazebo or two....Done!
Organise spare chairs.....Done!

Just got to go out and buy a small "guest book" to keep a record of who attended the reunion

Buy the food and prepare

Just need the rain to hold off and the sun to shine.

Can't wait for my guest to arrive on Saturday now.


Dee

n

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

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.

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!

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

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,:}}}}

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

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

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

that sounds brill helen xxx