Planning a Family Reunion can be one of the most rewarding things you will ever do!
It is a way of connecting many generations & lines of your family, sharing family stories, creating memories & celebrating your shared lineage.
Personally, I know most of the descendants from each set of my Great Grandparents, can you say the same? Do you know less or more?
Pulling together family for such an event can result in a wide mix of people from all walks of life, but the one thing you all have in common is your Family History. You may start an event not knowing certain members of your extended family only to discover that you actually have more in common with some of them than you initially thought! In talking to others about your Ancestors you may also discover that there are traits or similarities that run through your family.
Food, Drink & Music for the Event
Thinking about the area that your family came from & what they all enjoyed in years gone by, why not coordinate your gathering to include foods, drinks & music from their era? It is a great way for younger members of the family to learn about their heritage & try new things.
Display a Family Tree & Photograph Board
Have on display a copy of the family tree & ask attendees to bring photographs of the couples or families on their family line for display.
These could later be pulled together along with images of the attendees at the Gathering to create a ‘Memory’ book.
There are also online websites which allow family groups to ‘pin’ information relating to family members & create family boards (I will review one of these in a future blog post).
Family Stories
Set aside time for each member to tell their favourite family story. These could range from heart warming to sad or even funny. If this is recorded then the stories & their reactions can be preserved for the future
Learn something new
Learn something new about your Ancestors. This may be a hobby or pastime, a place or a particular industry that many of them worked in.
Perhaps someone in the group can teach everyone this new skill?
Or is there a video which can be shown so that attendees can learn about a particular industry?
If your Ancestors came from a far-flung land why not have a presentation on the history of the place they left with images & some information on why they left.
DNA Projects
Why not arrange for family members to take part in a DNA Project, there are many testing companies out there offering a variety of tests which can provide details of your ethnicity. FamilyTreeDNA even offer ‘Y’ DNA surname projects which may be of interest to men who carry the family surname.
Hold your Reunion Virtually
This year has seen a spike in events taking place virtually, so if you have Senior family members who are unable to make the trip, just arrange the event online at a suitable time.
With a little bit of organising you should be able to arrange a schedule of events for an afternoon or days online reunion!
Why not send on recipes for attendees to make food & drinks for the event so that you are all eating the same foods?
Have someone prepare any presentations, slideshows or videos in advance to be shown during the event?
Go round the ‘room’ & share memories, take images of all those who attended & discuss ways of distributing all this information so that all attendees can view it later on.
Whatever option you decide on make it amazing!
Celebrate your Heritage & make it an event that will be remembered or perhaps even repeated!
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