Family reunion

[SarahAnn23]

Hi, I'm looking for some ideas. A cousin has suggested arranging a family reunion which would involve connecting with family members in other countries. We are thinking about creating a website in the lead up to the reunion as a way of sharing information, photos and stories and hopefully building a family tree on the site to show connections. At the moment we're just exploring ideas. Does anyone have experience of anything like this or any suggestions or advice to give? Thank you, Sarah

[Ladkyis]

I have organised several family reunions since 2005 and the most important thing to remember is that while the cousins will come most of them will not do anything to assist in organising.
I started a newsletter for my relatives. Just a simple thing with information about the first reunion - venue, date, time. I asked those I had contact with to either give me contact details for others or to contact them for me. I prepared a family tree on a big chart and spread it on a table with pencils and asked them to check the details and to correct and add where they saw fit.
I asked them to bring pictures of their parents and grandparents and I took a laptop and scanner/printer with me. This meant we could copy their pictures and I could print a copy of any pictures I had of our common ancestors. I also took folders with the certificates and information I had found in my research. The contents seemed to be the magic button to get the cousins talking and remembering what they had been told about the family when they were children.
I spent the whole afternoon scribbling notes and scanning pictures and I was able to follow up the reunion with more newsletters telling the stories for everyone.
There were 20 newsletters that first time and most were printed on paper and posted out to the family. Now we have around 80 recipients and all but one goes out by email. I think the website is an excellent idea and I wish we could have got one started for our lot. We had the URL but no one was prepared to build a site. I think apathy is the biggest enemy because while everyone was delighted for a chance to meet up, eat cake and drink tea or coffee (we met at a pub the first time and everyone seemed more intent on the next drink).
OH, oh one of the things we did was ask them to bring along any pictures they had inherited that they weren't sure about. Those anonymous wedding pictures and the strange man in uniform at the bottom of the box. That proved to be a great icebreaker as they gathered around the table and discussed who the person might be.

Hope this helps

[Neil Wilson]

I attended one which I was on the very edge of the family line, about 10 generations back, with no one else being there from my line. It was an evening event in a large hotel with a 3 course meal and then the opportunity to mingle with the others and add bits to your tree.

Sad to say, those who organised it are no longer here and I never heard of another one being arranged.
These days family only seem to meet for weddings and funerals, the one time I met a paternal cousin for the very first time, even though we had emailed and she knew cousins from my maternal side. It's a strange world we live in.

I suggest you give the website a go and see what interest you get before arranging a reunion.

[SarahAnn23]

Thank you! - some really good ideas there. Taking along a scanner and printer is something I don't think I would have thought of and it makes sense to be able to give family copies of photos to take away. Not sure how we'll tackle this website but looking forward to giving it a try. Also looking forward to meeting members of the family that I've never had contact with before and hearing some stories. Thank you for sharing your ideas.

[Barry364]

Recently we created a WhatsApp group to exchange venue addresses and travel plans, and to keep a load of people abreast of what was going on. That developed into an exchange of stories and photos after the event. It worked rather well, and is definitely more secure than hanging it all out on a website.
rgds, Barry