Ancestry com
One of the great advantages of researching your family history is that it can bring you closer to your living relatives. It can help you to understand the lives of those who are older than you, give you something in common to discuss with distant cousins, and even help you track down relations you never knew existed.
A great way to take this thrill further is to arrange a reunion for your family. This will give you the chance to meet these relatives face to face, perhaps for the first time. It will also give you the opportunity to discuss your connections. and perhaps find new leads for your research.
Until quite recently, there was little need for organised family reunions. Several generations and branches of family tended to remain in the same area and see each other regularly. Even if the odd cousin did move away events such as weddings, christenings and funerals would bring everybody together at least once a year.
These days, though, children tend to fly much further from the nest, whether for work or just to see the world. Brothers and sisters can end up in different counties, or even countries. and it is not uncommon to find cousins who have never even met each other.
As well as this, traditional events aren't as popular as they once were. which gives people little opportunity to meet regularly with their family members, This makes family reunions extremely worthwhile. During the reunion you can check facts and make sure you have full accuracy with what you know.
Steps to take for a successful family reunion:
Step 1. Decide on who to invite and fix a date that's far enough to make sure everyone can make.Then send out invitations in advance. Get someone else to read it and make sure that its clear , where when and why you are inviting them.
( You may find you cant send invites straight away as you may need further time to arrange location - see step 3)
Step 2. Plan with other family members, delegate and ask them to find addresses phone numbers and emails of relatives still living, this will cut down on your work and make it more likely to be a successful reunion.
Step 3. Form a committee. Though the bulk of the work will be done by the organiser, you will need other members to help with the catering or arrange the location. Try not to stretch yourself too far too early.
Step 4. Plan on how the day will occupy everyone and allow some flexibility in arrival times. You will no doubt have a vast array of ages, so have a quiz or a video area to make it interesting for all that attend.
Step 5. Produce an area of photos and prints of family members to get the memory juices running. Provide plenty of pens and notepads too as some maybe happy to leave some memories for you to ponder on after the reunion day.
If you have arranged a successful family reunion we would love to hear from you.
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