Tag Archives: family reunion

Planning a Family Reunion: Including the Whole Family

Often reunions that focus on older lines of the family or extended family reunions usually attract the interest of older family members. Children, teenagers and those who have younger children may have a difficult time attending or show little interest in learning about the family lines. While not all events may be appropriate for people this age, it is still important that they learn about their family heritage and history. Here are four activities that you can do to include the younger generations in your family reunion. First you can have a packet of information, crossword puzzles and word searches … Continue reading →

Planning a Family Reunion: Choosing the Right Venue

Another element that is crucial to a well-planned family reunion is to choose the right venue for your meeting. As you plan the activities that you want to do you may find that you actually need more than one venue to cover everything that you want to do. It also depends on how large the event will be. For example just dinner one night is much easier to plan than something that includes dinner, classes and a group activity. One place that may be fun and be able to include people of all ages is the park. You can rent … Continue reading →

Planning a Family Reunion: Choosing a Keynote Speaker

One of the most important parts of a family reunion is choosing a keynote speaker for the main dinner. This speaker should be someone who is both entertaining, but can also teach about the family, life during that time or genealogy. It may be difficult to choose who to speak as well as the focus. First you need to determine the focus of the meeting. If you want to focus specifically on an individual a family member may be the best speaker. He or she can take the time to research some traditional family stories. You may choose to send … Continue reading →

Planning an Extended Family Reunion

One of the things about genealogy is that it brings together distant family lines. One great thing to do with your genealogy research is to have a family reunion. There are family reunions that focus primarily on immediate family or a set of cousins and then there are family reunions that focus on generations of a family line. These types of family reunions function much differently. If you are interested in having a family reunion that focuses on generations of a family line, you should begin by seeing if there is a similar interest with others who have done the … Continue reading →

Family Pursuits of the Trivial Kind

Are you getting together with a large contingent of the family this holiday weekend? A bit worried about how to pass some of the time with Aunt Marge who likes to tell embarrassing stories about all the kids or with Granddad who can remind you of every transgression? Good – they’re perfect for the home made, home grown family trivial pursuit. Play a Game that Teaches What makes this game so great? Well, first and foremost – it’s based on you and your family. It’s a great way to let the older members of the family share their stories and … Continue reading →

Fun Family Reunion Activities

No matter what type of family reunion you plan you will want some great activities. The best type of activity is one that requires a large number of people and discourages the forming of small groups. Get to know you activities are a great way to start, especially if it’s been a while since you have seen your relatives. Family Reunion.com lists some great ideas. Games are always a lot of fun. They can range from organized sports to board games. Check out some of the group games listed in Family Fun like Mother Elephant, The Sign Game, Robbers and … Continue reading →

Family Reunion Committees

After the specifics are decided (see my blog Planning a Family Reunion) then you can organize committees to make sure that all of the details are taken care of. Of course one person is ultimately in charge of making sure that the committees do their job but it’s a good idea to share the responsibility. Finance Committee This committee is responsible for handling the money and bookkeeping for the reunion. If you plan on holding yearly reunions it is a good idea to open a bank account for the reunion. Make sure that the person who signs the checks is … Continue reading →

Planning A Large Family Reunion

Large family reunions come in two categories. The first is a reunion with a large number of people attending and the second is a reunion held at an expensive destination such as Disneyland or other resort. Large Group Reunions that a large number of people are going to attend are especially challenging. This type of reunion takes a lot of planning to make it successful. It is typically a day event with families having the option to stay longer at their own expense if they choose to. Invitations can get really expensive when you have to mail them to one … Continue reading →

Family History Reunion

If you or someone in your family has been compiling family history data or you already have a record then a family history reunion is a great place to showcase this priceless information. A family history reunion can be as simple or as elaborate as you want. A simple family history reunion could consist of a program where different family members read about ancestors. When choosing stories to share try and chose stories with a multi-generational appeal, don’t make the stories to long, and focus on the most interesting parts. As a child my favorite stories dealt with the childhoods … Continue reading →

Simple Family Reunions

The simplest type of family reunion is a barbeque or picnic. But even this type of family reunion takes some planning in order to be successful. You will probably want to start between 10 and 11am, this gives people time to drive to the location. Expect some people to be late, so let people know what time lunch will be served. Keep the food simple, you can ask people to bring dishes or buy the salads and desserts at a deli. The main course could be bread and sandwich toppings, fried chicken, sloppy joes, or hamburgers and hotdogs. Make sure … Continue reading →