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Welcome to New Zealands best Genealogy Branch and Website. |
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HOLDING A FAMILY
REUNION
If you plan to hold a reunion, consider some of these
thoughts. Is there a reason for the reunion? Ours was the
arrival in
Port Chalmers of our family 150 years ago on the Three Bells.
What time of the year? Our reunion was the 12th July,
and being in the middle of winter it made some of the
arrangements more difficult, like visiting cemeteries, farm
houses etc. Will you be writing a history? This takes a very
long time to collate and check research that you may have
done several years ago. Writing a history is an exercise in
itself.
Committee
Who will form a committee?
Don’t have too many on the committee unless it is a big affair.
You need people in the same area that you can rely on!
You don’t want to be chasing someone up, because you will have
your own job to do.
You need somebody with computer skills.
Ideas for a programme – will there be a bus trip to visit
cemeteries, the old farm or homes where the original people
settled etc?
Do you want a speaker? Who will act as emcee on the day?
Will it be a one day affair or will it be over a long weekend?
Will there be a church service?
How big an affair will it be? You need an estimate of likely
numbers, so that a suitably sized venue can be booked.
Time Line
It is essential to have a time line to have all the arrangements
finalised. We needed to have all the arrangements in
place by the beginning of the last week before “the day” and
then work back from there. This gave us time to correct
any problems and concentrate on the displays.
Venue and Catering
Having the venue near where you live is a distinct advantage
when setting up on the day.
Kitchen facilities.
How will you cater for the numbers you hope will attend? Who
will cater for afternoon tea or a meal? For our first
reunion we had a pot luck meal where everyone brought something
for the table. We had a veritable feast!
The second time a church group catered as a way of fundraising.
Perhaps you would rather have a formal dinner
function.
Will it be a sit down served meal or a buffet meal? Maybe a
separate area is needed to set up for a meal.
The size of the venue is important. If it is too small there is
not enough room for mingling and displays. If it is too large
the informality of the occasion is lost. It is worth remembering
that many of the people will only know their immediate
families, so perhaps need encouragement to mix with other family
members.
Consider access, parking, heating, suitability for children eg a
crèche or a play area. Do you want group photos?
Advertising
You need to advertise well.
I used the ODT and Star Weekly (Shirley Hay’s column), Genealogy
Computing Magazine, NZ Genealogist, Dunedin
Branch and Dunedin Family History Group Newsletters – all free.
Nearer the time people need to be reminded of the date.
Try to find out if there are any other functions on that date
that might limit accommodation. (We discovered some
months after we booked that there was going to be an All Black
test match the same day! Naturally that impacted on
accommodation and limited our time frame because people either
wanted to go to the Test or at least watch it on TV.)
We sent out an initial letter proposing the reunion.
We listed the original family members (12 in our case) with a
little bit of background of the family’s arrival and
settlement. We didn’t know all the people who might be
interested so we chose to send the letter to people we did
know or knew of and asked that they be responsible for letting
their family members know about it.
We asked for an indication of their interest.
As we were writing a history we asked for any photos, anecdotes
and information that could be used in the book.
Updated family tree information was also requested. Any photos
received were scanned and returned.
We asked if they could bring any memorabilia/photos etc with
them. They were to be named and they were to be
responsible for whatever they brought.
Where possible this letter was emailed. Emailing is by far the
quickest and cheapest method of communication.
Costs
We did not consider the reunion to be a money making exercise –
we wanted to keep costs to a minimum so that
families were not excluded because of cost. It is good to have
the young families come because they – hopefully – will
be the next generation to hold a reunion!
The registration fee needs to cover the cost of the venue,
stationery, ink cartridges for the computer, stamps, a cake and
a contingency fund.
The price of a Family History and the meal can be separate costs
as not everyone will want a History nor will they
necessarily want to stay for a meal.
A second letter was sent later with a registration form, asking
their family relationship and giving details of costs,
venue with map etc. After the reunion was over a final letter
with photos was sent off.
A spreadsheet was set up with names of the people we sent the
letter to – addresses etc. As information was received
columns were added which indicated their interest in attending,
whether they were interested in purchasing a family
history, and later a column for registration payment, book and
meal payments etc.
We were now able to give numbers to the caterer and it gave us
an idea about how many books to publish.
Family History
It is a big outlay to publish a book if you don’t have sales to
cover the cost. We decided at an early stage that we
wanted to have the book for sale on the day. Allow plenty of
time for collecting photos and text from others who are
contributing to the book. From the time people are approached,
get motivated to put pen to paper, sort through the
family photos and actually send the info to you and then you
edit that material yourself, time has been racing by!
You need to decide on the format of the book – what font to use,
what size for headings, indents, and have a plan of
what each chapter will be about. It is easier to do this before
you start. Consistency is most important.
As you start writing you will realise that there are gaps in
your research that need to be checked. What you write needs
to be accurate, readable, logical, well set out and interesting
to people who are not as familiar with family lore as you
are.
Bear in mind that readers want to know about the lives of their
ancestors – not just a list of who was born on what date
and where they died. They want to know something about what
conditions were like and what was going on in the
world at the time. We call it ‘putting flesh on the bones’.
We were very fortunate that a family member had the skills to
lay up the Family History ready for the publisher.
Consider copyright – yours and for the use of text and photos
from previously published material. References must be
noted.
You need an index. The first thing people do is flick through
the index to see if their name is mentioned in the book.
We decided on a mix of black and white, sepia and colour for
photos and to place them where they were relevant to the
text, not just in the middle of the book. It is more expensive
to have sepia and colour photos printed than black and
white. The quality of the paper you choose is directly related
to the quality of the published book. You get what you
pay for.
We decided to get 100 books printed. The more you have printed
the cheaper the quote to print them. A pdf file is kept
by the publisher so that extra copies can be ordered at a later
date if required.
The cost of any ‘freebie’ books has to be built into the selling
cost. The National Library require two copies and there
are always donations to other libraries and gift copies that
need to be considered.
Accommodation
We let people arrange their own accommodation, but offered to
help if required. We had no requests other than
suggesting somewhere within walking distance to the venue.
Naturally, many people stayed with relatives.
Family Tree
Are you the one who has the family tree information? If so what
program are you using? Is it capable of printing
charts? People are very interested in the family wall chart. The
font needs to be big enough to read standing back from
the wall and at a level that all the names are legible. Allow
plenty of time to print and lay up the wall chart – it takes
longer than you think!
Each of our 12 original family members had a different colour
and all their descendants were printed in that colour.
The name badges matched these colours – good idea! We printed
these ourselves and laminated them. The tree was
printed with ID numbers – as were the name badges. This helps to
identify the person who may have updated info,
NZSG Dunedin Branch Newsletter 130 6
corrections or any additions. We had sheets printed (with a
space for the ID number) to which people could make
these changes without confusion about which Andrew in which
generation needed the addition or correction.
Displays
I made up several photo boards and had space for other
memorabilia brought on the day.
Incidentals
You need a cash box with a float, a receipt book for any money
coming in before the reunion day.
You need tea, coffee, sugar, milk, juice.
Check heating – is this an extra cost or is it in the hall hire
cost?
Check seating and whether there is enough space for people to
mingle and chat.
Is there somewhere for the children to play?
Make a list of what you need to take on the day – blue tack,
drawing pins, tea towels, toilet paper, a knife to cut the
cake etc etc.
Setting up
Check to see if you can gain access to the venue the night
before or at least the morning of the reunion. Unfortunately
our venue was in use right up till the evening before, so we had
to set up on the day. The earlier you can start to do this
the better - you will soon run out of time! To set up our family
tree wall chart we had three large easels on which three
sheets of light plywood were fastened. The tree was attached to
that. It is important that the height of the tree is at a
comfortable reading level. It is useless if it is too difficult
to read. Remember that you are probably the only
genealogist in attendance! It has to be easily understood!
Clean up
We also had to clean up on the night as the hall was in use the
next day for another function.
Having people available to help carry out all the various bits
and pieces made a tremendous difference.
There is a lot of planning to prepare for a reunion if you want
it to run smoothly. You need to enjoy the day just as
much as anyone else! We had encouragement and considerable
interest from many of those who were unable to attend.
They wanted to be included in the celebration by sending their
good wishes and by buying the Family History.
It is surprising how many people read the advertising. Several
people supplied photos and information even though
they were not directly connected to the family. One person in
Canterbury recognised a family name as one in a local
cemetery. She took the trouble to email us and enquire if that
name was one of ours. She then looked up other graves in
that cemetery and came up with more names. How good is that?!
On reflection, we had a great day. Letters of appreciation and
personal thanks made the effort very worthwhile.
With thanks to - Margaret and Russell Chirnside
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NZSG Dunedin Branch
P O Box 5634
Moray Place
Dunedin 9058
New Zealand |
All meetings are held in
room 209, King Edward Court, Stuart Street,
first Wednesday of the month unless otherwise notified.
Starting time 7 pm, but doors are open from 6.30 until 9.30
for research.
The OSM will be closed until some time in 2013.
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