Apologies and Reporting

I have been absent as of late. Not because I have lost my love and zeal for genealogy and blogging, rather, I have not learned to balance family and genealogy research.  It seems for me it is almost an all or nothing activity. I will share with you the past few months of my life. 

I worked with the Preserve the War of 1812 Pensions campaign for 3 years.  I loved the purpose and the activity of searching the files and finding living descendants.  When the funding was accomplished, my activity there was little needed, and I turned to other projects.

At the same time, my children decided they and their children needed equal time with me and this is a bit of my journey into creating family history with my grandchildren and as I have written about before, bridging the generations.

During the summer, we had our first family reunion.  This was important for those who could go because family had not gathered as a unit since my husband, their father, died in 2008.  All but two of 6 children could make it. The single son who was working and a daughter who was pregnant and expecting her 4^th child any minute.  There were 28 plus myself, who made it. Two grandchildren were working and could not attend. Since no one other than myself had ever visited the California family’s home, that was the focus. They planned 4 days of activities for the children and I was excited that they included some time for themselves. 

The trip started with my 20-year-old grandson and I leaving Texas and driving to Salt Lake to meet the Idaho family whose father was flying in. They needed to send one child with me as their car only seated 7 and they had 8 with dad. The connecting 3 different groups at the Salt Lake terminal was a story. The trip from Salt Lake to California and then back to Idaho was an awesome memory for my three grandchildren and me.

In California, we went to the Sequoia Forest, the beach, and learned about railroads going over the mountain grades. The young and new grandchildren were able to create relationships with the older ones. These are a couple of pictures from that family activity.

Once back at home, the two daughters in Texas decided since I had taken time from my genealogy activities for this, I must be up for grabs for activities at home. The Idaho daughter not to be out done scheduled every Monday in September for a Skype class on World War II ending in a lesson and stories about their great grandfather who served and I have written stories about him here.

The classes were successful, and one Texas grandson sat in on a lesson.  At the time I was not sure who was listening, but as the months go by, questions and statement tell me they were. One of the grandson’s chose to be his great grandfather for Halloween, dressed up like a WWII army soldier.  Cool right. History and family stories passed down two generations. I also helped with the Black Watch Costume and made the sporan for that grandchild. One is Pipi Longstocking and one is a Nerd... they LOVE reading. 

I went with another daughter to see the preview for Christmas lights at the Houston Zoo.  We took one of my other daughter’s children with us. There was fun, sharing, and memories made with young and old.

This week I went to a Civil War reenactment at the TexasLiendo plantation that served first as a Confederate headquarters, then when it fell, as a Union prison camp.

My grandson, who is 10, began trying to sort in his mind who and what generation of his family served in the Civil War. We had fun talking about both sides of the war and how he had those that served on both sides and one in the Confederacy that died in Savannah. His 3th great grandfather from Michigan served in the Michigan 3rd Cavalry Regiment from 03 Oct 1861. He was promoted to Full Qtr Master Serg on 19 Jan 1864 and mustered out on 12 Feb 1866 at San Antonio, TX.

We also visited a blacksmith tent and that gave us the opportunity to talk about his great great grandfather who was a blacksmith and we have his anvil.

So there you go, while I am AWOL occasionally, I am keeping the dream alive trying to share with the generations following, so the story is not forgotten.

Family Reunion - a reflection

Display of Memorabilia

In one of my early posts for 2015, I wrote about our plans to organise a "Family Gathering" on the long weekend in October.  In this post "Sharing and Building Memories through a Family Reunion" I outlined some of the points we would have to consider if our family reunion was going to be successful.  We were "newbies" and I really appreciated the feedback, suggestions and comments that readers gave us on organising a family tree reunion 

Our "family gathering" was born following a discussion among cousins at the wake of one of our elderly relatives.  We thought it would be great to organise a family reunion that would give our families, children and grandchildren the opportunity to meet and spend a "fun" day together. It was decided an ideal venue would be one of the pavilions at the Show Ground at Milton, a small diary town on the south coast of NSW.  Milton was our grandparents home town and they were enthusiastic supporters of the local  show.  Nanna, with her flower arrangements, jams and cooking, and Pop was quite an accomplished axeman in his younger days, competing on a national level and winning a number of Wood-chopping events at the Sydney Royal Easter Show.  In their later years they continue their involvement as members of the show committee.

It was our aim to keep the "gathering" as simple and low key as possible, providing the opportunity for anyone connected with our family to come along and share stories, photos and memorabilia.  My cousins and I set up a small working group and assigned different tasks to each member to spread the load.  We kept in touch on a regular basis and as the big day approached our emails and phone calls almost became daily events.   The organisation of the event, was a new learning experience, however, I am happy to report that from all accounts the day went well and a great time was had by all.   I thought I would share with you some of the lessons learned and ideas that helped contribute to everyone's enjoyment.

Pre-Family Gathering

One of the most important aspects of the planning was our communications plan, we approached this in a number of ways. This included:

- Set up a "Family Links" site on Facebook - we posted details of the "family gathering" along with regular updates, family photos, stories and newspaper clippings.  This page was quite successful in engaging with younger members of the family, and allowed us to link with other members of the family, including a couple from overseas.

Displays of Family Photos

- Provided regular updates by email, snail mail and telephone.  Some family members, especially some of the older relatives, are not as familiar with email and social media, so it was important to take the time to call them to give them an update on details for the day, and also to encourage them to rummage through their photos to share on the day.  I found the phone calls particularly rewarding and had a number of quite long conversations with very enthusiastic elders of our family who enjoyed the opportunity to share their stories.

- Contacted local newspapers, historical societies and information centres with details of the reunion for publishing in their local notices.  The local Milton and Ulladulla Information Centre, were very supportive, posting the details of the reunion on their web page and providing us with some suggestions for external activities such as ghost tour of Milton on the Saturday night and the option of a guided tour of the local indigenous burial ground.

Day of the Gathering

 Registration: The registration desk  was set up with three desks, where we collected small entry fee that went towards covering the cost of the hall hire, and sign on sheets where family members were asked to provide their contact details and family connection.  These were later entered into a contact spreadsheet for later use.

Catering:  To keep it simple, everyone was invited to provide a plate of goodies for morning tea, and the committee organised tea, coffee and cordial.  The morning tea was set up outside the hall on tables, providing the chance for all attendees to meet, greet and catch up over a cuppa before moving into the pavilion to view the displays. Lunch was organised as a giant picnic, with everyone bringing in their eski's and picnic baskets into the pavilion where they mingled over lunch renewing acquaintances, meeting new family members and sharing family stories and memories.

Welcome:  The formal part of the day brief, with a short welcome by the oldest cousin prior to lunch.

Family Tree - displayed on wall of pavilion

Family Tree: The venue provided us with some large vacant walls, so a large family tree was set up, using name cards and photos (where available).  These were arranged on the wall, and lines connecting  the family relationships drawn in with chalk.  This worked extremely well, and meant that any family members attending who were not on the tree, could write their name on spare name cards and position themselves in the correct position on the tree.  At the end of the day, photos were taken of the family trees so that all the new additions and connections could be entered into our family tree.

Photos:  The organising committee set up a number of photo displays on freestanding notice boards, using the following themes:

• Military - displaying pictures and short bio's on family members who had found in conflicts from the Napoleonic War, Boer War, WWI and WWII.
• School Photos
• Wedding Photos - This was a great way to engage the younger members of the family as they all shared their wedding pictures and were delighted to see them up on the display board with all the wedding photos of past generations.
• Surnames - photos relating to a specific surname or branch of the family tree.  This was a good way to display the photos that family members brought on the day.  They could place their photos on the board corresponding with their branch of the family.

Display - from Aunty Glad's Suitcase

Displays of Memorabilia - Family members were invited to bring along their collection of family memorabilia.  We were lucky enough to be able to use the Show Committee's glass display cabinets for these collections.  One of the most interesting was the display of the contents of  "Treasures from Aunty Glad's suitcase" (I have written a number of blogs about the contents of this suitcase's contents). This amazing collection of postcards, maps, letters and memorabilia from WWI was one of the favorite talking points of the day.

Activities for the youngest generations - a large number of children attended the day, so in the morning a number of outdoor games were set up to cater for the different ages groups, these included mini tennis, cricket, treasure hunt, hula hoops, bubble wands, balloons and bocce.

Cousins - playing in Nanna's Dress up Box

Nanna's dress up Box. - This was a great hit!! We recalled when we were young and visited our Nanna at Christmas time, we would delight in dressing up in the box of clothes that Nanna had stored in her spare room.  It was decided to replicate this delight for the family gathering.  Word was sent out, and we collected and made a number of "olden day" costumes. Family members scoured secondhand shops and gathered hats, shoes, stoles, gloves and jewelry.These were displayed on racks in one corner of the room with the open invitation for young and old to dress up and have their photos taken.  This became a very busy corner of the hall and out photographers were kept very busy snapping shots of all generations having fun and dressing up int he different outfits of times past.

History Book Table - Everyone was invited to bring along local history and family history books. The books were displayed on a table and were a popular resource for the day, triggering many a conversation and family memories.

Post Event

Cook Book - Everyone was invited to contribute one or more family recipes that were put in a book with photos from the day with copies sent out to all families attending on the day.

Thank you letter and copy of group picture was sent out to all family members attending the Family Gathering.

Reflection:  Looking back on the day, I think the stand out lessons were to have a good communication plan, that used a variety of ways to contact family members and engaged with the different generations. Secondly, ensure that there were displays and amusements to cater for all ages, especially the younger children. Finally, follow up with family members after the "gathering" to keep the communication and family links open.

The Family Gathering

Of Graduations, Weddings & Family Reunions

Wedding & Reception in Seattle, and a Family Get-Together
(get a large house with a huge yard for the day after party!)

Are you exhausted yet? Or are your big family events somewhere on the horizon? Between graduations, weddings and family reunions, the summer months are always eventful. And many of us try to fit in a big of genealogy or family history research if our summer travels take us back to our ancestors' places.

This past weekend (not quite summer so we all had school and work schedules to negotiate) our extended family combined several of these events and hosted a family get-together (our reunion is in August) all out of town. Between the packing, driving, flying, pick-ups at the airport, unpacking, assigning rooms at our rental house and various hotels, meals, wedding service, reception (great food and music!), late night snacks and chats, big family get-together (early morning ice and beer run, food and drink setup, and the infamous "can opener" presentation to the lucky couple) plus a free day for sightseeing and an evening boat trip - this was an eventful long weekend.

I had great hopes of cornering a few of the elders to get answers to some questions or ask for additional information. I was also hoping to stop by the central library while the others were sightseeing to get a bit of family history research in. Did it happen? No - there was way too much going on with way too little time to visit, let alone research. But I am proud of myself for taking scads of photos and getting the newest email addresses and cell phone numbers. I am going to have to try for those chats again during the family reunion in August and will take advantage of some interview apps for our smart phones that have recently been introduced.

Do you have any research plans for the summer? If those plans involve family members, how do you stay on track with all those people and so little time at reunions and get-togethers?

Sharing and Building Family Memories through a Family Reunion

Christina (nee Lee) an Lionel
Carriage

Sharing family memories is one of the themes on my blog “Family Stories Photographs and Memories” that I enjoy writing about the most.  We spend a lot of time researching our ancestors and sometimes forget to record our own history. I think it is important to take the time to record your own memories and assist in building your families memories.

At the wake of a recent family funeral, a number of relatives commented that “it was nice for the family to get together, even though it was a sad occasion” and “we should make an effort to get together for an occasion other than a funeral”.  These sentiments fuelled a discussion with one of my Aunts and a cousin, and we agreed to put our heads together and organise a family reunion for all our relatives linked to my Nanna (Christina Lee) and Pop (Lionel Carriage) and Nanna’s first husband (Malcolm Michael Shepherd).

A family reunion provides us with the opportunity to share and build family memories as well as discover new links.  As this blog is such a great form for sharing and discussing new ideas I thought I would post my initial thoughts and outline for our family reunion.

The aim of this post is twofold:

     1. To assist other who are contemplating a similar event and more importantly

     2. To seek the wisdom and feedback from others who have organised or attend a family reunion

So here are my initial thoughts on items that we will need to consider for the organisation of the upcoming reunion which we have scheduled for the long weekend in June.

1.  As this is our first attempt at organising a Family Reunion it is important to keep it as simple as possible! (Yep!! the KISS method). 

2.  Organising Committee - decide on the core group of family members who will be involved in organising the reunion, and select one person to coordinate, and keep the communication flowing and follow up on all action items.

3.  Allocate tasks to family members, taking the time to select areas that they have skills in, e.g., someone with IT skills to set up scanner and copier to make copies of photos on the day, someone who is keen on photography to take charge of taking photos and someone who likes cooking  to organise morning tea.

4.  Select a date and book a venue.We have organised to use the pavilion at the Milton Show Ground, this will provide us with plenty of space, toilet facilities, a kitchen and a large covered space if the weather is inclement. Take time to visit the venue prior to the event to check out the layout and assess requirements, e.g.  Seating, heating, crockery, suitable areas for displays etc.

5.  Decide on the type of reunion you are going to have.  To keep it simple we are going to provide morning tea on arrival and then a picnic lunch, where everyone can bring along their own picnic. 

6.  Family Contacts: Set up master spreadsheet with Family member’s name’s, contact details, connection to the family and details on areas they can assist with. Seek assistance from willing family members to source as many family members contact details as possible.

7.  Reunion Flyer and Letter:

• Develop a Reunion flyer outlining the main details of the Reunion in both hard and soft copy.
• Compose a letter of invitation that can be sent by mail or email.  The letter should give detailed information on the reunion, contact details for RSVP or queries, details of accommodation and other attractions in the area and an invitation to assist on the day, or bring along family memorabilia, photos etc.

8.  Budget and Fundraising:

• Draw up a list of costs for the day, e.g. Cost of Venue hire, morning tea, printing and postage, displays, printing, items for children’s activities, toiletries for the bathrooms etc.
• Decide on how costs will be covered: Donations of goods and services, small attendance fee or a donation tin on the day of the reunion.

9.  Media and Communication:

• Distribution of Letter and Flyers, - Circulate letters and Flyers to family members, asking if they are able to forward the invitation on to other family members.
• Put an advertisement and possible a short article in the local paper.
• Set up a Family Tree Web site or Family Reunion Page on Facebook – family photos, articles and reunion updates can be shared on this page.
• Consider setting up a twitter and Google+ group.
• Closer to the date of the reunion send out reminders and updates.

10. Decide on the Schedule for the Day:

• Have members of the committee (or other volunteers) on hand when everyone arrives to assist with introductions, name cards and a brief outline of the layout.
• Initial Welcome – select someone to give an opening welcome and quick outline of the day (perhaps the oldest grandchild or one of the elders of the group?)
• Presentation – have a short presentation on the history of the family members?
• Depending on the number of people attending, a quick run around the group to introduce family members.
• Plan entertainment for the day, plan activities for the children that covers a range of age groups.
• Consider having a short movie or PowerPoint of photos running, so that people can watch at their pleasure.

11. Photography:

• Assign one or two people to be responsible for taking as many photos as possible.
• Organise for a large group photo for all attendees.
• Provide the opportunity for family groups to have their photo taken (with someone taking down the names of the people in the photos).

12.  Collection of Memorabilia and compiling of Family Tree:

• Seek assistance from family members to put together the family history.
• Set up a display of family tree – encourage attendees to make corrections and additions.
• Collect photos and memorabilia for display at the reunion and encourage families to bring photos and memorabilia on the day.
• Set up a display of family photos and memorabilia.
•  Encourage families to bring photos and memorabilia on the day
• Have a scanner and photocopier set up on the day to collect copies of photo's and to make copies of photos for family members.

13.  Post Reunion:

• Ask family members to provide feedback and suggestions on the day.
• Put together Memento of the day, this could include collection of photos and family documents from the day to be sent out to those attending.  This could be in the form of a booklet, CD or usb stick.  Family members could indicate if they would like this memento and pay a small fee to cover costs for this on the day.

I am quite excited and a little daunted by the prospect of organising this reunion in six months, however I am sure we will be able to put our heads together and pull off and enjoyable day for all family who are interested.

Have any of you planned or attended a family reunion recently?  Your feedback and advice on my initial summary of actions would be greatly appreciated. 

Christina and Lionel Carriage with family (hopefully some of these will be attending the Reunion) 

_______________________

If you are interested, a little more information can be found on Christina, Lionel and Malcolm (Christina's first husband) on these blogs.

1. http://womenfrommyfamilytree.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/christina-sterland-lee.html

2. http://womenfrommyfamilytree.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/christina-part-two-letters-from.html
3. http://womenfrommyfamilytree.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/marraige-to-lionel-carriage-and-family.html
4.http://womenfrommyfamilytree.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/my-memories-of-nanna-christina-carriage.html
5.http://familystoriesphotographsandmemories.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/trans-tasman-anzac-day-blog-challenge.html
6.http://familystoriesphotographsandmemories.blogspot.com.au/2014/11/military-monday-treasures-from-aunty.html

I am a cousin

At the beginning of this year I read an opinion piece in the New York Times where the author, A J Jacobs, asked whether I, the reader, was the author's cousin. Jacobs, a journalist from New York, is well known for writing about lifestyle experiments. One that I had heard of before was The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to follow the Bible as Literally as Possible.

Jacobs has discovered genealogy and has decided to hold the world's largest family reunion in June 2015. As well as various newspaper articles he has given a TED talk on the subject.

You can discover whether you are a cousin of A J Jacobs, and many others, by contributing to Wikitree or the World Family Tree on Geni.com (which is a part of MyHeritage).

Jacobs believes that a large worldwide tree has several benefits.

• Scientific value - for example data on how diseases are inherited, people's migration patterns
• It brings history alive to realise you are connected to famous historical people
• Understanding our interconnectedness. Perhaps our farthest cousin is our 50th cousin.
• A kinder world if we realise we are all related.
• A democratising effect. Sometimes genealogy can be elitist but in fact we are all related to famous people.

I decided to follow up on the challenge of determining if I was related by using Wikitree, a free collaborative family tree.

I chose not to upload a GEDCOM file of my existing research but to work slowly and use the opportunity to review my research and ensure I had sources for my links and birth, death and marriage dates. For me this is an great opportunity to follow through on Pauleen Cass's excellent advice in an earlier blog post to revisit, record and revise my family tree.

I wanted to establish a connection to A J Jacobs so I started on the branches of my tree that lead back to the USA as I felt that way I had a better chance of connection. I have connected in 29 steps, including two marriages, through my Dana forebears. My relationship to A J Jacobs defies normal cousin terminology but we are indeed distantly connected. I still have many forebears to add and perhaps there will be a closer connection.

For me it is a different way of thinking about genealogy. I am not interested in my connection to famous people. I am interested in the history experienced by my forebears as I find that brings history alive for me. However, I am happy to collaborate on our shared family history and genealogy. I think it is an interesting idea to acknowledge that we are all related and that we do not own our forebears and their history.

Anne Young

The Little Things Matter

Most of the time we are so focused on our specialized genealogy (one-name studies and one-place studies), our volunteer projects, or our educational pursuits (webinars, hangouts, seminars and conferences) that we forget to take a step back and focus on those living family members who can fill in the blanks, tell us the stories, or describe in detail the ancestors for whom we only have the basic facts.

Over the past year, I have had two great experiences to "chat up the living" and I suggest that you make a point to chat up the living too!

Our Family Reunion
Last summer we had our family reunion (held every five years) and being an A-type, I came up with a few games for our reunion. I should mention that we are a petty competitive bunch and we will do anything for a prize so it seemed like a good idea to get family members to interact a bit more and have some fun.

Friday evening was devoted to getting your name tag and finding your team members for the Saturday games. We separated family groups and age groups (how I love RSVPs and Excel worksheets) so there was a family elder, and a person from each generation on each team and no one was on a team with someone from their immediate family. We used containers of treats and had people guess the amount (skittles, pretzels, m&ms, goldfish) or the length (twizzlers). People had fun guessing and even more fun winning - luckily the winners shared their haul with everyone.  It helped to meet your teammates on Friday night because the games started bright and early on Saturday morning.

Warming up with the puzzles & mazes

Saturday morning, after coffee and breakfast, we started with word jumbles and an Ireland to USA maze (a children's edition and an over-10 edition). We used our teams for a scavenger hunt and a 20 questions game. The first game was to get extended relatives to work as a team and the second game was to help them learn a bit about our family history. The scavenger hunt was timed and it was amazing to see how the team members interacted and the ideas they came up with to find the items. The 20 questions game (since we are over-achievers there were 50 questions, some easy and some hard) was a four hour event and each team could get 5 minutes with an elder of their choice and one other person to "pick their brains" for the tough questions. The one caveat was that the person could lie. It was up to you to give their answers some serious consideration.

Working together on the Scavenger Hunt

We awarded a variety of prizes -  from gift cards to kitchen or home items, and chocolates to bottles of wine. We had a prize table and the winners got to select the prize they wanted. I can't tell you how thrilled I was, when with all the choices on the prize table, my 6 year old second cousin choose a Barnes & Noble gift card because he could buy some books!!

The 20 Questions game was so much fun because it was interesting to see what people knew or thought they knew and, more importantly, what they did not know. My cousins all went to my father (one of the family elders) to get him to answer questions - the only thing they didn't know was that my father was more than willing to (and did) lie because he wanted his team to win! (And they did!)

Taking names and giving away prizes - what's not to love!

Bottom line is that all the games were fun, they got family members to talk with others they might not have talked with, and did I mention prizes? Even better, some of the extended family members wanted to learn more about our family and share more about their families (I am always happy to expand that family circle). We got lots of comments - "best family reunion ever," "it was amazing to see my husband chatting with Aunt Peggy, he has never really spent time with her before, "and "let's not wait 5 years for the next reunion, let's start planning it for 2 years."

 Asking Questions & Letting Them Tell Their Stories
I have made a point of getting together with my parents on a regular basis and asking them questions. More importantly, I am trying my best to listen and let them tell their stories. It helps that I am recording our conversations on my smartphone and then listening and annotating the conversations soon after the meet-up. It helps to have some documents or photographs to share with them and nudge their memories. The journey we take during these short (30 minutes) conversations is amazing.

During one get together I showed each of them the 1940 US Census from their neighborhood. It was fun to nudge their memories of the neighbors (and then they wanted to look for extended relatives). My mother took a look at the farm community where her grandfather and aunts and uncles lived and had some great stories from her very early childhood. My father simply wanted to find his early childhood friends.

To help you get started, find a list of questions or areas you want to learn more about and then break those topics into manageable conversations. Whether you meet up in person, hangout via Google+, or get together via the telephone, chat family members up and get those recordings now. What would you give if you had recordings with the voices or images of family members who are no longer with you? Do it today, the chance might be lost to you tomorrow.

Get Everyone Talking!
image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net ID-100203880

Spend some time with your living family members. You might be quite surprised to learn that they can be as fascinating as all those dead family members. How do you get family interested in talking about their family history and how do you preserve their stories?