Additional Thoughts for Family Reunion Planners

Likely someone in your family has previously researched your family history. With a little bit of effort, you should be able to locate the genealogists in your midst. Usually, they are more than happy to share. Some are even willing to attend your reunion in the hopes of securing more details on the latest generation.

Some families have a treasure trove of information passed down from their ancestors – letters to and from relatives written in German from the 1800s, correspondence from a young man serving in the Civil War, a photo of great, great grandmother Katherine and her husband Johann on their wedding day and another picture of a grandmother with her parents and siblings taken in front of the farmhouse. This type of history gives shape and character to the personalities, allowing one to get a better feel for who they were.

Unfortunately, other families can only rely on a ship’s passenger list, birth and death dates, church records for baptisms and marriages and census records. It’s impossible to imagine what someone’s face looked like from data of this nature.

If you are in the early stages of planning your reunion, you may want to read an excellent book, “How Will You Be Remembered?:  A Guide for Creating and Enjoying Your Legacies Now” by Robb Lucy. It will make you think differently about your own life, and you may re-visit the family reunion activities you planned to schedule. If you have an opportunity to preserve more family history, why wouldn’t you?