Sandra MacLean Clunies - A Family Affair: How to Plan and Direct the Best Family Reunion Ever

A Family Affair

How to Plan and Direct
the Best Family
Reunion Ever

Sandra MacLean Clunies, CG

Amy Johnson Crow, CG
Series Editor

Copyright 2004 by National Genealogical Society and Sandra MacLean Clunies.

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without prior permission of the publisher.

Published by Rutledge Hill Press, a Division of Thomas Nelson, Inc., P.O. Box 141000, Nashville, Tennessee 37214.

The following items mentioned in this book are registered trademarks or service marks: About.com, American Family Immigration History Center, Ancestry.com, Anybirthday.com, Association for Gravestone Studies, Association of Professional Genealogists, AT&Ts AnyWho, Board for Certification of Genealogists, CanadaGenWeb, CG, CGL, CGRS, Certified Genealogical Lecturer, Certified Genealogical Records Specialist, Certified Genealogist, ComeHome, Corel Paradox, Corel Quattro Pro, Creative Scrapbooking, Cyndis List, Daughters of the American Revolution, Dogpile, Family Reunion Organizer (software), Family Tree Quilts (quilt-making service), FamilyBuzz.com, Fun Stuff for Genealogists, Genealogy.com, Get In Print, Google, Hanes, IBM, Infospace, International Business Machines, Internet-T-Shirts.com, Legacy (software), Logos2Promos, MapBlast, MapQuest, Marnex Products, MetaCrawler, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Money,, Microsoft PowerPoint, Minutiae Software, MyFamily.com, Office Depot, Outer Banks Lighthouse Society, ProFusion, Quicken, ReserveAmerica, Reunion Planner (software), Reunited! (software), RootsWeb, Scrapbooking.com, Social Security Death Index, Staples, Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Switchboard, TDC Games, The Master Genealogist, The Ultimates (telephone directory), Threads Unlimited, Tony Awards, USGenWeb, Visual Chartform, Whitepages.com, WorldGenWeb, Yahoo, Yahoo PeopleFind, Zip (hardware).

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available

Clunies, Sandra MacLean.
A family affair : how to plan and direct the best family reunion ever / Sandra MacLean Clunies.
p. cm.(National Genealogical Society guides) Includes index.
ISBN 1-4016-0020-4 (pbk.)
1. Family reunionsPlanning. I. National Genealogical Society. II. Title. III. Series.
GT2423.C583 2003
394.2dc21

2003007509

Printed in The United States of America

04 05 06 07 08 6 5 4 3 2

We each have families of chance, to whom we are biologically connected through the centuries. While we did not select our ancestors, many of us try to honor and give tribute to those who came before us by learning more about their lives and by understanding and appreciating their contribution to ourselves.

We also have families of choicethose people with whom we have freely chosen to establish a bond through marriage, adoption, or shared beliefs and values. Their experience, strength, and hope enrich and nourish our lives today.

This book is dedicated to all those special people, past and present, whoby chance or choiceare cherished members of my family.

Contents

I AM GRATEFUL TO MANY FRIENDS, COLLEAGUES, AND E-MAIL CORRESPONDENTS, some of whom I have never met in person. By sharing their experiences, ideas, and permission to include their wisdom and Web sites, they helped me to reflect upon the larger family that supports us all. In alphabetical order by name, they are Ross Armer; Carrie Bodensteiner; Nedra Dickman Brill, CG; Dale Burkholder; Tony Burroughs; Douglas Campbell; Julia M. Case; Amy Johnson Crow, CG; James Derheim; Michael W. Donovan; Michelle Vardiman Fansler; Paul Giamona; Diana Hebner; Cyndi Howells; J.E. Jack; Eric James; Bobbi King; David Lee; Carole Leita; Mike Lenick; Curtis Matthews, William Meacham; Eileen Polakoff; Pamela Boyer Porter, CGRS, CGL; Elissa Scalise Powell, CGRS; Barbara Renick; Beverly Rice, CGRS; Bruce Roberts; Cheryl Shelton-Roberts; Bill Robey; Kevin Robideau; Richard Dennis Souther; Maureen A. Taylor; Sarah Walczynski; Terry White; Jim Windsor; Frank Wing; and Barbara Brixey Wylie.

INTRODUCTION
Who Should Read This Book?

MY, HOW YOUVE GROWN! THATS THE GREETING I REMEMBER MOST as a child when we visited family members we didnt see often. Reunionsthe coming together of extended familiesmay be regular events or rare ones. They can be small informal gatherings to celebrate a special milestone or large galas that draw dozens of folks from all over the world. Whatever the size, location, and focus, all family reunions share many of the same themes and dreams. They provide an opportunity for people to be together. And it takes just one special person to start the ball rollingto turn a wish into reality.

Does the task seem large and overwhelming? When as a child I faced what seemed an impossible task, my grandmother would tell me I could eat an elephant if I cut it into bite-sized pieces. Thats the trick. Take any large task, break it down into chewable chunks, and before you know it, youre done. If youve purchased this book, you are curious about what goes into planning a family reunion. Perhaps youve hesitated in the past because you simply didnt know how to do it. The help you need is here.

This book looks at the reunion as a theatrical productionafter all, reunions also have many people working together backstage and onstage to produce a wonderful event for an appreciative audience who will join in on the fun. The chapters follow the steps you should take in planning and organizing this special production for your family. I suggest you skim through the chapter headings first and then sit down and read a chapter at a time. Youll find checklists and forms to help you simplify the paperwork, tips from others who have held successful reunions, and plenty of references for further information on topics of special interest.

Here you have all the guidelines you need to make your family reunion an enjoyable experience in the planning stages and a memorable event for everyone. Now, on with the show!

Act 1
Production Design

CHAPTER 1
Backstage Brainstorming

IT USED TO BE EASY TO FIND YOUR RELATIVES . EARLY IMMIGRANTS TO the American colonies often arrived in clusters of related groups, settled in one area, and could visit one another with little difficulty. Then some grown children set out to establish new settlements or they married a person from another community, sometimes far from home. After that, visiting became much more complicated.