Take It from Me: 10 Tips for Successful Family Reunions

Take It from Me

10 Tips for Successful Family Reunions

By Mark A. Miner

Since 1986, our national Minerd-Minard-Miner-Minor family reunion in Western Pennsylvania has tried to re-connect long-lost cousins and celebrate our clan’s links to Americana. Some relatives have traveled to the region for the first time since their ancestors migrated away in the early 1810s, showing the power of family gatherings to generate such curiosity and interest in making "connections" in such a unique way.

Says the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, our reunions bring together cousins who have “never met, or even knew existed.” Noting that the number of our cousins alive today could be 50,000, Pittsburgh Quarterly says “the reunion could fill Heinz Field."

Likewise, the Junghen-Younkin Reunions held since 1990 in Somerset County, in which I've been blessed to be involved, have convened extraordinary first-ever meetings of relatives sprawled far and wide on the family tree.

Here are 10 tips that might help you organize your own meaningful reunion, large or small.

1. Structure – Assemble a small working committee of relatives who share the interest and can tackle different tasks in their areas of interest/ability. Build a mailing list of cousins’ postal or email addresses. Stay in touch during the year. To cover costs, pass the hat and create a small fund. Recruit sponsors or underwriters.

2. Group Photo - Take a group photograph, close-up enough so that all faces can be recognized. Identify each one by name. Send copies to all reunion-goers.

3. Archive - Create an electronic archive. Bring a scanner to copy old family photos, certificates, letters and news obituaries. Donate copies to local libraries or genealogy societies where your family lived.

4. Family Tree - Create a family tree display on large poster board – with room for future additions – to be displayed at each event. It should be durable enough to absorb knocks and dings over the years.

5. Video Interviews - Bring a video recorder and set aside quiet time to interview family elders about their memories of parents, grandparents, homes, schools, activities, before it’s too late.

6. Themes - Establish a reunion theme that’s unique to your family. Honor military veterans, coal miners or quilt-makers. Create a display around the theme and prepare a related handout.

7. Guest Speaker - Enlist a guest speaker to help draw attendance. In Pittsburgh, actors portraying Rosie the Riveter, Josh Gibson and George Westinghouse have been available through the Heinz History Center, an affiliate of the Smithsonian.

8. Website and Social Media - Create a private Facebook page with reunion announcements and to display family photos and share stories. Ancestry.com offers private webpages that are password-protected. Or build your own blog site with help from a child or grandchild.

9. Group Activity - Together, plant a tree, attend a ballgame, adopt a highway cleanup or participate in a special charity event. Tour a Civil War battlefield, coal mine or a museum.

10. Mindset - Promote the mindset among younger members that family comes first and of the importance of heritage and togetherness. Instill a deep interest in the stories of past generations.

To learn more about the possibilities, visit the national reunion page of my website, Minerd.com, which Family Tree Magazine has twice named as one of the top 10 family websites in the nation, and which has drawn more than 3 million visitors since its launch in 2000.