Connecting with Family
When Planning a Family Reunion

Whose Family?

            Before planning a family reunion, decide which branch of your family tree you intend to bring together. Is the reunion for the descendants of your father’s paternal grandparents, or your mother’s side of the family?
            After identifying the family, begin writing a guest list. This is similar to writing a descendant list. If the reunion is for the descendants of your father’s paternal grandparents, begin by writing the names of the grandparent’s children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Elicit the help of your father, his siblings or other family members familiar with this branch of the family.

Internet Pitfalls

            Email and social networks make it faster and easier to contact family members, yet there are pitfalls to online communications. Not all family members are tech savvy, especially elder family members. Don’t confine your communications to the Internet, use the United States Postal Service and telephone when reaching out to family members. Don’t rely on family members who use email to pass on information to offline relatives.

Family Reunions and Social Networks

            While you shouldn’t rely on social networks as your sole line of communications, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t set up a Facebook or Myspace reunion site. Only accept friends who are family members, and utilize the free service to generate interest with the younger cousins.
            Aside from familiar social network sites, there are also genealogy websites offering family websites to its members. One of these is MyFamily.com. Unlike the free social network sites, these may require an annual fee.
            Another option is to set up a family reunion website or blog. Yet, unless you set up some sort of membership site requiring a password, anyone will be able to view your reunion information.

United States Postal Service

            Even those who use the Internet may appreciate a letter or flyer listing the reunion activities. One way to streamline your snail-mail communications with family members is to sign up with Click2Mail.com, a service that works with the United States Postal Service.
            With Click2Mail, create a free account and upload the mailing addresses of all your family members. When you need to send out an update, letter or family newsletter, simply upload the document file to the Click2Mail website and the service will print and mail the correspondence out. This typically cost less than doing your own printing and purchasing postage. Plus, it is a tremendous time saver. You only need to upload addresses once, yet you can easily add new addresses to the list. Create letters, flyers and newsletter with Click2Mail, in full color or black and white.