Reunions time to share family roots

It's time to start making final preparations for this summer's family reunion and maybe you're feeling a bit crunched. Maybe you dreamed of having something new and different at this year's reunion. But between making and remaking and adjusting and readjusting the housing, the meals and the tours, you just haven't found the time.

Pause.

While the tasks you are spending your time on are important, they need not be most important. Why not put some of that energy you're spending into developing activities that reflect what family reunions should be about?

It's a good time to plan ways for relatives who attend the reunion to focus on the lives of ancestors as well as on those who are still around. It may be too late to develop an in-depth family tree. But you can do things to teach descendants about their ancestors and whet their appetites for learning more.

You can create simple games using handmade flash cards that encourage them to recall facts about the family's past. Incorporate the names of ancestral hometowns and features, such as nearby rivers. Include ancestors' occupations and the places where they worked. Add the names and denominations of the churches they attended.

In addition, you can make copies of old photographs of ancestors in their younger days. Hang them in a conspicuous place and allow relatives to guess their names and post the guesses. Display the correct answers a day before the reunion ends.

Get a genealogy book designed for children and choose activities to help them appreciate what genealogical research is. Teach them how to find their ancestor's homes on a map. Have them add colorful stars or photographs of someone who lives in each town.

Have family members who actively do genealogical research write their most challenging questions on a piece of paper. Encourage each to take another's problem and work on it for a specific number of months and to inform you of their findings. Assemble the questions and answers and disseminate them to all involved in the exercise.

Arrange a trip to the genealogy section of the local library for those who are curious about family history research. Request in advance for a librarian to be available to give the group a tour and demonstrate some genealogical research techniques. Allow up to an hour for the group to search for answers to simple genealogical questions.

Read additional columns by Wevonneda Minis

Ask a member of a local genealogical society to help you craft an event for your family reunion. (You will have to arrange something to occupy others during this time). You can hold a workshop, do cemetery visits or a number of other things to help develop their skills.

If you can afford it, send each person home with a genealogy guide so they are inspired to keep working. If you can't afford that, add the cost of a guide into the next reunion's fee and plan to distribute them then.

Reach Wevonneda Minis at 937-5705 or wminis@postandcourier.com.