A Little Something For A Family Reunion
In a little over a week a branch of my family will be having a gathering, sort of a mini-family reunion. While it will be a small affair, it is still going to be pretty significant because many of the "elder statesmen" (or states-ladies in this case) of this branch will be there. I'd like to put together a little something but with such little time and other responsibilities I don't really know what I can pull out of my hat for this. Here are some thoughts (suggestions welcome):
* I'm bringing the dessert and thought it would be fun to bring dishes which were special to the person we'll be celebrating (my great-grandmother). My great-grandmother always served Cottage Bakery coffee cakes at every event I can remember, so of course that'll be there (as an aside, if you are ever in the Lodi area, you HAVE to go there, they've got everything and the food is so good). She was from San Francisco before her marriage so of course there'll be Ghirardelli chocolates there and my mother and I are working to come up with other special goodies. Since I have some of my great-grandmother's most well known recipes, I was thinking of putting together a little booklet of them to pass out. I'll be making a prototype in the next couple of days to see if it'll be a viable option so we'll see.
* A picture book? Since just about everyone loves picture books, I was thinking of doing something along those lines. The only problem is that I don't have many family pictures of this branch (although the host of the event does). The pictures that I do have of my great-grandmother almost always have me in them, which, let's admit it, isn't going to be that desirable to relatives outside my immediate family. I'm hopeful that there will be pictures laid out at the event (if not, you can bet I'll ask!) so that I can take pictures of them and have copies. Maybe then I can put together a picture book and hand it out at a later time.
* A compilation of family documents. What I lack in pictures, I can make up for in documents (by that I mean stories, biographies, letters, etc.). This would probably be the easiest option for me because all it would involve doing is making copies of the documents and binding them in some way. The only problem is that I would have to include a little family tree, otherwise no one but me would know who half the people in the documents are. This leads me to...
* If I'm really lazy, I can just do the little family tree. With my great-grandmother as the starting point, I can do a family tree back to be great-grandparents and include some facts (like in the last SNGF- Ahnentafel Roulette).
Since I'm the only one in my tree interested in this stuff, with the exception of a cousin (who works full time, travels full time and has a young family- so genealogy research is out of the question for him obviously), I don't usually pull out the genealogy for relatives (although they know I am interested in it and ready to share). But I figure I should at least give them a little nugget and see what happens. If they get a kick out of it and want more then that is great and if they look it over half-heartedly and file it away and forget about it, then that is fine too- at least I've made the effort. One thing I have learned NOT to do at a family reunion is to bring original materials. The one year that I did that the few people that did notice wanted to keep the stuff I had brought and things ended up damaged, taken or in disarray. I think the only way that would work is if I were to spend the whole time "guarding" the stuff and who wants to do that at a family reunion?!
Anyway, I've got a little over a week and maybe a day's worth of time to spend on this project so any suggestions are welcome.
* I'm bringing the dessert and thought it would be fun to bring dishes which were special to the person we'll be celebrating (my great-grandmother). My great-grandmother always served Cottage Bakery coffee cakes at every event I can remember, so of course that'll be there (as an aside, if you are ever in the Lodi area, you HAVE to go there, they've got everything and the food is so good). She was from San Francisco before her marriage so of course there'll be Ghirardelli chocolates there and my mother and I are working to come up with other special goodies. Since I have some of my great-grandmother's most well known recipes, I was thinking of putting together a little booklet of them to pass out. I'll be making a prototype in the next couple of days to see if it'll be a viable option so we'll see.
* A picture book? Since just about everyone loves picture books, I was thinking of doing something along those lines. The only problem is that I don't have many family pictures of this branch (although the host of the event does). The pictures that I do have of my great-grandmother almost always have me in them, which, let's admit it, isn't going to be that desirable to relatives outside my immediate family. I'm hopeful that there will be pictures laid out at the event (if not, you can bet I'll ask!) so that I can take pictures of them and have copies. Maybe then I can put together a picture book and hand it out at a later time.
* A compilation of family documents. What I lack in pictures, I can make up for in documents (by that I mean stories, biographies, letters, etc.). This would probably be the easiest option for me because all it would involve doing is making copies of the documents and binding them in some way. The only problem is that I would have to include a little family tree, otherwise no one but me would know who half the people in the documents are. This leads me to...
* If I'm really lazy, I can just do the little family tree. With my great-grandmother as the starting point, I can do a family tree back to be great-grandparents and include some facts (like in the last SNGF- Ahnentafel Roulette).
Since I'm the only one in my tree interested in this stuff, with the exception of a cousin (who works full time, travels full time and has a young family- so genealogy research is out of the question for him obviously), I don't usually pull out the genealogy for relatives (although they know I am interested in it and ready to share). But I figure I should at least give them a little nugget and see what happens. If they get a kick out of it and want more then that is great and if they look it over half-heartedly and file it away and forget about it, then that is fine too- at least I've made the effort. One thing I have learned NOT to do at a family reunion is to bring original materials. The one year that I did that the few people that did notice wanted to keep the stuff I had brought and things ended up damaged, taken or in disarray. I think the only way that would work is if I were to spend the whole time "guarding" the stuff and who wants to do that at a family reunion?!
Anyway, I've got a little over a week and maybe a day's worth of time to spend on this project so any suggestions are welcome.
Just stumbled upon your blog - very interesting and well-written. I am wondering what you decided to do for the family reunion and how it went over. Enquiring minds and all that. Thanks
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