Two years ago, my Dad's family gathered for an epic reunion. His parents, their 10 children and spouses, and over 50 of their grandchildren convened for several days of activities and evening programs. One evening included a songwriting activity that turned out to be entertaining and storytelling-inducing. Each family was given a piece of butcher paper and an assignment to re-write the lyrics to a familiar song to be about my dad's family growing up. We chose "Popcorn Popping." Each family separately came up with their verse and then the butcher paper was taped up to the wall. Next,...
When the family is all together at a reunion, it's a great time to celebrate the family stories that we all share. We did this at my dad's family reunion with his 9 siblings a couple years ago. I wrote about the ancestor skits we did in this post: How to Do an Ancestor Skit Night at Your Family Reunion. Seeing each other perform our family history stories was memorable and, at times, hilarious. Reading about our ancestor Elam Hollingsworth who one Native American called "head on fire" because of his red hair is one thing. But seeing your uncle (complete...
What do you when you're put in charge of the family history part of your family reunion? How do you engage 150 people ages 0 - 87? If you're my friend, Rischelle, you go to work and come up with some amazing activities. I asked her to share her ideas and photos, so enjoy. Yadon Family Reunion 2016 By Rischelle Mikkelson In June we held a large family reunion inviting all of the descendants of my great grandparents, Frank and Hattie Yadon. Although the nuclear family of Frank and Hattie and their eight children (including my Grandpa) have all...
Do you need to inject some life into your next family reunion? You might want to try adding an "Amazing Race" element. In today's guest post, Ann Jeppson, shares ideas that you could adapt for your next family adventure. - Diana by Ann Jeppson My father’s family has lived in Lehi, Utah for four generations, so we have a lot of family history that is connected to the town. We wanted the younger generations to feel a connection to that heritage. Making a race out of the “learning experience” seemed like a fun way to do it. We called it "AMAZING...
Last year, my grandmother planned a reunion for her ten children and 50+ grandchildren. I asked her if we could include some family history activities during the week and do a "family tree gathering," so she put me in charge of Family Home Evening on Monday night. I wanted to plan an activity that all the adults would enjoy and even the smallest children could be involved in too. After giving it some thought, I decided that acting out our family stories would be perfect. Preparation A few weeks in advance, we asked each of the ten families to choose an ancestral couple, read stories about...
For Christmas last year, I hosted a craft night for my friends. We made these easy, quick photo pendants! I first saw these at a family reunion, where some of the adult granddaughters had created them for the girl cousins. I thought they were so pretty and so symbolic of keeping memories of family close to our heart. These photo pendants make unique, affordable gifts. For the girls in my husband's family, I made six of the same pendant with a photo of their grandmother. I made one for each of my grandmas with pictures of their mothers. Later, my ward asked me to...
Let's make a simple picture pedigree chart! It's perfect for printing at home, displaying on the wall, sharing with your kids, or impressing your cousins at the next family reunion. Read about how I printed this 36" x 24" chart for my family reunion here. Ready to get started? Here are the steps: 1. Create a folder on your computer with copies of the pictures you want to use. Crop your pictures to be tall rectangles, like the portraits in the picture pedigree. 2. Sign up for our email list. After you confirm your email address, we will send you the template for...
Picture Pedigree At our family reunion this summer, we had a "family tree gathering" on Monday night. Each family selected a story about one of our ancestors and created a skit about it. We all wore costumes, brought props, and performed the skits. In between each skit, I pointed out on the picture pedigree who the story was about. It was a memorable night! My picture pedigree chart made using PowerPoint This picture pedigree was inspired by the 5 generation family photo chart on TreeSeek.com. It's FamilySearch.org certified, so I just logged in with my username and password and TreeSeek downloaded my family...
