Genealogy Games For a Family Reunion: Race Events & Eggs (Part 3)

T-Shirt Prizes

My annual Family Fun Day is fast approaching and I'm still creating posters, flyers and other items needed for the Amazing Ancestor Egg Race.  I'm also busy organizing all the materials I'm going to have to set out the morning of the reunion.  I talked about what else I've done to create Genealogy Games for a family reunion in Part 1 and Part 2  of this series.

Yesterday I completed the t-shirts which are the prizes for this year's winning team. This year I did iron-on transfers as I didn't have the time to create hand-painted t-shirts.

In my genealogy themed race,  family members in teams of two must complete events in order to receive coloured plastic eggs containing their next clue.  Each clue directs teams to the next event.  Each event is based on an actual event in the life of one of my ancestors.

Amazing Ancestor Egg Race Events

Here are a few of the events my husband and I have created:

Deer Run Event

Deer Run In this event teams must help my 9th great grandmother Ots-Toch (a Mohawk French woman) and her son It-sy-cho-sa-quach-ka aka Jacques Van Slyke, my 8th great grandfather, hunt deer. I don't want to reveal how I've got this set up as too many of my family read my blog! Some of them will be trying to get a little edge on the rest of the players by reading my blog for clues. But it's not giving away too much by saying that using the tools I'm providing, teams must prove their ability to hunt alongside our ancestors Ots-Toch and Jacques.

WW2 Event Flyer

WW2 Grenade Training Course. This event is based on my dad's military service in WW2.

I bought toy grenades and toy army helmets at the Dollar Store and can hardly wait to take photos of my family and friends donning their helmets and tossing grenades to achieve the event goal.

Eileen Vollick Event Flyer

Eileen Vollick Flight School.  Eileen Vollick was the first female in Canada to obtain a pilot's licence. She's also a cousin. In this event teams will have to prove their skill at flying in order to get their next clue from Eileen. (played by a family member who has agreed to be the referee for this event)

I can't describe any more events I've got planned as that would give away too much to my family. But there are several skill testing challenges, all genealogy related, and one ancestor puzzle to complete before the final pit stop.


Event Referee & Ancestor Name Tags

Name Tags

Every event will have a referee wearing a name tag of an ancestor connected to the event. Most events will have a ref  watching to make sure teams don't cheat. Yes, my family are known for cheating in order to win.  One year two of my nieces (fully grown adults with children of their own) hid the scavenger hunt items as they found them so that other teams could not finish the hunt.

Some events don't have a referee watching the teams. When team members complete that event, they must find a specific ancestor and show that ancestor their completed task.  This is designed to slow teams down and scatter the field a bit.

Observant family may already have noticed some people wearing name tags of ancestors and will know who to look for. Others will have to race from person to person to determine who has the next egg and clue.

Eggs Filled With Clues

Eggs Filled with Clues

After creating all the genealogy ancestor events, I wrote out clues that will move teams along from event to event.  I had to make 15 copies of each clue as I expect 15 teams will participate. Then I folded the clues and inserted them inside plastic coloured eggs. Each event has a basket of eggs (labelled so I don't forget what basket goes with what event!) which the event referee can quickly grab just before the race begins.

I also created a master list of clue numbers and egg colours in case a basket gets spilled. Can you imagine trying to remember where the purple or yellow or.... any colour eggs go? So I have a list that shows that purple eggs belong to the  referee for the Deer Run event, yellow eggs are with Grenade Training and so on. 

Part of the fun is that teams must bring all their coloured eggs with them to the final pit stop. That should be in interesting exercise to see how creative my family is in figuring out how to carry those eggs.