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June 30, 2021

Ten Tips For a Successful Family Reunion


Your Family Reunion day has arrived. You're hosting it. Are you ready? Or are you starting to panic? I host Family Reunions (we call them Family Fun Days) every year and I've learned a lot from my earlier mistakes.

Here are ten tips and guidelines that might help you survive.  Just remember that the key is organization! And everyone attending wants to have fun. So relax but stay organized. 

1. Create a guest list, send out invites well ahead of the actual date of your reunion and keep track of who is coming and who isn't. Contact guests a week ahead to remind them.

2. Plan your food and decide who is bringing what - is it a potluck? Are you providing everything? Be specific in your invitations so that guests know what is expected of them.

3. Plan your activities and games. Keep  children in mind. Perhaps you want to provide games and goody bags specifically for  youngsters.  

4.  Create a Timeline for your Family Reunion.  Set a start and end time, then assign blocks of time to certain activities such as eating, organized games, free time, cleanup etc. These are flexible but as the host or hostess you need to keep things moving so you need a timeline.

Your timeline can be as detailed or as basic as you want but having one will help keep you on track.

5. Create a master plan for your reunion. This is the list of all games, activities and food you are providing. I also like to have sketches of where things go.

For example for our Family Fun Day this year I'm organizing an Ancestor Race and there are several events that have to be set up that morning. So I made a rough sketch of our house and property with the location of each event shown.  I also have pails labelled with the name of the event and filled with whatever items are needed for that event. That will make it easy for whoever might be helping me set the events up to grab a pail, check my sketch, and get things ready without asking me questions. 

6. Make a TO DO list for the week before your reunion. This is where you will note what foods you need to buy, what food prep you have to do (if any) and when, when you are going to tidy and clean your bathrooms and have extra toilet paper and hand towels ready, and all other miscellaneous tasks that might get forgotten or left to the last minute.

7. Keep the little details in mind. For example are you having name tags? If yes, you need pens for your guests to fill those name tags out. Hosting a reunion is hectic and the last thing you need is to be running around hunting for pens or some other item you suddenly realize is needed. 

8.  Make a detailed shopping list. What food items do you need? What about plates and cutlery? Write it all down. For example I will need hot dogs,  buns, pop, bottled water, chips, pretzels, relish, mustard, ketchup, serviettes (napkins), plastic cutlery, butter for corn,  coffee and coffee cream. I usually write out everything I need for the reunion then tick it off if I have it on hand. 

9.  Organize your games. Let's say you are having a Scavenger Hunt. What items do you need for it? Write them down! You'll need bags for family to put their items in as they find them. You'll need clues so bettter get those written and printed off. Do you need to hide items? Make a note of what you are going to hide and how many and where. 

10. Last but not least, have a backup plan in case of rain. Our Family Reunions seem to always get rained out. I learned the hard way that I need a plan for what to do with 35 or more people trying to fit into my house and how to set up the buffet meal that I planned to have outside until it started raining. Perhaps you will want to rent a tent in case of rain. Or maybe you have a big family room and can easily accommodate all your family if rain forces everyone inside. 

Remember that no matter how organized you are, something is bound to go wrong. We’ve had bee and wasp stings and broken ankles! But family still love coming to one. 

June 28, 2021

Finding a British Home Child 1869-1939

Part of the file Barnardo's sent us

 During the years of the Child Emigration Scheme (British Home Children), between 1869 and 1939 (some up to 1948), over 100,000 children ages 1 - 18 were sent to Canada from Great Britain to work as farm labourers and domestics by over 50 Agents - Barnardo, Middlemore, Macpherson, Fegans, to name a few.

Descendants make up 12%, over 4 million of the Canadian population. If you think your ancestor was one of these children, there are ways to learn more:

You can search the British Home Children ships passenger lists from 1865 to 1935 on Library & Archives Canada website.

If your ancestor was a part of the Dr. Barnardo's homes, you can contact Barnardo's for the records. They can be reached at Trace Your Family History on Barnardo's Homes website. 

My husband has a British Home Child in his ancestry and sending to Barnardo's for his records provided a wealth of informative genealogical detail plus photographs of the child when he was admitted to Barnardo's Homes in 1897. 

Descendants can also check the British Home Children Registry for a name of interest. 

June 12, 2021

Access to Nearly 1 Million Slave Trade Records

Staff with Michigan State University’s Matrix: Center for Digital Humanities & Social Sciences are taking on the seemingly impossible goal of illuminating the lives of the millions of Africans, and their descendants, sold into bondage across four continents as part of the slave trade. 

Founded by a $1.5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, this project is being carried out primarily by investigators with Michigan State University and the University of Maryland, in partnership with other prominent collaborating organizations. 

An estimated 388,000 enslaved persons arrived in North America, and by 1860 nearly 4 million lived in bondage in the United States.  The project has launched a FREE public website where you can search people, events and places across 857,398 records (constantly expanding) from the slave trade.

Any member of the public can utilize the site “Peoples of the Historic Slave Trade,” available at enslaved.org. I will be visiting the site to look for Jonathan Butler, my husband's 4th great-grandfather, a free man of colour from Pennsylvania. This is a wonderful resource for genealogists and historians alike.



June 10, 2021

Wartime love letters returned to U.S. family thanks to Ontario woman's discovery

 


Every once in a while I like to post a "feel good" story. You know, the kind that makes you smile, or gives you the feels. This is one of those times. It's been a rough year for most of us with the Pandemic. This story made me happy.

The story starts with this quote from the site: 

Morris and Betty Starkman were newlyweds in 1953 and about to start their lives together in Detroit when Morris, a doctor, was instead sent to Korea to fight in a painful war as a captain with the U.S. Medical Corps. 

Throughout that period, he wrote letters to his new wife and other family members.

Somehow, over the years, those letters, plus ones written back to him, became separated from the family, ending up in a tin box underneath a bunch of old magazines in a basement in Kingsville, Ont.

Spoiler Alert! The Ontario woman who bought the letters many years ago, researched the Starkmans and found their son. You can read the whole story here


June 8, 2021

Olive Tree Genealogy Chosen as one of 101 Best Genealogy Websites!


 Olive Tree Genealogy is excited to announce that my website has been selected by Family Tree Magazine editors as one of the 101 Best Websites for Genealogy! 

This is an annual list published to provide  readers with the best online resources for genealogy research. 
 
“With the online genealogy world constantly changing, it can be hard to keep up with what websites and tools are the most useful,” said Family Tree Magazine Editor Andrew Koch. “That’s why our list focuses on the best of the best—the websites that will make the best use of your time and money.”  
 
You can find the new, updated list on their website. Olive Tree Genealogy was placed under the category Best Genealogy News Websites and Blogs of 2021
 

The list will appear in the July/August 2021 issue of Family Tree Magazine, which ships to magazine subscribers in June and will be available on newsstands on June 22.

June 5, 2021

Finding Ancestors in Heir & Devisee Papers 1797-1854

H 1140 Edward Strickland Image 235
 Home District Land Certificates 1787 to 1795 are useful genealogy records that many genealogists overlook.