Reunion Ideas Our family reunites 2 times per year, once at Christmas and once our summer family reunion. Our Christmas get-together of over 200 family members was shared in the Quick Tips at Christmas time. We are now finishing our plans for the reunion. We have asked every married couple to send a photograph of their wedding, and we have asked each person to send a photo of them as a baby. All of these photos are then made into decorative placemats and laminated. (You don't have to laminate them) We are placing these under clear plastic on the picnic tables and securing the plastic with clips to keep them from blowing away. We did this at Christmas with old photographs. This was the highlight of the Christmas get-together. We had over 200 different old photos made into placemats that will now be used each Christmas. We have also printed our 42-foot long family tree with everyone's most recent photo, birth, marriage, and death date; and we have put together many picnic tables upon which to lay this large family tree. We cover the tree with plastic and clip it to the edges of the table. Carolyn Obertein Saginaw, Mich. Editor's Note: This quick tip has been edited for length. The entire tip can be found in the printer-friendly version, available by clicking on the link below. Easy Family Wall Chart My family reunion was the second after my "lost family" was found after over 100 years. The standard wall chart would be over 400 pages. There wasn't a wall long enough for that, so I used "Family Group Sheets!" I included all facts-birth, death, marriage dates and places, and all spouses. Then, beginning with the Patriarch and Matriarch, place that on one part of the wall. The next would be the oldest child, their oldest child, etc. through the present generations. We had each of six children and their families on various walls. It was a delight to see everyone looking at their family lines. At the next reunion, I will only have to print out a page for those who have had changes and corrections. This saves time, ink, and paper. Because there would be no ancestors of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs present, I just printed out a simple "Ancestral Chart" for each family line back as far as research has led. Those lines were placed above the Patriarch & Matriarch to which each line belonged. An additional tip: The signs were a different color for each of the six children. Each of the nametags for those children's descendants were written in the same color, with the child's name in the upper corner, and the family member's name and relationship to that child in the same color. This made it very easy to know which family each attendee belonged to. Wilma Fields Family Calendars Our Henderson Family is having a reunion this August. Everyone has been asked to bring an item for the auction that will be held on Saturday night. Many of the children have never met the family that was alive when I was a child. I decided that the item I donate to the auction will be a calendar with pictures of our deceased ancestors. Since the photos are black and white, I dressed them up with scrapbook cartoons. The end result is a very cute calendar that is also a keepsake for whoever gets it at the auction. It will be in a book form once the months are torn off. On the front cover I found a cartoon that states "Branches of My Family Tree." This cartoon includes a tree, animals, and butterflies. My family had a ranch in Montana, so I tried to stay with that theme in cartoons. With black and white photos, it is best to use white paper as a background. The cartoons help dress up the white background. Harriett Morley Looking for Suggestions Do you have any suggestions on the best means of copying black and white photos (they're on photo paper)? The photos in question are part of a township history collection, and they cannot be removed from the building. I tried copying them on an office copier using regular copy paper, but the result is not very good. Any suggestions? Phyllis Pawloski Editor's Note: I would think that taking digital photos of them would be one solution, but I suspect that our readers have some tips on how to best do this. If you have a solution for Phyllis, send it to: ADNeditor@ancestry.com.