Ancestry Quick Tip Jamboree Family Chain Letter This is in response to the call for information on how to set up a "family chain letter". My husband's family has been doing this for the forty-five years we have been married and a good many years before that. It is a wonderful way to keep in touch. An address list containing each member involved is created. It can be either e-mail, or the old-fashioned letter way, which how our family does it. One person starts the chain by writing the news of his or her family. That letter is sent to the next one on the list. Number 2 person writes his or her letter and mails both letters to Number 3 on the list. Each person on the list does the same. If you have 12 people, number 12 on the list will receive 11 letters. Number 12 sends the letters back to Number 1. Number one takes only his or her old letter out and writes a new one and sends it on as before. In my husband's family we started with his parents and 12 children. We are down to just nine children now and it comes around about every 2 months. It has been a delight to keep in touch this way. The list also includes the birthdays and anniversaries of the members as well as telephone numbers and e-mail addresses. One could create the list to meet whatever the group wants. It could also be used to send family histories or other things of interest to the family such as newspaper clippings, photos, etc. Hope this is of some help. Glenna Boswell California Round Robin Ideas .If the "Robin" has a special focus, theme, or topic, include a few questions that everyone will answer. As you read each others' notes this will bring other ideas and many branches, but the initial questions will refocus each participant. Set a forwarding deadline-30 days from receipt, for example, but probably not less than two weeks. (Yes, some of us do need deadlines!) This may depend somewhat on the number of participants and theme/topic of the Robin. The package should make it around in less than a year, but illness, vacations, family responsibilities, plenty of reading, and putting a contribution together do mean it won't be ready for the mail the next day. Each participant has an envelope that is "theirs." No one else takes stuff out (except to read or copy). This means you have two ways to share that great wedding photo of your great-grandparents-either make copies for everyone and put them in each envelope, or put one in your envelope, and anyone who wants a copy can copy it.. Joanne Hintz (view the rest of Joanne's great round robin tips) Circular Journals Your readers might want to check out the "circular journals" at www.circlejourney.com . Perhaps the coordinator could pre-address and mail the included envelopes to each family member (from Grandpa Albert to Aunt Bea, from Bea to Cousin Charles, etc.). Then all she would have to do is pester each relative in turn to finish their contribution! Karen Lowe Yearly Newsletter LaKesha wrote that she needed input in starting a chain letter for family history. In the late 1950s I started a chain letter for my classmates and before the year was over someone accidentally burned them before being sent to everyone. Since then I have everyone write me after Thanksgiving and then put them together so everyone will receive the newsletter. I am still doing it and it has been successful. Yvonne