It was 10.30am; my parents, brother and niece, my aunt and her partner and I were all sitting in the hall; waiting, waiting, waiting. Was anyone going to come to the reunion?
Do we have enough signs up directing people to the hall? (that’s mum)
The charts were all laid out on the table; the convict history and records were on the wall; the marriage certificates were there for everyone to see. But where was everyone?
I had been posted as lookout – hadn’t that car been around a couple of times? Maybe it was a relative I didn’t know. Wave the arms frantically – yes, yes, yes. They’re coming over to me.
You must be Sue, they said.
Finally our first load of relatives had arrived. Within 15 minutes of the first carload, we had about 60 people in the hall. First cousins, second cousins, relatives by marriage – everyone had signed in at the door, were looking at the records, adding new bits to the charts or collaring myself at the computer to input the data directly into the genealogy software.
We had an enjoyable 4 hours meeting relatives some who had flown over from the mainland just for the reunion – but planned to stay longer and do some touring as well. As people left with smiles and thanks, they ordered updates on the family tree printed as descendant indented charts – so now my work begins again, adding all the new data to the database and waiting for others to send me more information by snail mail or email.
Do it again? Certainly would.
I am a very keen genealogist and have researched my family extensively. I have one branch back to 1603 in Bedfordshire, England but most branches I have placed in England in the early 1800’s or late 1700’s. As you can gather from the dates, I probably have convict blood in me – well I am proud to say, I have so far found eight convicts in my direct line of ancestors. But I have also got some free settlers interspersed in there as well. I wonder how families reacted when a child of convict parents married a child of free settler parents?
Next weekend, I might hear some stories of just that. My great grandfather Henry Lewis ENGLAND was the son of convict parents John ENGLAND and Rebecca Jackson. My great grandmother Julia Charlotte ENGLAND (nee CHANDLER) was the daughter of two free settlers, William Charles CHANDLER and Caroline CHANDLER (nee BRYANT).
In the 1858 Valuation Roll for the City of Hobart Town both John and William were occupiers of houses not owners, despite William coming out as a free settler. But he and his family did move around as he was a gardener and had worked on estates at Monavale as well as Government House in Hobart. John though was an labourer back in England before being transported and by the time of the birth of his second son, my great grandfather, John was listed as a moulder.
Back now to running the reunion. A few things to do to make sure it runs smoothly.
Before the reunion
- Contact relatives you know who live locally and send them their part of the tree to update. They usually then contact others and ask for information to add to their part of the tree.
- Always have a phone number or email address for people to contact to ask questions or give information.
- Start the organization at least a year in advance so you have a chance to contact people interstate and overseas. Some might want to plan a holiday around the reunion date.
- Put an advert in the local newspaper, the local genealogy magazine, internet reunion pages, rootsweb email lists etc. Publicise a lot.
At the reunion
- Have a sign in book for visitors to include a phone number or email address so you can keep in touch or use for the next reunion.
- Have sticky labels using different colours for different branches, so people can easily find direct relatives or members of their branch.
- Have the tree displayed so visitors can add to it.
- Preferably have a computer, printer and scanner available with someone adding to the family tree on the computer software programme.
- Have an area for photographs or newspaper clippings etc to be displayed.
- Have refreshments like tea, coffee and biscuits. This then allows for chatting among the relatives.
- Have a definite begin and end time for the reunion.
Well, I think I am nearly ready for the reunion next weekend. Just have to update my software programme and add in the extra dates I have received, then maybe print out some copies ready for people to take away with them.
OK I just checked my posts recently written – the last eight were all to do with the Comment Challenge. Well, now is time for a change – my next two posts will be about running a family reunion which I will be doing next weekend and also a post about wikis and student opinions about them. I wrote a post earlier about wikis and did mention that I would do a follow up on just that – student comments ( not that word again!!) about using wikis.
Not much time devoted to writing and research today, at least not of the blogging kind. Instead, I have spent about five hours at the Matron’s Cottage of the Cascades Female Factory transcribing conduct records for female convicts arriving in Van Diemen’s Land in 1839 on the ship “Hindostan”. As part of my genealogy, I have found four male and four female convicts in my family. There are many records online for researching convicts sent to Australia. Presently, on SBS TV, they are showing the series “Who do you think you are?” and I found the first Australian episode with Jack Thompson enthralling especially when he found he had a convict in his background. “Australian Royalty”, he exclaimed.
