“Keeping Reunions Simple,” Ensign, July 1995, 36–37
Keeping Reunions Simple
Does planning a family reunion every year seem too complicated? We have been holding the Rynearson-Atkinson family reunion since 1974, and I attribute its success to the fact that we keep things simple.
We hold our reunions during the first week of November, usually on a weeknight and in a location that is convenient for the majority of family members. We have a potluck dinner with no fancy decorations, and family members help set up and clean up.
At our reunion this year, we took pictures of the various family groups and a picture of the entire group. After the picture taking, one member from each family group updated the group on the activities of their family. Then we observed a moment of silence for a family member who had died during the past year.
Many times we have devoted part of the reunion time to interviewing older relatives who are in attendance. Several of the family members take notes as the older people recount family history about their lives and the lives of their parents and grandparents. I like to compare these sessions with the story of Nephi’s obtaining the brass plates from Laban in the Book of Mormon: oral history needs to be preserved in writing so that future generations can find inspiration in the life stories of their ancestors and relate to their forebears on a personal level.
We have a treasurer, and everyone contributes to the family organization to cover the minimal costs of research and printing. This year, one of our family members typed the recipes from Great-Grandmother Rynearson’s faded old cookbook. The typed pages were copied, spiral bound, and given to family members when they made their contribution to the treasurer. We also provide our family members with updated or new family group sheets and pedigree charts. And we have been fortunate enough to have a genealogist do on-the-spot research in England, partly supported by family funds. One of his most exciting finds has been an ancestral tombstone in the overgrown parish churchyard of Humbleton, Yorkshire.
The important duties of research and temple work are divided among the family members. Fortunately, in our family we have a professional genealogist who oversees the research, and a temple worker who oversees the temple work; family members help in both areas. Combined efforts result in our performing the temple ordinances for an average of one thousand of our deceased relatives each year, for a total of about nineteen thousand ancestors over the years.
The research and temple work is what motivates us and keeps our reunions going. Visiting with one another and being together is what brings us joy. Keeping our reunions simple makes it all possible.