Photography: Family Reunion Tip. Best ideas for celebrating family reunions with pictures.

When extended families safely gather together again this summer–from grandparents to siblings and first cousins–the convergence of multi-generational ancestors is made extra memorable when everyone shares pictures. Not just those recent activities stored on mobile devices, but also generations of analog photo snapshots, 35mm slides, and negatives from yesteryear. This helps build a legacy of storytelling to unite families on a genealogical tour to recall ancestors and the whole family’s history.

     

Photo Tip: Ask Guests to Share Decades-Past Scanned Pictures

FAMILY REUNION PHOTO TIP

1) SCAN. Start by asking each family member to gather all their photographs and have each one digitized. There are several easy ways to affordably digitize pictures, from the ScanMyPhotos.com pay-per-scan option to its popular fill-the-box services to scan about 1,800 pictures, and the much larger Family Generations Collection, where more than 10,000 photos are digitized with free shipping and completed in days.

 

2) NARRATE AND RECORD. At the reunion, gather together in front of a large television and sync to the photo files. Set up a camcorder in the rear of the room to record the narratives, as each person shares the stories behind the picture. This is always emotional, and filled with laughter and even weeping chronicles of past events and remembrances from deceased relatives. Provide all the attendees with a copy of the recorded walk down the genealogical path to preserve your family’s timeline.

From The Photo Detective Podcast

We saw these wonderful questions by RootsTech to engage and help identify your family history. Provided by Maegan Kasteler:

This list of RootsTech questions should be thought provoking and open-ended. Be cautious, however, that you don’t get too attached to your questions. Let the conversation ebb and flow as naturally as possible.

 

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To give you a jumpstart compiling your own list of questions, here is our curated list of suggested questions:

1. What do you know about the day you were born?
2. What was it like living where you grew up?
3. What weekly rituals or traditions did your family have?
4. What chores, if any, did you have around the home growing up?
5. What was your schooling like?
6. What would you and your friends do to have fun?
7. What was dating like when you were young?
8. What was it like living (where your relative lived) during (historic events, such as war, 9/11/2001, a specific political event, a natural disaster, and so on)?
9. How did your family resolve familial conflicts?
10. Were you ever involved in any accidents? What happened?
11. Where was your first job, and what did you do?
12. What were your hobbies? Is there anything you picked up when you were young that you still enjoy today?
13. Did your family have any pets? What kind? How many? What were their names?
14. How and when did you meet your significant other?
15. What was your wedding day like?
16. Do you remember any weird or crazy or wonderful gifts you received at your wedding?
17. When did you know you wanted to have kids?
18. How did you find out from or tell your significant other that you were going to be parents?
19. What was early married life like? What struggles did you face?
20. Have you been on any memorable vacations? Where did you go? What made them so memorable?

For a wealth of photo digitizing tips, visit ScanMyPhotos.com

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