It is family reunion time and all genealogists should have their tools packed. Here a few ideas to help you bring home some gems.

Camera and notebook Take a camera, plenty of film, extra batteries and a notebook. Use the notebook to note each picture you take and WHO is in the picture. Don’t trust your memory, after all, we cousins all look alike.

Cassette Recorder Be sure to take extra blank cassettes and batteries. Always identify who is speaking. You will find a small recorder is less intrusive than a video recorder and your subjects will be less self conscious.

Family tree Try to take a family tree to display. My great grandparents had each been widowed and when they married they started their family with 8 children from these earlier marriages. Together they had 10 children, 6 of who grew to adulthood and married. Our family tree measured 18 feet last year. We taped the tree to a long table and provided a red pen for corrections. The younger family members loved finding their names on the tree. We were glad to make corrections for the cousin we had erroneously input to our files as deceased!

Family Group sheets Be sure to provide blank family group sheets for collecting information to fill the gaps. Make sure your name, address, phone number, and e-mail address is on the form. Provide self-addressed, stamped envelopes if you can.

Family books If you have put together a family book with the results of all your genealogy research by all means show off your work. Just don’t take the original! While we know none of our relatives would intentionally make off with all our hard work, in the excitement of being passed around, someone might not be as careful of your records as you are and a coffee stain does not enhance Uncle Bill’s picture.

Pictures If you are fortunate enough to have a scanner and have the resources, copies of old pictures make great currency for trading with other relatives. "I’ll give you one of mine if you will give me one of yours".

Newspaper Clippings Almost every family had/has a member who clipped newspaper articles and obituaries about the family. Encourage anyone who is lucky enough to have copies to make photocopies and share. There are lots of nuggets buried in these old clippings. This also helps remind people not to toss these when cleaning out grandma’s closet.

Cousin finder forms These can be great fun and a wonderful ice breaker. Many times family members don’t know how they fit into this big crowd. When we met our Arkansas cousins for the first time, the non-genealogy family members were not too sure about these pushy Texans. When cousin Woodrow looked at Uncle Jack and realized they were third cousins, the ice was immediately broken.