RELEASE DATE: APRIL 13, 2014
KINSEARCHING
by
Marleta Childs
P. O. Box 6825
LUBBOCK, TX 79493-6825
[email protected]
The Chapman Family Association (CFA) will hold its fourteenth annual convention in Charleston, South Carolina, on 20-21 June 2014. Sessions, which consist of a variety of genealogical and historical presentations, will take place at the InnPlace Hotel Charleston Airport. Other events will include a silent auction, door prizes, and a Chapman pet photograph contest and exhibit. Pet pictures received by 1 June 2014 will be displayed and entered in this year’s contest. All pictures will then become part of the Chapman Photo Project.
In addition, persons attending the convention may want to take advantage of doing research at the South Carolina History Room, the Charleston Library Society, or the Family History Center Library. Individuals may also want to do some sightseeing. Among the numerous local historic places are the Fort Sumter National Monument, where the first shots of the Civil War were fired; the Charleston Museum, which hosts exhibits of early Southern furniture, historic textiles, and Civil War memorabilia; and the Charleston Tea Plantation, home of American Classic Tea.
Since Charleston is a popular tourist destination, you will want to make your plans now. To obtain a registration form and more details about room reservations and convention costs, go online to the association’s website at http://www.chapmanfamilies.org.
Don’t forget the thirty-seventh annual reunion of the Ansley Family Association on 25-27 April 2014 in Thomson, Georgia. Activities will include a side trip to historic Washington, Georgia, the site of many beautiful antebellum homes. If you are just now making your plans to attend and need more details about the gathering, get in touch with Celia or Jim Ansley, 359 Rainbow Lake Dr., Brevard, NC 28712-8770 (e-mail [email protected] ; phone 828-862-4303.)
Even when the economy is in a slump, many people continue to travel to see relatives in order to maintain family ties, share common experiences, and enjoy each other’s company. When the economy improves, even more people begin looking forward to a family gathering, often for the first time. Whether you are starting to plan a new reunion or scheduling an annual one, you will discover many interesting and useful ideas in the popular Reunions Magazine.
Each issue of the quarterly continues to furnish practical advice for organizers about all kinds of gatherings, including family, school, military, and miscellaneous. The reader-driven periodical, whose editor-in-chief and publisher is Edith Wagner, furnishes tips on big and small aspects of organizing reunions and gives examples of successful family gatherings from all over the country. A few of the stories in the February/March/April 2014 issue concern how social media can promote alumni reunions, a DNA match that led to a family reunion, five tips to jumpstart research, the compilation of a 13-million-member family tree by a genome hacker, children’s family history activity books, a reunion of octogenarian boy scouts, family travel in the electronic age, reunions on the high seas, and ways many reunions communicate.
Annual subscriptions to Reunions are still available at the low price of $9.99 annually ($17.99 for two years). Checks should be mailed to Box 11727, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53211-0727 (phone 414-263-4567; fax 414-263-6331; e-mail [email protected] ). For more information, go to the website at www.reunionsmag.com.
Subscribers will also receive the new fourteenth edition of Reunions Workbook. The glossy 50-page booklet provides helpful information accompanied by checklists so that the various aspects of planning will not be overlooked. Subjects found in the attractive, colorful guide include the duties of reunion officers; a timetable for advance planning; how to set a budget; decisions to make about destinations, including choosing and inspecting a site; negotiations with hotels about costs; fund raising; invitations; organized activities; methods of communication; selection of themes; meals; and preservation of reunion memories.