For the 82nd continuous Strange Family Reunion, I joined the planning committee and was voluntold that I would make a presentation about the twelve second generation freeborn Strange legacies of which my mother is one. Sounds easy enough…until I started working on it.
To get the ball rolling, I designed an easy-to-use form, inviting extended family to provide at least three facts about any and all of the twelve. Two different family members mass emailed the form to extended family who had signed up to receive such missives, which I’m sure was a small fraction of the nearly one thousand Jesse Strange descendants. One person responded.
I resorted to texting. I got a few more bites, but still not as many as I originally wanted. I pivoted.
The only other sources of information about those legacies were the two other Strange Family created products: our history book and our calendar. Both were chocked full of facts, saving me from drilling my extended family even harder for facts.
Fortunately, one of my sisters had worked on the calendar and forwarded me digital copies of the pictures that I needed for the presentation. Thanks to the calendar committee, they had interviewed the twelve, providing me at least something to add to the presentation for each honoree.
At that point, I spent Memorial Day morning, interviewing two cousins about the twelve. They provided some interesting facts, which helped to spruce up the presentation. Another relative who I hadn’t called, texted several pictures of her mother along with three very interesting facts.
I thought my lack of familiarity with my extended family was due to having never lived in Cascade. Regardless, even people who grew up around the area only really knew the ones who they played with as children.
Perhaps I was too ambitious with my original plan. I’d wanted to further expand what we had already documented. Upon reflection, those other two sources were created through a committee effort and over many months.
In addition to those two factors, I wasn’t sure how much apathy played a part. When I called my two cousins on Memorial Day, they were very accommodating and gushed with stories about honorees who they knew well. The stopper wasn’t apathy, but rather technology.
In the future, I may have to front-load my initiatives at upcoming reunions for subsequent reunions. Whatever projects we have going on as a family, we have to survey people who attend the reunions to document things when we are face-to-face since we all have the everyday drama of our own lives. Add to that, being creatures of habit. Not all of us are tech-savvy and even if we are, may not take the time to respond to digital asks.