ROSENSTEIN Family Picnic
Following the picnic, I submitted an article to Avotaynu, The International Review of Jewish Genealogy. Unfortunately, the article was not published. The contents are available here.Rosenstein Family Picnic - a Report
by Larry Rose
So you haven't had much luck lately in your relentless search for the missing genealogical link to your ancestors? Try heading in the other direction - gather the descendants together; the rewards are well worth the effort.Israel Baer and Aron Rosenstein were two of the sons of Wolf Isaacovich Rosenstein of Kiev. Both emigrated to the United States early in 1906. Aron, his wife, son and daughter settled in New York; Israel Baer went to Chicago with his wife and eight children. After two years, Aron and his family joined his brother in Chicago where they had two more daughters.
The Rosensteins had a tradition of holding picnics for the extended family, but that tradition had been dormant for many years - since the last one in 1939. On August 24, 1996, some of their descendants renewed the tradition in suburban Chicago.
Work on the picnic had begun approximately 18 months earlier, gathering current addresses and brainstorming ideas. Park space was reserved at the beginning of the year. Three subsequent mailings ensued: first a postcard to announce the date and place of the picnic; secondly, a more informative letter asking for tentative reservations in order to estimate the number of attendees; lastly, a final reservation letter with the cost information.
We charged $16 for adults and $12 for children ages 5-12, and $8 for children under 5. The money covered the costs of a caterer, rental of extra tables and chairs, and a tent. One family member arranged games and prizes for the children. Each attendee was given a covered plastic cup as a souvenir, and each family got a dubbed videotape of a family picnic circa 1938.
A special highlight were the name tags that showed
each person's line of descent from either Israel Baer or Aron. Each
generation had its own color. The two brothers names were shown on
the name tags using scanned signatures in black. Representatives of
the next five generations were listed in red, orange, green, blue and
violet ink. Name tags were printed on an HP Deskjet printer on square
floppy disk labels. One child, Kailey Martin is a
great-great-great-granddaughter of Israel Baer and the sole
representative of the sixth generation.
Of the roughly 230 living descendants of Israel Baer and Aron, about 150 attended the picnic. It was uncommonly glorious for an August day in Chicago - 80 degrees Fahrenheit with low humidity and a slight breeze. A wonderful day was capped by a (completely fortuitous) direct overhead fly-by of the Blue Angels in formation.
Larry Rose's genealogical studies started with a grade school family tree project. Larry is the great-grandson of Israel Baer ROSENSTEIN. He is currently searching for more ROSENSTEINs, OZERANSKYs, EISENBERGs, BUZHINs, KLEINs, HOLDs, YUNGERs, RUPs, EBERSMANs, FRIEDMANs, LEVYs, CUBLINSKYs, BARONs, BINDERs, GROBMANs and HYBERs. Larry can be reached via the Internet at lrose@dragon.net.
Lessons Learned from the 1996 Rosenstein Family Picnic
Following the picnic, I created a lessons learned document, to make things easier for future organizers. Here it is...Organization
- Manager - keeps track of todo list and item status - acts as the editor and treasurer
- Genealogist - keeps track of people - who to invite and their current address - creates displays for picnic and nametags - keeps database of attendees
- Designer - coordinates designs for mailings
- Site Coordinator - obtains license for park
- Hotel Coordinator - makes all arrangements with hotel - makes arrangements for any events at hotel
- Food Coordinator - makes all arrangements with caterer and people bringing food
- Entertainment Coordinator - makes all arrangements for entertainment/games for kids and obtains prizes for games
- Check-in Crew - prepares all hand-out information and prepares check-in
Schedule
- Fill in organization chart - prior to beginning of picnic year
- Obtain permit for park - 1st business day of the year
- Mail out postcard with date - ASAP after obtaining permit. Ask for updates to mailing list and genealogy info - get email replies/addresses if possible
- Make preliminary inquiries into hotel, food, entertainment
- Estimate costs and mail second mailing - ask for estimate of people numbers and hotel numbers, include hotel info, reminder of date, map, ask again for genealogy/contact updates
- Get final cost estimates based on preliminary numbers
- Mail out final mailing - request payment (prior to picnic if possible)
- Create check-in kits
- Have welcome room at hotel for night before - ask everyone to bring photo albums, stories
- Day of picnic - bug bombs
- Evening of picnic - hospitality suite activity again
- Sunday - check out - hotel guests meet for breakfast
Things we did RIGHT
- We stuck a date on the calendar and told people about it...
- Nametags
- Mail order place for kids goodies
- Timing on mailings
- Cups
- Blue Angels!
- Weather
- Bug Bombs
Things we did WRONG
- We waited 57 years to stick a date on the calendar and told people about it...
- Make nametags for everyone - then if they show up, it's no problem
- Have a graphical family tree in view for everyone to see
- Get all the goodies together so check-in is less of a hassle
- More help - less stress - especially check-in and kids entertainment
- We should have hired an entertainer for the kids
- Get the real bathrooms - Area 5 at Harms Woods
- Not enough planned activity at hotel
- Have a list available at the hotel of which rooms each person is staying in
- Hospitality suite requirements not in contract at hotel
- Blanche has an idea for a better hotel in the area if we're at Harm's Woods again - similar cost and location
- Food - more low cholesterol choices
- Costs - increase fees - we paid for everything except phone bills
- To keep costs down, having EMail between key people is a plus