13 years ago we started out with 12 branches of our tree...only three of them are now active. I belong to the largest branch in our family tree (68 members) and I can trace myself back to a Founding Member.

Jill - Founder
Stephanie
Joanna
Michele
Jeanna
MaryAnn
Sontonia
ME :)

Plus, I have three little sisters and they have little sisters and so on and so on.

Family trees are not emphasized so much in my chapter, but we know who is in our immediate family tree (big, lil, grand-big, great-gran, etc... and a lot of us are connected as "cousins" or "aunts," jokingly.) My grand-big has been doing a little research into our family tree though, and she's been able to trace it back to the early 90's. It's so cool to see those faces on the composites, and to know that you're a "descendant,'' so to speak.

I love my family. At this point, ours is one of the largest and most extended in the chapter.

hhaha.

The second largest/most powerful family approached me about a merger. I told them we werent interested. They had nothing to offer us. They can offer diversity and potenital leadership. We offer a track record of leadersip and the most esteemed traditions.

We'll see whats up...

I think my family is sort of out on our own limb. My grand-big went alum b/c she married, and my great grand-big was gone before I joined A-Phi. I have recently been thinking about getting a family tree going for my family.

When my chapter was founded a little over 5 years ago, there were 5 families (with a few girls per family), each with a different family name. Now, I want to say that 1 or 2 families have already died. My family name is the most popular family. All the girls who have my family name and are not in my "immediate family" are considered, aunts, cousins, etc, because we know that somewhere down the line we are related.

All this family stuff is really cool! :)

I have one little.. And that's my family tree.

I don't know how it'll shake out over the long run but so far I think my family's going to be one of the top ones.

I traced my family all the way back as far as I could find and my branch is the only one still "alive"! That's okay though because we expanded BIG time :) My Big has twins, my twin has twins, and I have twins; one of my littles has a little and one of my twin's littles has a little LOL talk about confusing... but we're still pretty close and like hanging out and stuff--so much FUN!! :D

Each family here has different traditions--shirts they give at Big Sis Revealing, places they go to celebrate. It was more intense when we had a full blown clue hunt that was huge and went all over the house--pledges had to dress up in weird costumes as they went along (ex: one girl dressed like Barbie as she went along in her search, another like a fireman)... those were big traditions that got stamped out with the rise of hardcore anti-hazing. In a way, I think it's sad b/c those were fun things and I never got to do them because we couldn't be "hazed."

~april

my family is one of the only families in the house that is close.. we all go out partying... my grandbig.. her triplets (including my big) and us new littles... i guess some others in the house get jealous that we are all so close... some big/lil pairs arent even as close as we are as a family.. I LOVE MY FAMILY! specially my BIG!