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If you're looking for your long lost sister, a brother who was the black sheep of the family or even your high school sweetheart, the folks at LMNO Productions are looking for you. The Burbank, Calif., company is producing a one-hour special called Extreme Reunion, set to air after the first of next year on NBC. The show is intended to be a pilot for a weekly show.
"We are currently in the so-called casting phase, looking to reunite people with lost loves, estranged family members, old friends, etc.," said Christine Oppenheim, LMNO's publicity coordinator. "We are seeking intense stories, relationships that were torn apart, people who had given up hope that they would ever see each other again, now desperate to find each other at all costs."
Extreme Reunion will not be modeled after the afternoon shows that specialize in announcing the results of paternity tests and in scenes that sometimes turn into brawls. Reunions on this show will be staged only by mutual consent.
"The surprise is how and where the people will be reunited and the elements of the reunion," co-executive producer Tracy Green said in a telephone interview. "We might reunite a sister with her long lost brother, for example, and then the sister learns at the reunion that she has three other brothers she didn't know about. The story will unfold in twists and turns.
"Finding one that's going to be happy is the hard part," Green said. "The person must be findable. And the story must also be interesting and the people likable."
Adoption reunions will be considered, but they are the hardest to arrange, Green said. Most states won't reveal the information necessary to make them happen.
No one will be paid to appear on the show. However, travel expenses of all participants will be covered, Green said.
Interested candidates may submit an application at www.extremereunion.com or www.nbc.com
Homesteaders banners get a Florida additionU.S. Sen. Bill Nelson has been selected to represent Florida in the Homestead National Monument of America's banner series. The banners, which hang outside the HNMA's welcome center in Beatrice, Neb., feature people descended from a homesteader.
After reading the column I wrote last year about the project, a staffer in Sen. Nelson's office contacted HNMA historian Todd Arrington about Nelson's roots. Nelson's banner is now featured on the HNMA Web site (www.nps.gov/home/legacies.html) It is also hanging outside the center, along with those featuring Lawrence Welk, Laura Ingalls Wilder and others.
Not everyone who appears on a banner is famous. States may be represented by more than one person. If you have a homesteader in your family tree and wish to submit the necessary information, you'll find the details on the agency's Web site. Arrington said HNMA is especially interested in hearing from people whose ancestors got homestead land in Southern states such as Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, which participated in homesteading after being readmitted to the Union after the Civil War. The site also has useful information for obtaining documents pertaining to homesteaders.
To learn about the basic history of homesteading, go to http://users.rcn.com/deeds/homestead.htm which gives background information on the Homestead Act. For homesteading and related land records, log on to the Bureau of Land Management's Web site at www.glorecords.blm.gov. The site also contains searchable databases. Visit http://members.aol.com/ntgen/hrtg/hmstd.html for more databases and a collection of stories on homesteading compiled by U.S. Works Progress Administration workers in the 1930s. The workers interviewed older people who remembered homesteading in the late 1800s or who were children of pioneers.
-- Read past Donna Murray Allen columns online at www.sptimes.com Type "Donna Murray Allen" in the search box. You can write to Allen c/o Floridian, St. Petersburg Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731, or e-mail her at rootscolumn@yahoo.com Her Web site, www.rootsdetective.com includes information on classes and lectures. Allen welcomes your questions about genealogy and will respond to those of general interest in future columns.