Thinking about this more, I have three main thoughts.

1) I hate group emails and group texts for anything except work related agendas. So naturally I would hate to hear about a family member this way.

2) I was wondering if it was okay that I told my brother I preferred a phone call to hear about the death of a first cousin. If that wasn't possible I wanted off all group texts.

3) I also told my brother in the event of my (untimely) death that I did not want him sending out a group text. I told him I will ask my sister-in-law, his very sane wife, to announce my passing on my Facebook timeline. You can designate someone to do this in your Facebook settings - they can change your Facebook into a memorial timeline. She is very dependable and I know she would follow through. She is also the person I have designated to eventually close my Facebook account after my death.