The family was there is acceptable in US English.
In English English you should say: The family were there.
This is one of the main differences between US and English versions of English.
When deciding on whether to use "I" or "me" in a sentence, you take out the other person(s) and see what would be used. For example, if you were to say "My family and I went to dinner," you take out...
It depends on what country you are in.Collective nouns in North America are considered singular, so it would be correct to say your family is, because it is singular.In the United Kingdom and...