what is the best way to send a large group of photos to family

Another option is to create a shared album and then share that album with the family. They can then view the photos online and download any that they want to maintain on their own computer. Read about creating a shared album here: https://support.apple.com/guide/icloud/invite-people-to-view-your-shared-albums-mmc0cd7e99/icloud

-simpsong00

One way is to put them in a folder and zip/compress the folder. Email the compressed file to the family members. If the size of the zipped file to too large to email the Mail app will let you setup Mail Drop.

Send the attachments using Mail Drop

The compressed file is stored by Apple and an email is sent to the recipients with a link to download the file.