Black family reunions go hi-tech: Web sites and online newsletters are at the center of family gatherings

AFRICAN-AMERICAN family reunions across the nation are becoming much more than T-shirts and a picnic in the park. Some large, sophisticated family reunions are luring business sponsors and holding convention-style annual reunions at grand hotels with catered ballroom banquets, workshops, fashion shows and free shuttle service to and from events.

Technology-savvy families have created their own Web sites with an online newsletter and registration. Reunions have progressed to family newsletters, family chapters and organizations with family officers and bylaws. Others have taken the next step to form family foundations.

While having fun and strengthening family bonds remain high on the menu of activities, reunions are also becoming an occasion to take care of serious business such as awarding college scholarships and hosting health fairs that offer free screenings to family members. Families are even tracing their roots to Africa by using DNA tests.

"A family reunion used to be like a fish fry at Uncle Joe's house where folks sit around and talk," says Dvorah Evans, director of conventions and tourism for the 80-year-old Black Chamber of Commerce in Dallas. "Today, they are getting more organized and recognized for their economic contributions to a city's revenues. Reunion committees are working with hotels, convention centers and transportation companies. Many families have taken it to another whole level."

Family reunions are more popular than ever, according to a recent survey sponsored by the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) and Vacation.com. Families are showing increased interest in catching up with loved ones and creating new family memories at family reunions.

Among the trends is an increased interest among young people in their family roots and genealogy, the ASTA survey found. At 33, Melvin Collier, manager of an online chat forum providing free advice about planning a family reunion, stepped up along with other young relatives to chair their annual Reed and Puryear Family reunion, which is held in different parts of the country each year.

"We're the new generation and we need to know who we are," says Collier. "Our reunion is a one-stop shop to know our history." The Reed and Puryear family recently used DNA genealogy testing to learn that its ancestors hailed from Angola, which has inspired a family sojourn there in 2007. They've also erected an 8-foot monument at the gravesite of their patriarch and matriarch, Bill & Sarah Reed, former slaves who were buried at their home church in Como, Miss. At the 2006 reunion in Pensacola, Fla., the family is seeking financial support from corporations to expand the scholarships it awards to the family's high school graduates.

A growing number of African-American reunions are being planned around milestone events such as anniversaries, weddings and birthdays of grandparents, the ASTA survey found. Family reunion travelers are choosing exotic venues such as cruise ships, all-inclusive resorts, African safaris, and visits to historical landmarks.

"We're seeing a lot of requests for guided tours of historical points of interests for Black families," says Cassandra Taylor, director of convention services for the Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Many African-American families regularly hold gatherings ranging from 50 to upwards of 350 attendees. In many cities nationwide, convention and tourism bureaus, airlines, hotel special events and meeting planners, and the hospitality industry in general, have a renewed focus on this growing market and are offering customized activities and discounts on hotel and travel accommodations, souvenirs, food and meeting spaces. Some convention and tourism bureaus have even hired family reunion specialists.

Historically, African-American family reunions have served as a resource tool to strengthen the extended family, leverage prosperity and invest in the future, notes Ione D. Vargus, Ph.D., a professor emerita at Temple University and founder of the Family Reunion Institute in Philadelphia.

"The best thing is meeting relatives--and especially cousins," she says. "You feel that people care about you, and you feel supported in what you might want to achieve. There are so many talents within a family right at its fingertips."

Celebrating its 40th annual reunion this year in Elizabeth City, N.C., the Smith-Boyd family traces its history back to the pre-Civil War era. Each year, one of eight family chapters hosts the reunion for about 250 family members. The family has used the occasion to compile research on its history.

The Smith-Boyd family later hired a professional genealogy research company to document its history using U.S. Census statistics. The Smith-Boyd family has since published its history in hardcover and paperback books.

"I found out about my grandfather's grandparents," says Alice Wilson, a member of the Philadelphia family reunion chapter of the Smith-Boyd family. "We found out so much about ourselves and realized that many of our people were not slaves. They were free workers. It helped me to connect with people that I had only heard about. We are passing down four generations of history to our children. It goes all the way back to the 1800s."