Family reunions are more popular than ever

When Brian Walker attends family reunions, he often thinks about the lives of his ancestors: the slave girl born in Georgia in 1796, the mixed-race couple who raised a family together but could not legally marry in the segregated South, the six siblings who moved North in search of better futures.

Mr. Walker wants the young people in his family to know their roots, their history. But at this year's reunion the old stories were accompanied by something newer: the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas.

"We are the quintessential American family," says Walker, referring to the strength of his forebears. And in many ways, theirs may also be the quintessential reunion – the new American reunion. This updated version is an attempt to combine modern needs and tastes with something more timeless and permanent.

Gone are the days when a family get-together automatically meant a one-day picnic. Now, many families are doing what the Walkers do: Alternating simple reunions with longer, more elaborate gatherings. Some families skip the modest gatherings altogether, opting for expensive reunion vacations or cruises.

The result, according to experts, is a burgeoning reunion industry – fueled in part by reasonable airfares and greater disposable income – that generates more than half a billion dollars a year.

Cathy Weiss isn't surprised by those numbers. Ms. Weiss manages the Rancho de Los Caballeros dude ranch in Wickenburg, Ariz. Sixty-five percent of the ranch's business comes from family reunions, she says. Reunions are so important to the 20,000-acre ranch – which offers a golf course, tennis, guided nature tours, and hot-air ballooning – that Weiss will not book conventions during school vacation times, because those times are when reunions are most likely to take place.

Not everyone can afford week-long gatherings, but Americans are spending a fair amount in search of family closeness. According to Edith Wagner, editor of Reunions magazine, the median spending per person per reunion is $101 to $200. More than 30 percent of her readers spend more than $300 per reunion; 17 percent spend more than $400; and 9 percent spend more than $500.

Those numbers may surprise some people, but experts say they are only part of the new reunion story.

Ms. Wagner explains that interest in reunions was rekindled in 1977, after the TV series "Roots." The series spurred a huge interest in genealogy, she says, and it prompted African-Americans to learn more about their collective past.

"That's when black families started placing new and slightly more energetic focus on families," she says.

The Walkers began their reunions in Cleveland in 1995, largely because of the need for reconnection. One of Brian Walker's aunts was dismayed by all the "mischief" that she saw young blacks getting into. She believed that a strong sense of family connection might keep youngsters away from the various social ills – drugs, single parenthood, etc. – that had taken such a toll on the African-American community.

The first Walker reunion was a simple picnic. This year's gathering was a three-day event in Las Vegas. But regardless of the venue, every reunion has the same underlying theme: "Family is where you can turn for stability, comfort, and guidance," says Walker.

Other African-Americans apparently share the same values. According to the book "Family Reunion," by Jennifer Crichton (Workman Publishing, $13.95), 70 percent of nonbusiness summer travel by African-Americans is reunion-related.

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