Families bond at reunions
Gatherings can teach children about their ancestry
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Margaret Croft/The News-Star
Keith Smith, left, and Ivan Jones Jr. man the barbecue for the Brisco Family Reunion at Chennault Park on Monday. |
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BRISCO 2005 FAMILY REUNION.
HOST BY EDDIE BIAS & C/O HOST HELEN BIAS OF MONROE,LA
For Claude Brisco, 51, of Columbus, Ohio, visiting Monroe this summer will be an unforgettable event.
This was an event so enjoyable, he said, no one could take it away from him.
Not only is this his first trip to the Bayou State as an adult — a place his late father always urged him to visit — but it is also the place where he and his family held their first family reunion.
"Before my father died he said 'you need to get together in Louisiana, where your roots are,'" said Brisco, a Vietnam veteran who was born in Rayville. "And it was so ironic that right after he died (last January) I received an e-mail from Eddie about the reunion. It's like God heard my father's wish."
The Briscos met at the Atrium hotel in Monroe on the Fourth of July weekend.
About 187 registered, said Eddie Bias, family member and the coordinator of the event, who spent two years planning for the reunion using e-mails, fliers, spending hours on the phone and creating the Briscos Web site that helped contact about 500 known family members of the fourth generation.
From as far as California and Las Vegas and as close as the town Rayville, the Briscos met — some of them for the first time — and enjoyed a carefully planned three-day reunion that included a banquet, a talent show for children, a barbecue at Chennault Park and a colorful T-shirt commemorating the occasion.
But the Briscos are not alone in celebrating family bonds.
About 200,000 American families travel across the country each year to join a growing tradition of family reunions, said Edith Wagner, editor of Milwaukee-based Reunions Magazine at www.reunionsmag.com.
"One of the main reason people like family reunions is to stay in contact with their family members. It is similar to when people used to meet at grandma's," Wagner said, whose 16-year-old magazine provides articles on how to plan for reunions.
"The second popular reason for family reunions is to teach children about their family," Wagner said.
The origin of the tradition of family reunions is vague, dating back centuries, Wag-
ner said, but parents play a key role in this celebration focusing on family unity, purpose and faith.
For some families a reunion may be the only link to know about their family roots.
"It is very important that you understand your history, because there is no way you can get where you are going if you don't know where you've been," said Brisco, pointing out that his family has been traced back to the Louisiana Purchase.
"My sons' heritage is not a mystery anymore because we are making history as we speak by networking as we do," Brisco said.
As the tradition continues evolving, from a mere get-together at grandma's, family reunions are becoming as elaborate as weddings, said Wagner, including gifts, banquets, talent shows, scholarship donation, fund-raisers and many spend thousands of dollars tracing the family ancestry.
The Briscos are still working on tracing their family history.
"We were able to trace my great-great-grandfather Jim Brisco of Crew Lake, La.," Bias said, who went to the courthouse and has done research online.
Another family celebrating their family reunion this summer in the Ouachita Parish area was the Darden/Wright family.
But unlike the Briscos who are celebrating their first reunion, the Darden/Wright's family reunion tradition started about 38 years ago when Neallie Darden and her late husband, Luther Wright, decided to have an annual get together to welcome their growing family.
"It was sad and beautiful, everybody wrote their name in the book," said 91-year-old Darden, referring to the registration book that recorded this year's attendance.
"I thank God for seeing five generations together," said Darden, who along with the gathering at her home in Lake Providence always plan a trip with her family to visit the New Hope Baptist Church, the same church she and her husband, who died in 2002, once visited together.
"It is very important to have an annual family reunion," Darden said. "Because you meet people you never seen before, you get to see your kindred and strengthen family ties."
Originally published July 10
