Genealogy
We are the chosen. In each family there is one who seems
called to find the ancestors. To put flesh on their bones
and make them live again, to tell the family story and to
feel that somehow they know and approve.
Doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but rather
breathing life into all who have gone before. We are the
storytellers of our tribe. All tribes have one. We have
been called, as it were, by our genes. Those who have gone
before cry out to us, "Tell our story!" And so we do.
In finding them, we somehow find ourselves. How many times
have I told my ancestors, "You have a wonderful family; you
would be proud of us." How many times have I walked up to a
grave and felt somehow there was love there for me? I
cannot say.
It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to who we
are and why we do the things we do. It goes to seeing a
cemetery about to be lost forever to weeds and indifference
and saying, "I can't let this happen -- the bones here are
bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh." It goes to doing
something about it. It goes to pride in what our ancestors
were able to accomplish, how they contributed to what we
are today. It goes to respecting their hardships and
losses, their never giving in or giving up, their
resoluteness to go on and build a new life for their
family.
It goes to deep pride that our fathers fought and some died
to make and keep us a Nation. It goes to a deep and immense
understanding that they were doing it for us. It is of
equal pride and love that our mothers struggled to give us
birth. Without them we could not exist, and so we love each
one, as far back as we can reach.
That we might be born who we are. That we might remember
them. And so we do.
With love and caring and scribing each fact of their
existence, because we are they, and they are the sum of who
we are. So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my
family. It is up to that one called in the next generation
to answer the call and take my place in the long line of
family storytellers.
That is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what
calls the young and the old to step up and restore the
memory or greet those we never knew before.
--Author Unknown