The Reason for Genealogy
We are people to whom the past is forever speaking.
We listen to it because we cannot
help ourselves,
for the past speaks to us with
many voices.
Far out of that dark nowhere which
is the time
before we were born, men and women
who were flesh of our flesh and
bone of our bone
went through fire and storm
to break a path to the future.
We are part of the future they
died for;
they are part of the past that
brought the future.
What they did--the lives they lived,
the sacrifices they made,
the stories they told,
the songs they sang,
the food they ate and, finally,
the deaths they died--make up a
part of our own experience.
We cannot cut ourselves off from
it.
It is as real to us as something
that happened last week.
It is a basic part of our heritage
as human beings.
Author Unknown
The Story Tellers.....
We are the chosen. My feelings are
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. To me, doing
genealogy is not a cold gathering of
facts but, instead, breathing life
into all who have gone before. We are
the story tellers of the 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." So, we do.
In finding them, we somehow find
ourselves. How many graves have I stood
before now and cried? I have lost
count. How many times have I told the
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 am I and why do I
do the things I 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 bones 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 life for their family.
It goes to deep pride that they
fought to make and keep us a Nation. It
goes to a deep and immense understanding
that they were doing it for us.
That we might be born who we are.
That we might remember them. So we do.
With love and caring and scribing
each fact of their existence, because
we are them and they are us. 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 their place in
the long line of family storytellers.
That, is why I do my family genealogy,
and that is what calls
those young and old to step up
and put flesh on the bones.
Author Unknown
Sent to me via email. I tried to track the author
down
to get permission to use on this site, but it seems this
has been
circulated quite abit. No one knew the author.
Hope she or he doesn't mind that I used it here.
May each of you hear the voices
in time.
May your brick walls come down
and each of your ancestors be remembered.
Without them, you would not be.