From Jean Heide -
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,
instead, breathing life into all who have gone before.
We are the storytellers 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 the 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. 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 those young and old to step up and restore the
memory or greet those whom we had never known before.
-Author Unknown
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