I recently found this on the internet by an unknown author. I thought
you would be
interested.
"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.
Bill Caddell
Listowner