From: "sam" <iamsamny(a)myway.com>
Reply-To: iamsamny(a)myway.com
To: ace3399(a)msn.com
Subject: We Make our Ancesters Live again
Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2006 17:34:24 -0500 (EST)
Genealogists - We Make Our Ancestors Live AgainWe 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 thefamily story and to feel
that somehow they know and approve.Doing genealogy is not a cold gathering
of facts but, instead, breathinglife 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 whohave 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; youwould
be proud of us."How many times have I walked up to a grave and felt somehow
there was lovethere 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 andindifference 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 theycontributed to what we are today.It goes to
respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in orgiving 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 andkeep 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 wecan 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 andtake 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
AiSv Nv Wa Do Hi Ya Do--Cherokee
for Walk in Peace
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