Good Morning,
I was delightfully surprised to find the following in my email this
morning. Christopher Boyd of the Ware Co Ga list submitted it to that list
and I asked permission to share it with all my comrades in research.
Christopher is a wonderful 'story-teller' and has a web site with tons of
information of all his ancestors. Because they include some of my
ancestors as well, he and I have shared many stories over the years. I
tell him I want to be just like him when I grow up :-) He has a marvelous
way with words; makes you feel as if you're walking beside him as he takes
you into the past.
I hope you enjoy the following post. I thank Christopher for sharing it
and I know all of you will truly enjoy reading it too :-)
Regards,
Nancy E Parr---Hostess
===============================================
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 of our ancestors.
( Unknown Author )