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 that one called in the next
generation to answer the call and their 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.
Unknown Author

I just had to pass this along. Enjoy reading it. Enjoy learning who
you are.