GENEALOGY ........... WHY???

Looking for ancestry

GENEALOGY ........... WHY???

Postby Daff » Wed Jan 10, 2007 1:26 pm

Was sent this by a friend, sorry I can't attribute it correctly, it makes sense of how I feel about my ancestors


GENEALOGY ........... WHY???

We are the chosen. My feeling is that in each family there is one who
seems called to find ancestors.

To put flesh on their bones and make them live again. To tell the family story and to feel that somehow those who went before 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 storytellers of the tribe. All tribes have one. We have been called as if it were in 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 my 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 the facts.

It goes to who I am, and why 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.

I tell the story of my family. It is up to the one called in each generation, to answer the call and take their place in the long line of storytellers.

That is why I do my family history and that is what calls those, young and old, to step up and put flesh on the bones.
Image
"In the depths of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer."
Albert Camus
User avatar
Daff
 
Posts: 628
Joined: Wed Mar 22, 2006 1:44 pm

Postby ciderman_nz » Wed Jan 10, 2007 7:04 pm

Maori have a saying- "No one dies until no one remembers them". Whakapapa,(geneology) is very important to them and many can recite 30 generations and more.
Civilisation is a veneer, easily soluble in alcohol.
User avatar
ciderman_nz
 
Posts: 2038
Joined: Tue May 17, 2005 10:05 am
Location: New Zealand

Postby dejavou » Wed Jan 10, 2007 7:44 pm

Very good Daff, it's a nice concept
User avatar
dejavou
Bumble Bee
 
Posts: 7044
Joined: Wed May 04, 2005 7:42 pm

Postby Rowan » Wed Jan 10, 2007 8:40 pm

I think its a great saying and it is true Daff, there's a storyteller in every generation.
Avoid the evil, and it will avoid thee.
Gaelic Proverb

Ad eundum quo nemo ante iit.
User avatar
Rowan
Site Admin
 
Posts: 10129
Joined: Sun May 01, 2005 3:22 pm
Location: in Heaven making sure we behave


Return to Genealogy

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests

cron