The Story Tellers.....

  We are the chosen. 
My feelings are, that 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. 

Unknown Author