I would like to have this article posted on one of my pages, but cannot without permission of the writer. Muriel M. Davidson [email protected] Co-Chair, Canada Census Committee http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~downhome/post1901census.htm ====================== WE ARE THE STORY TELLERS Why Are We Doing All This Research? We are the chosen. In each family there is one 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. 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. Finding them, we find ourselves. How many graves have I stood before 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 there was love there for me? I cannot say. It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever to weeds and indifference and saying, "I can't let this happen". These 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 hardship and losses, their never giving in or giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their families. It goes to pride that fathers fought and died to make and keep us a nation. It goes to a deep understanding that they did it for us. With equal pride and love that our mothers struggle to give us birth. Without them we would not exist, and so we love each one, as far back as we can reach. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them. So we do. We are they, and they are the sum of who we are. That we might remember them.. So we do. We are they, and they are the sum of who we are. So, as a scribe called, with love and care, I tell the story of my family. In the next generation, another will answer the call and take my place in the long line of family storytellers. That is why I do my family genealogy, and this is what calls those young and old to step up and restore the memory, and greet those whom we had never know before. ================== I added my personal comments:- {A reply to a query] I presume you are referring to my reply re "We are the story tellers" -- YES, we must be that -- just in case census records are never released in full. Many feel we should be ashamed our relatives were in "poor houses" -- but these were the equivalent of the day of our present nursing homes -- not because they were "short of cash" -- but needed nursing care. [My grandfather had records of monies paid for his uncle's care at Hillsview Acres, a new name for the former Queens County Poor Farm or County Home, located at Middlefield, Nova Scotia] Muriel M. Davidson [email protected] Co-Chair, Canada Census Committee --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.491 / Virus Database: 290 - Release Date: 6/18/03