One of my friends sent this to me...I thought you all might enjoy... Helen Pomakoy...still looking for the parents of Houston Evans Cowan, b Sevier, TN ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, February 04, 2002 8:25 AM Subject: [KER] The Story Tellers! > Thanx to the several people who responded to me... > > 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. > > > Margot Cahalane Hayes > researching > Porter, Trull, Ide, Freeman, Bradbury, Gaskill, Cushman in New England > Cahalane, Moriarty, Wren in Co. Kerry, IRL, NH > Harrison in Co. Leitrim, IRL > > > ==== IRL-KERRY Mailing List ==== > SHARE YOUR STUFF! Our Kerry homepage needs your help! > Do you have data/info that might help other Kerry researchers? > E-mail me! [email protected] > >