This was posted to another list. Thought I was the only one who cried at graves of people I never knew :) ============================ The Storytellers..... We are the chosen. My feelings are that in each family there is one who feels called upon to find their 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. For me, doing genealogy is not just a cold gathering of facts but a way breathing life into all who have gone before us. We are the storytellers of the tribes. All tribes have one. We have been called upon, as it were, by our genes. Those who have gone before us cry out to us to tell their story. So, we do. In finding them, we somehow 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 somehow there was love there for me? It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to who I am and the reasons for what 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 pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish and how they contributed to what I am 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 pride with a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for all of us so that we might be born who we are; that we might remember them. So we do. With love and caring as we inscribe each found fact of their existence because we are them and they are us. So, as a scribe to his calling, I tell the story of my family. It is up to the one called in the next generation to step up and take their place in the long line of family storytellers. These are the reasons why I am the Storyteller. It is my way of putting flesh on the bones of those not forgotten. ( Unknown Author )