Doris...........That does says it all. How beautiful.........How true ! Kindly Bea ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2006 3:47 PM Subject: Re: [PAHUNTIN] Memories of visiting cemeteries >I guess this says it all for the cemetery searchers: > THE CHOSEN > > We are the chosen. 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. > > 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 the fathers fought and some died to make and > keep us a Nation. It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they > were doing it for us. > > It is of equal pride and love that our mothers struggled to give us birth, > without them we could 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. > > With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we > are they and they are the sum of who we are. 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 my 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 restore the memory or greet those whom we have > never > known before. > > (Author Unknown) > > Happy 4th !!!! > > Doris Snyder > > > ==== PAHUNTIN Mailing List ==== > REMINDER: Huntingdon RootsWeb Message Board postings ARE relayed to the > PAHUNTIN mailing list. > PAHUNTIN mailing list messages ARE NOT posted to the Huntingdon RootsWeb > Message Board. > > ============================== > Search Family and Local Histories for stories about your family and the > areas they lived. Over 85 million names added in the last 12 months. > Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13966/rd.ashx > >