Someone sent me this a few months ago. It tells our story. >> Genealogy >> >> >> 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 >> storytellers 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 had never known before. >> >> >> >> -Author Unknown >>