Well said. -----Original Message----- From: Jim & Colleen Lovan <jlovan@vci.net> To: VanArsdale-L@rootsweb.com <VanArsdale-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Friday, July 20, 2001 5:57 AM Subject: [VanArsdale-L] Fw: Why I Love Genealogy >Sent from another list but thought I would pass it on. > >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. ( Unknown Author ) > > > > > > > > >==== VanArsdale Mailing List ==== >Search the VanArsdale CLUSTER for VANARSDALE (V562) at ROOTSWEB (links to most VanArsdale data available from Rootsweb) ><http://resources.rootsweb.com/surnames/v/a/VANARSDALE/> >