The Story Tellers
We are the chosen.

My feelings are that 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 I am and why 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 story tellers. 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 )

The Story Tellers
We are the chosen.

My feelings are that 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 I am and why 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 story tellers. 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 )