I have been working on my Family Tree for a few years now. Who could have known when I first began my research that the little branch of my father's line would grow to thousands of ancestors. Some of the surnames I am actively researching include: Wade, O'Brien, Condon, Leahy, McDonnell, Young, and Carter. Find A Grave has wonderful, caring people willing to help and go out of their way to find a loved one and take a photo.

A CALLING:

What calls us to find the ancestors? It goes beyond a simple curiosity. We are taken over, compelled, as if possessed by something bigger than us that is begging to be revealed. There is one of us in most every family, called to be the scribe. I am but one of the many in the long line of storytellers of our clan. Like others I am called to gather and assemble the ancestors—to breathe life back into them as far back as we can reach. We take what we find and chronicle the facts of their existence, remembering their names and who they were and what they did. They are the sum of who we are, for without them, we would not exist. We greet those who came before us, restoring their place in the familial line. We scribe their stories and their histories. We search for them in public libraries, county records, and weed-filled or well-kept cemeteries. We comb through yellowed newspapers, family archives, and lovely old letters and photo albums. We find them! And in finding them—we find ourselves.
Catherine (Clemens) Sevenau, Sep 2009

I have been working on my Family Tree for a few years now. Who could have known when I first began my research that the little branch of my father's line would grow to thousands of ancestors. Some of the surnames I am actively researching include: Wade, O'Brien, Condon, Leahy, McDonnell, Young, and Carter. Find A Grave has wonderful, caring people willing to help and go out of their way to find a loved one and take a photo.

A CALLING:

What calls us to find the ancestors? It goes beyond a simple curiosity. We are taken over, compelled, as if possessed by something bigger than us that is begging to be revealed. There is one of us in most every family, called to be the scribe. I am but one of the many in the long line of storytellers of our clan. Like others I am called to gather and assemble the ancestors—to breathe life back into them as far back as we can reach. We take what we find and chronicle the facts of their existence, remembering their names and who they were and what they did. They are the sum of who we are, for without them, we would not exist. We greet those who came before us, restoring their place in the familial line. We scribe their stories and their histories. We search for them in public libraries, county records, and weed-filled or well-kept cemeteries. We comb through yellowed newspapers, family archives, and lovely old letters and photo albums. We find them! And in finding them—we find ourselves.
Catherine (Clemens) Sevenau, Sep 2009