NJHUNTER-L Archives

From: "Eleanor Nielsen" <>
Subject: Re: [NJHUNTER] Genealogy
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2001 21:24:44 -0400
References: <5.1.0.14.2.20010816130128.00a73310@uclink4.berkeley.edu>

I think this has such wonderful thoughts in it. I really appreciate it. It's
what we're all about.
Thank you for sharing,
Eleanor

>
> I know that we should not put personal things on this site and keep it
just
> for queries and such but this was sent to me and I thought you who are
"the
> story tellers" might enjoy it.
> 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 had never
> known before.
>
> (Unknown Author)
>
>
> ==== NJHUNTER Mailing List ====
> Visit the Hunterdon County GenWeb page at:
> http://members.aol.com/njysprez/index.htm
>
>
> ==============================
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>

This thread:

• [NJHUNTER] Genealogy by "M.F. Pickell" <>

  • Re: [NJHUNTER] Genealogy by "Eleanor Nielsen" <>