The
Story Tellers: We are the chosen ones.
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 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 bones 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.
Della
M. Cummings Wright
Re-written
by her Grand Daughter, Della JoAnn McGinnis Johnson
Edited
and Reworded By:
Tom Dunn
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