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 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.

Author Unknown

© 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 Anne Babin. All materials in this web site are included.