here's a re-post...
----- Original Message ----- From: "Dennis Schjeldahl" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Saturday, September 18, 2004 4:44 PM
Subject: [LegacyUG] Genealogy .... Why
I have been lurking here since I bought Legacy Family Tree in mid-August. I
found this "Why" in a Sons of Norway Chapter newsletter.
Dennis Schjeldahl (originally Skjeldal in Norway) Grand Forks, ND
GENEALOGY . . . . . . . . WHY???
We are the chosen. My feeling is 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 those
who went before 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 storytellers of the tribe. All tribes have one. We
have been called as if it were in 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
my ancestors, "You have a wonderful family; you would be proud of us."? How
many times have I walked up to a graveand felt somehow there was love there
for me? I cannot say.
It goes beyond just documenting the 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. 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 call those, young and old, to step up and put
flesh on the bones.
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