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Archiver > OHGALLIA > 2006-04 > 1144608545


From: "Charlie Hazlett" <>
Subject: Re: [OHGALLIA-L] The Chosen
Date: Sun, 09 Apr 2006 14:49:05 -0400
In-Reply-To: <44390C75.3677.22690D5E@localhost>


For all those who are the only ones, such as yourself, be sure to leave
directions for the disposition of all your hard work after you are gone.
I think so many times the work is lost after the death of the
"chosen" one and that is a real shame.

Leave to either your local or state genealogy society or to the society
of the main geographical area your family tree deals with, but don't
let it be lost for those "chosen" ones who will follow you.



On 4/9/2006, "juanita" <> wrote:

>I could have written that! It's my feelings exactly. No one else in
>my family has been motivated to tell the story of our family and I've
>always felt like "I'm the one". Why? I don't know. It's just an
>inner drive that doesn't quit or slow down, even though I've about
>exhausted all sources of information I can think of trying to
>document the history of our ancestors.
>
>I didn't have time to do any of this until our family was grown,
>married and with homes of their own - and until we retired. Then we
>had time to travel to every state in the lower 48, traveling over
>300,000 miles the first ten yrs. after we no longer were working at
>our 8:00A-5:00P jobs. Except then we were working endless hours,
>spending dollars on gasoline, places to stay, and who knows how much
>on copying records from court houses, libraries,
>cemeteries...interviewing people, investing in computers and more up-
>to-date programs to store the info. Then printing everything into
>book form, giving copies for dozens of libraries across the country -
>just in case someone in the future might also be interested.
>
>I've had one brickwall after another but amazingly I've been able to
>break through all of them except for one paternal great grandmother.
>I may never find the evidence I'm looking for about what happened to
>her, but at least no one can accuse me of being a "quitter" and
>giving up. When I do get to meet her in the great beyond, I want to
>ask why she was so discouraged that she gave up her oldest daughter,
>age 5, and a baby girl 10 mos. old, when her husband died suddenly in
>1882. She was only about 24-25 yrs. old....a widow, with no income,
>losing her little home because she didn't have $1.82 to pay the taxes
>that year..I'll ask her "why didn't you ask for help from someone"
>and too, what happened to your little son, only 3 yrs. old when his
>daddy died??" I could also tell her that her 5 yr. old daughter grew
>up, married at age 14-15, gave birth to a baby boy when she was 16,
>her only child, and that little boy became my father. He died at age
>84 never knowing his mother had been adopted, never knowing his
>grandmother who gave her to another family to raise. He asked me to
>see if I could find any information about his mother's family, and to
>my regret, I told him I didn't have time - to my sorrow.
>
>Those thoughts are the driving force behind my efforts to put our
>family history in writing.
>
>juanita
>
>
>> THE CHOSEN
>>
>> 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)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>
>
>
>
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