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From: Jane Foley <>
Subject: We are the Chosen
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 11:10:45 -0400


This was sent to me by a lady from another list.

Now I have an answer for those who ask me why am I so interested in the
genealogy. They tell me not to waste
time on the past but I see it as finding out who I am and why I am the
way
I am. I am a story teller.
I want my family to know where they came from and why.

Jane Foley
Cornelius, NC


"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 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.

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."

(unknown)





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