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 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. (For we without them
cannot be made perfect.)

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.