WE ARE THE STORYTELLERS
(AUTHOR UNKNOWN)
submitted by
Jesse Suttles of Arkansas
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.
Do you have a short story to share? Email it to [email protected]. It may be published on the website. Click here to see the rules for submitting stories
Check out these books by Donna R. Causey
This was a great way to express how I feel about doing my genealogy. Even after 40 years, there’s always something else to find, another story to read, another cemetery to explore. Really enjoy helping others fill in the blanks in their family’s tree, too.
Don McAnally
I feel like this. It is so important to remember our ancestors
:)….
Our grandpas led the way.
This is how I feel. Very touching to know your forebears.
We are the storytellers. We ask questions of older family members, search out dates, cemeteries, histories to put flesh on the names. We peer into the past to bring the ancestors to life for our descendants. Each person had his or her own story and it’s up to us to keep them alive in our memories and past the torch to the future. We are, indeed, the storytellers….
Love this!
I’m the one who seems to have inherited this responsibility for my Daddy’s and my Mama’s families. I try to do my best for those who came before and those who will come after.
This is so you Amy!
[…] of our AP contributing authors sent a good article about our role as storytellers in the story, WE ARE THE STORYTELLERS that explains the importance of including stories in family […]