I still have two more biographies to read. The ones I find that I most want to read, though, aren't written - they are the stories of my grandparents, my great-grandparents, and their great-grandparents. The genealogical research I've been doing lately just makes me want to know more and more about these people, the Franks and Janes and Georges and Jacobs and the lone Narcissa. So much is forgotten when time passes, with only names and dates left.
I don't feel like I'm just a name and a date, but I suppose I am.
And I imagine they didn't feel like they were just names and dates, and indeed they were not.
I expected this research to be exciting and interesting, and it has been both. I guess I wasn't quite prepared for the bittersweet experience of meeting all these dead people and wondering who they were.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Blog Archive
-
▼
2010
(100)
-
▼
November
(10)
- Day Four Hundred and Thirty-Seven
- Day Four Hundred and Thirty-Three
- Day Four Hundred and Thirty
- Day Four Hundred and Twenty-One
- Day Four Hundred and Seventeen
- Day Four Hundred and Fifteen
- Day Four Hundred and Fourteen
- Day Four Hundred and Thirteen
- Day Four Hundred and Twelve
- Day Four Hundred and Ten
-
▼
November
(10)
=)
ReplyDeletedo it. it's fun to know your roots.
ReplyDeleteSimone, I've been having a really good time working on this, including a wonderful session over the Thanksgiving weekend when I sat down with my grandma and asked her about her various memories of long-dead relatives. My grandpa came in when we were just wrapping up, and I didn't really expect him to help much because much of his family history is pretty sad and he doesn't have much patience with the research my uncle and I have been doing.
ReplyDeleteBut to my surprise, Grandpa sat at their little kitchen table and told me more in ten minutes about his mother and grandparents than he'd ever said to me on the subject in his life. I've gotten all the names and dates that my surviving grandparents have available, and now if I want to find out more I'll need to use some of the professional tools available online. One of these days when I have a little more pocket change, I definitely will!
Hello, your "poetry buddy" from Manof's blog. Great to get in touch with the Ancestors. We ARE their DNA. And far more than the physical. I believe it carries memories, fears, joys, longings, the songs of our past. So remember, record, and honor. They appreciate that. As will YOUR vessels of DNA which you helped create. Peace, John Paul McNeil
ReplyDelete(obviously not anon, the "comment as" kept messing up...poor 'puter DNA line I suppose...
Thanks for the encouragement, John!
ReplyDelete