The Roots and the Branches

Many years ago, my children came home from school explaining that they needed a family tree for a project assignment.  I was able to go back to my parents and my in-laws and their parents and family members but that was it.  As years continued to pass, I was asked the same questions from my grandchildren.  I had already started fidgeting with doing further checks so I was able to give them a bit more.  Last year I truly become inspired and pulled my brothers into the project.  It has been a blast.  We have found out so much we had no clues about and have met family we had never heard about.  Last night, a cousin of mine that I haven’t seen since we were children found me and we started sharing information about ourselves and our families.  Turns out her mother is celebrating her 90th birthday.  I also found out that my last living relative on my father’s side is still alive.  She sent photos and was able to add data to my mother’s side that I wasn’t able to find.  Amazing enough, she too has been building an extensive genealogy chart so hopefully we will be able to combine the data.  I only wish I had started all this many years ago.  My plan is to give full charts to all my family and their families.  That way when their children or grandchildren ask for the same information, they will have a regular story book to show their classes and be able to be proud of the roots and branches that stretch out across generations and continents to form the people they will someday become.  It has given me a sense of peace and longevity.  In this day and age, people want to post on the internet to be noticed, to be seen and not forgotten.  People hope that one day someone with look up a subject and their name will appear, their words will be remembered.  Our ancestors hadn’t the technology and paper doesn’t hold up for all time.  I feel that by finding them, when they lived, who they loved, is itself a legacy to them.  They existed, they counted, they meant something important.  To each of you I have found and those I have yet to discover…I salute you.