14 October 2009

Why we do it

One of the first things people often ask is why the interest in a bunch of dead people? Why do you do genealogy? For me there are many reasons I do it. It gives you a sense of who you are and where your family came from but most importantly it gives you a sense of belonging to a group of people who have helped form this world. Genealogy helps you understand history by looking at it through their eyes as they must of seen it and experienced it.
Anyone can dig up dates of births and deaths and so on but to me genealogy is so much more. There is a poem that states we are the story keepers and we keep the stories and people alive by putting their stories on the bones. Making that person not only a bunch of numbers but a person who lived and breathed. They had a name, a spouse, children they had a story, they lived life. Our job as the story keepers is to keep that persons story even after they have passed on. As a tribute to them but also to say thank you for the heritage they have left for us.

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