Genealogy and the Cycle of Life

Below are thoughts that came to me one day in the fall while I was doing outdoor research at a family cemetery down in Union, South Carolina. Nothing like the silence of a cemetery on a crisp fall day to evoke the passion for genealogy, my friends. Something peaceful and comforting in it. If you sit quietly long enough, you can almost hear the voices of the past drifting on the chilly wind  . . .

Something about fall weather makes me want to dig for family roots as the leaves drift to the ground. Maybe it reminds me of the passing of time, how families spring up and thrive like summer flowers, only to wither away in fall. With the winter comes eternal rest for some, but the seeds of life always survive and bring a fresh new crop of fruits, branches, and yes, nuts too!

This repetitive cycle is seen throughout nature, and mankind is nothing more in the scheme of life than another cycle. What sets us apart is our inherent ability to grow and change and adapt, form social bonds, communicate with one another, and recall the past. To embrace genealogy is to embrace our humanity, exercising our special qualities that say, "I belong".

Being human means being interested in surviving, improving, making a mark no matter how tiny on a world that just keeps marching forward season after season, regardless of how we try to interfere. As the Good Book says most wisely,

"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. " (NIV) Ecc. 1:9

We are nothing new. The day we live in may be, but we humans are a product of every direct ancestor of ours who ever lived.  Their blood courses through our veins, regardless of whether or not they lived 50 or 50,000 years ago. Each and every one of our forebears contributed to our DNA and therefore, we are part of something much, much larger than just ourselves.  We are living relics of all those who came before us.

Sadly, many disregard their heritage. It's not necessary to know the stock from which we are derived but the benefits are such that we should want to know. When we find ourselves disconnected from our family through lack of knowledge, we begin a backpedaling motion against the flow of life. Quiet chaos ensues. We lose touch with who we are, where we were and where we're going. We lose our respect for the intricate processes of life that have shaped us through our ancestors, generation after generation.  Our true identities slip away into the silence of a foggy, moss-covered cemetery, and the voices of all who came before us are then gone forever.

That's Grandma's nose staring back at you in the bathroom mirror and Grandpa's ears that cause your hat to sit slightly crooked.  We've all heard how much we look like someone else in the family.  It's kind of spooky, though, to actually see it in pictures.  I clearly recall the day my mother handed me an old photo from the late 1800s and said, "Oh, this is your great-great-grandfather.  Doesn't my dad look like him?" 

I stared at the yellow-and-grayed photo in complete disbelief.  It was as if my grandfather had stepped back in time, like in one of those reproduction souvenir photos you get at the county fair.  The hair, the eyes, that nose, those big ears!  Even that little mischievous twinkle in his eye was the same. I was totally amazed and stared at that photo off and on for hours.  Never have I seen anyone look so much like an ancestor before.  I'm still amazed by it.  It is tangible proof that we carry all of our ancestors with us in our DNA, and that they are still alive in some abstract way.  We are their voices, their hope for bright futures, and the ones who can make it possible to know who they were and that they did not live in vain.

 What has happened to our world today? As a society, we've lost touch with our past, care little for the future, and live only for today. This is the beginning of extinction when a species fails to adapt properly and falls into simply surviving.

But it doesn't have to be this way! We each can do our part to connect to our past by digging deep for our heritage, working it up and then talking about it to our children and grandchildren. In this time-tested method of 'storytelling', we are doing more than passing the time. We are passing the seeds of life, hope, and survival. Someday, we too will be part of the past. Our only light will shine from the eyes of our descendants, and our voices will be heard only in the stories they tell. Deny them their heritage and we ourselves perish!

So, here in the Autumn of life, its time to preserve. Its time to tell your stories, write them down, label those pictures because we WILL forget in time, and prepare to pass the torch. No, we aren't dead yet. And if you know the date of your passing, you're WAY ahead of the game anyway. The rest of us just have to keep busy preparing all things, making a past while we make a living, banking on the future to be a safe deposit box for who we were and where we came from. Begin now. Don't wait. Share your memories with those you love. Share them with me and I will record them for all time. But what ever you do, share them. Our futures depend on it!