A Perspective on Genealogy

This isn't a genealogy blog. It will never be a genealogy blog. But it is a whatever-is-important-to-me-at-the moment kind of blog. It's just that genealogy has been on my mind lately. So why, you may ask (or you may not, but we'll pretend you might) do I do genealogy?

It's a spiritual thing.

No, really it is. And I'm not some transcendental seeker that believes we're all part of the interconnected cosmos, if indeed, that is what they believe.

But it is a spiritual thing. And here's why:

• I believe that each person is one of God's special creations. As such, each one of my ancestors is not just a name but a real person who walked upon this earth but still lives somewhere in eternity with God or apart from Him.
• I believe that "love never fails" according to I Corinthians 13. I know that my love for the family members I knew who have departed this life has not failed and I want to help keep memories of them alive. I know that they loved the generations preceding them, too. For instance, I still love my grandparents (and the great-grandparent that I was privileged to know). They likewise loved their grandparents and other family members that died long before I was born. I use my genealogy research to get to know the people who are loved by the people that I love.
• I believe that sharing the things I've learned has given me even more people to love. And here I mean living people, not the dearly departed, although some of them have departed since I began researching. I'm thinking of the bonds I've forged with members of my parents' and grandparents' generations. As hard as it might be to believe, up until a couple of years ago I heard regularly from my grandpa's double-first cousin. I'm assuming that she has passed on now since she was 102 years old the last time I had a note or phone call from her. I also loved talking to my grandma's sisters, one of whom was older than my grandma and lived to be almost 100 herself. And making connections with second and third cousins who also like to pursue our mutual ancestry has made for enjoyable fellowship.
• I believe it has the potential to heal wounds and mend broken hearts. At the very least, it has the potential to put an end to questions like "I wonder what ever happened to so-and-so?" In our family, it was my mother's cousin who disappeared when they were all young children due to a nasty divorce. We were delighted when his daughter contacted me after seeing familiar names on Rootsweb several years ago! Another could be, "Where is so-and-so buried?" That one was resolved by finding my dad's grandmother's grave so that he could visit it during one of his infrequent trips to the west coast.

It is truly a very spiritual journey for me to do genealogy research. Like we do, our ancestors had the desire to be recognized and respected, revered and remembered. God longed to have a relationship with them and so do I even if it means in the limited way that comes by meticulously piecing together the details of their lives and histories.

I learn things from my discoveries. As the Bible says in Ecclesiastes, there is nothing new under the sun.