I have found the following links to be very helpful in my search for ancestors.
I hope you find them so as well.
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IMMIGRANT SHIPS TRANSCRIBERS GUILD
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This is a poem that was sent to me that really
explains what it
means to be a genealogist. I did not
write it. The author is unknown.
We Are the Chosen
My feelings are in each family we are called to find the ancestors.
To put flesh on their bones and make them live again,
To tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve.
To me, doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead,
Breathing life into all who have gone before.
We are the story tellers of the tribe.
We have been called as it were by our genes.
Those who have gone before cry out to us:
Tell our story.
So, we do.
In finding them, we somehow find ourselves.
How many graves have I stood before now and
cried? I have lost count.
How many times have I told the ancestors you
have a wonderful family, you
would be proud of us?
How many times have I walked up to a grave
and felt somehow there was love
there for me?
I cannot say.
It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes
to who am I and why do I do
the things I do?
It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost
forever to weeds and indifference
And saying I can't let this happen.
The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh.
It goes to doing something about it.
It goes to pride in what our ancestors were
able to accomplish.
How they contributed to what we are today.
It goes to respecting their hardships and losses,
their never giving in or giving up,
Their resoluteness to go on and build a life
for their family.
It goes to deep pride that they fought to make and keep us a Nation.
It goes to a deep and immense understanding
that they were doing it for us.
That we might be born who we are.
That we might remember them. So we do.
With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence,
Because we are them and they are us.
So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family.
It is up to that one called in the next generation,
To answer the call and take their place in
the long line of family storytellers.
That is why I do my family genealogy,
And that is what calls those young and old
to step up
And put flesh on the bones.
[Author Unknown]
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