CULTURE: A Look Back at Who Came Before You

A few months ago, I signed up for a free trial membership of Ancestry.com. At first I wasn’t sure if I would spend much time looking at it, but then it sucked me in. I loved reading all the names and other information of my grandparents’ grandparents.

There’s something about seeing historical documents (census papers, tax records, etc) with your loved ones names on them…as well as names of ancestors you’ve never met. It’s strange to think about the members of my family I never got to know.

Of course, this always causes me to spend time thinking about my family members that I did know…the ones I was close to and the ones I’m still close to.

No matter what we do in life, the people who are part of us are carried with us in every new adventure. I feel such strong ties to the people I come from…as different and diverse as they all are.

I come from people who came from Canton, North Carolina; Lovejoy, Tennessee; Denison, Texas; and a place called the ‘Bloody 8th District.’

I come from people who say ‘liberry’ instead of ‘library.’

I come from people who went to work each day in the shirt factory, the grocery store, the church pulpit, the university bursar’s office, the steel mill, and the tobacco field.

I come from people who made their beds hard and lay in them; from people who got up before the sun; from people who kept the home fires burning; from people who believed all you get out of life is what you enjoy.

I come from people who praised the Lord; from people who rebuked the devil; from people who blessed your heart; from people who wanted my life to be better and easier than theirs had been.

My life is better and easier than theirs were. And while I don’t deserve the fruits of the labor of all those folks who came before me…I sure am enjoying it. I let my Ancestry.com trial expire, but I’m thinking about signing up again…who knows what I’ll discover this time!

What kind of people do you come from? I bet they had some stories to tell.