THE DASH BETWEEN THE DATE
by Linda Ellis
I read of a man who stood to speak at a funeral of a friend. He referred to the dates on the tombstone from the beginning… to the end.
He noted that first came the date of birth and spoke of the following date with
tears, but he said what mattered most of all was the dash between those years.
For that dash represents all the time they spent alive on earth and now only
those who loved them know what that little line is worth.
Family history has always peeked my curiosity. I recall my
paternal grandfather saying that our ancestors in North Carolina had been in
the mountains for as long as anyone could remember. It turns out, he
was right. But for so many of our descendants, we know
little about their "dash." It is my hope to uncover many of their
stories that lie between their dates.
March 1, 2019
Before I truly began any genealogy research of my own, my oldest son had a project family tree to do in grade school. I came across his work not too long ago and smiled to myself, recalling how we worked on it together, adding in names and dates. Many of the members of this tree were still living at that point, though at this point in time, some have passed on. As I look at this tree now, I see we have some dates wrong. Genealogy research is a work in progress. We learn, and we correct, and we learn some more, and then we correct again.
I know now that one of the last names in the tree is wrong as well. Wrong as in fictitious, not simply misspelled. I think back to a book that our son, Jay, gave to his brother Craig for a birthday gift (or was it the other way around?) a number of years ago called Lies My Teacher Told Me. In this book a sociologist criticizes modern American high school history textbooks for containing incorrect information. Ahhhhh... The more I uncover as I research, the more I think I might change the title of this blog to Lies My Ancestors Told Me! :-)
I know now that one of the last names in the tree is wrong as well. Wrong as in fictitious, not simply misspelled. I think back to a book that our son, Jay, gave to his brother Craig for a birthday gift (or was it the other way around?) a number of years ago called Lies My Teacher Told Me. In this book a sociologist criticizes modern American high school history textbooks for containing incorrect information. Ahhhhh... The more I uncover as I research, the more I think I might change the title of this blog to Lies My Ancestors Told Me! :-)
Onward and upward as we discover who we are and where we came from...
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