Family

I have been researching my family now for years. It all started when I was a little boy, I found that I could get the adults to talk to me and really open up when I would ask them questions about old pictures that were in the house. I also would hear wonderful stories that my grandparents would tell me of their families and parents and grandparents. What started off as a hobby turned into a passion. The old pictures in the scrapbooks I would see in my great aunts and uncles always fascinated me. Family reunions were my favorite times. I remember being a young historian, standing up in front of everyone at the church reunions and telling the congregation what I had learned. I began to study the field of genealogy through books written by the experts and many visits to the libraries. Genealogy has been a life-long passion, almost a spiritual quest. Though the Bible admonishes us not to `woship` our ancestors, it does say we should not forget who they are. A large part of the Bible is taken up with family lineages, and I believe they are still very important to us all today. Knowing who we are and where we came from goes a long way to helping us feel like we belong to something larger than ourselves -- we belong in the history of mankind. I also pray that all of us will come to the acceptance of Christ as our Savior, our Lord, and our Coming King, and be not only members of one family here -- but, members of the eternal family of God. This picture is of my great great grandparents, My papa's grandparents, the beautiful lady in the right top corner is my great grandmother who I still remember as a little boy.  She's my only great grandparent that I remember well.  I also added one of her as a young woman, and one the way I remember her.