Found these 3 Poems I like to share with you all, Authors unknown

ANCESTORS

If you could see your ancestors
All standing in a row,
Would you be proud of them?
Or don't you really know?
Strange discoveries are sometimes made,
In climbing the family tree
Occasionally one is found in line
Who shocks his progeny.
If you could see your ancestors
All standing in a row,
Perhaps there might be one or two
You wouldn't care to know
Now turn the question right about,
And take another view
When you shall meet your ancestors,
Will they be proud of you?
--Author Unknown--

DEAR ANCESTOR

Your tombstone stands among the rest;
Neglected and alone.
The name and date are chiseled out
On polished, marbled stone.
It reaches out to all who care
It is too late to mourn.
You did not know that I exist
You died and I was born.
Yet each of us are cells of you
In flesh, in blood, in bone.
Our blood contracts and beats a pulse
Entirely not our own.
Dear Ancestor, the place you filled
One hundred years ago
Spreads out among the ones you left
Who would have loved you so.
I wonder if you lived and loved,
I wonder if you knew
That someday I would find this spot,
And come to visit you.
Author Unknown

STRANGERS IN THE BOX

Come, look with me inside this drawer,
In this box I've often seen,
At the pictures, black and white,
Faces proud, still, and serene.

I wish I knew the people,
These strangers in the box,
Their names and all their memories,
Are lost among my socks.

I wonder what their lives were like,
How did they spend their days?
What about their special times?
I'll never know their ways.

If only someone had taken time,
To tell, who, what, where, and when,
These faces of my heritage,
Would come to life again.

Could this become the fate,
Of the pictures we take today?
The faces and the memories,
Someday to be passed away?

Take time to save your stories,
Seize the opportunity when it knocks,
Or someday you and yours,
Could be strangers in the box.

--Author Unknown

I have just read the three poems about our ancestors and agree with the sentiments expressed. My great times five grandfather is buried in the churchyard in Staindrop, County Durham. I have seen the grave and have a photograph. Whenever I look at it I wish he could have known that two hundred and fifty years after his death someone still cares.

Doreen's reply set me wondering how many of us feel any emotion when finding out past family details. We see it in the faces of the subjects of "Who do you think you are" even Chris Moyles had to stop and absorb the reality, the fact that only 5 of 15 children his great grandparents had survived in the slums of Dublin, and of course standing in the field in Belgium where his great grandfather was shot through the head during the First World War, suddenly somehow it's a real event, after all a 100 years is just the blink of an eye.

When I told my cousin that our GG-Grandmother died during child birth, cause of death exhaustion, followed by a note saying 4 days. It's stupid I know, but we both sat there looking so sad, but this was a member of my family, and somehow 150 years didn't mean anything.

My grandfathers parents were both dead by the time he was 5, they could have stayed in rural Shropshire,and may have lived longer, but they went to the cotton mills of Bolton, who knows how bad living conditions were, but they both died of TB aged 39 and 43. In recent years much has been made about the slave trade, some demanding an apology, but many of our ancestors were in reality slaves, often working 12 hour shifts, 6 or 7 days a week, poorly paid, there was no choice, no complaints procedure, no way out except in a coffin.

Rambling on as usual Fred

Dear Rambling on as usual,

I suspect most of us have been / continue to be touched by what our forebears endured - death in a mine, the trenches in WWI, a french beach in WWII, the "slave like" working conditions or childbearing etc.

For me the "tree and branch" research is a diversion the real interest is the social context etc that they lived in.

regards
S

--
Ἀριστοτέλης A Gloster & Hereford Boy in the Forest of Dean ><((((*>

To my Family

You and I because of our birth or bond have been given a relationship that
has shaped who we are. Our Fathers and Mothers and kith and kin are the
stuff of which we are made.

To better understand who we are some of us have undertaken a search to
discover our kinships. We would like you to join us in our search.

We are searching for more than just the name of our fathers and mothers,
and upon what ground they stood. We feel that it is important , however,
wouldn't you and I also like to know about their lives, what was in their hearts,
and what made them laugh and what made them cry?
We believe that part of who we are is the collective sum of all that has passed.

The purpose of this search is not to offend or judge, it is not our purpose to
offer up any person or lineage over another. We are only real people with
real lives
So if you would like to join us in this search please feel free to contribute
as much as you would care to share.

A Forester's Descendant
Many's the time whilst doing my exploring,
On my Family Tree,
I will stop and shred a tear,
Sit and let my mind wander back to their time.
See how young they were when they died,
Often think would they wonder,
About life in The future as we now know it.
As I sit just now writing this entry here,
I can't help but shred tears when I see their names,
Not to hear their voices, their laughter,
How they entertained themselves way back than.
I am so glad that in many ways,
Their blood and spirit still lives on.
Hope one day I will get to walk The land of my Forefathers,
To pay my respects to them and place a flower or two,
At their graves,
For I believe even if it is 100 years or more,
A forester's descendant will always come back
To her roots.
-- kiwiceltic 04-09-09

You are true to both your New Zealand and your Celtic origins for your love of poetry! I have some relatives living in New Zealand, but I am not in touch with them but wonder if they have done their family history and discovered this website. I too look at a grave, it's in Yorkshire, stating that my great-great grandparents were born in Coleford and this demonstrates to me that they were proud of coming from the Forest of Dean and would rather have stayed there than move away. Though I also know this for a fact as The Forest of Dean, Monmouth and Coleford became almost legendry in the family as the place where things were lovely e.g. salmon leaping in the River Wye.

Many thanks for your kind words.
I found the first three poems a few years back not sure where.
The last poem is all mine, as I was having a wee weepie, as I found some ancestors a few moments before hand,
And I felt a deep sorrow for them as they had had such a large family and had lost nearly all their children and after their last child
Had been born she passed on followed by the child she not long given birth too.
It suddenly became very over whelming to me and made me very tearful, thinking like I was treading on their graves etc. Had even
Had thorought's that day of stop doing my family research, That's had badly it had affected me. (15 CHILDREN SHE HAD AND ONLY 2 REACHING TO ADULTHOOD). Spoke to a close friend how it affected me and they gave me a strong pep talk. Told me write down how it had affected me and what you see is the last poem I wrote.
Been doing my family tree since 1974 as a high school project and carried it on everyday or night since than.