Family Trees

I've been doing research into my family ancestral roots. It all began because no one could tell me with surety my one grandmother's name. I guess she thought that Marjorie was more pleasing to at least her ear as compared to Edna Merle.

 

My research has been very enlightening, especially after purchasing a six-month subscription to one online service. I've used it to make a multi-branch family tree that so far stretches back into the 1600s. Most branches, even at that date, remain in the United States or the colonies, as they were at the time. Others after just a few generations back venture north into Canada and/or overseas into Europe.

 

I'd like to draw out this family tree using just the Father and Mother members without additional siblings, but I'm sure that would take quite a large sheet of paper. However, now that I've "met" these ancestors, at least by name, I want to remember them.

 

Years ago, one of my relatives on my mother's side had this done and gave each "branch" its own tree on paper. I could follow suit doing a simple paper tree with family member names on leaves.

I saw another idea I liked on Pinterest. It was done with framed pictures attached to a wall mural of a tree—so much more creative than my photos hung on our hallway's walls. Of course, this one didn't include all the different branches going back hundreds of years.

 

What I'd really like, though, is to know more about my past family members' personal lives, beyond just names and birthdates. Through different resources, I've found out some interesting things.

 

I learned that two of my 5^th great grandfathers, one on my mother's side and one on my father's side, helped found churches.

 

One ancestor donated land for a church in Alamance County, North Carolina. His name was Conrad David Low(e) (or Lough or, further back, Lau—spelling wasn't always consistent just as education/literacy wasn't).

 

The other, William Morris, helped start a church in Kanawha County, West Virginia.

 

 

That was significant to me as I wanted to know if faith was an important part of life to any of my ancestors.

 

But, it was interesting, too, to find hints of other's lives. One 4^th great grandfather came to the colonies as an indentured servant, which could have been his status for many reasons one of which was to just get passage to the colonies. A 10^th great grandfather (with his brother) owned a tobacco plantation…and slaves—that was troubling to learn. There were men who fought in wars with the gravestones giving honor to their service. At least one spent time in a prisoner of war camp. Many were homesteaders. One great grandfather was a constable. Most had large families, and many lost children at early ages. And there's still so much more to find out.

 

Investigating my family roots has created a tree that began like a skimpy sapling with few leaves to one now that is full of leafy branches with each leaf bearing the name of a person whose life in the past made the now of my life possible. It made me think of a song from the 1980s, "Find Us Faithful," written by Jon Mohr.

 

The third verse says, "After all our hopes and dreams have come and gone, and our children sift through all we've left behind, may the clues that they discover and the memories they uncover become the light that leads them to the road we each must find." The song ends, "O may all who come behind us find us faithful."

 

That, praying moms, is what we want to be found—faithful. Jesus, in Luke 18:8, asks the question, "When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?" The example of faithfulness He had just given was the woman persistent before the judge, a teaching on persistent prayer for His disciples and for us.

 

I don't know for sure if Jesus will return in my lifetime, but I do want to be known as faithful. I want those who come after me to see evidence of faith in their quest to discover their family roots. And, if Jesus does come in my lifetime, I want Him to find me faithful in prayer.

 

"When you hope, be joyful. When you suffer, be patient.

When you pray, be faithful."

Romans 12:12 (NIRV)