Ancestral, historical and genealogical research in the County of Tyrone including all of Ulster.

We are Called!

In each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors. To put flesh on their bones and make them live again, to tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve.

Doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts, but instead breathing life into all who have gone before.

We are the storytellers of the tribe. All tribes have one. We have been called as it were, by our genes.

Those who have gone before cry out to us; "Tell our Story!"

So, we do. In finding them, we somehow find ourselves.

How many graves have I stood before now and wept? I have lost count.

How many times have I told the ancestors; "You have a wonderful family. You would be proud of us"?

How many times have I walked up to a grave and felt, somehow, there was love there for me? I cannot say.

It goes beyond just documenting facts.

It goes to who I am, and why do I do the things I do.

It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever to weeds and indifference and saying; "I can't let this happen".

The bones here, are bones of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

It goes to doing something about it.

It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish, how they contributed to what we are today.

It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, joy and grief, their never giving in, or giving up,

their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family.

It goes to deep pride that the fathers fought and some died to make and keep us a nation.

It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us.

It is of equal pride and love that our mothers struggled to give us birth.

Without them, we could not exist and so, we love each one, as far back as we can reach,

that we might be born who we are, that we might remember them.

So we do, with love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence,

because we are they and they are the sum of who we are.

So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family.

It is up to that one called in the next generation, to answer the call,

and take my place in the long line of family storytellers.

-- Tom Dunn