Genealogy quotes

I often wonder how best to sum up genealogy and why we do it. So this week is a collection of quotes on the subject.

“It is indeed a desirable thing to be well descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestor” Plutarch

“Money doesn’t grow on trees but ancestors do”.

“A family tree can wither if nobody tends its roots”.

“If we know where we came from, we may better know where to go. If we know who we came from, we may better understand who we are.” Anonymous

“We don’t own our family history. We simply preserve it for the next generation.” Rosemary Alva

Days gone by – “The special book upon the shelf, was made with many hands. Our ancestors who posed back then, all came from different lands. Their pictures were all tucked away, and rarely did we see, the importance of these treasures, the start of you and me. The history of our families, now here in black and white, preserved with special care and time, each page is done just right. When time permits we take it down and think of days long past. Our hopes, our dreams, our heritage all safe and made to last” Unknown.

 “To forget one’s ancestors is to be a book without a source, a tree without a root”. Chinese proverb.

“I am bond to them, though I cannot look into their eyes or hear their voices. I honour their history. I cherish their lives. I will tell their story. I will remember them.” Unknown

“If you could see your ancestors all standing in a row, would you be proud of them or not? Or don’t you really know? But here’s another question which requires a different view. If you could meet your ancestors would they be proud of you?” Nellie Winslow Simmons Randall

 “The more you know of your history the more liberated you are.” Maya Angelou.

“The challenge I give you as a genealogist is to reach beyond the vital statistics to a new world of understanding, both of your ancestors and of yourself. Preserve those details of your family in written form that will bring understanding to many others and truly enable their hearts – along with your own – to turn to their fathers. Someone has said that there is little point in digging up an ancestor if your aren’t going to make him live. If that is true – and I believe it is – your job is not finished until you feel a bit of what he felt, have shared vicariously in his joys and heartaches – perhaps shed a tear with him in his sorrow, laughed at the humor in his life, and felt pride in his accomplishments.” Val D Greenwood

Dear Ancestor. “Your tombstone stands among the rest neglected and alone. The name and date are chiseled our on polished marble 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 and blood and bone. Our blood contracts and beats a pulse entirely not our own. Dear ancestor, the place you filled one hundred years ago. Spreads our among the ones you left who would have loved you so. I wonder how you lived and loved I wonder if you knew. That someday I would find this spot and come to visit you.”  Walter Butler Palmer

“If you don’t know your history, then you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree.” Michael Crichton

“You’re never alone, even during what you think are your weakest moments. You have thousands of years of powerful ancestors within you, the blood of the divine great ones in you, supreme intellect and royalty in you. Infinite strength is always on tap for you. Know that.” Author Unknown

And know for my favourites the humour based quotes.

“Genealogists: I disturb the dead and irritate the living”

“My family coat of arms ties at the back is that normal?”

“Genealogy. It’s not the size of the tree that matters it’s the quality of the nuts you find”

“Genealogist – proving once and for all that insanity is hereditary.”

“Eventually all genealogists come to their census”.

“If you think your family is normal then you’re probably not a genealogist”. Unknown.

“Genealogy is not fatal, but it is a grave disease”.

“I regretfully decline your offer to interact socially, I’m doing genealogy”

“Genealogy is like a jigsaw puzzle. You’re always looking for the missing pi”