Geneaology

I got an awesome book in the mail yesterday from my aunt. I had asked her some questions about the person who made a very old quilt she recently gave me from my grandmother's estate. She sent me a bound booklet of our family history that some relative of ours has compiled. It starts with my great great great grandfather and tracks all the descendants to almost the present day. As I poured through all the information, one thing caught my attention. I found out that I was born almost 100 years to the day after my great grandfather. It was so interesting. He was born Aug 4, 1876 and I was born Aug 3, 1976. I felt a strange connection to him just because of that coincidence. I loved reading through all the births, the unusual names, the causes of death that were sometimes listed, the small facts about people's lives interjected occasioanlly, everything! I thought about how much had changed from the first people listed to my own children's lives now. It's strange to see a person's entire life summed up in a one line geneaology entry. It reminds me of how short our lives are. There's no one alive today who remembers those first ancestors personally- their peculiar habits and special characteristics. How fast we all fade, yet our legacy does remain, a piece of us still exists, in the mere existence of future generations. There would be no Ava and Nate without those that came before, and who knows what lasting impact those past generations have had on who we are today?