Genealogy: Genealogy Poems

THE CRYSTAL LADY'S

GENEALOGY POEMS AND HUMOR

Lots of cute poems floating around about Genealogy.
Most of which always end up sent to me as Author unknown
I will try to credit author where they are known.
If you know the author and would like to send me the name
I will be glad to update the poem or articles. to include their name.
If you have an original poem you would like to share.
Send it to The Crystal Lady ....E-Mail Crystal@ crystallady.com
P.S. You are welcome to pass my original poems around
as long as you give me credit and they are not used commercially.
Thanks.

Strangers in the Box
Pamela A. Harazim
©1997

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

Make time to save your pictures,
Seize the opportunity when it knocks,
Or someday you and yours could be
The strangers in the box.

5-22-2005

A sibling, to me, is just a pal
Who happens to share a birth canal.

Mary Jo Fraley
Moody, TX

Sent in By Grace in Alabama
10-26-2003

Dear Ancestor
Author unknown

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.

The Census Taker
Author is Darlene Stevens
and Poem was published in the Genealogy Bulletin #39 page 28.

It was the first day of census, and all through the land
each pollster was ready ... a black book in hand.
He mounted his horse for a long dusty ride,
his book and some quills were tucked close by his side.
A long winding ride down a road barely there,
toward the smell of fresh bread wafting, up through the air.
The woman was tired, with lines on her face
and wisps of brown hair she tucked back into place.
She gave him some water ... as they sat at the table
and she answered his questions ... the best she was able.
He asked her of children. Yes, she had quite a few --
the oldest was twenty, the youngest not two.
She held up a toddler with cheeks round and red;
his sister, she whispered, was napping in bed.
She noted each person who lived there with pride,
and she felt the faint stirrings of the wee one inside.
He noted the sex, the color, the age...
the marks from the quill soon filled up the page.
At the number of children, she nodded her head
and saw her lips quiver for the three that were dead.
The places of birth she "never forgot"
was it Kansas? or Utah? or Oregon ... or not?
They came from Scotland, of that she was clear,
but she wasn't quite sure just how long they'd been here.
They spoke of employment, of schooling and such,
they could read some ... and write some ... though really not much.
When the questions were answered, his job there was done
so he mounted his horse and he rode toward the sun.
We can almost imagine his voice loud and clear,
"May God bless you all for another ten years."
Now picture a time warp ... its' now you and me
as we search for the people on our family tree.
We squint at the census and scroll down so slow
as we search for that entry from long, long ago.
Could they only imagine on that long ago day
that the entries they made would effect us this way?
If they knew would they wonder at the yearning we feel
and the searching that makes them so increasingly real.
We can hear if we listen the words they impart
through their blood in our veins and their voice in our heart.

Grandpa's Life
Author unknown but sent in by Grace in Alabama.
11-30-2002

They think that I should cook and clean, and be a model wife.
I tell them it's more interesting to study Grandpa's life.
They simply do not understand why I hate to go to bed . . .
I'd rather do two hundred years of research work instead.
Why waste the time we have on earth just snoring and asleep?
When we can learn of ancestors that sailed upon the deep...
We have preachers, lawmen, soldiers - more than just a few
And yes, there's many scoundrels, and a bootlegger or two.
How can a person find this life an awful drudge or bore?
When we can live the lives of all those folks who came before...
A hundred years from now of course, no one will ever know
Whether I did laundry, but they'll see "Our Tree" and glow .
Cause their dear old granny left for them and for all posterity,
Not clean hankies and the like, but a lengthy family tree.
My home may be untidy, 'cause I've better things to do . .
I'm checking all the records to provide us with a clue.
Old granny's pulling roots and branches out with glee,
Her clothes aren't hanging out to dry, she's hung up on the Tree.

Genealogy quips:
11-21-2002
Sent in by Grace.

My family coat of arms ties at the back ... is that normal?
My family tree is a few branches short! All help appreciated.
My ancestors must be in a witness protection program!
Shake your family tree and watch the nuts fall!
My hobby is genealogy, I raise dust bunnies as pets.
How can one ancestor cause so much TROUBLE?!
I looked into my family tree and found out I was a sap ...
I'm not stuck, I'm ancestrally challenged.
I'm searching for myself. Have you seen me?
If only people came with pull-down menus and on-line help ...
Isn't genealogy fun? The answer to one problem leads to two more!
It's 2002 ... Do you know where your G-G-Grandparents are?
A family reunion is an effective form of birth control
A family tree can wither if nobody tends it's roots.
A new cousin a day keeps the boredom away.
After 30 days unclaimed ancestors will be adopted.
Am I the only person up my tree ... sure seems like it.
Any family tree produces some lemons, some nuts, and a few bad apples.
Ever find an ancestor HANGING from the family tree?
FLOOR: The place for storing your priceless genealogy records.
Gene-Allergy: It's a contagious disease but I love it.
Genealogists are time un-ravelers.
Genealogy is like playing hide and seek: They hide ... I seek!
Genealogy: Tracing yourself back to better people.
"Crazy" is a relative term in my family.
A pack rat is hard to live with but makes a fine ancestor.
I want to find ALL of them! So far I only have a few thousand.
I Should have asked them BEFORE they died!
I think my ancestors had several "Bad heir" days.
I'm always late. My ancestors arrived on the JUNE flower.
Only a Genealogist regards a step backwards, as progress.
Share your knowledge, it is a way to achieve immortality.
Heredity: Everyone believes in it until their children act like fools!
It's an unusual family without a lady of the evening or a thief.
Many a family tree needs pruning.
Shh! Be very, very quiet ... I'm hunting forebears.
Snobs talk as if they had begotten their own ancestors!
That's strange: half my ancestors are WOMEN!
I'm not sick, I've just got fading genes.
Genealogists live in the past lane.
Cousins marrying cousins: Very tangled roots!
Cousins marrying cousins: A non-branching family tree
Alright! Everybody out of the gene pool!
Always willing to share my ignorance ...
Documentation ...The hardest part of genealogy.
Genealogy: Chasing your own tale!
Genealogy ... will I ever find time to mow the lawn again?
That's the problem with the gene pool: NO Lifeguards
I researched my family tree ... and apparently I don't exist!