I have worked on my family tree since I was 19 years old. Love the searching, researching, grave-walking, and talking with others who like searching for their ancestors! My favorite:

Dear Ancestor,

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,
a 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 some day I would find the spot;
And come and visit you?

I have worked on my family tree since I was 19 years old. Love the searching, researching, grave-walking, and talking with others who like searching for their ancestors! My favorite:

Dear Ancestor,

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,
a 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 some day I would find the spot;
And come and visit you?