Blog Some Genealogy

“Family faces are magic mirrors … we see the past, present and future.”

I was visiting a lovely Virginia home last week and espied this sepia portrait collection arranged upon a wall next to their staircase. So I made a poster with my portrait of their “genealogy wall.”

“The mark of a Scot of all classes [is that] he … remembers and cherishes the memory of his forebears, good or bad; and there burns alive in him a sense of identity with the dead even to the twentieth generation.” Robert Louis Stevenson

“I sit beside the fire and think of people long ago, and people who will see a world that I shall never know.” ~Lord of the Rings

This MP3 from Jon Sayles reminds us of the strong connection of Americans of the South with their forebears:

A long, long time ago (during the 1970’s while I was in college) I bought a fabulous recording named: “Music of the Ozarks” (National Geographic) - it featured raw, live performances captured from amateur musicians in Appalachia. There were some arresting and gorgeous numbers on that recording, and I especially remember one beautiful, plaintiff vocal tune, named: “Bright Morning Stars Are Rising”.

Unfortunately, the album is no longer in print, and while several artists have recorded Bright Morning Stars, I wanted to give it a shot, on guitar. So, here’s my attempt at playing a gem from the Ozarks. … Play “Bright Morning Stars Are Rising” … Solo guitar. Note… here are the words - you can probably sing them in your head as you listen to the melody line….

Bright morning stars are rising
Bright morning stars are rising
Day is a-breaking in my soul

Oh, where are our dear mothers?
Oh, where are our dear mothers?
Oh, where are our dear mothers?
Day is a-breaking in my soul

They are down in the valley praying
They are down in the valley praying
They are down in the valley praying
Day is a-breaking in my soul

Oh where are our dear fathers?
Oh where are our dear fathers?
Oh where are our dear fathers?
Day is a-breaking in my soul

They have gone to heaven shouting
They have gone to heaven shouting
They have gone to heaven shouting
Day is a-breaking in my soul

Bright morning stars are rising
Bright morning stars are rising
Bright morning stars are rising
Day is a-breaking in my soul

“The providence of God, which keeps up the generations of men, and so preserves that degenerate race, though guilty and obnoxious, in being upon earth. How easily could He cut it off without either a deluge or a conflagration! The divine patience lets the trees that cumber the ground not only grow, but propagate. As one generation, even of sinful men, passes away, another comes and will do so while the earth remains. Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it.”

–Matthew Henry