[Granville-Hough] 2 July 2009 - Genealogist Beatitudes

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Prepared by Wilma Mauk:

Blessed are the great-grandfathers, who saved embarkation and 
citizenship papers, for they tell WHEN they came.

Blessed are the great-grandmothers, who hoarded newspaper clippings and 
old letters, for they tell the STORY of their time.

Blessed are the grandfathers, who filed every legal document, for these 
provide the PROOF.

Blessed are the grandmothers, who preserved family Bibles and diaries, 
for these are our HERITAGE.

Blessed are fathers, who elect officials that answer letters of inquiry, 
for--to some--the ONLY LINK to the past.

Blessed are mothers, who relate family TRADITIONS and LEGENDS to the 
family, for one of her children will surely remember.

Blessed are relatives, who fill in family sheets with extra data, for to 
them we owe our FAMILY HISTORY.

Blessed is any family, whose members strive for the PRESERVATION of 
RECORDS, for this is a labor of love.

Blessed are the children who will never say, "Grandma, you told that old 
story twice today."

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GWH:A family of my church friends took a tour of the  Western sites 
they had not visited and stopped  at Sinks Canyon State Park, Lander, 
WY.  It is located about 6 miles  southwest of Lander on  state road 131 
and its stream is the Popo Agie, a fast , rollicking mountain stream  of 
the Popo Agie National Wilderness  of the Shoshone National Forest in 
the  wild Wind Mountains.  The little river tumbles along at 10 to 20 
miles an hour, then comes to  a certain place, called the "Sinks," and 
disappears.  About a half-mile down the slope, it suddenly reappears in 
a trout-filled uptide called the "Rise."  More water comes up than went 
down, which must mean there are other underground streams cut into the 
limestone.  Colored tracer water takes two hours to make the passage.  
Where has it been?  What did it meet? No one knows.  It strikes me that 
much genealogy is like the Popo Agie.  I can say I met my future wife in 
1946, married her in 1947 at the Sinks, lived together 56 and 1/2 years 
wandering through the passages of life, and came up in the Rise in 2003 
when she passed away.  Or a similar thought comes to mind in looking at 
row upon row of names in a military cemetery, each identical but with 
its own date of birth - date of death.  "It matters not what years are 
shown: what matters is how you spent that dash."