Most web sites attribute it to by Della M. Cummings Wright in 1943.
However Vanderburgh County INgenWeb (
http://www.ingenweb.org/invanderburgh/ ) attributes it as-
by Della M. Cummings Wright; Rewritten by her granddaughter Dell Jo Ann McGinnis Johnson; Edited and Reworded by Tom Dunn, 1943.
From what I can find the Tom Dunn version reads
http://onceuponatime.outlawpoetry.com/2011/01/05/tom-dunn-the-storytellers/The Story Tellers
We are the chosen.
My feelings are in each family there is one who
seems called to find the
ancestors. To put flesh on their bones and make
them live again, to tell
the family story and to feel that somehow they
know and approve.
To me, doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of
acts but, instead,
breathing life into all who have gone before.
We are the story tellers of
the tribe. All tribes have one. We have been
called as it were by our genes.
Those who have gone before cry out to us: Tell
Our story. So, we do.
In finding them, we somehow find ourselves. How
many graves have I stood
before now and cried? I have lost count. How many
times have I told the
ancestors you have a wonderful family you would
be proud of us? How many
times have I walked up to a grave and felt
somehow there was love there
for me?
I cannot say.
It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to
who am I and why do I
do the things I do. It goes to seeing a cemetery
about to be lost
forever to weeds and indifference and saying I
can’t let this happen. The
bones here are bones of my bones and flesh of my
flesh. It goes to doing
something about it.
It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able
to accomplish. How they
contributed to what we are today. It goes to
respecting their hardships
and losses, their never giving in or giving up,
their resoluteness to go
on and build a life for their family.
It goes to deep pride that they fought to make
And keep us a Nation. It
goes to a deep and immense understanding that
they were doing it for us.
That we might be born who we are. That we might
remember them. So we do.
With love and caring and scribing each fact of
their existence, because
we are them and they are us.
So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my
family. It is up to that
one called in the next generation to answer the
call and take their place
in the long line of family storytellers.
That, is why I do my family genealogy, and that
Is what calls those
young and old to step up and put flesh on the
bones.
Tom Dunn
Cheers
Guy
