Was out walking one day and spotted this tree. I sat down and pondered upon all the possibilities it signified to me.
I have…… you have….. we all have “dead trees” on our genealogy tree. Some of us have many! Here are some thoughts that came to me as I mentally embraced that tree:
* How/why did it die? If we’re thinking “the male surname is gone,” that’s one thing, but look at the base of the tree……….. it goes on but differently!
* Is it really dead? Or just blighted and taking a natural time out? With strong roots, will it come back?
* How do we deal with these “dead trees” in our family history? I think we should document them as fully best we can but never give up hope for new resources are always coming up.
* Perhaps a thinking adjustment is called for. That dead tree is, to my mind, still very lovely. It lived and hopefully fulfilled its reason for being before hard times hit. Now its an inspiration for others.
* Think of that tree as a patriarch or matriarch of a large clan! Look at all the descendants gathered round her base. She did good and is still an inspiration to the upcoming generation.
* Even if she is dead, she is still upright. This signifies that she had sunk deep roots into life which did sustain her for decades. * Spark: Indigenous peoples used the bark from such white trees as paper. Nothing is ever worthless, even a so-called dead tree.
My family was one of four who shared a cabin in the woods outside the Mt. Rainier Nat. Park. I’ve noticed in many a walk though the woods that the downed Douglas firs sometimes become “nurse logs” as they decay, first for hemlocks, conks (which are actually a kind of fungus) and even critters of various kinds. As you say, nothing is worthless, in fact, it is part of the cycle of life.
When working on our family lines, when one “peters out” so to speak, we can instead spread out, and dig into the FAN club–usually finding more relatives there. We’re alive thanks to what our ancestors did, for good or ill.