Ancestry

I spend a lot of time on Ancestry.Com doing my family lineage. This was just a short put together poem about my ancestors. Think of it as a mini epiphany in that I realized all my ancestors were strong in that they survived long enough to pass on their genes to their progeny. Just reflect on what it took to raise children back in the past. Remember your ancestors go back roughly to the last ice age, about 10,000 years ago. You have over 30,000 grandparents if you go back that far. I hope you think about that because I do as I imagine my ancestors back in the Middle Ages or even back to the Stone and early Iron Age eking out a living and raising children. What a tough time they had but they were strong and so were their progeny.

Blood of my blood, bone of my bone

Kinship and kindred our ancient home

Legends and stories of epochs past

Whence came you the Masons ask?

Looking back at our ancestral past

Often as not an arduous task

As thru shuttered windows I gaze in

Into inky darkness seeking shadows therein

Dim and vaporous apparitions glide

Wraiths and specters of kinsmen hide

Lords and ladies, wealthy nobility they’re not

Earthy barbarians, wealth and land their plot

From the last Ice Age they did emerge

Out of Eurasia following their herds

Always traveling west towards the setting sun

Germanic tribes, Visigoths, Vandals and Huns

Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age they knew

From hunter bans to tribal clans they grew

Domesticated animals and furrowed fields

From palisaded villages to castles on hills

To provide food, shelter and protection a must

Sickness, famine, wars and drought’s dust

To lose children and family, our agonies rage

Some things remain the same, no matter the age

Always westward, over an ocean they sailed

On ships, a new world, a new continent they hailed

My ancestors did in America roam

Sturdy hardy folk founding new homes

So many grandparents have contributed to me

Not only their genes but their progeny to be

15 generations equal 10000 people, 5000 pairs

Each generation doubling my ancestral heirs

To think of such numbers boggles the mind

So many generations in my ancestral lines

Ancient ancestors chasing their dreams

A mongrel I am, but my ancestor’s esteem