Friday, September 5, 2008

Genealinspired

I've been asking around for genealinspired stories. Here are a couple from Cina and Diana at Ohana Software.

Cina Johnson
"My life didn’t follow the path that I envisioned for myself. I imagine most of us find that to be true but sometimes I reacted poorly to my challenges. During a particularly low point in my life, the need to work on family history became overwhelming; therefore, I started reviewing research I had done years earlier. At some point, I reread my great grandmother’s
1870 diary and was struck again by the similarities in our temperament and talents. At 25, she lived at home and made her living as a seamstress. She married at age 29, had three children (one died at 13 months) then she passed away at age 47 leaving my grandfather (age 15) and his sister (age 8). My heart went out to her and I felt that she understood my feelings. I also knew that she lived through times of trial and so could I. Since then, I’ve learned of ancestors who lost five out of seven children between the ages of 6 days and 11 years. With their two surviving children, they left their home and family in France and moved to America. Another ancestor became an orphan in her early teens. I draw strength and perspective from these loved ones and my life is richer for knowing their stories."

(Cina Johnson is a customer service representative for Ohana Software, the makers of PAF Insight. As part of her job, Cina writes the monthly newsletter, Ohana Insights. She also wrote the lessons for FamilyInsight, the new name for PAF Insight. Family Insight is already certified to work with FamilySearch family tree and is currently in Beta testing. )


And from Diana Olsen:
"This probably is not what you had in mind, but I love this story.

For years I have been cleaning up all the genealogy my Grandmother had gathered. Every Memorial Day my grandparents descendants meet at the Spring City cemetery to honor all our ancestors buried there. Then we go to the Church right next to my grandparents home for lunch. My son was not supposed to go because that year he had been diagnosed with Cancer and his treatments had put his blood count very low. The weather was very cold and could be very harmful to him. But he showed up anyway. I was very mad. We decided to give him a family blessing, one of which we, as a large family, had not done together for a very long time. My uncles and cousins all gathered around him. As the prayer was administered I felt the presence of many of my ancestors, the women were around me and the men were around my son. I did not dare open my eyes, because I did not want to lose this wonderful peaceful feeling. After the blessing many came over to me and told me they too had felt the presence of others, but they did not know who they were. I knew who they were because I had been taking care of them for years. Because I had taken care of them, they were now taking care of me and my family.

My son's next exam showed the Cancer was gone. 12 years later he is still Cancer free."

Thanks Cina and Diana. If you have one you would like to add, let me know.

2 comments:

Renee Zamora said...

Those are two wonderful stories. Thanks so much for sharing. I can't wait to read more.

Janet Hovorka said...

Renee--Do you have one to send me? I'd love to have one from you. Thanks.