This has been a rich, full day. So rich and full, in fact, that it is already 11:00 p.m. here in California and most of my Eastern time zone readers are fast asleep, as I wish I was! Today has been a good day. Busy and hectic and good.
Tonight I am grateful for family members with whom I am connected and whom I have yet to meet. I wrote the other night about looking into my family heritage. In a few short days I’ve found out all kinds of interesting information about my ancestors. One thing has been clear from these explorations–I definitely come from a line of strong, determined, successful people. These are people who overcame adversity of all kinds to make their way in the world. I am learning about my great, great grandparents on my father’s side who were slaves in Hall County, Georgia. Slowly, with the assistance of an amazingly talented and persistent cousin who is quite skilled and experienced in genealogical research, I am (we are) on the verge of discovering important information about who these people were. And we’re only scratching the surface.
Family has always been important to me. Understanding where I come from has always been important to me. From the time I was a child the stories my grandfather told me have captivated me. With today’s technology, both technological and scientific, we are so much more able to research records and verify information by DNA testing. We can now confirm some things we could only previously speculate about. Like so many African Americans, it is not likely that I can trace my family directly back to Africa. It’s possible I won’t get much farther than we’ve already gotten–my great, great grandparent’s plantation homes. Nevertheless, there is already such rich information there and such depth of experience to be gained simply by piecing together the stories of their lives and that of their children. I am proud of my family, present and past. We are made of good stuff. I am grateful to be able to learn more about how who they were helps inform who I am.
I used to tell my grandfather Chamblee that I was going to write a book about him. I’d found it extraordinary to have a relative who had been born in the 1800s. I imagined how it must have been for him to experience riding in a horse and buggy as a boy in the 1890s all the way to watching a man walk on the moon in the 1970s. I really wanted to write the book, but then I got busy with life, college, graduate school. And suddenly it was 1984 and grandpa had a heart attack and died at age 100 plus two weeks. I have a sense that even though he’s not here and now all of his children are gone–my father being the last of his generation to pass away–I can still perhaps tell his story with all the information I’m learning about now. I am looking forward to capturing those stories and handing them to the next generations of Chamblees and their offspring. Someday soon. I am grateful for all I am learning, and grateful to have you along with me for the ride. Hold on, it’s going to get interesting!
Below I’ve included the words to a song I wrote for my grandfather back in 1978. Perhaps I’ll upload the song itself sometimes soon. Enjoy!
~~~~~~~~
Family Story © M. T. Chamblee, 1977
Old man, your hair has gone grayYour tired eyes have seen many a day
And oh, the years went by so fast
Turn your mind back to the past
And tell me
Grandpa look back
What do you see?
Make people and places
Come alive for me
Take a look back in time
Do their names sound like mine?
Tell me, who is my family
Grandpa speak to me
Of the old way
Do we act so differently today?
Is there something we lack?
Do we need to look back
To see what our people would say?
Old pictures now faded brown
From a book that has been handed down
Each on has a story to tell
Old man you know the story well
Please tell me
Grandpa who is she –
Tell me her name
She was only sixteen when she came
Was she set free?
Does she look like me?
Is our heritage the same?
Grandpa our family story is old
And through your words
Their lives unfold
In bondage or free
They represent me
Through me the
Story keeps being told
This time we’ve had our always prize
I have seen our history through your eyes
And even when you and I are gone
My children’s children will carry on
‘Cause I’ll tell them
Grandpa tell them the story
The way you told it to me
I’ll show them all of the people
That you have taught me to see
I’ll tell them
I’ll show them
I’ll tell them
