Poem: Genealogical Research

Thoughts after a visit to St. Peter's Church, Ellastone, Staffordshire on the 11th of September 1996.

We found one of the treasures
  of which we came to search
Half buried in the wild grass
  of this ancient country church.

The old gravestones, though weathered
  by sun and wind and rain,
retained for o'er two hundred years
  a deep-etched family name .....

My five-times great grandparents
  lay deep 'neath tangled weed;
I pondered what was left of them
  who'd blessed me with their seed.

Those roots of me compounded
   within the living sod .....
Those souls in some dimension
   in union with God .....

And what did I inherit
  of my values and beliefs
From the union of that man and wife
  with all their joys and griefs?

How many distant kinsfolk
  stem from every family line?
Perchance some friend or neighbour
  carried genes the same as mine.
           .................................

But aren't we all inherent
  in this living universe
Which cast the seed of all of us
  the instant of its birth?

Written by Dorothy Reid who passed away peacefully on 6 August 2012.