Who we are and why we’re doing this

We are the Walter family members who have been researching our ancestors for decades. Each of us bring our own unique set of interests and talents. We wanted to create this website as a home for our ancestors, where their stories and lives can be remembered, shared, and enjoyed.

This is for you, whether you are immediate family members or distant cousins; whether you are a seasoned genealogist or simply interested in learning more about your family.

Enjoy exploring what we have gathered, and please feel free to share with us any stories, photos, documents, etc. that could add to the stories of any of these ancestors.

We can be contacted at info@myfamilysstories.com.

 

The structure of this site

There are several different ways we are sharing our ancestors’ stories on this site

   Branches ~ key links to the main branches of our family tree

   Leaves ~ links to a story page for each direct line ancestor

   Tree ~ Gedcom of our family tree including the siblings and cousins

   Roots ~ some of the places in the world from which our ancestors originated

   Grafts ~ branches that have married into our immediate family

The Arborists

Cheryl “Li” Walter

Suzan Calvert Verry Walter

Ronald Neil Walter

Brian Scott Walter

We Are The Chosen

In each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors
To put flesh on their bones and make them live again
To tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve.
Doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead,
breathing life into all who have gone before.

We are the storytellers of the tribe. All tribes have one.
We have been called, as it were, by our genes.
Those who have gone before cry out to us, “Tell our story!” So, we do.
In finding them, we somehow find ourselves.

How many graves have I stood before now and cried? I have lost count.
How many times have I told the ancestors,
“You have a wonderful family; you would be proud of us.”
How many times have I walked up to a grave and felt somehow
there was love there for me? I cannot say.

It goes beyond just documenting facts.
It goes to who am I and why do I do the things I do.
It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever
to weeds and indifference and saying, “I can’t let this happen.”
The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh.
It goes to doing something about it.
It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish,
how they contributed to what we are today.
It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up,
their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family
It goes to deep pride that the fathers fought and some died to make and keep us a Nation.
It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us.
It is of equal pride and love that our mothers struggled to give us birth.

Without them we could not exist, and so we love each one,
as far back as we can reach.
That we might be born who we are.
That we might remember them. So we do.
With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence,
because we are they and they are the sum of who we are.

So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family.
It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call
and take my place in the long line of family storytellers.
That is why I do my family genealogy,
and that is what calls those young and old to step up
and restore the memory or greet those whom we had never known before.

Author: Della M. Cumming ca 1943