What's Elisha's story, Wishbone?

Everyone loves a good story. Children grow up hearing stories read and told. We use stories to teach and to entertain. I believe that stories have power, and as a family historian I collect stories.

A lot of people think family history is akin to genealogy: hours spent in archives looking up old, dusty records no one else wants to read just to find a single birth date. What a bore! Or so they think. I agree that looking through dust-encrusted records for hours on end may not be appealing to everyone—it wasn’t to me until recently—but family history is much more than that. Yes, we love census records. And yes, old dusty records are a little bit exciting. But that’s because every record tells a story: stories of death and life, stories of heartbreak and love, stories of anguish, and stories of peace. That is why we research. That is why I research—to find stories.

Does anyone remember the Wishbone episode where a family friend of the Talbot’s, a Native American story teller, is setting up a story-telling night at the local library? In it, he talks about stories. He says, “[The old stories of my ancestors] tell me who I am. Each story is a path—a trail—that leads to a good place every time I follow it. . . . You follow the trail, but you don’t know where it’s gonna lead, what you’re gonna find along the way.”

I hope that my research—and this blog—will help give light to Elisha Bellamy’s stories and the stories of his family.