Genealogy

Rather many years ago I got some documents from my grandfather. It was tax papers, marriage documents, Estate inventory etc. way back in time.

It was very interesting. I got names and birth dates from ancestors generations back.
I started to do some genealogy.

My father was born 1943, he had a brain damage back in 1985, so since he is not that reliable I had to get information elsewhere. My grandfather born in 1918, died way to early back in 1995, my son was only 1 years old and cant remember who he was so my son has to trust me in things I tell him about his great grandfather.

My great grandfather died when I was 10 years old so I do not remember much about him. No one further back in history do I have eye witness of. Their memories are fading and the memories of my grandfather will also fade away when I do so.

Ordinary people do not right books, do TV programs etc so there are just photos and verbal memories left.
It is different with Royal families , presidents or prime ministers. There are 1000 of stories and documents, but there is another genealogy that is even more impressive and that you can find in the Gospel of Matthiew:

The Genealogy of Jesus the Messiah

1 This is the genealogy] of Jesus the Messiah[b] the son of David, the son of Abraham:

2 Abraham was the father of Isaac,

Isaac the father of Jacob,

Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,

3 Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar,

Perez the father of Hezron,

Hezron the father of Ram,

4 Ram the father of Amminadab,

Amminadab the father of Nahshon,

Nahshon the father of Salmon,

5 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,

Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth,

Obed the father of Jesse,

6 and Jesse the father of King David.

David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife,

7 Solomon the father of Rehoboam,

Rehoboam the father of Abijah,

Abijah the father of Asa,

8 Asa the father of Jehoshaphat,

Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram,

Jehoram the father of Uzziah,

9 Uzziah the father of Jotham,

Jotham the father of Ahaz,

Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,

10 Hezekiah the father of Manasseh,

Manasseh the father of Amon,

Amon the father of Josiah,

11 and Josiah the father of Jeconiah[c] and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.

12 After the exile to Babylon:

Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel,

Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,

13 Zerubbabel the father of Abihud,

Abihud the father of Eliakim,

Eliakim the father of Azor,

14 Azor the father of Zadok,

Zadok the father of Akim,

Akim the father of Elihud,

15 Elihud the father of Eleazar,

Eleazar the father of Matthan,

Matthan the father of Jacob,

16 and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.

17 Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.

Very impressive indeed....

But why do I talk about this?

We were strolling around in an second hand store the other day and I found an old photo of a man in a nice frame. They wanted to have 25 kr ( 2,5 euro) for it, but I started to think of the man in the photo. Who was he? what did he do? where did he came from?

I don't know his name or nationality, I do not know if he was a father, but certainly he was someones son or brother. Why did his photo ended up in the shop? Why did not someone wanted to keep it?

It feels sad and scary that we all in a way are fading away like this.

There is not much we can do about it but what we can do is to leave a legacy to our Children and grandchildren. What do you want them to remember about you?

Oh by the way, my own attempts, I've come down to a man named Truls, born 1773.... Not too bad