How’s your genealogy? 

As I’ve mentioned several times in this column, my wife and I have developed a wonderful way to start the day now that we’re retired. We try build each day on the “firm foundation” of scripture early each morning (after I’ve brewed the coffee, of course!) by reading to each other from the Bible; actually, from a Bible reading app on our smart phones! I wonder what our parents would say about that….reading the Bible from our phone!

Well, part of yesterday’s reading was from Ezra chapter one and here’s what it said:

In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing: 

This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:

“The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. 3 Any of his people among you may go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem, and may their God be with them.”

This is an incredible fulfillment of the prophecy God gave to Jeremiah about the Jewish captivity 70 years prior by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.

But what got us thinking about genealogy was what was in chapter two of Ezra:

Now these are the people of the province who came up from the captivity of the exiles, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken captive to Babylon (they returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to their own town, 2 in company with (Bill here, don’t try to pronounce these names, you’ll get a headache!) Zerubbabel, Joshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum and Baanah):

The list of the men of the people of Israel:

The descendants of Parosh – 2,172

Of Shephatiah – 372

Of Arah – 775

Of Pahath-Moab (through the line of Jeshua and Joab) – 2,812

Of Elan – 1,254

Bill here, again. This listing of returnees goes on for the rest of the chapter until the summary in verse 64:  The whole company numbered 42,360.

What struck us both in this reading, besides of course the incredible fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy, is the detailed genealogical account of the returning people and the families from whom they emanated.

This is so foreign to most of us in our modern, sophisticated (or so we think), western culture, that it creates a stark contrast of our values to theirs. This thought convicted me to the point that I sent a message to a first cousin of mine, once removed, in New jersey to ask if he still had access to the genealogical work his father had done on the Milby family, probably forty years ago or more. It will be interesting to see if I get a reply and what it might be.

I’m embarrassed to say that I have next to no understanding of my family genealogy beyond my paternal and maternal grandparents. It just doesn’t seem to fit my temperament to do that kind of research but that’s not much of an excuse for not knowing our roots better than that in this age of tools at our fingertips like the internet, especially now that we have AI standing by to help us whether we want it or not.

I’d love to get your feedback on any genealogical research this might prompt you to do… especially if you discover that you have a rich uncle once removed! You can reach me at the email address below.

Thanks for reading All About Seniors, see you next week!

Bill Milby is a Director of Visiting Angels® of Central Georgia, a non-medical, living assistance service for seniors. If you have questions or comments about this column you can reach him at william.mercylink@gmail.com or search for us at  https://www.facebook.com/VisitingAngelsofCentralGA