“I have changed my name so often…”

Genealogy research takes me to many places, on the web, in libraries and in my heart. One site I looked at this morning includes an autoplay of Leonard Cohen’s song ‘The Partisan’. Today it was as if I listened to it for the first time.

“I have changed my name so often, I’ve lost my wife and children but I have many friends, and some of them are with me.” As I struggle finding relatives amidst their multiple name changes be they intentional or accidental, I too am changed by their stories, struggle and success. Some of what I have learned or seen through my research has caused me to sleep as tears streak my face. Photographs of Holocaust victims haunt me. Come morning however, I find resolve to go on with a renewed focus, to accept my own path, and endeavor to honor my relatives and ancestors, and do my part to make the world a better place.