Family Heirlooms is the latest topic from Amy at http://wetree.blogspot.com/ in conjunction with Geneabloggers, in the new series of weekly blogging prompts on the theme of 52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy. For which family heirloom are you most thankful? How did you acquire this treasure and what does it mean to you and your family?
Do you, like me, gasp in amazement at the heirlooms that have survived down generations of ordinary families, as shown on TV's "Antique Roadshow" and "WDYTYA", or on blog postings. I marvel in particular at diaries, christening robes, and artist portraits. My heirlooms are much more mundane but still mean a great deal to me and can be summed up as stitching, paintings, and postcards, plus a copper kettle and teasets.
Postcards from Flanders, sent during the First World War by my grandfather William Danson to his family back home, are the most prized items in my collection of family memorabilia. They were kept in a shoebox in the cupboard by the fire in my grandfather's house and it was a treat as a child to be allowed to look through them. They are made more poignant by the pencilled messages from William to his wife Alice and children Edith, Kathleen, Harry and baby Billy, with a favourite phrase "I am in the pink". They form the basis of many of my blog postings. See under the topic "War and Remembrance".
But what about the heirlooms of tomorrow? I have the account that my father wrote of his early childhood and then his war time experiences, also wedding telegrams and most touching of all letters written between my parents during the war, which I only disovered after their deaths.
I have a wonderful legacy of my mother's talent (below) as described in Kathleen Danson Happiness is Stitching. LIkewise my Aunt Edith, whose painting features here.
These heirlooms, may not be all that old (dating only from the early 20th century), but they are precious to me and help create a picture of my ancestors and keep them alive in my memories. I am so pleased to have them, particularly as I have nothing from my father's side of the family, nor does my husband of his family - such a pity!
As for me, what am I doing to create my own heirlooms for my little granddaughter? I like to think this includes a cross stitch sampler sewn on her birth, a crocheted shawl (below) and I am now busy stitching a patchwork quilt. And of course there is the legacy of my family history writings. The past will not be forgotten!
See Also: http://www.dansonfamilyhistory.co.uk/
Not a lot of gasping over ancestral heirlooms here either. Still it's not the value of the individual item but the significance of it to you. For example I don't imagine your kettle is of great financial value but it holds wonderful memories of happy times. How lovely that your granddaughter will have something special and handmade with love in her own heirloom collection.
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