Ancestry Magazine

My husband and I have a number of family heritage items stored in our house. I know the stories behind the things from my side of the family, and my husband can tell about his inheritance, but it occurred to me recently that if both of us should die unexpectedly without telling our children about these heirlooms, our children and grandchildren would not be able to appreciate what we have left for them.

This thought was brought home forcibly to me when I made a presentation to my daughter’s fifth grade class about family heirlooms. I told the class how my f ather had sold Cloverine Brand Salve door to door when he was in the second grade. He earned enough “points” to buy his mother a set of dishes. As the only daughter, I inherited what is left of the set. They were inexpensive dishes in the 1920s, and many pieces of the original set are now missing or chipped, but they mean everything to me. My father’s family was poor, and the dishes represent one of the few luxuries my grandmother possessed.

After my presentation, my daughter told me that she had never heard the story and didn’t even know the dishes existed. I had kept the dishes on a high shelf, not easily accessible and out of sight, because they were “too good to use.”

As another example, after my father-in-law’s death, we found a beautiful porcelain vase covered with hand-painted roses high on a kitchen shelf. My sister-in-law inherited the vase, which we guessed was made about 1900. When she spoke with her aunt about it, my sister-in-law discovered that the vase had been a wedding present to her grandparents in 1909. Suddenly it was more than a pretty item; it was a precious family heirloom.

These experiences taught me how important it is for children to be exposed to their heritage through family heirlooms—even though they may be too young to know how to properly care for them.

With supervision, a child could be allowed to see or hold an item that belonged to family members long ago; a parent could then explain its history. Perhaps once a month parents could stage a “Heritage Night” and bring out one or two heirlooms that belonged to an ancestor and describe what is known of that ancestor’s life. Grandparents could show visiting grandchildren a few heirlooms at a time so that every family member would know what treasures are in the old trunk or cedar chest and what makes them special.

If adults show care for the items, children will learn that these things are precious to the family, and they will grow t o love and appreciate them as well.

Our family is currently in the process of creating a computer database that includes pictures of our family heirlooms, paragraphs about their histories, and notations of where the items are stored in the house. The children are helping to photograph the items so they can have more exposure to the heirlooms and their stories. This way we hope that our children and grandchildren will understand the value of what they will inherit.

A video could also be useful. You could create a lasting visual image of each valued item and give a description of its history at the same time. The archive could then be stored in a safe deposit box or other secure place outside of the home, in case the heirlooms are destroyed by fire or flood.

Our children need to know their heritage and it’s up to us to care for our heirloom possessions properly and share them at appropriate times. That way our children will not miss this vital connection to their past.

Loretta Evans, AG, specializes in Midwestern United States research. She is a freelance writer and lecturer with more than thirty years of research experience. Loretta serves as public relations committee chairman for the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists.