Keeping it in the family

Family heirlooms can provide unique insight into the lives and times of our ancestors. Whether they be pearls or paperweights, Melody Amsel-Arieli explains the value of recording, researching and preserving these family treasures now and for the generations to come

Many of us, as our genealogy quest proceeds, wonder about its future. How will our valued photos, data and documents fare in the hands of our children and grandchildren? What will inspire them to value, preserve, and continue our projects?

Charts, dates and names alone may not be enough. Family heirlooms, passed from one generation to the next, however, can tangibly connect family past with family future. Seeing them, touching them, cherishing them not only breathes substance into lives long gone. It makes personal history feel real.

Though every family has collected treasured pieces through the years, heirlooms need be neither elaborate nor costly. In fact, ordinary things which ancestors actually wore, used, or read, like battered mixing spoons, hand whisks, embroidered kerchiefs, or family Bibles, may hold especially meaningful connections with the past. Many of these, slipped in coat pockets, purses, or luggage, tucked on cluttered wardrobe