52 Ancestors Week 8: Heirlooms

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 8

The theme for Week 8 is "Heirlooms." What is something special that has been passed down in your family? Who was the original owner? Who has it now? Why is it special? Remember, an heirloom doesn't have to have great monetary value. It just needs to have significance to your family.

Hop in. I'll take you for a ride!

        Sometimes it feels like my house is a museum. We have heirlooms from both sides of my family within these walls from conference tables that have been turned into coffee tables to a collection of canes and swords. We even have a century old dining room set! And let's not get into the many collections I personally have! It's easy to see that we have a ton of old stuff hanging around and I'm glad we have them! However, there are some things I'm GLAD we don't have like my grandmother Natalie's creepy doll collection. Those have been safely distributed amongst my cousins and are very, very far away from me. Just thinking about their soulless eyes gives me the creeps. They're like Funko Pops. Completely soulless.

    One of things I'm happy we have are these candlestick holders that originally belonged to my 2nd great-grandmother, Georgianna Ross. How we acquired them is an interesting tale because Georgianna never directly gave them to my mother. My mom was fortunate to have her great-grandmother around until the early 1970s. She and her siblings all used to call her "Little Grammy" because she was like four feet tall. If you've seen pictures of her in my blog standing near my grandfather Robert, you'd see that the nickname was well earned!

    Anyway, Little Grammy ending up giving the candlesticks to her son, Donald Laplante and it stayed with him and his family for a number of years. Eventually, Donald junior inherited the sticks and unfortunately his wife Faye got them when they got divorced.

    Don't worry! All isn't lost! We eventually got them after all! No need to call for a candlestick search party! Is that even a thing? Nah. Doubtful.

    Eventually, my mother became friends with Faye and she said that she had things in her house that originally belonged to Georgianna. Faye believed that the candlesticks should be with her family and since my mother was Georgianna's great-granddaughter, it made sense for the heirlooms to be at our house. Wow. Every once in a while humans amaze me. Gotta love generosity, right?  A lesser person would have sold those off on eBay and we'd never seen those things again!

See what I mean by "Little Grammy"?

    Now, the reason why they're so significant to our family is that we really don't have many things that belonged to a second great-grandparent. We have my 2nd great-grandfather Eugene Hamel's glasses. That's about it unless Vincenzo asked his parents to send over a few things from Italy. That's extremely doubtful!

    It's just really rare for me to have a little something that belonged to Georgianna. It means a lot to me because it's an item that belonged to an ancestor. Sure we have documents, photos and all kinds of things. Having a physical objects that belonged to an ancestor can make you feel connected to him or her because they likely held that item in their hands at one point. You just can't help but feel a connection.

    A candlestick may not seem important. However, it's the principle of the thing. It's an item that has great sentimental value and you really can't put a price on that. I wish I could say thanks to Faye for saving those stickholders for us. It definitely made my mom happy when she got them and that in and of itself is something you can't put a price tag on.

    Family heirlooms serve as a reminder of someone who left that item behind when they passed away. It can be anything from a painting they made or various needlepoints they left in a bag. Anything can be an heirloom and have a huge significance because of their sentimental value. I'm glad we have the candlestick holders and all the other things in our house. Though, I still think my great-grandfather Giuseppe's clock is haunted. 

See ya next time!