Every family will have at least a few items that are considered to be heirlooms. Although some of those items may have financial value, most of the time they are important because of the memories and family history that they remind genealogists of. Christmas is a holiday that is filled with many heirlooms.
What is an heirloom? According to the Free Online Dictionary, and heirloom is “a valued possession passed down in a family through succeeding generations”. Most families have some heirlooms that are treasured, preserved, and shared with future generations.
It is possible that the heirlooms that have been passed down through several generations of your family are old enough to have become financially valuable. However, most of the time, family heirlooms are kept because they are a tangible link to relatives and ancestors who passed away long ago.
You may already be thinking about a few of the heirlooms that your family has saved, preserved, and passed down through the generations. Not sure if your family has any? Take a close look at the ornaments on your Christmas tree. There are probably several that evoke memories of your parents, or of their parents.
Christmas ornaments tell stories. Your Christmas tree might have ornaments that were handmade by relatives and ancestors. Some of those ornaments were probably made when your relatives were young children. These fragile, uncoordinated, decorations that were made by little hands, have a story connected to them. Which relative made it? How old was he or she at the time? Was the ornament a gift for someone, or a school project, or both? Genealogists will want to search for the answers to those questions.
Sometimes, if there was particularly talented person in your family, that person could have created some handmade ornaments that look as though they were professionally made, (or “store bought”). There are stories connected to these, too. Was that relative a professional crafter? Was making ornaments a hobby? Where did they learn those skills?
Other interesting ornaments that genealogists can search for are the ones that have years printed on them. There could be “First Christmas” ornaments that show the year a baby was born, or the year that two of your relatives got married. Genealogists could use these heirlooms to confirm that they have correctly identified a relative’s birth date, or marriage date.
How old are these ornaments? To find the answer, take a look at old family Christmas photos. It has become traditional for people to take a photo of their Christmas tree every year. Look closely at these photos to see if you recognize some of the ornaments that are on your tree today. This is one way to “date” them.
People also tend to take photos of the gifts they received each Christmas. If you have no idea how old a doll, lamp, ring, or piece of pottery is, consult these photos. Can you find it? There will be a family story attached to these heirlooms. Who bought it? Who was it given to? These are fun questions for genealogists to research.
Image by Alyson Hurt on Flickr