A post on House Dust and Wanderlust made me think. I have spent some time recently digging into my archive of old family bits and pieces. When I sorted through and cleared out Dad's house after he died, I gathered up old paperwork. Birth certificates and marriage licenses back to my great-grandparents. I can put together the documentation from my great-grandmother in Swansea to myself, including my grandmother's naturalization certificate. I should have that framed someday. I have my parent's tax return from the year I was born, they made $4,694 that year - all from the farm mostly honey sales but also included a share of the grain that was raised on the farm.
I have an archival box of old family photos, dating back the very early 1900s. Many of the photos are scanned and here, I also sent copies of the files to my siblings. I have my grandparents first camera, bought in a pawn shop in Detroit in the late 1920's. They gave it to me in the 1970s. No one has made film to fit it since the 1950s.
Going through Dad's house I found things I never knew existed. A wood box that a watch came in, probably in the late 1930s, that was as close to a jewelry box as he ever had. In it is an engraved silver identity bracelet, that I never knew he had, never saw him wear. Two brass insignias from his dress Army uniform, he was drafted near the end of World War II. And a tiny AOPA pin, from the 1950s. AOPA is the aircraft owners and pilots association. He would have qualified for membership in the mid 50's. The pin is on the original card, in the tiny envelope it was in when he received it. I don't think it has ever been off the card, but I know it was precious to him. He begged his mother to consent to him joining the army-aircorp before he was old enough to be drafted, and she wouldn't do it. He so wanted to learn to fly.
Just little things, that bring a connection, a contact with the past.
What connections are we leaving behind?
It's funny to think of the little treasures we have and keep, that give us connection to past family and history. But what will happen to these things once were gone? Will anyone care to keep and sift through them? I try to not think of it.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the family tree, the branches are few.
DeleteI still have some of those little finds from my parents.
ReplyDeleteEvery Time to go looking for something, I find details I had overlooked.
DeleteThanks for the shout out! You have such an interesting family history and soon you'll be putting some more pieces of the puzzle together on your trip. How exciting.
ReplyDeleteSetting up travel advisories on finances this morning.
DeleteI, too, found a great many things in my father's house after he passed; old photos, he was an avid photographer so the history of us is there; as well as bits of jewelry ... my favorite being the chain he had made after my mother passed away. He put her wedding ring inside his, soldered them together and wore it around his neck until he passed.
ReplyDeleteI found my parents original wedding rings (I had never seen my father wear a ring) and my mother's high school class ring in a last minute sweep of Dad's safe, in a hidden drawer.
DeleteI have a few old things handed down from my parents. I also have 2 of those charm bracelets like House Dust and Wanderlust showed. They were popular when I was in my preteen and teen years. I will have to do a better job of leaving explanations so my kids know what their history is.
ReplyDeleteI have slowly started tagging some items,
DeleteThose are precious possessions. I have a few documents like that too but the thing I treasure is my mother's class ring. I wear it all the time.
ReplyDeleteI am glad I rescued the box of old paperwork.
DeleteMelancholy x
ReplyDeleteMy older brother has Dad's flight jumpsuit from WWII, his flight logs from his career in civil aviation, and flightbag. My sister has his watch and rosary and, I believe, a copy of his fifth grade report card in which his older sister was his teacher (imagine what a parent-teacher conference would have looked like).
ReplyDeleteWill Jay