What is your oldest family heirloom?
What is your oldest family heirloom? What has passed through your family for years only to end up in your hands? Any interesting stories behind the items?
Personally, the oldest heirlooms in my posession are 1818 and 1826 vaccination records from my 3-greats grandparents from Nord-Trondelag, Norway, Ole Throndsen Rokknesvald and Elin Olina Andreasdotter Bjoraas.
So what is your oldest heirloom/relic?
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Re: What is your oldest family heirloom?
My heirloom is a small iron, it fits in the palm of your hand and made of iron, it is heavy for it's size. It was handed down from my Gr Gr Grandmother, to my mother, to me. It came wrapped in a doily made out of Gr Gr Grandpa's undershorts, along with a smal picture of of my Gr Gr Grandmother Alice Strange Miller Weise b. 1865. Kristine
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Re: What is your oldest family heirloom?
Probably my dining table. My grandchildren are the seventh generation to sit at this table. It belonged to my immigrant great-great-grandparents, who came to Texas from Germany in the 1840s and 1850s. It passed to my great-grandfather, sat in my grandparent's house for years and years (I learned to play poker at this table!), then went to my father, and now sits proudly in my house, where the family gathers for the holidays, and where the aforementioned grandchildren draw pictures. It's been many times mended, and I just refinished the top, so I hope it lasts another 150 years. I wouldn't part with it for the world!
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Re: What is your oldest family heirloom?
Mine would have to be my great great grandparents Bible. It was given to them on the marriage in 1862, and lists all children's births including the unregistered ones. It passed from my gg grandmother Emily Dresser Healy to her daughter Katherine, then her daughter (my great aunt) Harriet Blake, then to me as the next girl in the family line. I wouldn't part with it for anything. I also have the Bible my grandmother brought from England as a Home Child in 1910.
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Re: What is your oldest family heirloom?
Those are some really cool heirlooms, everyone! Does anyone else have any old heirlooms?
I do have one more old heirloom, an old rocking craddle. It was bought by my grt grt grandfather, Robert Chisolm Joynes, and it has rocked my grt grandmother and her sister, my grandfather and his siblings, my father and his siblings, and me. I hope to rock my own children and grandchildren in it someday.
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Re: What is your oldest family heirloom?
I have the 1845 James Gibson McNeal / Margaret Shore family bible from Huntingdon Co., PA. (See attached images.) James McNeal & Margaret Shore m Thursday 9 Jan 1840 James McNeal b 15 Feb 1817 & d 13 Dec 1898 Margaret Shore b 6 May 1817 & d 25 Jan 1898 Children: Albert McNeal b 12 Jan 1841 (d 6 Apr 1919) Hannah McNeal b 6 Apr 1842 & d 30 Apr 1844 Aaron McNeal b 28 Mar 1844 (d 31 Dec 1909) Martin McNeal b 13 Jun 1846 & d 29 Jan 1908 or 30 Jan 1908 Ephraim McNeal b 8 Aug 1848 & d 2 Nov 1927 Miles McNeal b 30 Jan 1850 d 17 Jul 1918 (or d 7 Jul 1918) Oliver McNeal b 14 May 1852 (twin) Allen McNeal b 14 May 1852 (twin) Maryann McNeal b 23 Aug 1855 William McNeal 21 Dec 1858 & d 14 May 1935(My gr grandfather)
Inside back cover: Abraham Shore b 24 Aug 1811 & d 18 Feb 1878 (Margaret's brother?)
Dawn
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Re: What is your oldest family heirloom?
The oldest ones I own are all from the same person, "Gaff" Emily Bernice Heidler, my great-grandmother, so not particularly old but I'm still really glad to have them and after all I just started serious research a little over a year ago. The first are her wedding and engagement rings, which I have had ever since she died when I was a baby. Then I have her matching brush and mirror, which I have also had for quite a while. I also have an embroidered silk shawl of hers that someone got her from China - I'm still narrowing down who. I got that a couple years ago.
My father also has her confirmation certificate.
Somehow I never got anyone else's things, just hers. :)
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Re: What is your oldest family heirloom?
I have a silver bowl from London in the 1750's when George II was king that I'm trying to figure out the "history" of. My mother died when I was 3 and it's a hand-me-down from her. There's a "note" about its English origins in her handwriting on the back of a list of her wedding gifts she needed to write thank you notes for :-) She and my father were married December 7, 1940.
The mystery is there's an engraving on it, initials and a date range of 25 years so it's probably a wedding anniversary gift but the engraving is FJM & JM, July 25, 1872-1897 and I have no "M" people in my genealogy and the dates match nothing/no one either. I only have two lines around at that time (my great grandparent's era, recipients would have been born around 1850) that would have been wealthy enough to have given/received such a thing.
I worked hard this morning thinking it might have been a gift meant to be given but that someone died before the party (gruesome thought) so my ancestors just "kept" the bowl in the family instead of giving it to the intended couple. But the "M" name I thought it could be didn't pan out. Loved researching other people's lines I don't care about to see if they're the possible recipients, LOL.
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Re: What is your oldest family heirloom?
The oldest family heirloom I know is within my family is a jade stone brooch. My greatx3 grandmother, so I have been told, gave one to each of her 3 daughters (my greatx2 grandmother and her sisters). Unfortunately, one of those family lines has died out and in the other line, it has gone missing. When my greatx2 grandmother died, my great grandfather took the brooch and gave it to my grandmother the day before I was born (strangely enough my name is Jade and that has nothing to do with the brooch). My grandmother still owns it and says she will pass it on when she dies (she says it will stay in the female line, and since she has 2 daughters and 1 granddaughter, she has lots of choice).
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Re: What is your oldest family heirloom?
I also own a glass tray that was originally owned by my greatx2 grandmother.
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