My Favourite Things: Monday

This week's category is heirlooms.

As it turns out, I don't have any.  At least not in the technical sense of the word.  I should perhaps think that through before I agree to a new category.  I called my sister in a panic to see if she knew the origin of the two pieces of jewelry I have from my mother.  She didn't.

Instead, I'm using the next best thing.  A number of years ago, an uncle on my mother's side compiled, scanned and catalogued all the family photos from that side of the family, even managing to go back a generation or two.  It's an amazing piece of family history that we all received on a CD.  There are also a goodly number of embarrassing photos from my siblings on there, but as I am a super sweet sister, I shall not use those.

Going through the photos again, I realized how much I'd love to put them together in a book.  In the meantime, here are a sampling of photos that I am, for the purpose of this exercise, considering heirlooms.

If I've read the genealogy portion of my uncle's catalogue correctly, this is my great grandmother.

What looks to be my grandmother's birth certificate:

My grandmother (the one standing with her arm behind her back) and three of her friends.

My grandmother.

My grandparents' wedding day.

Opa and Oma many years later!

My Opa died the year after I was born.  Since nearly all of our extended family lived in Holland, we never really had a good chance to get to know each other.  But it's a wonderful thing to feel connected to them in a small way through photos like these.

I hope one day someone on my father's side will compile lots of old photos for the same reason.  They are a true gift to have; a solid connection to a past that is so easy to feel disconnected from.  

It's family, after all.  And that's no small thing.