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  1. #1
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    Default How to organise information about heirlooms

    When my maternal cousins gathered last year I suggested they bring along any 'heirlooms' or pieces of interest from the previous generations. Everyone bought something and it was a popular 'display' with everyone. I photographed everything and noted down the 'provenance'. I've written it up, included photos and sent it to everyone and filed it in the archive I keep.

    The problem now is how to organise other items my husband and I have from our childhood, things we have kept from our parents' lives and from grandparents. How do I organise items into different documents and photos into different folders in a logical fashion to not confuse the future generations.

    For example, my wedding ring was my paternal grandmother's wedding ring which my father had for many years to keep for me. It is mine now but was his and, before that, was his mother's. I have a cut glass bowl which was a wedding present to my parents. Is it mine or theirs in terms of 'naming' it.

    I hope I'm explaining myself well enough because I go round in circles with different documents relating to different surnames/generations and am constantly repeating myself or cutting and pasting between documents.

    And, just to be clear I'm referring to organising the photos and words rather than the items themselves which are not all in my possession.

    Help!!

  2. #2
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    I think that I would create a photo book or album and against each picture write up a little story and ensure that any names are the full names and if you have family where everyone has the same name include dates. So for instance

    This bowl was a wedding present when James Smith married Mary Brown in 1912 and their son James, born 1915 inherited it in 1948 after the death of his mother. George died in 1995, and as one of his daughters I was lucky enough to be able to select it as a keepsake.

  3. #3
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    Yes, that's more or less what I had in mind to do but my confusion has been with knowing what family name to organise things under. When Smith marries Brown is the wedding present the Smith family or the Brown family - probably both? Potentially, there could be a lot of repetition between a document for Smith and a document for Brown and then Jones and Taylor etc. etc. going back further generations.

  4. #4
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    Even though it grieves me as a woman to say this I think it's like writing up family stories- you have pick a proverbial horse if you are to avoid endless repetition and (a) loosing those less interested in family history than you or (b) if make subsequent changes remembering to make the changes in all the places. So regrettably the proverbial horse tends to be the earliest male line that is involved but that doesn't stop you supporting either the females family story or the photo / heirloom in the female's family story.

  5. #5
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    I take your point and you are probably right. When I organise the biographies I tend to 'defer' to the male line so John Smith marrying Mary Jones would be in the Smith folder rather than the Jones folder.

    I think I will have to adopt the same 'system' (such as it is!) for the heirlooms and organise things by family name. For the most part, the documents are for my children with only cousins on my mother's side being any potential wider 'audience' so I can easily just send them the two relevant surnames for my mother's parents.

    I think I've probably over-complicated this for myself but would still be interested to hear what others do, views/ideas etc.

    Thank you for bearing with me!

  6. #6
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    Interesting that this should come up as my husband and I were discussing the same thing last night. It’s a step past the organisational aspect you were discussing though.
    We came to the conclusion we needed to create a Family Trust kind of arrangement where certain items of memorabilia could be added to. A curated list using some method like you’re discussing.
    Someone would need to administer this.
    Items would be “loaned out” for the duration, but should that person die, the items would automatically go back to the Trust. If their heirs wanted them, then they could be loaned to them again. If not they could be looked after by whoever wanted to take that responsibility.
    This was more for things like papers, letters, certificates, paintings, books, Bibles etc. things that had value to the Family History but not much real monetary value.
    We suspect our thirty year old children won’t be interested in some items we have from Greatgrandparents etc, but some second cousins will.
    How have others dealt with this aspect?

  7. #7
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    An interesting idea and a step further than I am planning to go.

    Our 'heirlooms' are currently held by whoever acquired them and sharing them at our party was the first time many were seen by others. Over the years, I have been given diaries, letters and photocopies of certificates for the family archive which I keep physically and/or electronically. Whenever I am given something I 'catalogue' it and share photos etc. around the family so, in theory, everyone knows what I have and can ask for more information etc.

    When I have to hand my files etc. on to someone it is all labelled (I hope) and will either go to my children or a younger second cousin who is quite responsible and I would trust to take good care of it. I don't think any of our 'heirlooms' have much monetary value except for a few items - my own wedding ring being one of them.

    My current 'need' to catalogue things my brother, husband and I have is because I want my children to know what they are looking at when they have to deal with things ………

  8. #8
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    Thankfully in this digital age we can scan photos and add the name and info as you describe.
    It’s funny how misconceptions can occur though and be perpetrated. A painting of our gggggrandmother was wrongly attributed by the guy who inherited it from his mother. He insisted it was his great great aunt on his mother’s side, despite getting a letter from his mother’s sister correctly identifying it as his mother’s father’s father’s grandmother. His grandfather even mentioned it in his will. Confusion all round because there was no system identifying things as you describe.

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