Not one thing but my grandfather has a whole collection of stuff about expo 85 (its about belgian history from around that time). I dont actually know for sure what it all is but it is huge, he has been working on it for over a decade almost every day and hes still going.
Unfortunately my family was robbed of everything of value by a live-in “nurse”. She didn’t even leave our pictures. All I have is memories, but nobody can take those from me. Every once in a while, a new memory will creep inside my thoughts and I just smile.
I know this wasn’t what you expected in an answer, but I felt the need to share. Sorry!
My Nonna has these hand woven tea towels her grandmother made for her to bring to Australia from Italy for her “glory box” for when she eventually got married. They were supposed to be sheets, but they were way too thick, so she cut them cut and made tea towels.
These are the best tea towels on the planet. They are so absorbent and have lasted 80 years. She has given a few out over the years, but still has quite a stash. The family often playfully fight over who gets these.
My Nonno (her husband) also made several kitchen knives out of Steel he recycled from work. Best knives ever made. These are also hotly contested items.
Probably my grandmas Type 1 Levi Jacket that is in PERFECT condition. She didn’t even know. It was her camping jacket. When she died I got it because it’s more my style than anyone else. When I looked it up and found its value could be upwards of 12k I decided not to wear it. lol
When my uncles were kids, they were blowing up wine bottles with black powder for shits and giggles. The coast guard caught them and my uncle shoved a dud under his shirt to hide it.
It wasn’t a dud.
He survived, with scars, and is doing pretty okay in life now, as the CEO and major shareholder in a large corporation, but the tattered shirt has been framed and is probably the piece of family folklore.
Really wish we could send pictures. But it’s a clothing hangar that has a fun crochet across it.
My grandma on my dad’s side knitted it. I never got to meet her but they were giving stuff away at a family reunion and 16 year old me just kinda took it lol.
I’m 20 now and it’s still hanging there in my closet
Big ass crucifix with a brass Jesus and a solid wood family “guardian” from Germany (my oma had to go back after the Berlin wall was taken down in order to retrieve it from her parents) both have been in the family since at least the 1700s. What makes them cool is that Jesus constantly falls off, always lands perfectly on someone’s head and has caused more than one hospital trip over the generations; it’s somehow always the men in the family regardless of where Jesus is on the wall.
The wooden family guardian has cool family lore behind it; it HAS to be passed down to a female blood relative and if anyone else has it or if the current blood family member doesn’t have it set up at an alter then they are hit with constant bad luck. Currently my mother has it (she’s not supposed to) and is constantly facing bad luck, and my husband refuses to allow it inside our home because it creeps him out.
A handful of acreage (10 or less) deeded to my grandmother’s lineage before the USA (and obviously NC) existed. It’s at the back of a much larger parcel of timberland but over a creek and just out of reach to anyone harvesting timber— all old growth and hollowed out hardwoods whereas the other side is all hybrid pine. I have walked it. It’s beautiful. I covet it. I have begged for it outright. Accounts for less than 3% of the land my father inherited and I’d give up pretty much everything else inheritance-wise for those few acres and right to access.
I inherited my great grandmother’s gold bracelet. Her father had it made and engraved with her new monogram and gave it to her on her wedding day in 1881.
My grandmother gave me the Hope Chest made for her by her father. I also still have the quilt she made me for my 18th birthday.
My grandfather gave me one of the hunting knives he made when he still hunted, around 1920. It has a hand carved deer antler haft and sheath.
A little red pedal car that my Grandpa originally built for me. Its been passed down a few times as family members had kids, and currently belongs to one of my cousins. Still around over 3 decades later and still works just fine!
I’m not aware of my family having any heirlooms. My family being the way they are, if they had one, they wouldn’t tell me. Which means I only have what’s left of my memory in regards to anything family.
Definitely not as impressive as most of the things here, but priceless to me: a round sawblade that my parents had painted for my grandparents on my mom’s side when I was very little. It hung in their kitchen/dining room until they died. It was the only thing I wanted when they passed, and at the auction I got it. I also got the sawblade they had painted for my other grandparents, and the one they had painted for themselves.
I also inherited the bed (frame only, got a new mattress) that my great grandparents bought in 1912, which was passed down to my grandparents and then an uncle who gave it to me.
Not me, but another dude I know. His family prized a cow skull.
Story goes, g.g. gramps had a cow that strayed into the neighbor’s field. Neighbor was huge and g.g. gramps was less than average. Neighbor refused to return the cow, claimed it was now his and the only way g.g. gramps was getting back was to fight him for it.
We have a small two-seater church pew from my partner’s side of the family. And one of what I assume were once two of those little kneeling stools that went with it. It’s a pretty solid piece of furniture, definitely last long past our time.
Ive got a copy of the boarding pass, from the ship my great grandparents travelled on when then came to Canada in the early 1900s…White Star lines…the same shipping line that owned Titanic
…i cant recall the ship name though
My dad has an old hardcover Sears Roebuck catalog. I’m not sure the exact year, I think it’s from the early 1900s. I’ve never seen a hardcover one so it’s pretty cool to bring out once in a while.
He also brought back a shell casing from Vietnam. Not anything super special, I just always thought it was cool.
My Grandpa had a friend who owned a farm back in the 50s. Having taught history at Oxford, his friend thought him the perfect person to gift a bronze-age flint axehead that he’d found in one of his fields. This thing is beautiful dark green, and is in such good condition that it was almost certainly a trading piece as opposed to having been used. My Dad has it now and I will soon own it myself. I plan on getting it into a museum as it definitely belongs in one.
A Civil War-era hardtack biscuit and chunks of the Berlin wall (my brother was stationed in Berlin at the time and just picked up several chunks from each side of the wall and sent them to us.
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Grandfather’s military stuff
Not one thing but my grandfather has a whole collection of stuff about expo 85 (its about belgian history from around that time). I dont actually know for sure what it all is but it is huge, he has been working on it for over a decade almost every day and hes still going.
Unfortunately my family was robbed of everything of value by a live-in “nurse”. She didn’t even leave our pictures. All I have is memories, but nobody can take those from me. Every once in a while, a new memory will creep inside my thoughts and I just smile.
I know this wasn’t what you expected in an answer, but I felt the need to share. Sorry!
1827 charcoal and pastel portrait of a young woman thought to be the granddaughter of St. George Tucker.
My Nonna has these hand woven tea towels her grandmother made for her to bring to Australia from Italy for her “glory box” for when she eventually got married. They were supposed to be sheets, but they were way too thick, so she cut them cut and made tea towels.
These are the best tea towels on the planet. They are so absorbent and have lasted 80 years. She has given a few out over the years, but still has quite a stash. The family often playfully fight over who gets these.
My Nonno (her husband) also made several kitchen knives out of Steel he recycled from work. Best knives ever made. These are also hotly contested items.
One of these tablets: https://originalvintagemovieposters.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Ten-Commandments-3535-scaled.jpg I think it’s 6-10? A family member used to work for Paramount as a machinist/builder.
A platform rocking chair.
Probably my grandmas Type 1 Levi Jacket that is in PERFECT condition. She didn’t even know. It was her camping jacket. When she died I got it because it’s more my style than anyone else. When I looked it up and found its value could be upwards of 12k I decided not to wear it. lol
When my uncles were kids, they were blowing up wine bottles with black powder for shits and giggles. The coast guard caught them and my uncle shoved a dud under his shirt to hide it.
It wasn’t a dud.
He survived, with scars, and is doing pretty okay in life now, as the CEO and major shareholder in a large corporation, but the tattered shirt has been framed and is probably the piece of family folklore.
✨ Generational trauma ✨
Really wish we could send pictures. But it’s a clothing hangar that has a fun crochet across it.
My grandma on my dad’s side knitted it. I never got to meet her but they were giving stuff away at a family reunion and 16 year old me just kinda took it lol.
I’m 20 now and it’s still hanging there in my closet
I have the trunks that my great great grandmother and my great grandmother used when they came from West Virginia to Washington in 1860.
My family has a bunch of the family coats of arms that’s been handed down in each generation
100+ year old organ from my great grandma
We have a old cedar chest c.1889 that my great grandfather lived out of when he came to the US from denmark.
Big ass crucifix with a brass Jesus and a solid wood family “guardian” from Germany (my oma had to go back after the Berlin wall was taken down in order to retrieve it from her parents) both have been in the family since at least the 1700s. What makes them cool is that Jesus constantly falls off, always lands perfectly on someone’s head and has caused more than one hospital trip over the generations; it’s somehow always the men in the family regardless of where Jesus is on the wall.
The wooden family guardian has cool family lore behind it; it HAS to be passed down to a female blood relative and if anyone else has it or if the current blood family member doesn’t have it set up at an alter then they are hit with constant bad luck. Currently my mother has it (she’s not supposed to) and is constantly facing bad luck, and my husband refuses to allow it inside our home because it creeps him out.
A yellow mine cut diamond that is reset for each bride
A handful of acreage (10 or less) deeded to my grandmother’s lineage before the USA (and obviously NC) existed. It’s at the back of a much larger parcel of timberland but over a creek and just out of reach to anyone harvesting timber— all old growth and hollowed out hardwoods whereas the other side is all hybrid pine. I have walked it. It’s beautiful. I covet it. I have begged for it outright. Accounts for less than 3% of the land my father inherited and I’d give up pretty much everything else inheritance-wise for those few acres and right to access.
I inherited my great grandmother’s gold bracelet. Her father had it made and engraved with her new monogram and gave it to her on her wedding day in 1881.
My grandmother gave me the Hope Chest made for her by her father. I also still have the quilt she made me for my 18th birthday.
My grandfather gave me one of the hunting knives he made when he still hunted, around 1920. It has a hand carved deer antler haft and sheath.
big mink coats from the 1800s. I think my great great grandparents immigrated here from eastern europe in them
Roman short sword
My grandma’s great grandma’s jade earrings from Imperial China.. which have been destroyed by my mom, but that’s a whole different story.
A little red pedal car that my Grandpa originally built for me. Its been passed down a few times as family members had kids, and currently belongs to one of my cousins. Still around over 3 decades later and still works just fine!
I’m not aware of my family having any heirlooms. My family being the way they are, if they had one, they wouldn’t tell me. Which means I only have what’s left of my memory in regards to anything family.
Definitely not as impressive as most of the things here, but priceless to me: a round sawblade that my parents had painted for my grandparents on my mom’s side when I was very little. It hung in their kitchen/dining room until they died. It was the only thing I wanted when they passed, and at the auction I got it. I also got the sawblade they had painted for my other grandparents, and the one they had painted for themselves.
I also inherited the bed (frame only, got a new mattress) that my great grandparents bought in 1912, which was passed down to my grandparents and then an uncle who gave it to me.
Hundreds of arrowheads found in northern Louisiana.
Not me, but another dude I know. His family prized a cow skull.
Story goes, g.g. gramps had a cow that strayed into the neighbor’s field. Neighbor was huge and g.g. gramps was less than average. Neighbor refused to return the cow, claimed it was now his and the only way g.g. gramps was getting back was to fight him for it.
We have a small two-seater church pew from my partner’s side of the family. And one of what I assume were once two of those little kneeling stools that went with it. It’s a pretty solid piece of furniture, definitely last long past our time.
I have a large 3’x5′ ornate 100 year old mirror that hung in the house I grew up in.
My nephew calls it “The mirror that steals the souls of small children”…
Ive got a copy of the boarding pass, from the ship my great grandparents travelled on when then came to Canada in the early 1900s…White Star lines…the same shipping line that owned Titanic
…i cant recall the ship name though
Me!
Bicorne hat. Like the one that Napoleon used to wear.
A handwritten letter from Winston Churchill calling my great great grandfather a moron.
It’s framed and hung prominently in my grandma’s house.
My dad has an old hardcover Sears Roebuck catalog. I’m not sure the exact year, I think it’s from the early 1900s. I’ve never seen a hardcover one so it’s pretty cool to bring out once in a while.
He also brought back a shell casing from Vietnam. Not anything super special, I just always thought it was cool.
My Grandpa had a friend who owned a farm back in the 50s. Having taught history at Oxford, his friend thought him the perfect person to gift a bronze-age flint axehead that he’d found in one of his fields. This thing is beautiful dark green, and is in such good condition that it was almost certainly a trading piece as opposed to having been used. My Dad has it now and I will soon own it myself. I plan on getting it into a museum as it definitely belongs in one.
Either my grandpas dogtags from WW2 or my dad’s rare bersion of a Stratocaster.
A Civil War-era hardtack biscuit and chunks of the Berlin wall (my brother was stationed in Berlin at the time and just picked up several chunks from each side of the wall and sent them to us.