Family Heirloom

I treasure all the family heirlooms that I am fortunate enough to have. Each one is not only special to me, but is also unique in the memory it holds. And, with each heirloom also comes a responsibility to the holder to preserve and share it, where possible, with family.

To that end, I want to briefly talk about the two family photo albums that I have in my possession. One is from my mom’s side and one is from my dad’s side. Mom gave them both to me about 10 or 15 years ago. Each album is at least 100 years old now, and hold many photos of my parents’ family and friends, some of whom I never knew, and buildings and places that I have never been or can identify. They also hold mysteries - unknown faces. Who were those unnamed people, why were they important to the family, and what stories could they hold?

In my mom’s old album, the photos are glued to that black, heavy paper that was used during that time. In my dad’s old album they used those adhesive corner tabs to hold photos to the page. In those cases there sometimes is a location printed on the back where it was developed.

I can burn up many hours trying to identify a building in a photo which might have been their home at that time. How cool is it to not only see the faces of our ancestors, but also what their homes and neighborhoods looked like at that time? Maybe I am a little geeky in this regard, but I find those details fascinating.

There are always questions to be answered in these old photos, like “are these classmates or girlfriends of my dad when he was at college? Whose car was that? Is this where he lived while attending college? If there is a name on a photo, can I do an internet search to see if I can find their descendants? Maybe they would like a copy of this photo!

So with all this in my mind, below are some sample photos of pages in these two albums that both fascinate me and cherish more every year. With that said, I think I had better get on with preserving these old photos before they deteriorate further. It will be a very worthwhile project for 2026!!