MY
FAMILY CULTURE
If I were caught
in a major catastrophe and would have to relocated to a different county with
only three small items and the clothes on my back, I’m sure that once I was
reassured that my family was alright and with me, there would be three most
important items I would choose.
Those three items would
be my family photo, a set of rings given to me by my mother which has been in
the family for four generations, and my small bible that was a gift from my
grandmother.
The
significance of each of these items are:
The
family photo
is the last one that was taken in which all my family was together and there is
a photo of my father and oldest brother, who are both deceased. It is the one thing I have to remember each of
them.
The
rings have
been in my family for four generations.
They were the rings given to my great-great grandmother for a wedding
gift. She worked on a plantation and I
am not sure how my great-great grandfather was able to afford them, but they
have several diamonds and there are two identical rings. My mother wears them although she gave them
to me. I do not wear jewelry at work so
they are safer with her at the moment.
Lastly,
I would take my small
bible because it contains all the information from our family
bible. Our family bible contains all the
names, birthdays and place of birth of my family members on both my mother and
fathers side of the family dating back to before the 1900’s. I have condensed a lot of the information
into a smaller bible that I have begun to enter my children’s information
into. Hopefully, one day I will have an
opportunity to place my grandchildren’s information into this bible.
Upon
arrival, if told I could only keep one personal item, I would insert the
picture into the bible and keep the bible.
I place more value in small things that cannot be replaced such as the
photo and bible than the rings. I love
the rings but having my family’s ancestral information to pass down to my
children would be more important than the rings. When I thought about this blog and what I
would hold most valuable, I had to think long and hard of what would mean the
most to me. Knowing that my children
would have something tangible to bring awareness of their family history is
most important and significant. I tell
them always that it is just as important to know where you come from as it is
to know where you’re going. I want them
to know about their family’s struggles, accomplishments, beliefs, values, and
most important, their life which made it possible for them to be here.
Hi Eliza,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post. Now I know if I have to leave because of an emergency situation I can place small items like photos into my bible. Thanks for the insights.
Liz,
ReplyDeleteWe had a long discussion on names and identity on the discussion post in class and I now realize you like to be called Liz.
I enjoyed your heart warming description of the items you hold dear and the value they have in your life. I can definitely understand you wanting to keep the family bible. Like you stated it is a symbol of helping your children move forward in life, knowing where they came from in the past. I especially enjoyed reading the story about the rings given to your great-great grandmother. Those are special pieces of jewelry. Thanks for sharing.
Mary Jo
Hi Eliza, Great Post. It is amazing that you have been able to keep records on your family for so long. I have had trouble with trying to collect information for some of the older relatives in my family. We have some pictures and names but are still missing a lot of information. Many relatives have passed away and the eldest is only 71 years old. Unfortunately a lot of information has been lost and damaged. I went to ancestry.com to try and collect more information on relatives but did not have much success. I have taken it upon myself to try and maintain two books with information on everyone in the family. This is the item that I chose to take with me to another country. In this book I have collected a lot of information and pictures of my many members in my family. I choose this item because I also want to have something tangible to pass on to my children so that they can know their history.
ReplyDelete