Posted by Debra W. I guess I'm wondering... does my duty lie with keeping an item with its history, its provenance... or does my duty lie simply with seeing that the item somehow remains within that bloodline, even if those potential heirs know nothing & care little about the history or their ancestors? I am leary of cousins whose first question about an item is not "To whom did it belong?" but "Is it worth anything?"
on 7/9/2007, 7:13 pm, in reply to "Re: What to do with heirlooms"
207.200.116.201
I wish I had a relation such as you, Kat. My problem is that I am the last of my line. My aunts & uncles had no children, so it all traces back to greeat-grandparents, great-aunts & great-uncles, whose births ranged from 1856-1911. I am pushing 60, so the cousins of whom I speak are cousins many times removed. Those cousins of my own generation passed away before I was born. They are people whom don't really know. Our common ancestors are my great-grandparents, their gt-gt-gt-grandparents, who were born in the 1830s. They are widely scattered across the country. There are no family reunions. Many of my items do not even pertain to their direct ancestors, but to people who would have been their own parents' cousins. 
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