It’s nice to keep family heirlooms in the family for generations. It offers the family a tangible sense of connection to the past, and teaches one generation to revere the objects, traditions, and Donate of the ones that came before them. Some families are able to do this for centuries, and have impressive collections of heirlooms and genealogical information as a result. However, this is rare, not the norm by any means. Most families discard things they consider “old,” especially if they never knew the person to whom they belonged, or were never even told of them. That is how so many antiques end up in antique stores, including orphan photographs of people from a century or more ago that are not labeled or identifiable (in most instances). The sad truth is many families just don’t see the value in these things and throw them away.
