The Family Treasure Chest is opened!!!!!

[jaybelnz]

Pine family, my grandfather called his houses in NZ"Springburn" named for the place where he met and married my grandmother in Scotland, and where my Dad and his brothers and sisters were born!

I only remember one house they lived in, and the sign on the gate, but also have a photo of the house they lived in when Dad was a child at the time they first came to NZ in 1924. 

The same sign is over the verandah on that house! 

I just remembered another treasure - this Grandpa of mine worked in the Railways in Springburn, Glasgow, and living in Railways housing.  He carved out a full set of Dominoes, and a lovely box to hold them, with the hinges and closures made of polished brass, quite intricate.

Dad told me that the timber and brass work had come from the interior of an old disused Railway Carriage from The Flying Scotsman, and that a lot of the employees had made toys, doll's houses and small household furniture from the timber!  He said he could remember Grandpa always busy carving things, and doing fretwork as well! Of which I still have a small piece, about the only bit left after borer took hold! I must dig that out and clean it up, it's still wrapped away in a box from the last shift, along with Mum's silver stuff!  Good winter jobs I would say 😄

[pinefamily]

I may not have the physical treasures, but I have a head full of family stories that I must put to paper (electronic or otherwise). Things like my grandfather had such small feet, he took size 2 shoes (they called him lizard feet apparently  ), or how my grandmother climbed down the well because one of my uncles had fallen in (despite the fact she was pregnant at the time), or how my other grandfather took the local school teacher to task for standing my uncle in the fireplace ( my grandmother had to drive the children to school in the next town after that).
These stories are treasures that can never be held or looked at, but are priceless just the same.

[kiwihalfpint]

letters from Dad to Mum during their courtship - that's pretty special! 


   

Wish I had those, Mum requested they be buried with her and my cousin was given instructions to make sure I did just that.   I do know how my parents met. There are a few family treasures, including Dad's cut throat razor he used and a couple of table cloths he embroidered while convalescing in hospital from his war injuries, and funnily enough two similar looking framed wall tapestries my parents did, before they even knew each other. 

Cheers
KHP

[Wiggy]

All these things are really to be treasured - together with the stories that go with them!

  I am doing a course at U3A at the moment called Writing your life story . . . we are given a topic to write about each fortnight  - random topics which all stir different memories - it is a really good way to get many many things down because sharing the memories of a particular incident stirs memories of other things which might have been forgotten and make the memories much more readable than going from birth to death in a straight line.

Oddly enough we are doing family heirlooms this week and I have just finished writing mine!   

[..claire..]

Pinefamily that was so well said

family stories and memories are equally as important to each and every one of us.

EDIT: sorry Pinefamily, silly spell check on this phone changed your username to  pinetree and I didn't notice, have modified.

[Ladyfing]

My husband inherited so much when his mother died. An incredibly beautiful hand embroidered, laced etc king size bed coverlet made by his grandmother in 1910 AND the original newspaper, (yep, the whole paper) with the description of the items entered and the owners of same in the annual Wimbledon craft fayre/fete/show/,exhibition.... She came first in her category and had a special mention. It is the most beautiful piece I have ever seen. She also made her daughter's wedding dress, shot silk 1950.

My husband's parents met during the war, both in the RAF. The best 'treasure' from the old battered suitcase though was a bundle of letters written by my mother in law to her lover, my father-in-law. He had kept every single letter she had ever written to him in that time. Not only are they incredibly romantic, the detail of her life during the war in one of the armed forces is wonderful. It would make a brilliant made-for-TV film or series, better than Home Fires, which I really enjoy by the way.

They came from completely opposite backgrounds. He was a Welsh miner' s son, her father was a Marine Architect. They would never have met but for that awful war.

[pinefamily]

Pinefamily that was so well said

family stories and memories are equally as important to each and every one of us.

EDIT: sorry Pinefamily, silly spell check on this phone changed your username to  pinetree and I didn't notice, have modified.

No need to apologise, Claire. As long as you don't call me late for dinner...... 
With a name like Pine, I've had them all: pine tree, pine cone, radiata was one of the more clever ones, and of course Piney.

Ladyfing, you remind me of another treasure. I have a photocopy of a letter written to my great grandfather by his sister-in-law telling him of the death of his sister. But for that letter, I may not have found out that she had moved to Glasgow, via Wales.

[..claire..]

Thanks pine nut 

[pinefamily]

 

Thanks pine nut