A Prompt and My View

I have been terrible about blogging this year. I have discovered I prefer researching over writing. I've never been a confident writer but I am a fairly good researcher. My sister-in-law (who I envy when it comes to writing skills) has convinced me that what's most important is that the information is "out there". She has recently started writing short blog posts and that coupled with an Instagram genealogy #photoaday challenge I came across, has given me the idea to combine the two. For each photo challenge, I will TRY to write a short blog posts with a little more detail to accompany it.

Here is a photo of the challenge:

Here's my Instagram photo for today #MyView:

My favorite view inside my home is this little hutch given to me by my mother-in-law. The shelves are loaded down with family memorabilia from both my side and my husband's. In this post I hope to briefly lists a few of the items on this shelf and who they belong to. I won't go over all of them because a few items will be featured in more detail later this month as a challenge all of their own. The idea to display these things in this manner came from my mom. I have always envied her decorative style. I am more plain Jane, reserved, frugal, and have a hard time spending money if something isn't functional or meaningful. I had always noticed a little hutch area in her home that sat opposite the dinning room table. It housed several antique items and I always assumed they were flea market finds. It wasn't until she recently told me she had items belonging to my great grandmother, and that I was welcome to have them that I found out they had belonged to family. I went to her house to pick up  my loot and she started to unload her hutch. I felt a weird combination of emotions. I was overjoyed to be offered these items, yet I also felt awkward because I was told I could take anything I wanted. I wanted it all. I was going to leave her poor hutch completely bare. I was able to hold back and I only took what I felt I could display.


On the top shelf I have two canning funnels (one belonging to my great grandmother Willie Belle, and one from my great grandmother, Bondell). There's a citrus juicer, and large ladle that also belonged to Bondell. A prescription bottle (with the label still legible) belonging to my grandmother, Sue -- inside are matches. The prescribing doctor is also the doctor who delivered me, Dr. Billy Puckett.  Hanging from the shelf is a little stainless steel tea strainer. The coffee pot and stackable food carrier are not family heirlooms. They're just items I picked up at an auction and being made of stainless steel, they seemed to fit in.

Next shelf is a ceramic tea pot, an apron that belonged to my husband's grandmother, Jessie Bates, a few pieces of embroidery that Bondell had sewn, a tea cup and saucer belonging to Grandma Bondell's step-mother, Margaret. Bondell's mother died when she was very young so her step-mother was the only mother she really knew. There is an old mail scale and an enamelware bowl and an old Eagle oil can from 1923 that belonged to Bondell. She herself was born in 1918 so I wonder what the story is behind this little can. Did it belong to family before her? Or was it something she purchased?

Next shelf is an old ATLAS canning jar - with glass lid and rubber seal that belonged to my husband's paternal grandmother, Audrey. A sifter, belonging to my great-grandma Bondell as well as an old deep fryer basket filled with various utensils. A prescription for 'No Sprout' - I think this was used to keep stored root vegetables from sprouting. Can anyone verify? A biscuit and doughnut cutter and an old tin recipe holder. Stacked behind it are several cookbooks - mostly Microwave - that have Jessie's handwriting here and there beside a few recipes. And a spiral index card notebook with several handwritten recipes. Most are in my mother-in-law's handwriting but there's one or two that I think are Jessie's. And a few torn out pages from magazines and newspapers that had recipes --especially doughnuts. And a tea towel my sister-in-law made me the year we did Homemade Christmas. It has recipes from various family members printed on it.

I love this idea of displaying family heirlooms. Do you display any family heirlooms in your home? Do people know who or where they came from?


Here's a photo of my mom, her dad, his mom Grandma Bondell, and her step-mom Grandma Margaret Thompson... the baby is me.

Until next time (hopefully tomorrow),
Becky

Heirlooms, Keepsakes and Memories

This week the prompt given by No Story Too

Small in the 52 Ancestors Challenge is 'Heirloom'....

I'm super excited about this post. I started by requesting on Facebook that any of my family that had any heirlooms please contact me. The response was wonderful! While some of the items may not have necessarily been passed down generation to generation, they definitely hold a great deal of sentiment for those who now own these treasures belonging to their ancestors.

I'll start with my mother's cousin (that's easier than saying my first cousin 1x removed) Tarona who sent me a picture of a very unusual item that belonged to her grandmother, my great grandmother, Zula Jane Acord Stepp. It is a four eyed bottle opener. A little research shows it was made in the 1940's by Wilton Co. Tarona shared that her mother, Jayne, remembered that Grandma Zula got it after she was married in 1946.

Tarona says:

"When I was really little it kinda scared me and then as I got older I couldn't wait to get a coke so I could use it! It was on the door jam in Grandma Zulie's kitchen......I wouldn't take a million dollars for it."

Another cousin of my mother, Debra,  has Grandma Zula's old Singer sewing machine from 1912

 

My grandmother, Reba, has and old cast iron tea kettle made by Bridgeford & Co, Louisville, KY, 1868.  It belonged to Grandma Zula's maternal grandmother Jane Conner Evans.



My Aunt Diane has the Bynum Family Bible printed in 1884. It was given to my 3rd great grandmother, Lou Emmer Reynolds, who married John Thomas Bynum, from her "Papa" 17 May 1885 when she was only 11 years old. She kept it and wrote in it her birthdate as well as the birthdate of her children. Diane also has my great grandmother Bondell Bynum Melson's thimble.

Another cousin of mine, Mike, has his grandmother, my great-grandmother, Myrtle Rutherford Jones' old WWII ration book:

I have a few treasures of my own and a few people to thank for them. I'll start with my Dad and Dawna who gifted me this past Christmas with my great grandmother Wille Belle Foster Nall's old canning funnel. Then my dad's cousin Angie who so graciously thought of me at the passing of my great grandmother and gathered up a box full of stuff that belonged to her and then made sure I got it. In it was this old standing mixer from Montgomery Ward dated 1963 complete with beaters and two mixing bowls, a serving bowl that still had Grandma's address label she used so that her dish would be returned to her when she brought food to the church potlucks and a decorative plate. The one with a solid round edge is hers. The plate that matches it belonged to my husband's grandmother - it has more pointy edges. I love that I have these two "matching" items from opposite sides of my daughter's family. I also have one of my most treasured items; one of the last Christmas gifts I ever received from Grandma Nall - a handwritten recipe for her chocolate gravy.









From my grandmother Winnie Sue Jones Nall (We called her Mammy), I have a cook book from our church - where she wrote me a sweet note on the worn out cover. It was a gift to me Christmas 2008.




And then there's my Uncle Mike and family who were kind enough to give me the family's old wood cook stove. I remember my Mammy and Grandma Nall cooking on it during a camp out we had in the field below Mammy's house one year. My grandpa, Charles Nall, brought in the big hay trucks for us to sleep on and in the morning we had biscuits, bacon, sausage, chocolate gravy, eggs and hot chocolate for breakfast. It was quite a treat! When I posted pictures of it on Facebook, my great Aunt Dena told me that the stove had originally belonged to her Dad, Rufus Nall, and that he bought it from Chicken Hollar in Farmington because he didn't like the way propane made his biscuits taste. He kept it on the back porch to cook his 'catheads'.

  

  

My Dad has his dad's old Bible. It has my grandfather's marriage date and the names of the witnesses and who married them. They were married by Charles' father Benjamin Rufus Nall and the witnesses were my grandmother Winnie Sue's brother, Edwin Jones and Charles' sister, Mildred (Dena). The handwriting belongs to my grandmother, Winnie Sue.  

  

  

My Great Aunt Peggy shared an heirloom she and my Uncle Dwight have. Dwight's dad, my great grandfather, Newell Stepp Sr. was a machinist in the Army in WW1. He made 5 ballpeen hammers while he was in the Army. He gave one to his commanding officers and brought the others home. A few years ago Dwight was visiting his cousin, Edna McDonald and she had one of the hammers that Newell made and gave to her Mother. She said she wanted Dwight to have the hammer, which he is very proud of. We don't know where the other 3 hammers are. They have Newell's serial number stamped on them, unfortunately its too faded to make out.

  

Another heirloom from my great grandmother, Willie Belle Foster Nall, now belongs to my dad's cousin Tracie. It is her old butter churn.

What family treasures do you and your family members have?

Until next week,
Becky