Preserve the family stories tied to your heirlooms

We all have lots of family treasures. If you’re saving items that you plan to pass on to other relatives, make sure you also preserve any stories about those objects.

Write down the stories about why the items are treasured so that the knowledge can be passed on to future generations. Don’t delay. One friend took photos of the objects, created a notebook/scrapbook, added family information related to the items and made printouts. The information could include which side of the family an item came from, its age, its original use and perhaps a story that went along with it.

If you don’t create some kind of system, a lot of what you consider to be treasures can easily end up in an estate sale, or worse, in the trash heap. I have a peanut-shaped item that opens, so I guess it may have been a pill box. But I have a photo of my parents showing it to then-Governor Jimmy Carter. So it has an interesting story, even if it is small and insignificant looking. I also have a box of pencils from various businesses that my grandfather saved in the 1930s and 1940s. They all have advertising information on them from Columbus, Georgia, businesses. They are a treasure because Papa saved them, and they gave me great joy as a kid to roll them out on the floor. But they are also now valuable as local history items and are to be donated to the local archives.

So think about what you have, why you have it and if you want it and its story preserved.

Historic preservation in 21st century Georgia

Stephen Hammock — archaeologist, historian and executive director of the Middle Georgia Preservation Alliance — will be the August 12 Lunch and Learn speaker at the Georgia Archives at noon. This free lecture will be in person. His topic will be “Not Just from the Ground Up: Historic Preservation in the 21st Century,” covering various methods of research, as well as sources. For more information, check georgiaarchives.org or call 678-3643710.

Delayed birth certificates

If you’re looking for a delayed birth certificate for an ancestor from North Carolina or South Carolina, some are online at Ancestry.com. A delayed certificate is issued when a birth isn’t recorded before that person’s first birthday.