Home: A Gift for the Orphans...

Christmas 1920 in Detroit was destined to be a hollow one for Edith (8)  and Mildred (6), orphaned* that year at Thanksgiving.  Their father had died on his way to working the midnight shift, but that wasn't the half of their troubles.  Both of these little girls had been accidentally blinded from repercussions of a simple game of Blind Man's Bluff.  Their mother had warned them never to wear a hat that belonged to someone else, but during the game they wore either a hat or blindfold shared with others...which led to both girls becoming infected with head lice. Treatment for said infection (administered by their mother), caused them both to be (temporarily) blinded--the curative medicine got into their eyes.  This blindness didn't last for mere hours or days, but weeks and months...
When Christmastime came around a charitable organization gathered toys and gifts for the little blind orphans.  The story is told that a "wealthy family" donated a music box with a broken cabinet to the cause.

  The original case was mended  before Edith received it.  The lovely gift of music for a blind orphan was perfect. (It has been forgotten what Mildred had received.) While Edith was yet blind, her grandmother read to her many poems, which became a lifelong love of hers.
Edith was shortly to be enrolled in a school for the blind, since her blindness lingered. Fortunately, though, sight was returned to her before that actually occurred.  Mildred's sight had returned earlier.
Edith grew up and married at a young age with limited schooling.  The man she married took the old music box and made a new cabinet for it.  This (or maybe one succeeding cabinet) is the cabinet which houses it today.    You see, Edith was my grandmother and Mildred my great Aunt.  This is the point in time that the music box became a treasured piece of our family history. 

The music box was a part of my mother's childhood, and mine also.  It was used in our family for the fourth generation with my son.  I was so glad when my grandmother let us have her music box.  I then began collecting music boxes and since I had so enjoyed turning the handle to produce the music, I am most fond of boxes that have hand cranks.  I thoroughly enjoy the ones that you can watch the works through glass or plastic.
This history is the "provenance" of the item.  "Provenance" refers to the chronology of ownership, location of a piece. 

Sometimes we struggle with gift ideas for birthdays or holidays...some of the best presents are the preservation of memories and family history.  So many of us already have STUFF, and we don't really want or need more STUFF. 

Preserving your family history...

• Photos, 
• family stories, 
• documenting heirlooms with photos, videos, and the impact an item may have had on your family.  
• I would encourage all of you to really talk about things with an elder relative while they are still available and have the capacity to tell family stories about their grandparents or friends and what it was like to live through the Great Depression or the War or coming to America.  Make a date with a favorite Aunt or Uncle or other family member and bring a camera and recorder (audio or video) and capture the stories of your family's life!  You will be glad you made the effort.

Both of my grandmothers were living at the time of the Spanish Flu epidemic...and neither of them EVER related anything about that time until I pointedly asked them about the subject.  They often related many other stories, but both of them had a story about that time.  Both had family members who had taken ill, and they (as children) had helped to nurse their parents and siblings...no deaths, only illness, in our families.  Make a video, assemble photos, track down names and dates of your ancestors...don't wait until your family has lost all it's history...it can be very difficult and very expensive to track your roots.  In the meanwhile, I hope you enjoyed a glimpse into my family's past.  *orphan--in it's original use, generally referred to the loss of (one) parent, most usually the father, but I have also seen it used as the loss of the mother while the father was still living.