Granduncle Mark's Genealogy Parlor


Will heirs know why you kept that?

An easy way to help your heirs remember!


    After you're gone from this life, will the heirs of your family keepsakes know what those items are, and why you kept them?

    Below is a sample of some keepsakes itemized with photos that will make it easy for family members to know the stories and meaning of family treasures when I'm no longer around to tell them.

    Hopefully, this will keep my great-grandfather's Spanish American War medals from being sold at a yard sale. (Smile.)

    I am making my booklet by printing pages with text and scanned color photos. However, the same results can be achieved by attaching photos to paper on which you describe the family treasures that you have.

    (Note: Be sure to use black and white photos/film if you use real photos -- so they'll endure. And, be sure to use acid-free paper and safe means of attaching photos, again to be sure that your project is in fine shape in future years.)

    NOTE: I am including both old and new items in my booklet. Everything from my great-grandfather's Army medals to a small craft that my nephew once made for me. Remember -- our new items will be future generations "old relics." And, my nephew's great-grandchildren will have a sample of the personalities of both my nephew and me as they learn that he made a little present for me, and I valued it so much I kept it forever.

    So, here's a sample of how the stories behind your family treasures can be conveyed to your family after you're gone ...






Genealogy of Mark Ellsworth Hickman
(born 12 January 1952)


    Army medals earned by my
    great-grandfather, Simon Elias Routh,
    in the Phillippines
    during the Spanish-American War
    Simon (born 12 December 1871) enlisted in the Army on 19 September 1899. He was in Company I of the Indiana 38th Regiment of Infantry during the Spanish-American War.

( Click on image to see larger photo!)


SOURCE OF MILITARY INFORMATION -- Archives Division, Indiana Commission on Public Records, Indiana State Library, Indianapolis, Indiana.

Genealogy of Mark Ellsworth Hickman
(born 12 January 1952)


    Wooden spoon used by my grandfather, Clarence Noble Eddleman, to make iced tea when his children and grandchildren came to visit him.

    Almost a ritual, Clarence's family remembers that shortly after one of us arrived, we could hear the sound of the wooden spoon stiring iced tea in the brown crockery pitcher that he used.

    This Clarence Eddleman was born 26 January 1909.

( Click on image to see larger photo!)


Genealogy of Mark Ellsworth Hickman
(born 12 January 1952)


    The page from my page-a-day calendar at work on the day (07 June 1973) that my niece, April Sue Sater, was born.

    I somehow knew that this would be one of the most important days of my life (and many years later I still adore my wonderful niece), so I impulsively pulled that day's sheet from the calendar when I got back from seeing little April at the hospital, and I have saved it forever.

( Click on image to see larger photo!)


Genealogy of Mark Ellsworth Hickman
(born 12 January 1952)


    A small "Indian Chief" craft on a neck chain, made by nephew, K. Adam Sater, when he was a small boy.

    I remember being touched that my young nephew thought of making a present for his Uncle Mark while he was doing crafts with his friends.

    So ... another one of those things that I have kept forever because it symbolizes love between my nephew and me. Knowing that may have some meaning to Adam's descendants in years to come.

    This K. Adam Sater was born 17 December 1976.

( Click on image to see larger photo!)


Genealogy of Mark Ellsworth Hickman
(born 12 January 1952)


    A one-piece outfit that I wore during my first year of life.

( Click on image to see larger photo!)


Genealogy of Mark Ellsworth Hickman
(born 12 January 1952)


    A ticket to a high-school play starring my talented niece, April Sue Sater.


    This play was in the auditorium at Bloomington High School South in Bloomington, Monroe County, Indiana.

( Click on image to see larger photo!)


Genealogy of Mark Ellsworth Hickman
(born 12 January 1952)


    A Christmas shirt that my parents had made for me when I was a toddler.


    This shirt would have been purchased during the 1950's in Santa Claus, Indiana -- a southern Indiana town which aimed to replicate the North Pole, complete with live reindeer, gifts and many amusements -- because my parents liked to take my sisters and I to this special place.

( Click on image to see larger photo!)


Genealogy of Mark Ellsworth Hickman
(born 12 January 1952)


    A Christmas stocking made by my mother,
    Winifred Jean (Eddleman) Hickman
    (who was born 29 July 1930).

    I recall when Mother made these stocking for my sister Susan and I (our sister Cathy wasn't born yet), and Aunt Elizabeth Ann (Eddleman) Hazel made them for her two first born children, at the home of Elizabeth's mother-in-law, Nola (Judah) Hazel, while Nola still lived in the farm house.

( Click on image to see larger photo!)






Copyright 1996-2008, Mark Ellsworth Hickman, PhD
(Granduncle Mark)

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