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Family Treasures Page
 Keeper of memories,
Bearer of tales,
Spinning yesterday into golden threads,
Passed hand to hand
through time and generations.
The Hidden Treasure Mysteries encourage children to explore their own family treasures -- stories, objects, recipes, or special memories. Read about the "treasures" in other people's families and add your own.
The author's favorite family treasures
Pasttimes from long ago: A slim leather book lay tucked away in a carton at the back of my father's closet. The tiny book was a brief journal written in the year 1796 by a shipbuilder's apprentice in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Handed down in the family for over 150 years, it contained a nearly forgotten treasure: a description of seven 18th century country dances. Thanks to those memory keepers who preserve the dances and music of the past, I have located a tape with the music for one of these dances ("Rural Felicity") and am in the process of learning to decipher the directions. Soon these long-forgotten dances, done in two sets of 3 couples, will be brought to life once again.
A treasured recipe: A long-handled iron cookie press, brought over from Italy in the early 1900s, makes a wafer-thin anise cookie called brigidini. The special recipe and somewhat complicated art of making these cookies has been passed down in my husband's family for 3 generations. Researching on the Web, I discovered that brigidini have a long and interesting history. They were developed in the middle ages by nuns who occasionally added honey and anise to the communion wafers they made for the Diocese of Pistoia. The cookies are still popular in Tuscany, especially at outdoor fairs.
Read on for family treasure stories others have sent me.
From Needham, Massachusetts
A coded message:"Oh, the lone starry hours give me love, When still is the beautiful night." These are the first lines of a lovely poem sent (in a coded message!) by a Civil War soldier to his sweetheart at home. This poem, and the key to its code, are among the many treasures given to Shirley, of Needham, Massachusetts, by her husband’s cousin. After the first few lines were decoded, a brief search of the internet revealed that the poem was written by Marshall Pike and set to music in the mid-1800s. The Lone Starry Hours Serenade is preserved at the Library of Congress, and the sheet music is on their website. This message of love, preserved among family papers for nearly one hundred and fifty years, can once again be enjoyed.
From Indianapolis, Indiana
Hidden letters: A chest of drawers made in 1820 and passed down in an Indiana family for generations turned out to be more than just a lovely family heirloom. When Nancy, of Indianapolis, received the bureau, she discovered a long-forgotten secret. Spread out neatly and hidden underneath the top drawer were letters written by her great grandfather while a soldier in the Civil War. He was a member of the famous Fourteenth Indiana regiment. Fascinated by the discovery, Nancy researched the regiment and tracked down moving personal letters written by other soldiers. She published a book about its history, starting her own publishing business in the process. As Nancy writes, "people begin to be curious about what went before, and it leads them down the most interesting paths of their lives."
Do you have an interesting story about a family treasure? Let me know, and I will post your story (using your first name only).
E-mail the author
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