In a house which becomes a home, one hands down and another takes up the heritage of mind and heart, laughter and tears, musings and deeds. Love, like a carefully loaded ship, crosses the gulf between the generations….So begins one of my favorite poems, “Generation to Generation” by French author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (best known for “the Little Prince”). I’m sharing it here because October is Family History Month.
Family History Month is celebrated and promoted to ensure that family stories are remembered for decades (and centuries) to come through research and education. It was not a coincidence that the Senate resolution to declare this commemorative month passed unanimously in 2001 just two and half weeks after the tragic and terrifying events of 9/11. The hope behind the act was that learning family history could work to unite communities, as well as provide context for and examples of, and resilience despite suffering and struggles. The U.S. Senate declared, “…Whereas as individuals learn about their ancestors who worked so hard and sacrificed so much, their commitment to honor their ancestors’ memory by doing good is increased; Whereas interest in our personal family history transcends all cultural and religious affiliations... Now, therefore, be it resolved, that the Senate designates the month of October 2001, as Family History Month…”
My grandparents Lillian and Algot Ekstrom of Worcester Massachusetts lovingly did not neglect to hand down their heritage, and my grandmother, especially, told stories that were remembered across generations – stories of childhood pranks on her beloved sisters or playmates, stories of fellow residents in her Massachusetts neighborhood’s trademark triplex (known as “triple decker”) houses, and of a beloved grammar school principal who took the students on nature walks, instilling in the lifelong city girl a lifelong love of nature and a famous green thumb.
Saint-Exupéry’s poem continues, Let us build memories in our children, lest they drag out joyless lives, lest they allow treasures to be lost because they have not been given the keys. We live, not by things, but by the meanings of things. It is needful to transmit the passwords from generation to generation.
I was incredibly fortunate my grandparents passed down those “passwords” and that I got to spend so much time in their home that was filled with meaningful things –stashed in an attic desk were love letters my grandmother wrote while she was in nursing school to her future husband of 69 years, my grandfather, designer dresses, hats and shoes of the 1920s, that passed down from the wealthy industrialist yet progressive family that employed my great grandmother, a young widow from Sweden who was raising 4 daughters, my mother’s and uncle’s prized story books, dolls and trucks, a gallery of my grandfather’s paintings (like many Swedes in his city, he worked in the steel and wire industry, but self-taught, he prolifically painted nature and wildlife) and the brightly-painted wooden horses (Dala horses) passed down through the family or bought as souvenirs from their trip of a lifetime to Sweden with their church.
History Center staff are eager help you research and record your family’s history, and we carefully preserve and make accessible the history of many Bossier Parish families. We also can share the inspiration and research skills we’ve gained from our own and our patrons’ family history searches, whether local or not. Our online resources span the globe. We are in the new Bossier Parish Libraries Central Complex at 850 City Hall Drive, Bossier City, LA (across Beckett Street from the original History Center and “old” Central Library). We are open M-Th 9-8, Fri 9-6, and Sat 9-5. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org
For other fun facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, @bplhistorycenter on TikTok
Images:
- Lillian Carlson nursing school portrait 1930s
- Astrid, Ruth and Lillian Carlson, Bancroft Tower, Worcester, MA, 1922
- Dala horses. Image by Gustav.jg - Own work, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons
- History Center research area in the new Bossier Parish Central Complex Library
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