The Woman with the Cameo

Inspired my love of ancestry and family tree research

There's something so special about being given an heirloom. A piece of someone else is given to you. Sometimes what is passed down to you is from someone you've never met.

It has happened to me. They aren't things of any real monetary value, they are a connection.

A cameo was handed down to me that once belonged to my great grandmother Esther Alice Longworth Helme. It's delicate and so special.

For a number of years I even wore it. Never gave it a second thought. Then one day I saw a photograph of her, wearing the cameo. It became real to me at that moment. A connection to a woman I never knew and knew nothing about.

The cameo now lives forever behind glass, in a shadow box. Never again to be worn and potentially damaged.

Recently shared my story with the amazing Heather Murphy from Stories in Our Roots