Lost Family Heirlooms

[Shrubmaster]

Just wanted to hear your stories. I'm pretty pissed today, my grandfather's winchester .22, which was passed down to my father, and was in the possession by my grandmother, was recently given to my cousin.

Another one of my father's cousins also stole my grandfather's WWII 1911 and sold it for drugs (although it was 20 years or so ago, it still hurts!)

[Divernhunter]

If your cousin will use/keep it then he is as much entitled to it as you are.....Right? Or am I missing something here?
As far as the 1911 you need to just thrash that one ...especially if he still is doing drugs.

[justMike]

Are you on speaking terms with this cousin? Try to open a dialog and determine what his attachment to the Winchester is.
If it is just a shooter to him, maybe you could work out a trade for some other .22. If you don't ask, you won't get.
Worst case, you still don't get grandpas Winchester.

[Citadelgrad87]

My dad had an uncle who fought in the ETO in WWII.

He captured a P-08 artillery model, and a P38 with clear plastic grips and a portrait of Hitler under the grip panels.

He was going to give my dad the Walther. New leather holster, extra mag, and cleaning kit.

It made it all the way to the Pittaburgh train station, then someone stole his bag. He was less than twenty miles from home.

[russ69]

Just wanted to hear your stories. I'm pretty pissed today, my grandfather's winchester .22, which was passed down to my father, and was in the possession by my grandmother, was recently given to my cousin...

Who is the oldest, your Dad or your Uncle?

[Barbarosa]

My grandfather had a Luger pistol he had brought back as a war prize from WWII. I was only about 5 when he showed it to me - he kept it in a shoe box in his closet. He told me when I got old enough I could have it. He passed away a few years later. Time went on and I had forgotten about the gun. When I was about 25 Grandma had to move in to a home. I helped clean out her things before she sold her house. I asked her about Grandpa's Luger. "Oh, that old thing? I threw it in the trash years ago."

[mosinnagantm9130]

Fortunately for me, I'm the history buff in the family, so quite a few family heirlooms have already been given to me, or I'm written into wills as getting.

I feel for those of you who lost out on heirlooms, that would be awful.

[Ripon83]

My grandfather passed when I was 7. He had remarried and my mom did not get along with her step mother very much and so nothing was passed on to my mom from her dad. I think it hurt my mom some but I was too young to notice.

One day as a teenager I came home to a strange persons talking with my mom. It seemed that her step mother had passed away, the strangers were her son and daughter and they were making arrangements for my mom to go to her dad's former home and go through things with them and bring them home. One of those things was a 1928 Safe that is about 4' tall on cast iron wheels. They didn't know how to open it.

We got it and some old 22's and shotguns home. Mom collected some china that was her mom's and mementos. My mom walked over to the safe, played with the dial, and opened it on the first try. There were 2 SAA's one from 1878 and one from 1881, one older Colt Navy and one 32-20 DA from the 1910's inside as well as a lot of Morgan dollars and other pre 64 coin. They'd been in the safe at least 15 maybe 20 years and were in pretty good shape.

Lost and recovered - thanks to people that merely respected others enough to share what they didn't have too.

[dozer wright]

Ripon 83 the last sentence in your post is the most important. Even close family will fall aprt over family heirlooms. Sometimes it is greed some times not more often than not its greed.
Respect very few have it when it comes to heirlooms everything from small trinkets to houses have been stolen. My dad always talked about my Great Grandfathers firearm collection that vanished when his cousin got care of my greatgrandmother. After great grand pa passed. He also had grandma will him the house and cars which he lost because he couldnt pay property taxes. And my father offered to pay the taxes to split the house he let the city /state take it complete b.s.

[Subotai]

My wife's grandfather passed away. Grandma too. One grandson was the executor. He ran a tight and fair ship. One day, one of the other grandson's and his boys came to town. They went through the place and took his pistols. My wife' brother was hoping to get one, he's poor. The guy that took the guns is a high-ranking Border Patrolman. Yeah well, he's always been a porch-d&ck.

[RandyD]

My step-grandfather was into firearms. He gave me a 1903A3 Springfield and a 1917 Enfield. He had a 1876 Winchester that he promised to give my step-father. He passed away, and we attended his funeral, which was in another city. During the funeral, we noticed one daughter, my step-aunt, was not in attendance. After the funeral, we returned to my grandfather's home, and as we were pulling up, a large moving van, with my step-aunt sitting in the passenger seat, was ready to pull away. We were able to get all of the property moved back into the house, which took a couple of hours. One of the items returned was the 1876 Winchester, which my dad still has. If we had arrived one minute later, we would have lost out on all of those items.

[Citadelgrad87]

My step-grandfather was into firearms. He gave me a 1903A3 Springfield and a 1917 Enfield. He had a 1876 Winchester that he promised to give my step-father. He passed away, and we attended his funeral, which was in another city. During the funeral, we noticed one daughter, my step-aunt, was not in attendance. After the funeral, we returned to my grandfather's home, and as we were pulling up, a large moving van, with my step-aunt sitting in the passenger seat, was ready to pull away. We were able to get all of the property moved back into the house, which took a couple of hours. One of the items returned was the 1876 Winchester, which my dad still has. If we had arrived one minute later, we would have lost out on all of those items.

There is a reason greed is one of the seven deadly sins.

Glad to hear a happy ending.

[Ford8N]

Reading these stories just reinforces what I've said for years. Give away your good stuff before you die.Otherwise it's not going where you think it will go. People are greedy scum for the most part.

[DSB]

My father in law fought in WW II. He was in the army, in the Pacific theater of operations. He brought his US government 1911 back home with him.

He kept it in a shoe box in his closet until his death 20 years ago.

After he died, his wife (my mother in law), moved into a senior community. She had the movers pack up her house. It did not occur to her to secure the 1911 before they arrived.

Some dirtbag mover stole the 1911 from the house during the move. I found out about it too late to do anything about it. I didn't even know the gun existed until after it was gone. That dirtbag mover prevented my son from someday receiving the 1911 his grandfather carried during combat.

[Shrubmaster]

If your cousin will use/keep it then he is as much entitled to it as you are.....Right? Or am I missing something here?
As far as the 1911 you need to just thrash that one ...especially if he still is doing drugs.

To be more clear, myself nor my father knew my grandmother had given the rifle to my cousin. Only recently did I get my father back into shooting that got him thinking about the winchester.