Such a nice sentiment, and I agree.
For me, that connection is with stuff that came through my kids. Now that I have to drastically downsize at least 3/4 of my stuff, I laid in bed the other morning looking around my bedroom, picking the "have to have's": I did pretty well. Out of all the stuff in my bedroom (excluding clothes) I chose the little pottery heart jewelry dish my DD made me when she was 8, and the old pictures of my mother, father, MIL, FIL and greataunt--although I may have to remove them from frames and put them in an album. We have hardly any wall space in VT. And MAYBE the little souvenir dish from Motel on the Mountain--from one of my first dates with DH--but I can live without that, too. So that's cool!
ETA: I forgot about the hurricane lamp that was on my great-aunt's mantle. I'll take that over the Motel on the Mountain dish. Plus it's functional if the lights go out.