RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: mongoose2 on Sunday 04 July 10 18:17 BST (UK)
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I havent a clue whether this has ever been covered before however I want to assume that for whatever reason you, the researcher, can no longer continue your family research, and that you dont have anyone in your family that wants to carry it on.
What on earth are the options available to you to store it so that others can use the research in the future.
My kids are not interested and I have a whole filing cabinet of stuff that would go to waste.
What do thers think they will do with all their hard work
Barry
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You might want to consider a local historical society, library or record office- however, these days they are not always keen to give masses of family research a home due to constraints such as storage, looking after records properly, etc.
If you've researched various branhes of your family perhaps get in touch with more remote relatives and ask if they are interested in copies of that branch.
I've been doing research for and with a dear friend for almost 20 years and have been told that upon death all the papers, files, letters, photographs, etc. are to come to me (my response was yes, but put it in your Will or leave instruction with solicitor as I don't want to appear at the wake asking for all this information- no one else is interested (that's been made very clear to us) but they would, I know, be likely to through it all onto a bonfire just to clear up the 'rubbish').
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Hello...one of my OH's distant cousins put their tree on line AND made provisions in his will that the website would remain on line for many years following his death.....to date ,it remains on line and is a wonderful resource for all who find it! :D Pat
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I suppose putting the whole lot ...'paper' records, photos, etc onto a CD or DVD or memory stick is one way ... but in the 30 years I've been using computers storage has gone from cassette tape (!) to 6" floppies, to small discs, to CD to external storage ...so who knows what sort of technology will be able to read stuff in 30, 50, 100 years time ??
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ohhhh dear spose we do have to include it in the will.. I have a number of daughters... two who are working on FH the others not remotely interested.. So I will pass it on to the two who are interested ... and that will give them all a good reason to fall out... So I think I could put it on too disc so that they can all copy and share and the actual originals leave to a grandchild... I just dont know really... xin
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hi,,i am the only family member who is interested in genealogy....however,,i have made it clear to my daughter {who is only 12 ;D} that if i snuffed it tomorrow,, all my files and folders/photos are to be stored in a cardboard box,,,,and she has promised to keep hold of them until she is older,,,even if she is not interested now,,she may be when she is older...or her sons and daughters may be ...So i have made my wishes clear to my family,,,keep it,,even if you are not interested,,,one day down the line,someone will be,,,,i hope ;D
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That's okay if it's only a box or two but I have a large room with filing cabinets, bookshelves, files, maps, and many valuable books.
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Of course there are two ways of looking at it, or more if you are counting ;D
1) If you leave all your hard work to someone then they won't have your pleasure in finding all the elusives.
2) If you don't leave all your hard work then a lot of otherwise unknown information could be lost for ever, just like most information in this world.
There have been a few discussions on this subject here on Rootschat and the fruit of those discussions will also be lost if no-one goes back and looks at them.
I think that what it boils down to is: if you care passionately but no-one in your family does and no family-historian-societies do then you'll have to accept that you have had great satisfaction/fun in your absorbing hobby and that is that.
Or, you could open a site on Ancestry or similar. They have a secondary site where you can put up all sorts of pages other than the tree. This is my sister's first, unconnected, page waiting to be built into a complete web site of information about the family.
http://freepages.family.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~haydencowan/
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My grandson (9) said recently 'I hope mum will go on with this when she's older.'
I have hopes that he will! - but I will leave a letter asking his mother to keep it if she isn't interested, so that her son(s) or grandchildren can continue later.
I'm also trying to put at least some of it in an accessible hardcopy form in binders - pictures, people's lives in their records - to make it interesting to the children who come after.
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Primarily I am doing this research for me. If others after get some benefit from it then its a bonus 8)
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I would just like to make two points:
1. try to make sure that all the important parts of your research are recorded on paper, as has already been said it is unlikely that any electronic method of recording which we have now will be easily readable in a hundred years time; on the other hand we are able to literally read things which were written down hundreds of years ago.
2. The Society of Genealogists accepts donations of family history material - see
http://www.sog.org.uk/library/surnames_intro.shtml
jds1949
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I have 5 grandchildren and am making them each a family history file with copies of original BMDs and stories of the families. I also have files of original records and also records on Family Historian. We cannot inflict our interest in genealogy on them and their interest might not happen for many years yet but at least they will all have my records in their own folder.Over the years as I have found out something I have just done 5 copies---easy.
I realise that I have found out things that my parents would not hjave known about thanks to the internet and visits to record offices.
Ringrose
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so who knows what sort of technology will be able to read stuff in 30, 50, 100 years time ??
Even if the technology didn't move on much, it's very unlikely that the physical media you'd have saved the data onto would survive the tests of time. Computer disks are relatively fragile things that can be damaged by just about anything...water, magnets, heat, cold, physical jolts. Paper is far more likely to surive, and will be easier for future generations to view. Although from a survival point of view, parchment is probably the best bet. :P
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laughable really that tho we live in the 21st Century... Parchment... is still the best thing to store documents on.?
xin
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It is amusing that parchment is perhaps the best media to use, but that's progress for you. It's all, of course, due to parchment usually being more naturally alkaline, wheras modern paper suffers from acid.
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Only last week I presented my Brother with our family tree in book form 400 pages (to date) for his 70th birthday.
When I started 7-8 years ago no one was interested in the history, now they all want to know and his children are now asking "can I have it when your gone ?"
So whatever you have keep it all safe as down the track some one will want it.
Trish :)
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I have had the great fortune of relatives who documented their research before I became interested. While some might say this has kept me from doing my own research, I feel I have been able to research the information (to verify information and see what might have been missed), but have been extremely happy to have copies of pictures taken of the family five generations back and details no longer available, like which family member accomplished which chores and small details they remembered about parents and siblings. Had these documents/pictures not been retained (and names placed on them) by previous generations, a huge amount of our history would have been lost. There are also Civil War letters (from the US) and other documents that have been fascinating to read. However, my recommendation is to find a family member who cares, even if they are distant, and provide the information to them. One of my greatest sources is a distant cousin. Once I asked her where she found out so much information and she told me that my grandmother had provided it to her before I was old enough to care. Had my grandmother not shared the information, it would not have been there for me when I decided to look for it. (An aunt decided it was all worthless when she died and sold or burned the stuff that was left.) Finally, other family members have created books from their histories and provided it to the family. That is what I am doing as well. While most of the family does not care about "John begat Sam begat Susan", when you can tell the story about William's father dying young and the family selling everything they owned to purchase a one way ticket to America, hoping they would make it on their arrival, everyone becomes much more intrigued. Now many family members want copies of my updates when we get together. This year, my cousin's oldest son even asked if I could teach him how to conduct the research. While close relatives may not be extremely interested, if you put the information out to the family, it will pique someone's interest.
David
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I now have 8 volumes of my Family Tree sitting in my book shelf - about 2000 pages? As well as notes on individuals, they also contain BDM Certificates, photo's and newspaper articles. The actual notes on the individuals are saved on my computer in a Family Tree program.
At the moment, I'm abridging all those notes as best I can into the 4 branches of my grandparents. I then email these notes to my siblings, cousins and nephew/nieces, along with a pedigree chart of that branch. So far I have sent 2 of the 4 branches.
At least by doing this, hopefully somebody will show some interest and appreciate the work I have done. So far I have had positive responses.
I also submitted my notes to RootsWeb.com many years ago (free site), and those notes still appear on their site for anybody to read and take information. Unfortunately, those notes are "years old", and I will be updating them sometime in the future, but at least I know my work will not be lost forever, or will it................?
Les
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My concern with Rootsweb is what will Ancestry do with the site in the future. I have my tree in there.
Several years ago I added a few obits/death notices to Rootsweb, in the Australia and New Zealand Records.
When searching for them a few weeks ago I could not locate them.
Mick
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I've just been listening to a lawyer on the radio who says we need to write all our on-line intellectual property into our will so we can say what we want to happen to it when we are gone. Especially if we have photos, stories and articles on the net, as they are our property and as part of our estate they need to be dealt with.
He mentioned FaceBook, Twitter and blogs, but suppose this would include Genealogy sites too.
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crikey.. 'online intellectual' and facebook ;D ;D ;D
(sorry)
xin
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crikey.. 'online intellectual' and facebook ;D ;D ;D
(sorry)
xin
LMAO - all my friends do on FB is play those stupid gaves like "Farmsville" and they say I'm sad coz I go hunting for dead people :o ::) ;D
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LMAO - all my friends do on FB is play those stupid gaves like "Farmsville" and they say I'm sad coz I go hunting for dead people :o ::) ;D
Oh no, that makes me stupider/sadder because I play games on FaceBook AND hunt for dead people.
;D or should that be :(
Les
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I wonder if the farm you build on Farmsville can be willed to someone else when you die? mmm food for thought!
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I thought Facebook claimed to own everything you put on it? I'm not joining though I received an invite recently, I gather they can get into your address book - no way.
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I joined FB to be able to pop on and say hello to my daughters and grandkids, which was smashing... Occasionally being involved in a part of their lives, and seeing pics that Nans and Moms are usually excluded from..
Lately though its attraction for my daughters has dwindled... and it seems to be just the younger ones .. as you say playing games...
So I go on to see whats happening... and get... posts like ... I'm bored..... nothing exciting..
ah well.. Just have to go back to visiting them ;D :D ;)
xin
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My original thought was to find someone to carry on with the research but maybe adding my tree to An****try might be more of an answer especially if the ownership can be passed on as well.
It did make me think just why we all do it and why we try and bring those dry dusty bits of paper alive by wanting to add "meat to the bones" and find out just how our ancestors lived.
Still there doesnt seem to be a definitive answer to my filing cabinet final destiny.
Barry
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When you think of it we all have our hobbies and usually when you die your hobby goes with you??I think my eldest son will keep what I have but I am afraid my other two sons won't want it. I just hope it dosn't go on the skip along with all the photo's that my grandparent's had, because I would of loved them now.
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I have absolutely no idea what will happen with all my family tree stuff! None of my 3 children are interested, and as I'm an only child I have no-one else to leave it to :'(
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Even though you think none of your family are interested now, it's quite likely that one or other of them will become interested when they get older. If we are honest, I think most of us only started to look into our family history from our middle age onwards. I'm so cross that I didn't ask my grandparents and parents more about their history while they were alive. Don't throw it away, whatever you do!
Gillg
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If we are honest, I think most of us only started to look into our family history from our middle age onwards. [...]
I agree. There are a few who start young, but most of us needed a "kick-start" (significant event) in later life to get us going.
If you have kids, then
Don't throw it away, whatever you do!
, just pack everything away in a box (or leave instructions for this) and hand it on to your children with the instructions to either look at it when they have the urge, or to pass it on to their kids, when they start to have questions about where they came from.
Otherwise, it's as sue1950 says, we all have our hobbies! We get our pleasure out of them but we can't demand that others do, too. If it dies with us, then it dies with us. Sad, but then our children or childrens' children also get the chance to say -- as we do -- "if only I'd thought to ask them then ..." ;D
Bob
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I agree with GillG & Bob, it is a treasure, and some one down the track-maybe many years from now will say WOW, look at this, isn't it great.
Yes, I also wish I had questioned more family members before they passed on, but we can't turn back the clock, just gain more and more of the future and pass this on.
Trish :)
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Don't forget, by the way, to write the names of people on the back of their photos - I have a whole albumful of old photos of bewhiskered gents and crinolined ladies, and I can only name a few of them. I don't think even my mother knew some of them, so they remain anonymous.
Gillg
(later) Actually. don't write on the backs of the photos, as it may show through, but apply a small sticky label and write on that. :)
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The best places to send your genealogy information is the the Records Office nearest to you.
A lot of people in one society are finding out that work that was donated is being disposed of ie put up for sale.
At least in the Records Office the work would be held for the use of others.
I do know that I offered my library of valuable history books including some first editions to a Society I belonged to and was told they didn't want them but were interested in any information I had on cd's etc., I presume these would be scanned and put online.
Sophie
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I am slowly preparing for that inevitable day ::)
-produced one book, another on the way.
-created a web site
-storing on cd and passing on to family members.
-giving details of family to local history groups
Then, hopefully, all of my 'stuff' that has been accumulating has been distributed in one form or another and I won't be turning in my grave worrying about all my work ;D
Margaret
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and I won't be turning in my grave worrying about all my work
No, you'll be turning in your grave wondering if they got your name right on the death cert. ;D
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;D ;D so true falcybe
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I'm still new to researching family history, but was just this week delighted to be able to pass on the information I have accumulated (with the help of kind folk here) to one of the daughters of my grandmother's sister who has just started her own research quest.
I think that the best thing to do is to share information as widely as possible within the family so that it is less likely to be lost... plus, if you record information in a multitude of different mediums and places, then you won't risk losing everything to fire, flood, etc.
I find the idea of a whole room full of information exciting... I hope I have even a fraction of that to pass on as a legacy some day.
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I've been looking into my family history for years but it's only in last couple of days that I started to look through my grandad's research which was left to me when he died 5 years ago.
He left computer files, but I can't access them due to the format they are saved in. Luckily, everything is in paper format and highly organised. Everything is referenced and cross referenced.
However, the best thing about it is his little jokes/ comments and questions to himself as well as seeing his handwriting. Would definitely recommend leaving things in paper format as well as online (although, decendants would need passwords).
My next job is to scan the family photos and find out from older living relatives who they are so that as many people in the family can have them as possible.
Kim