Family history what to do to pass it on

[mongoose2]

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

[aghadowey]

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').

[patrexjax]

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!    Pat

[Lydart]

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 ??

[Finley 1]

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

[gortonboy]

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 } 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 

[aghadowey]

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.

[falcybe]

Of course there are two ways of looking at it, or more if you are counting  

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/

[little alison]

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.