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Preserving Your Family History Legacy --
What Happens after You're Gone?

Most genealogists seem to think that "doing" their genealogy will never be over. When you consider all the unexplored branches of the family tree and the remote possibility that the next surfing of the Internet will bring the clue that unlocks a door in the brick wall that has proven impenetrable for decades, you never want to give up and quit. But just as surely as the sun rises in the morning, some future day will see an end to your personal genealogical efforts.

The most obvious event that will put a stop to your work is your death. We may not like to talk about our own deaths, but they will come whether or not we are prepared. There are also many medical conditions that may halt the work on the family tree, among them major injury, stroke, and mental illness. We may think that "someone" will come along to carry on the work that we have started, but there is no need to leave this possibility to chance. Your work is probably too valuable for you to count on that.

A Bad Nightmare

The genalogist's worst nightmare would occur after the beautiful eulogies and after tears have been shed, and the family takes a look into the office and sees the pile of boxes filled overflowing with un-indexed,handwritten genealogy notes, old pictures, copies of old wills and certificates, pages copied from old books, and voluminous correspondence with numerous librarians, courthouse clerks, church vicars, and mysterious distant cousins.

Finally, someone asks, "Do any of you want this junk?" The room is so quiet that you would be able to hear the brainwaves coming from each relative in the room. The silence continues for what seems like a short eternity. Finally, that spokesperson shrugs and says, "I think I'll have the trash people send over a dumpster this week." Then the lady in the black dress says, "My neighbor has an antique store, and she buys old pictures like these. Some people like to decorate with them. They sell for a few dollars each."

Preventive Actions

A few actions can be taken now to guarantee that a scene like this will never happen with your genealogical notes and records.

Choose a Successor

Who in the family is interested in genealogy? You want someone who is neat and orderly and who can be careful in preserving the fragile letters and pictures that can easily be damaged. You may want to have a team carry on the work. A family organization, if successful, will see that someone preserves the records, someone carries on genealogical research, and that the family hisotry is published for all to enjoy.

It is possible that you may have no close relatives to take the records. In this case, you m ay know of more distant relatives, such as cousins or even second cousins, who would be interested. This happened in my family when a distant cousin decided to retire and devote the remainder of his life to publishing a book on the family. When he realized that his health would not permit completion of the project, he passed the records to my second cousin, son of his second cousin. This second cousin finished publication of the book.

Database Availability

Make your database available to the family. Your database is more likely to survive if copies are distributed. Copies can be sent to family members who have software to use and who enjoy the family history. Your may say it is not ready; in that event, label it "preliminary copy." You can always do an update. If you have the resources in your family to maintain a family history Web site, you may want to consider this as an additional means of distribution.

Another type of distribution is to post your information in a public archive like the Ancestral File, the Pedigree Resource File, or the World Family Tree. Many family historians want to avoid public archives that charge a fee for accessing the data. Posting the data on a public archive offers a number of advantages to the family: The data are protected by backup to prevent catastrophic loss.

By posting the data, you receive free advertising of the fact that you are interested in the family history and would like to correspond with others. You are likely to receive additional information and corrections as a result.

You can refer anyone requesting family history data to an Internet site to get the data rather than copying data and sending disks.

Consideration of Privacy

Provision should be made to prevent access to information about living family members. It may be easier to separate and seal records of living individuals. What is called for her is guarantee of privacy from those outside the family and from other members of the family. Files or documents containing private information should be so marked.

Placing Extensive Collections

A large collection of research material will help other genealogists if it is available to them. You may want a library or historical society to be the recipient of the records. This is often done with the records of a genealogist who has done work for other families. You should do some checking to see whether or not the organization is financially strong enough to be around for the next few generations. You may have feelings about their policies regarding access to the material by the publid. Reputable organizations will explain their bylaws, policies, and financial status.

Retain Ownership?

The family may choose to retain ownership of the records with the right to take possession of the records at some future time when they make the records publicly available. This may be an important consideration for a family with a large organziation that is considering establishing its own office and library at some future date. For a loan of the records to an organization, you will need a conract that stipulates who is to represent the family and specifies the terms of the loan and conditions for terminating the loan. Considering the value of the genealogical materials, you should have your attorney review any agreement before you sign it, and notify your family to be sure there is no contention, to avoid later legal problems.

Your plans for a successor as keeper of the records should be made known to all parties involved, so that a plan is executed as you decide. If everyone knows the plan and agrees, there will be no problems when you can no longer oversee the records.

Index Essential

Before you give your records to anyone, they should be sorted and indexed. This could be done as a family project, or done by you. Without an index, there is now way other researchers can know what is in the collection, nor could they find anything without paging through the whole mess. The easiest way to tackle the organization is to sort the material by family. Any remaining material can be sorted by subject or by location. Individual files for each category can then be made with a master list of all the files. The list would have a detailed description of the subject of each file. Each file should also have a list of documents within that file. Numbering the documents and ordering them make it possible to check for lost or misplaced documents.

Separate Certificates, Pictures, and Heirlooms

Old pictures, original certificates, letters, and heirlooms such as samplers, family Bibles, and ancestral portraits are family treasures. They are originals and cannot be replaced. Preservation of these items is handled much differently than preservation of information that can be computerized, copied, and distributed. You may want to insure these items against catastrophic damage or theft. Ownership should remain within the family. These treasures should be available to show to younger family members as they become old enough to appreciate their significance and value. For these reasons, you should consider their preservation separately from the research data.

Decode Your Records

After a collection is indexed, you should add notes, where needed, to help others understand what an item is or why i is in the collection. Pictures are often a problem if names of the people and dates of pictures ae not recorded on the backs of the pictures. (Please use pencil if you add them on the back, and write lightly.) You may have collected information about someone with no obvious connection to your family. That connection or possible connection may be only in your head. You may have occasion to explain that you collected information you thought was related to your family but later found that it was not.

Rather than throwing out the information, you can retain it in the collection and hope that someone else may use it. You may want to add notes about where information ws obtained, if that is not already documented in your notes or abstracts. If you are not there to answer questions, notes are the next best source of answers for relatives who are wondering about some confusing bit of information or about a person in a picture.

Sort out Junk

If you absent-mindedly include an item such as a bus schedule or restaurant menu from one of your research trips, someone looking through the records may spend days trying to connect it with one of the families in the file. Trying to establish significance where there is none is enough to give a curious person ulcers. Items that have no genealogically useful information should be discarded or stored elsewhere, to avoid confusion.

Use Standard Practices

Some genealogists have adopted the attitude that "my genealogy is only f9or me, and I can do it any way I want." These individuals may invent cryptic codes, use unusual methods of recording data, or take shortcuts that can be guaranteed to drive other genealogists into a frenzy when they try to use the data. These practices are not expected and are sure to confuse. You may do things your way, but you will make no friends when others look at your work. As for me, I want to be remembered with a smile after I am gone.

Conclusion

Just as the family goes on generation after generation after we die, we can give our genealogy research that same degree of immortality by making its value visible and by seeing that there are successors to care for our records. The effort needed to ensure preservation of the records is quite small compared to their intrinsic value. No matter what your age and no mater how little research you have done, you can start by recruiting a successor to take possession of the records, should you be unable to continue. Then you can proceed to put them in proper order and to make it a habit to keep them that way.