General Chat

Assuming that, as we are all on this site, we share this common interest.

And also assuming that, like myself, you have accumulated both on hard copies and electronically lots of information regarding your family tree. Personally I have 4 Lever arch style folders full of hard copies of certificates etc, a 12x12 scrap book of photos in family tree pages and loads of stuff on a flash drive and a duplicate hard drive, plus the familyTree of course.

Do you know what is going to happen to all you have collected when you 'pass on'? So far I have not found anyone in my immediate family who has shown any interest. I hope maybe one of the Grandchildren will be interested in taking it on but who knows?

I wonder if the present young and future generations will have any interest in knowing where they 'come from'. We live in such a throw away society youngsters don't seem interested in the past, only the here and now and maybe the future.

Will all our hard work be in vain do you think?

Actually they will never know the excitement that we had when all of a sudden a lot of information became available on the internet. They will take it for granted that they can sit at a computer and find it all out. But then they won't know the pleasure of visiting places to find information.

What will happen to your collection?

I have a granddaughter of 9 who has helped me with the tree for a while now if only in small ways. She is like me and her Uncle who adore anything Historical so methinks she will take it on with his help but we shall see :-).

I don't have anyone to pass it onto - no children and one nephew (who is adopted and is not interested in locating his 'blood family' or the history of his adoptive one!)

However I just do it because I love it, actually some of my cousins are now quite interested now that they have more time on their hands, with kids grown up and approaching retirement!

One of my nephews (in his thirties) has shown an interest - as has my 15 year old grand daughter.
I'm hoping (when funds allow) to give my sister and two brothers copies of everything I have - granny was a great hoarder, I even have her first HP agreement, and the amount of documentation keeps growing when I find Army Records, Prison records etc :-S
The thing is, as we grow older, more 'stuff' will be available, so it's a never ending hobby that can be passed on :-D :-D :-D
Oh - and we must all have 'brick walls' for others to break down :-D

My son has helped me a lot, even taking me to record offices and places where our ancestors lived. I hope he will look after my research, but he is not married and does not have children so not sure after that.

My other son is married with a son but after he got married I gave him lots of personal things of his (baptism certificate, sports certificates, etc.) and they all went in the bin because they didn't want to keep "stuff", so I don't think they will be keen to take my "stuff".

I've told my younger son that he can give it all to a local family history society if they will take it.

Kath. x

I do have a cousin on my Dad's side who is also into FH and we have shared info but She is almost the same age as me and I don't think her children are interested.

Sheila, I don't mean I wish I hadn't started, it would just be the icing on the cake to know somebody was going to take it all on. Once I am gone it is not going to bother me, but if we have to downsize (and we are in our late 70s now and won't go on for ever) my mind turns to wondering what will happen to it all.

As previously mentioned try the local History Society as if like ours we are always grateful to receive such things in our Archive.

Dan will get it ( whether he wants it or not lol). he is mildly interested when I tell him things, but has other more important things on his mind just yet.

I am not organised as many are, but have my tree online and enough paperwork to sink a ship. The photos I have and can names to are fairly organised in an old Victorian album ( given to my grandmother by a young admirer) and a suitcase has all the other bits, 'In memoriam' cards etc.

I think my nephew's children may one day be interested as they are Australian, so it would be a link to their dad's birthplace. but they are only babes yet.

Hopefully, and how many years have I said this now, I will get a written up family history and throw in the more interesting bits that might grab someone's attention enough to want to hold on to it :-)

A slight alternative to the OP - I worked for a small Insurance Company, in London & then in Devon for a total of 34 years. On average, it employed about 100 individuals at any one time. Some stayed for a short number of years while a sizable group, like myself, stuck it out through thick & thin until pension age.

On retirement, I started to list, as best I could, the names of fellow employees who came & went over those many years. Where I remembered, I also included their starting year & the Dept.

To date, I have a list of 1,870.

At our annual reunion, my list is always on prominent display for all to peruse as if it was the 'Holy Grail'. The crowd hover around reminiscing as anxious & numerous as flies in an open field gather around a warm freshly dropped cow-pat!

No reunion passes without additional names being added & the occasional death notified. Surprisingly, a fair few marriages occurred from within staff colleagues. A mum & dad plus their two sons worked with us at one time.

Happy pre-Brexit days!

My family have become more interested, the more scandals I find!!

I'm also putting selections of 'things' in large frames, like copies of photos, various types of letter received during the war, birthday and Christmas cards, ration books etc. I found some menus from the families' two returns from Malta. The Empire Windrush menus surround a copy of my very harassed mum with my two brothers (aged 19 months and 7 months), there's also a telegram from dad to gran telling her when the ship will dock. The SS Devonshire menus are on their own in a frame - my sister has any photos from that journey, and can't find the album.

These framed items are hung on the stairwell, where the sun never shines :-D
No point in having them, if they're stuffed away in a box, it also makes it easier to 'store' them.

As I have no children of my own one of my nephews has shown real
interest especially in the last year so all my work and information
will go to him <3

I Have a daughter that would take it now but all my "Family History "is going to Derbyshire Family History as I have already asked them if they would like it with all certs and paperwork going back to 1400's

So Will make sure they get it before daughter does.

FH societies are a possibility but which one I wonder? Could be Hampshire, Devonshire, Somerset, Dorset or Derbyshire. Hmm!

Ann which ever one your parents grandparents came from.

All my Dad's family are from Derbyshire so that's where all my research is going

My son will probably take all my stuff, as he started it all, before it was all on line.

BUT - for many of us, the whole point of family history is the research required and the fun of finding things out. Handing all the hard work over means the recipient is overwhelmed with facts, figures and bits of paper!!

I know some won't agree, but that's my view. :-) :-)

Sue Those I listed are where parents/grandparents came from. :-)

Until recently I would have said that no one in my family was interested. Like Maggie they showed interest in the scandals but that was it. However my eldest son took a DNA test, bullied by his wife who was doing hers, and is now becoming interested.

I wrote my will sometime ago and said if no family members were interested then my tree and hard copy info should be passed to the Society of Genealogists.

Fingers now firmly crossed that number one son will stay interested enough to become the custodian of over 15 years of research :-)

Chris

I think my daughter (only child) will take it .............. but she's already said that she's not interested in "dry" family trees.

She wants to know the nitty gritty of the story line ....... where people lived, how they lived, what they did, how they got from A to B, etc.

That's the reason that I don't have a "normal" family tree ......... instead I have lots of pages on my computer of written detail on all the families for myself and OH.

I always hope to write it all up in some sort of understandable, readable fashion, but never get around to it ................. instead I get drawn into finding new things online (as well as helping other people!).


Not sure that any FH society would be interested in it because of the way it's set up!

My 15 year old grand daughter's father's family lived in the same place for so many years, (as ag labs) their family tree is in the local museum.

I jokingly asked my daughter 'How many of 'S's family have webbed toes?'
'Four of his cousins', was her reply :-S :-S :-S :-S
(so she'd already asked him this question!!)

Aaah - now't like family history :-D :-D :-D

:-D :-D :-D


It seems that my Dad's family had "funny" little toes ........... they seem to be missing one tiny bone.

I certainly have them. Brother's 3 daughters had/have them

I haven't asked the cousins, although I did once mention the "family toes", and there was a general nodding :-D