Showing posts with label no heirs for your genealogy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label no heirs for your genealogy. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 31, 2021

Coming Soon: Second Edition of Planning a Future for Your Family's Past













September 1 is publication day! 

I'm releasing a new, thoroughly updated edition of my popular genealogy book, Planning a Future for Your Family's Past.

The new table of contents is:

  • Chapter 1: Organized storage for your genealogy collection
  • Chapter 2: Organize your photos, images, and movies
  • Chapter 3: Organizing digital files and emails
  • Chapter 4: Inventory and index your genealogy collection
  • Chapter 5: Record your family tree
  • Chapter 6: Family artifacts: keep or give away?
  • Chapter 7: Find outside homes for artifacts
  • Chapter 8: Who wants your genealogy collection?
  • Chapter 9: Write your genealogical "will"
  • Chapter 10: No obvious heirs? Try these ideas
  • Chapter 11: Keep family history alive for the future
The paperback version is now available through Amazon.com (US, UK, Canada). Later in September, the paperback will be available at  AmericanAncestors.org

As of September 1, Amazon is accepting preorders for the digital book, to be released on September 15.

Please watch for more details to come. Thank you!

Sunday, January 17, 2021

No Heirs for Your Family History? Recap



Ken Thomas, the longtime genealogy columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, suggested I write about what to do if you have no obvious heirs for your family history. 

Based on his suggestion, I wrote a four-part series earlier this month. Here is a quick recap of ideas for how to donate or preserve your family's history for the sake of future generations. 

Background before making decisions

Before you make any final decisions, please read this page from the Society of American Archivists about donating your collection as a whole. Also look at this informative Family Search wiki page about what to do with a genealogy collection. If needed, I urge you to seek professional advice about particularly valuable, quite historic, uniquely specialized, older/archeological, or extremely fragile items in your collection.

Ideas for what to do

In Part 1, I wrote about trying to coordinate your preservation efforts with cousins and other relatives. Someone may be willing to accept all or part of your genealogy collection and keep it safe. In particular, consider how to safeguard some photos and memorabilia of family members without direct descendants--"no cousin left behind." And if you have fine china or silver, offer a place setting or a teaspoon or a teacup to each of your relatives.

In Part 2, I explained the process for identifying potential institutions that might be interested in accepting artifacts and/or possibly some of your genealogy materials. Each institution has its own collection priorities and procedures, so it's important to understand what each museum, library, archive, society, or university is interested in collecting and studying. For more about the actual donation process, see my post here.

In Part 3, I wrote about looking at your collection from the perspective of non-family eyes on your family's history. Neatness counts! Organization is the key, including a written family tree and other documents to help researchers navigate your collection and understand what it contains.

In Part 4, I discussed how to summarize the scope and significance of your family-history collection. Focus on how your ancestors' lives might be of interest to an institution and other researchers. Whether or not you donate any of your materials, do consider offering your family-tree information to an institution. 

Thanks so much to Ken Thomas for suggesting that I cover this very important and very timely topic.

For more about how to plan to keep your genealogy collection safe for the future, please check out my best-selling book, Planning a Future for Your Family's Past. Updated in Sept 2021!