Preserving the past
What will happen to your genealogical research? This is a question most genealogists never consider.
Many will acknowledge their children aren’t interested in genealogy or any of the accumulated material they’ve assembled over years of research into the family. They aren’t sure what to do with their materials and somehow hope things will turn out okay and perhaps a child will develop an interest.
This can be a vain hope. Just look at items for sale on e-bay or in “trash and treasure” shops where you’ll find family photos, documents, and even bibles for sale by strangers.
My aunt by marriage had a mother I’ll call Eleanor who was a well known researcher here in Maine. She’d published articles and was highly respected in the field and when she died she left years of research including unique material and interviews she hadn’t had time to publish. My cousins weren’t interested so my aunt never thought to ask me for advice and gave all the files, photos, and pedigree charts to an elderly man who had asked Eleanor for help with his research. He didn’t live long and when my aunt contacted his family to try to retrieve her mother’s work she was told they’d simply tossed all the genealogy “stuff” because no one cared about it.
It was a black day for genealogy in general and several well-known Maine family lines in particular. Some of that information cannot be duplicated.
If you haven’t considered what to do with your research I do recommend you give this some thought. If your children aren’t “into” genealogy I suggest you don’t burden them with unwanted information that they may just haul away to the nearest landfill. If you’ve put in years of extensive research don’t let it all be lost.
There are several places for you to contact to see if they would take your collection. Some examples include your local library or historical society, the Maine State Library, the University of Maine Special Collections, the Maine Historical Society, and even the New England Genealogical Society in Boston. All of these will have different rules and criteria for accepting material but if you have an extensive collection with original documents one or more will probably welcome your genealogical items with open arms.
If you feel you’ll be depriving a descendant who will someday want to review the collection remember your materials will be safe and accessible to any of your descendants who are interested and indeed to any one of your line who is doing research.
Whatever you do, if you have a really large number of documents and data on your family or families don’t risk it being destroyed, lost, or sold one piece at a time. Protect it.
Anyone who has researched such a collection in an archive or library has given thanks to the person who made sure that material would be available for the future and I urge you to ensure yours is not destroyed.
Columnist Nancy Battick of Dover-Foxcroft has researched genealogy for over 30 years. She is past president of the Maine Genealogical Society. Reader emails are welcome at nbattick@roadrunner.com. Her semimonthly column is sponsored by the Aroostook County Genealogical Society which meets the fourth Monday of the month except in July and December at the Caribou Library at 6:30 p.m. Guests are always welcome. FMI contact Edwin “J” Bullard at 492-5501.
