What to do with all your Genealogical Research upon your death.
I received this from fellow Lewis Co & Wayne Co, TN Genealogist, Jean Parsley. I am posting it here because so much genealogical data is destroyed each year by families that do not know what to do with the data you painstakingly collected throughout your lifetime. Now is the time to make sure that your loved ones know to whom or where you would like your years of research to go .
To my spouse, children, guardian, administrator and/or executor:
Upon my demise it is requested that you DO NOT dispose of any or all of my genealogical records, both those prepared personally by me and those records prepared by others which may be in my possession, including but not limited to books, files, notebooks or computer programs for a period of two years. During this time period, please attempt to identify one or more persons who would be willing to take custody of the said materials and the responsibility of maintaining and continuing the family histories. [If you know whom within your family or friends are likely candidates to accept these materials, please add the following at this point: “I suggest that the persons contacted regarding the assumption of the custody of these items include but not be limited to” and then list the names of those individuals at this point, with their addresses and telephone numbers if known]
In the event you do no find anyone to accept these materials, please contact the various genealogical organizations that I have been a member of and determine if they will accept some parts or all of my genealogical materials. [List of organizations, addresses and phone numbers at bottom; include local chapters, with their addresses, phone numbers and contact persons if available as well as state/national contact information and addresses]Please remember that my genealogical endeavors consumed a great deal of time, travel, and money. Therefore, it is my desire that the products of these endeavors be allowed to continue in a manner that will make them available to others in the future.
Signature ___________________________ Date ___________
Witness ____________________________ Date ___________
Witness ____________________________ Date ___________
Another thing to consider is creating a Digital Asset Checklist. This can let your loved ones know everything about your digital life and your digital genealogy life. A huge thing to include is those passwords!! It will be easier for your loved ones to delete accounts or stop subscriptions if they can get into the actual account.
Include things like your
- Hardware Devices Keep a list of your electronics and where they are located. Items that call under this would be cell phones, computers, tablets, Flash drives, and any backup drives.
- Email Accounts
- Social Media Accounts including but not limited to Facebook, Feedly, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube
- Web Pages and Blogs
- Paid Subscriptions for your genealogy websites like Ancestry, Fold3, FindMyPast, MyHeritage, Newspaper.com
- Free Content sites like BillionGraves.com, FindAGrave.com, FamilySearch.com
- Online Shopping sites Amazon, eBay, PayPal, are just three examples of thousands of online shopping sites out there.
- Online Communities like RootsWeb
- Digital and Print Photos where you store your photos online like Flickr, Photobucket, and Shutterfly.
- Notes AppleNotes, Evernotes, OneNote are three examples.
- File Hosting DropBox, Google Drive are two formats but there are others.
- Cloud Storage like iCloud.
- DNA Ancestry, FamilyTree DNA, 23 and Me, MyHeritageDNA
- eBooks iBook, Kindle, Nook are three of many.
Still need ideas for donating your research upon your death? Check out this site! Donating Your Personal or Family Records to a Repository
