Genealogy Files, Include Them in Your Will

By Debra DuPree Williams @DDuPreeWilliams

Last week I told you about helping my sister clean out a lifetime of this and that. She had lots of books. Seems a passion for books is a genetic trait. Who knew? But I must say that I am not in the least surprised. Her collection looks like one bookshelf-full compared to my overflowing, still-need-more, hoard.

As I returned home with all of the treasures she had given to me, including her entire collection of C.S. Lewis, I happened upon a Facebook post about what to do with your genealogy in terms of who gets it. Well . . . one thing we didn’t tackle at Sis’s was all the boxes of genealogy papers.

Yes, folks. I said papers, not digital files. 

It's In the Bottom Box

Sis and I are old enough to have begun our genealogy searches before we had computers, the internet for searches, prior to Ancestry even. So, she and I are each the proud owners of box upon box of paper genealogy files. I know. Come into the twenty-first century. Believe me, I hear you.

She and I share one other trait if you want to call it that. Each of us prefers a piece of paper in hand rather than a digital file any day of the week. And yes, if you just shook your head and pondered why, we understand. But we like doing things the old-fashioned way. 

Be of Help-Take a DNA Test

To make my point—on one of my family pages today folks were posting about what a mess their trees have become with people able to change your hard-earned and researched data to fit either their agenda or to fit with the data they have. Now, I don’t mind sharing my trees, but I warn everyone, my trees have many errors along with some very good data. My family, especially on Mama’s side, is a very convoluted one. The jury is still out on many of the lines leading down to mine. I can’t fill it in with facts at this time as we don’t know what they are . . . until we have more people do DNA tests.

If you have that tree on paper, you can manage it yourself and add to and take away without anyone else messing with it. I like that idea.

Put it in Your Will

But I digress. The suggestion FB made was to name in your will, a beneficiary of all your genealogy research. I hadn’t thought of doing that exact thing, only asking our sons which of them would want to fool with the many boxes in our spare bedroom. But if you name them in a will, at least you’ve done your part in keeping your hard work for a while. It likely won’t make its way to a burn pile or the recycle bin. Today, anyway.

If you’ve made a will as my husband and I have, in most states, I think all you and I will need to do is add a codicil at the end naming the person who is to take possession of the years of work you’ve put into tracing your family lines. Will they keep your work? Who knows, but as I said, you’ve done your part. But do consider digitizing your papers. I’m working on that now. It will make it all the more likely your years of research will not be tossed with yesterday’s recycle items.  

Are you like Sis and me—the proud owner of many boxes of genealogy papers? Have you made plans for their future? Share your thoughts with us. 

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