Author Topic: What to do with my family history  (Read 4387 times)

Offline a-l

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Re: What to do with my family history
« Reply #9 on: Friday 20 July 18 14:30 BST (UK) »
I would give it to the uninterested children , with the proviso that it is kept for the next generation.
I have found that somebody in each generation is interested and it would be a shame even criminal  ;D to deprive them of their history.
You never know, your own children may come to value it in the future.
Don't give it away , it belongs to your descendents !

Offline davidft

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Re: What to do with my family history
« Reply #10 on: Friday 20 July 18 14:49 BST (UK) »
My Genealogy was on the old (steam locomotive) PAF. At least it was on something. I started to get nervous too so had it transferred to familysearch.org.



May I ask about the transferring to familysearch.org. Whilst I have always thought this was a good idea because of all the records they have made freely available to the public what puts me off is the suggestion I have seen made several times that whenever you upload data to the familysearch site anyone can amend it. Do you know anything about this please ?
James Stott c1775-1850. James was born in Yorkshire but where? He was a stonemason and married Elizabeth Archer (nee Nicholson) in 1794 at Ripon. They lived thereafter in Masham. If anyone has any suggestions or leads as to his birthplace I would be interested to know. I have searched for it for years without success. Thank you.

Offline Mike Morrell (NL)

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Re: What to do with my family history
« Reply #11 on: Friday 20 July 18 15:05 BST (UK) »
7 archive boxes seems like a lot of paper to me! More than I would have space for, anyway!

Like Martin, I suspect that you could pass on and share the results of your research more easily with family members, other researchers and organisations if it was 'digitised' as much as possible:

1. digitising any content (documents, notes, photos, certificates, etc.) that isn't yet in a digital form
2. making the content available in a way that different people can find the information they're interested in.

You could upload a Gedcom file (you can export one from tribalpages) for free to other websites like Ancestry and FamilySearch. Your basic tree data would then be available to a wider group of family researchers than on TribalPages. Message boards are useful too.

Software like FTM 2017 and RootsMagic7 is useful for importing Gedcom files, adding digital media and links to online documents, notes/stories, and publishing everything to Ancestry, FamilySearch or your own website.

Having a website (too) might give you the most flexibility in 'telling your story' and making documents available. You could provide links to longer (PDF) documents stored either on the website or stored separately 'in the cloud'. You could include links to your on-line trees and include a link to your website in your on-line 'profiles'.

As Martin suggests, it would be ideal to enlist the help of a internet-savvy student/volunteer in this.
Mike

When you have backed-up copies of your 'digitised archive', you can better assess which documents have value in their current physical form and which ones could be removed (and printed out again from the digital version if necessary).

Mike






Photo restorers may re-use and improve on my posted versions. Acknowledgement appreciated.

Offline salt

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Re: What to do with my family history
« Reply #12 on: Friday 20 July 18 21:18 BST (UK) »
Thanks for all these suggestions, lots of food for thought -I think I will start warning our offspring that they need to find some space.

Salt
BRE: Price, Williams
CMN: Lewis, Smith, Coslet, Morris
GLA: Glasbrook, Lewis (of Gorseinon)
GLS: Wooles, Phelps, Beard, Broadstock, Burgum, Prothero
HUN: Bird, Chester, Dunmore, King, Read
MON: Wooles
ERY: Smith, Bell, Woolf, Sutton
USA (Utah): Read (Smithfield), Lewis (Goshen); Kansas: Lewis
AUST (Victoria): Lewis


Offline Gone

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Re: What to do with my family history
« Reply #13 on: Saturday 08 September 18 01:30 BST (UK) »
I've got the same dilemma, who to give mine to.
Just one family name in particular, I have 5 lever arch files full of documents, letters, post cards, lots of bmd's, photos....and endless amounts of records. Several years in the making.
I'm very tempted to give mine to a fhs that exists in the town where this family came from, and I know that some members also have an interest in this family, some even related.
It's a tough decision to make.

Offline lizdb

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Re: What to do with my family history
« Reply #14 on: Monday 10 September 18 09:57 BST (UK) »
I wouldn't replace the paper stuff you have with "technology".  Technology changes - whatever format you would use to save the info in now, will be obsolete in time.  Just looking at fairly recent years, stuff saved on "floppy disc" is now useless, then came CDs, then the internet. Stuff one had stored only continued to be stored providing the means by which it is stored was frequently updated.  So if no one has any interest for a while - the means of storage becomes obsolete and the information impossible or at least challenging, to retrieve. I am sure in time the internet as we know it will be replaced by something else and people will reminisice about "old fashioned gedcom files" in the same way as we think of Sinclair Spectrum 'computers' running with a cassette tape!

Your descendents are must more likely to be fascinated by finding a box of long lost papers outlining their ancestry in the attic, which they can immediately flick through and read - than by some form of technology that is outdated - eg if in a generation or twos time a box of floppy discs was found when clearing out a house, it would probably go straight in the bin.Or if stuff was saved "on the internet" and the whole concept of the internet had changed during years when no one was interested in Family History, then the info would all be gone.  Even if it wasn't (and I am sure it will be!) then a descendent in a future generation would only find it if they had an interest and went looking - whereby finding that old box in the attic might just spark an interest that otherwise would never have been.
Edmonds/Edmunds - mainly Sussex
DeBoo - London
Green - Suffolk
Parker - Sussex
Kemp - Essex
Farrington - Essex
Boniface - West Sussex

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