Ancestry Magazine

Preserve the records you want to pass on so that they can bring joy to your descendants for generations to come.

There are times when I want to grasp the ghosts of my ancestors and shake their stories out of them. I get greedy and want to know everything they did, from sunup to sundown and maybe in between. I want to know their jobs, their fights, how they laughed, what they ate, what they dreamed, and how they built their futures.

At the same time, I’m not sure I want my great-grandchildren knowing everything about me. But it’s important to think about—and possibly take action now to control the artifacts and information—just what my descendants will find.

As family historians, we spend a lot of time and zeal deciphering the paths of ancestors. Yet what are we leaving behind from our own lives for the people who come after us? In this day of digital photos, e-mail, and throw-away possessions, exactly what will our descendants discover about us? Today, we’re seldom content with just names, dates, and places—we seek tangible, nostalgic evidence like a letter, a photograph, a family heirloom, or even a signature on a dusty old deed. But will our descendants feel that same sense of nostalgia when they find a plethora of e-mails and uncataloged digital pictures on a dusty old hard drive?

It’s the Thought—and the Record It Spawned—That Counts
Whenever I reach an impasse in my research, I like to bring out family diaries and photos or wear my grandmother’s jewelry. Silly as it might seem, these surviving artifacts help me feel closer to my past. And there’s a good chance that they’ll do the same for my descendants.

Finding someone’s vital records isn’t always a challenge. As researchers today, we’re fortunate to have very old government documents with modern indexes, transcriptions, and digital copies that preserve the data for the future. Plus, we have exceptional ways to conserve things, and the liberty and foresight to make choices about what we preserve.

As for tomorrow’s researchers, we know that they will probably have access to impersonal documents that track our lives like census records, vital records, and court documents. They’ll also have deeds, probates, baptismal records, and everything else a government or church official has maintained throughout recent history—even modern records like speeding tickets. There will be cemetery stones and monuments to visit. And since more of us attended college than did our ancestors, our school records will probably be easier to find.

We are in an era where very little is private, and a lot is saved on someone else’s computer. So much of what we do today is tracked and recorded that there will be many options—highway toll passes, gas cards—to enable our descendants to find us in a specific time or location. Technological advances mean that every place we register our names—in a courthouse, online, for a magazine subscription, at a doctor’s office—there is a record of who we are, where we live, and all manner of details right down to our childhood pet’s name, that, accurate or not, someone e lse finds important.

Say, for example, you use a drugstore, supermarket, or office store rewards card—your purchases and preferences are saved somewhere in a corporate database. One-hundred years from now, will there be a subscription database announcing your penchant for Doritos? While most of these programs have privacy policies, what if somehow they become public record in another seventy years? I can see my granddaughter reading through my records . . . “Gosh, Grandma sure liked her chardonnay.”

Gifts that Keeps on Giving
Beyond consumer tracking, courthouse, cemetery, and church documents, the most meaningful trail we leave today is very similar in content to the most meaningful trail our ancestors left us—for me, that would be jewelry and family diaries. And fortunately, what happens to these personal records is very much under our control.

Today our photographs and letters are usually found online or on our computers as digital images and e-mail. And, although we’re saving more mementos than our ancestors did, it’s often because we have more stuff available to save. Does this mean the sentimental value of these artifacts is somewhat diluted? Not only do we have possessions stored in the attic, garage, or, if very unique or valuable, in a safe archive somewhere, we also have hordes of electronic files and folders that we innocently trust will last forever. The issue really becomes how much will our descendants want.

We like to think that people will be interested enough in us as an ancestor that they’ll want every scrap of our life story saved. But it is the special letters, the happy, telling photographs, the handwritten note, a handmade quilt, and our thoughts, typed or written, that will become truly meaningful to them.

We are in control of what is saved and we have modern means to preserve our own legacies. Explore ways to save your image, your voice, and your talents for future generations. Print important e-mails (techn ology will change), tape and transcribe an oral history, photocopy documents you fear may be forgotten. It may also be a good time to have your DNA profile taken for genealogical reasons.

A few years ago I started a file of comments and accolades where I place anything significant that others have taken the time to say about me or my family. It’s one thing to write your own story, but it’s often the comments of others that tell the best tale.

It’s our unique possessions that give life to our trail and traditions. There are many websites as well as resources at your local library or historical society to help you secure digital backups, archive personal papers properly, and understand the correct way to take care of items you value.

We are fortunate to have the time, resources, and desire to leave good and unique things for the future. And not only do we want to preserve what we created, we also have an obligation to preserve the things we discover from our own families’ pasts.

The Library of Congress describes ways to preserve collections of materials. If you’re considering leaving your genealogy or family papers to an archive, read A Guide to Donating Your Personal or Family Papers to a Repository, published by The Society of American Archivists. Also check for articles by Maureen A. Taylor in the Learning Center at Ancestry.com for guidance regarding preserving photographs and personal papers.

Remember, someday you will be the “ancestor” that someone else wants to know more about. While your trail will probably be more prolific and easier to track than the trails left by the ancestors you’re currently tracking, it will probably also be more cluttered. Take some time, a little foresight, and plenty of care so you can save the sentimental and unique materials of your mor tal years (the government and other institutions will save the not-so-sentimental stuff). Preserve the records you want to pass on so that they can bring joy to your descendants for gene-rations to come.

The Trail You’re Leaving, Intentionally
• Birth, marriage, divorce, death records in government offices
• Birth, marriage, divorce, death, and burial records in church offices
• Real estate records
• Tax records
• Car registrations and most other dealings with the government
• Census
• DNA tests
• Letters, diaries, e-mail correspondence
• Photos
• Yearbooks (and that awkward class picture from 9th grade)
• Artifacts, heirlooms, and mementos
• School records at all levels
• Vanity press, memoirs, and other personal publications
• Newspapers
• Corporate newsletters
• Phone books

The Trail You’re Leaving, Unintentionally
• Your movements through toll plazas using electronic toll passes—and even without electronic toll passes as photos and video are usually captured
• Retail rewards cards
• Internet searches
• Webcams
• ATM transactions (Watch Law & Order or any CSI show, and you’ll see the tricky ways they uncover identities—usually perfectly legal)
• Patriot Act information
• The hard drive on your computer, if it outlives you

Whose Privacy Is It Anyway?
How do privacy laws affect our trails? I posed the question to Dick Eastman, a friend, colleague, and blogger well-known for reporting on genealogical trends:

The reality is that we all live in a fish bowl. Computers have made it easier to capture and analyze data and that is often construed as a lessening of privacy. What most people forget is that the data was being collected and analyzed long before computers, and today’s laws actually have reduced the amount of snooping that is going on.

If I live an honest and open life with nothing to hide, why should I worry about privacy? My life, your life, the lives of our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents were always visible to everyone. That is the American tradition.