Preserving Your Genealogy

At the recent National Genealogical Society conference, there was a lot of chatter about preserving your genealogical records after you’re gone.  I have to disagree with those that say if you don’t cite your work it will be tossed.  I don’t know about you, but my family could care less where I find what I find.  Unless the finder has been bitten by the genealogy bug, no one will understand the importance of citing and analyzing sources. 

That said, I’m definitely in favor of following the standards.  I think you should do the right thing but that is not going to save your years of effort from other destruction by surviving family members.  I firmly believe there is only 3 ways to make sure that your research is preserved but you must plan ahead:

• Donate your work locally and/or electronically so that future folks you don’t even know can benefit.  These are the people who will not value your work if you didn't follow the standards soundly.
• Publish now and get your work in as many hands as possible.  It’s quite simple to publish an eBook or you can print from whatever word processing program you use and have copies made at one of the big box office supply stores.  Just type "how to publish an eBook" in amazon.com's search engine and many free books are available to get you started.  The holidays are around the corner and who knows?!  A recipient might just get interested.
• Getting a family member hooked is not as difficult as it sounds.  The idea here is to match the living person's passion to an ancestor.  My kids could care less about their Great Grandma Elsie's china.  I understand that; we've used it for years as they've grown so it's not so special. Will it be preserved?  Most definitely, but it's just not that exciting to them.  On the other hand, they're into medicine and research so learning about the life of that great uncle doctor in the 1800's and a 5th great grandfather who was a chemist really gets them listening. The old tool box is a draw for our son while the old thread is a tie for my daughter to her 2 x's great grandmother.  An attachment develops when you can relate so find the connection and you're work is safe!