Take Care To Preserve Items With Special Meaning

You’ve been busily and happily collecting all sorts of names, dates and places and (hopefully) the documentation to prove those family connections. Documentation might include photos, books and artifacts.

So, have you given a thought to what might happen to your precious collection upon your death? I’d like to share some thoughts with you on How To Outlive Yourself.

Let me begin by asking a question. When you’ve visited flea markets, antique shops, garage sales and even thrift stores, where do you think all those wonderful little old items of whatever come from?

And hasn’t it broken your heart to see stacks of old family photos being sold for $1 each to collectors? And while you’re delighted to find an antique ricer, do you ever wonder who used it originally?

These wonderful treasures found at flea markets were some ancestor’s household items and special treasures. Somebody fashioned them, bought them, used them, loved them - and then what? The person died and some well-meaning relative came in and cleaned everything out and gave it all to a charity or held a huge garage sale. Wouldn’t it have been so much better if the owner of those treasures had identified them for his or her descendents?

There are two primary categories in genealogy gathering: paper and things.

The paper collection is obvious: pedigree charts, family group sheets, photos, birth records, military discharge papers, etc. etc.

The “things” category include pictures, clothing, toys, kitchen items and regular old doo-dads.

First, in my opinion, these tangible family heirlooms and treasures should never be packed away out of sight. How on earth will your children and grandchildren come to know and love that old doll, old ceramic pitcher or grandpa’s tools if they’re packed away in a trunk?

If your family never sees what these heirlooms mean to you, and if they aren’t given a chance to develop their own fondness for them, then you might as well toss them out now because when the time comes, your family surely will. Why would they revere and continue to store something that they have not learned to appreciate?

Sometimes these tangible treasures will be preserved and passed down “just cuz.” But most will be trashed. When you die and your kids come in to tidy up, they won’t have the time, the storage space, nor the desire to keep stuff they feel is meaningless.

So what to do? How about gathering all the really special things into one place in your home. How about creating a sort of family display or a bookcase of family artifacts?

Tell the stories about these family treasures often and invite your family to become intimate with them. Why not put labels or tags on the pieces?

Or, take pictures of your heirlooms, make a special album of them and include a history of each item and the people who originally owned them.

I have my grandmother’s antique doll (she received it about 1900 when she was 5) sitting in a child-sized rocker in my dining room. Heaven forbid the kids should play with it! But at least they know it is something special.

Same with the photos. Arrange these fabulous old photos in safe-storage albums and bring them out at every opportunity and let your descendants get to know their ancestors the only way they ever will.

So what about those paper records?

The safest thing to do is make copies, make copies, MAKE COPIES! See that everyone in your family has a copy. Save the information to computer floppy disks.

Who can forget our February floods and how we paled to see homes being completely devastated. Should a flood or fire destroy your home, you wouldn’t have to suffer twice if your brother had a copy of your genealogy work and records.

Perhaps you’ve already thought of this; maybe your albums, baby books, high school yearbooks, diaries, etc. are stored in one place in your home. But is it a safe place? What if the basement flooded? Is the top of the hall closet cool enough for proper photo and slide storage? What if you had just one hour’s warning to evacuate your home. What would you grab and how on earth could you grab it all?

Here’s a simple solution: Visit the fabric store and buy a few yards of the strongest, cheapest, ugliest stuff they have and sew it into a huge pillowcase. You could never carry all of your family archives in your arms, but you surely could toss them into a big bag and drag it out.

I urge you not to procrastinate doing this. You never know when disaster will strike.

I clearly remember TV coverage of a devastating fire a few summers back that began by the river and quickly spread towards a housing area on Spokane’s northwest side. On the evening news, a reporter thrust his microphone in the face of a man who was evacuating, getting into his car with an armload of - guess - CLOTHES!!!

Not meaning to poke fun at the distressed fellow, but he, No. 1, obviously didn’t have a game plan for such an emergency, and No. 2, couldn’t have rounded up all the really important things to save even if he had thought of it or had the time.

One last thing, what about your collected genealogy stuff, things you have spent years gathering as research aids that have nothing to do with your own family history? What’s to become of all that wonderful resource material? My husband assures me that he’ll come in with a shovel and dumptruck if I haven’t specified WHO is to come in and sort out the genealogy stuff that he knows and cares nothing about.

Perhaps we should write down - somewhere where our family can find it - the name of the one person who can come into our genealogy lair/office and sort out what is important family information and what should be donated to the local genealogy society. You’ll notice that leaves not one genealogical item to be tossed out!

Patricia Law Hatcher from Dallas, Texas, will be the guest speaker for the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society’s Spring Seminar on April 20, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., on the Crescent Court’s third floor.

Registration, if paid by April 1, is $22 for EWGS members, and $25 for non-members; after April 1, the cost for everyone is $25.

Lunch is included.

Hatcher will discuss “Evaluating Evidence,” “Looking Again,” “Techniques for Improvement” and “Understanding Land Platting.” Send your check to EWGS, P.O. Box 1826, Spokane, WA 99210-1826. Call Bette Topp, 467-2299. for more information.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Donna Potter Phillips The Spokesman-Review