Planning a Future for Your Family's Past: How to organize your genealogy materials, curate your collection, and preserve for future generations

by Marian Burk Wood

Keep your family’s past alive to pass to future generations! Old photos, documents, ancestors' stories, and artifacts are vital to understanding your family’s past—and they belong to your family’s future. This concise step-by-step guide will help you organize and pass your family history collection to future generations. Follow the PASS (1) Prepare by organizing materials, (2) Allocate ownership, (3) Set up a genealogical “will,” (4) Share with heirs. Whether you’re new to genealogy or have years of experience, you’ll find practical ideas for sorting and organizing family history materials, including sample forms and online resources for a head-start in putting your plan into action. Reviewed by Atlanta Journal Constitution genealogy columnist Ken "This is a useful book to help you think now about what your options are and how to get your research in shape." Reviewed by genealogy blogger Anna "Each chapter in Marian's book is filled with great tips from her many years of experience in taking these steps herself. She shares many resources and stories along the way, showing us by example that organizing isn't taking away precious time from research, it can actually help us in our research, leading to discoveries we might not otherwise make." Reviewed by genealogy blogger Wendy "Marian provides a PROCESS for making sure our years of hard work and treasures from our ancestors don’t end up in a landfill. With what Marian calls 'the PASS system,' the overwhelming job of getting our 'stuff' ready to pass on is made logical and manageable."

100 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 29, 2016

Reviews

[Georgene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short book with many helpful tips on how to organize all of your family history materials and how to make sure that the next generation knows what you have when you leave this earth to join your ancestors. I will keep this book in my library and refer to it often.

[Lyn JANILUINAS · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Resource!

An excellent resource book that I’m sure to reach for in the future. I especially enjoyed the tips on leaving a genealogical will. That’s an excellent idea!