Stefani Evans wrote a good column for the April 30, 2009 Las Vegas Sun about having out genealogy collections well organized and possibly even indexed ASAP – so that at our demise, all our work has some value – and our heirs might even be able to pass it on to a repository that can put it to use.
We are not immortal, and each of us will someday become the ancestor on the wall. I write about mortality because most genealogists collect paper. Lots of paper.
By the time we prove our final ancestor we will accumulate boxes and binders full of paper. Where will our work go? Some few genealogists have family members who are willing to receive their collections. But most genealogists do not, and they must seek other custodians for their materials. The two largest genealogical libraries emphasize that organization matters. If you would like to preserve your work and make it available to future researchers, they say, assemble it into a format that researchers can use.
