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Do You Have A Genealogical Will?

Most family historians make out a will when they have any family heirlooms, property or possessions of value and never give a thought to what will become of all of their hard work. What will happen to your genealogy research when you're gone? Have you thought about who will be inheriting it? Will it be a family member? A library? A Family society? A historical society?
If you are fortunate enough to have a younger family member who is interested in genealogy, you can keep it in the family, but you may not have anyone in the family who shares your interests and appreciates the thousands of hours of time and all the work spent on researching your family.You may decide to leave it to someone other than family so that it isn't sitting gathering dust in an attic or worse yet, getting tossed in the trash by family members while doing spring cleaning. If you don't have a family member interested in continuing what you started, you would be better off leaving it to your local library or family organization or a historical society. Find someone willing to take the donation.
It doesn't have to be a notarized document, just a letter stating what your wishes are regarding your research. Let your family know your wishes beforehand, make a copy to give to the heir of your choice, and store the letter with your will.
By making your wishes known, you don't have to worry about all of your genealogy research going to the landfill when you're gone and future generations will be able to pick up where you left off.

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