Can We Talk 2

Passing On The Family Tree Data

         Most of my family members don't care that much about the extensive research I've done on the family tree. It makes for good conversation at the rare family gathering, especially the juicy stories. I do have the kind of relatives who don't blush or hide from the family skeletons.

         However, when I made copies of a book and some basic family line, they all lost their copies. Not one can now be located. I have it all in cyberspace, but if I stop paying my yearly fees, it will sit there for a while, then disappear. I did some things in PowerPoint for my four grandparents, but no one knows how to operate it but me. The stories I've written are mostly on WDC, so if I stopped paying (disease or death), it too would disappear, and they couldn't look it up.

         The bottom line is that if no one else takes an interest, my research dies with me. The good news is that other researchers have copied some of my data onto their sites, so I know that if one of my family starts from scratch, he or she won't have to stalk cemeteries or go to the Library of Congress like I did. They'll find it on Ancestry.com or Myheritage.com in someone else's tree.