Child-Proofing Your Genealogy Research
Most genealogists are accustomed to getting little reaction to their research finds. We’re used to the “MEGO” effect — My Eyes Glaze Over. It’s good that both Tim and I like genealogy, and we talk a lot about our research challenges and successes. But we wonder, as most genealogists do, what will happen to our research when we are gone.
I call this process “child-proofing,” because we are all concerned that our children will just dispose of our “stuff” since they don’t know what to do with it or aren’t interested in hanging on to it. I fully understand that, but I’m still unhappy about the prospect that everything I’ve done will just be pitched. This is a hobby I’ve spent serious time and money on, and I would like my work to be acknowledged and honored.
One way I’ve decided to deal with this problem is to write about what I have learned about my family history. A few years ago, I discovered the self-publishing website Lulu, through which I have published more than a dozen family histories. Here’s what I’ve written over the last seven years:
I want to point out a couple of things about this list. First, you can see that I became more confident as I went on, writing longer books as my skills and knowledge improved. You can also see that these books don’t cost very much. Lulu is a print-on-demand service, so you can order as many or as few books as you want. The prices are a little misleading, however. Every time I have ordered a book or set of books, Lulu has offered a discount. Sometimes I can get free shipping also. This is all very manageable.
The Lulu website is pretty easy to navigate. Like any other process, it becomes easier the more familiar the user is with it. The first time I published something through the website, I made a lot of mistakes. I don’t make many mistakes now.
Lulu offers the opportunity to sell books in a public forum, including through Amazon and the Lulu website itself. I haven’t done that — my books contain information about living family members and I want to protect their privacy. In addition, my books contain some speculation where I don’t have primary sources to back up my conclusions. I am careful to identify the spots where I am speculating, but I don’t want to contribute to misinformation by allowing more general distribution of my work.
Every time I publish a book, I buy a few copies for myself and also send them to my family — my two children, my sister, and a few first cousins who live in California, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Texas. I have also donated a couple of books to the library collection at the Tidewater Genealogy Society in Newport News, Virginia. I’m a member of the board of that society and I volunteer at their libary a couple of days a month.
I still have hopes that my family will maintain my research in some fashion. I’m making a spreadsheet that will show the websites where I have accounts. This spreadsheet also indicates the cost of these subscriptions and the utility of the websites, along with a recommendation about whether each account should be maintained or canceled. I am in the process of creating a “genealogy codicil” to my will — not a binding document, but an indication of who I would like to put in charge of managing this part of my legacy.
Even if my family isn’t able to save all of my research or retain all of my online collections, the product of my research — the books I’ve written — will still be around.