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Post by imamess on Aug 4, 2015 20:28:07 GMT -5
I have a paper problem that has a life of its own, my genealogy papers, notes, sources, etc. that I have worked on for the last 25 years. I also have many, many stacks of historical research that is being gleaned for a community history book. The book research will be moved to an archive eventually, but it is taking over my house.
I'm open to ideas.
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Post by moggyfan on Aug 4, 2015 20:38:47 GMT -5
Is there any chance you could rent a small office, or sublet part of someone else's existing office, so you could move the work there and get it out of your house?
If not, perhaps you could designate one room or part of a room in your home where all your paperwork on this project could go. At least it would be contained in one area.
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2015 21:05:45 GMT -5
My mom died trying to finish a family genealogy. We don't know what to do with her papers.
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Post by imamess on Aug 4, 2015 21:07:08 GMT -5
Is there any chance you could rent a small office, or sublet part of someone else's existing office, so you could move the work there and get it out of your house? If not, perhaps you could designate one room or part of a room in your home where all your paperwork on this project could go. At least it would be contained in one area. Financially, neither I nor the historical society have the funds to rent anything. I've tried to consolidate it to one room many, many times. It always oozes out into the living room where I'm working on something or the other. This summer alone has added a 2 foot high stack. I have no desk nor the space to put one and sometimes work on the kitchen table and the majority of the time on the couch.
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Post by imamess on Aug 4, 2015 21:11:48 GMT -5
My mom died trying to finish a family genealogy. We don't know what to do with her papers. My sympathy and condolences about your mother! My daughter will not want my papers, although she does enjoy the pictures if I have them captioned. I do have it in my will that she gets first pick, a cousin that enjoys genealogy gets next pick and a library that I have volunteered at lot will get the rest. That's about the best I can do. Is there someone in your family that would like your mother's papers? Or maybe the library in the hometown of your family?
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Post by moggyfan on Aug 4, 2015 21:37:17 GMT -5
Well, if there is no way to obtain office space, and can't keep it in one room, and you don't have space for a desk....then I guess I would second Tassie's idea ^ ^ ^ and suggest scanning & keeping electronic copies.
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Post by peaceandfreedom on Aug 4, 2015 23:37:13 GMT -5
I have also worked with genealogy for decades, and share many of Ima's concerns. I have a 4-drawer file cabinet full of genealogy, plus boxes, bags and piles of more of it.
I have scanned some pictures and other more recent finds; the file cabinet is fairly well organized into folders for different families, the rest is unorganized.
I think scanning is part of the solution, as is putting family info onto ancestry.com or one of the other similar sites. But that raises other questions, such as the safety of information available only electronically, and how well is it backed up and general security questions too.
Is there anyone here who has some of the answers we need, or even more of the right questions that we need to be asking?
This is a HUGE paper problem, though it is rather specialized in nature.
Thank you for beginning this thread!
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Post by mynicehome on Aug 5, 2015 0:17:11 GMT -5
Hi imamess! First let me say you deserve a big thank you from your family and your community for working so diligently at local and family history. A fantastic contribution to any small community!
My suggestion would be to box up and stow away from the house the portions you are not needing now or for some time to come. While boxing you could categorize by year, subject, name, etc. and label. This would also ultimately make it easier for your family to choose the information they want. By stowing away from the house, I mean an outbuilding, attic or basement.
Or possibly you may have to buy a desk.
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Post by Arid on Aug 5, 2015 3:15:13 GMT -5
If you are talking about actual paper--**DO NOT**--store it in an attic or a basement!!
That route leads to destruction . . .
In my volunteer work at the library, I always can tell when books have been stored in an attic, a basement, or in a garage. They often are dirty, musty, water-damaged, mildewed, moldy, brittle, "nibbled," etc. . . . In those cases, I often have to discard the books.
If you value those papers at all, you need to find a better storage place for them.
Arid
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Post by imamess on Aug 5, 2015 5:56:22 GMT -5
Yes, Arid, I know about 'out of the house' storage of paper of any kind. I do have an out building, but it is excessively damp and ruins a lot of things so I have to be extremely careful of anything I put there and the genealogy and pictures would not even be considered.
I have a 2 drawer lateral file full of personal financial and genealogy papers and one drawer of a letter size 2drawer file full of genealogy. The other drawer is full of specialty computer paper, empty file folders, and other office supplies. I have two file boxes full, bookcases full of binders of genealogy info, stacks of papers to file. That's not counting the thousands of family pictures in boxes and albums plus the thousands I've scanned for the historical society.
I have scanned quite a bit of my personal genealogy and after reviewing the scans, thrown a lot away, but I think it has a life of its own.
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Post by Jannie on Aug 5, 2015 8:00:55 GMT -5
I was trying to do a family history years ago, a lot of it "word of mouth" and memory. But I had a few documents, I even located my great-grandmother's baptismal certificate! But my health problems including kidney failure and anemia made me too tired to do anything meaningful. I stored my papers in both the attic and garage. Why I split things up I can't even remember but both places turned out to be horrible for storage. The attic would get over 100 degrees , and the garage was wet and attracted bugs and spiders. So I lost all my paperwork. I remember once, we had a leak from the garage roof. I just grabbed boxes and stuck them in the street for the garbagemen to take away. A cautionary tale. Keep your papers in a warm dry room, perhaps a room or closet. Then set yourself goals to deal with the paper.
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Post by peaceandfreedom on Aug 5, 2015 9:03:48 GMT -5
Jannie, what a hard way to learn that lesson. It won't be the same, but nowadays researching online is easier than it used to be. Perhaps you could get the basic info back again through the records of whichever church it occurred. And, that is very good, strong advice that you shared. Thank you!
I hope your health now is better than it was then.
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Post by shellsncheese on Aug 5, 2015 10:09:50 GMT -5
It sounds like a portion of it will go to the historical society. If you don't need to access the papers, perhaps the historical society could put out a call (maybe an email or a notice) for a volunteer to store stuff. My the library society could help as well. If you have a local town paper maybe you could call them up and see if they have a suitable place for you to store some things. They might be interested in helping out. Surely there has to be someone with an interest in the project that has extra space and would be willing to help in a very passive manner.
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Post by imamess on Aug 5, 2015 12:05:31 GMT -5
It will only go back to the historical society archives when I have finished with it. I have decided to buy some file folders today and try to spend at least an hour a day on doing what I have to do to get it out of the house. I am also going to take a very large handful with me to the laundry mat to work on while the clothes go round and round. Just keep pushing me folks
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Post by Arid on Aug 5, 2015 14:21:56 GMT -5
Sadly, even libraries and historical societies are running out of space to store things these days . . . Even if they want to keep certain things, sometimes, they just can't.
Our library is undergoing a *massive* "purging and decluttering" even as I type!
Arid
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