Inheriting a family archive can be a blessing or a burden. Along with the heirloom jewelry, china, old letters, and documents, our ancestors’ faces look back at us from faded photographs, sometimes seeming to say with a stare, “Don’t forget me.”
I’ve never had any trouble saving things, but as my home archive groans with growing pains, I realize that I just can’t save everything. My grandmother would never want me to throw out my son’s stamp collection to make room for crumbling newspapers. I am beginning to investigate archives that might welcome my family heritage collection. With the advent of digitization, I can still work with the information and free my family from the physical burden of managing the entire archive.
I do know that I will never part with some things—Arline’s baptismal certificate, the only record of her birth; the lovely photograph of her at eighteen; and at least some of the letters Mom and I enjoyed reading together. Those things I still want to feel, and smell, and touch.
How you choose to care for your family archive will depend on your personal situation, your lifestyle, and your own plans for the future. We’re fortunate to live in a time when technology offers alternatives to losing an old letter or a fading photograph. With care and foresight we can continue as good stewards of our family legacy and make new memories for our own descendants.
I wish you many happy hours discovering the treasures in your own family archive. I’d love to hear about your experiences with the techniques in this book and the treasures you find; please send me a note at familycurator@gmail.com.
Happy archiving!
Denise Levenick
Pasadena,California