Passing on Your Family Genealogy Treasures to a Descendant

Readers might recall that in 2009 I wrote several bog posts about Starting a Genealogy and Family Hope Chest

Since starting an antique box with my family odds 'n ends of genealogy treasures, I've run out of room.  In fact I've filled three similar size boxes with my treasures.

What do I keep in my treasure box? Original family documents (land records, deeds, marriage certificates, birth and baptismal records, death certificates etc), family bibles and journals, WW1 paybook and records for my grandmother's brother,  school report cards, wedding invitations, letters, postcards and more. I only keep original items that belonged to someone in my family, not photocopies of records I've found while researching.

But because I was filling boxes so rapidly, I decided to transfer all my documents and records, family treasures and journals (my own plus my mother's) to one large antique blanket box.

You can see the blanket box I'm going to use on the left in this photo. It already had a few items in it so I'm going to have some fun going through my smaller boxes and re-organizing the items to go in the blanket box.

It's always fun to take that trip down memory lane each time I reorganize the treasures. I spent a few hours last time reading through my grandmother's handwritten recipes which I've kept. Hopefully you are keeping your own genealogy treasure box to be passed on to a descendant.

Genealogy Family Hope Chest in Family Tree Magazine!

It was quite exciting to see an article Called "Best Hope" in Family Tree Magazine September 2009 issue.

The article (on page 17) is based on my blog series Genealogy Hope Chest. The Family Tree Magazine article lists my 8 steps, with a brief summary of each, and includes a photo of some of my family treasures that have been passed on through the generations to me.

I am so honoured to be mentioned and have something I wrote included in their magazine! The online site for Family Tree Magazine is at http://www.familytreemagazine.com

Genealogy and Family Hope Chest Step 8: Genealogy Research

Well here we are at Step 8. We are ready to tackle the Genealogy Research we've done over the past 10, 20, 30 or more years. That's a lot of paper!

Everyone works differently. Some researchers use binders to store their research. I use filing cabinets.

I have 2 cabinets with 3 drawers each - the kind that sit sideways, each cabinet is 3 ft wide. I also have a regular filing cabinet with 2 drawers and 3 sets of loose hanging file folders on top of furniture in my office.

And let's not forget the piles of research papers defying the laws of gravity sitting on my desk!

It's not feasible to think that any family member, no matter how passionate they are about genealogy, will take all my filing cabinets and papers home with them after my demise.

No library, archives or musuem will want them either. Many genealogists mistakenly believe that their research will be welcomed by these institutions but for 99% of us it will be a "thanks but no thanks". (If you happen to be famous, I'm sure your papers would be gladly accepted!) These institutions simply haven't got room for storage of such items, nor do they have the staff it would take to go through personal research papers and organize and archive them.

So - what to do? We've dedicated a great deal of time, energy and money into this consuming hobby of ours, and we don't want our research findings to be lost forever.

My personal solution is to create booklets on each family name. These booklets can be printed, coil bound and donated to a library or local archive. Here are 3 examples of pages from a booklet I am creating for my King & McGinnis families of the Guelph area of Ontario

Example 1

Share them with as many family members as you can. I plan to donate a copy to the archive and library in the area where my furthest back ancestor first settled.

Example 2

So for example my booklet on my King family who settled near Guelph Ontario circa 1847 will be donated to the Wellington County Museum & Archives, and to the Guelph Public Library.

Your booklet does not have to be complete! Don't wait until you have found that last piece of the puzzle, print up what you have NOW and share it. You can always send an update or addendum or print an entirely new copy for Libraries or Archives

Example 3

Your booklet can be a few pages or hundreds. You can concentrate just on your direct ancestry or you can do all the siblings and their branches. There is no right or wrong. It is whatever suits YOU.

Make sure you put copies of your original records in with your booklets. Make copies of microfilm copies of the various records you found over the years. Put them all in the booklet. That way even if your filing cabinet(s) full of paper and records are lost, you have preserved your research in booklet form.

My husband prefers the scrapbook type method. He makes one digital scrapbook per family and only for his own direct ancestors. He likes to have more graphics than text and he draws little borders around the different items he chooses for each individual.

For example he might put a newspaper clipping on the same page as a census report and a church record for one individual. Each item has its own unique border to help set it apart. One short paragraph for each ancestor is added. He ends up with a very nice (and easy to read!) scrapbook on his ancestors.

Whatever method you choose, just do it. Don't fuss too much, don't wait until you are "finished" because we are never finished our genealogy research! Create your booklet and have fun.

Genealogy and Family Hope Chest Step 7: Memories & Stories

Can you believe there is still more to talk about in our plan for creating a Genealogy and Family Hope Chest?

Your memories and family stories are invaluable. The story your grandmother told you of riding in her dad's Model T in the rumble seat may be lost forever unless you preserve it. What about the stories your mother told you of her dad's love of practical jokes? And Grandma telling you about how much she loved her mother's dumplings. These are precious memories that deserve to be passed on to future generations.

Any family lore about your ancestors' origins or personalities may also disappear with the next generation. That story of your Great grandpa Sam making dandelion wine and getting drunk on it is priceless! The family lore that Great Grandma Lizzie was considered the blacksheep of the family and eloped with your great grandfather against her parents' wishes - it's all you have to make her come alive as more than a name and some dates.

Maybe your family never told you any stories but that's okay because you have your own memories of them! What do you remember of your grandmother? Your grandfather? There must be something and your memories are worth sharing.

The first step is to share those stories and your memories verbally. Tell your family, your children and your grand-children. If they roll their eyes you know they've heard the stories before but that's good! It might be fun to pick a traditional time of year, such as Christmas. Go around the table and have everyone tell their favourite story of an ancestor or family member at the table.

The next step is to write your stories and memories down. That doesn't mean write them in your genealogy progam and you're done. That doesn't mean write them down and file them in your overstuffed filing cabinet and you're done. Nope, you have to write those stories and memories down in such a way that they will be saved and carried on.

There are different ways to accomplish this - you can write them as part of your own Memoirs. They can be inserted gradually into a daily journal or diary that you keep. They can be written as part of the notes about an ancestor and a Genealogy Booklet created to be shared with other family members.

But here's a few tips - if you are writing your memoirs or keeping a journal, choose a book to write in that looks important, expensive or old. It's all pyschological but if you write on scraps of paper or in a cheap Daily Planner, the odds are those writings will be tossed out.

I use handcrafted leather books that have handmade paper from Iona Handcrafted Books - they look like something that should be kept, not discarded. My handmade leather bound journals also make me feel like writing in them! I talked about these journals in an earlier post called Keeping a Journal for History & Genealogy The idea is to make your journals look important and worthwhile so that the next family member is reluctant to throw them away.

If you are creating a Memory Booklet to share with other family members, be creative in its title. Pyschologically people will save something called "Memoirs" even if not interested but will probably toss "My Story".

Think about it - most of us are reluctant to throw out a Bible even if we are not interested in the Family Register pages within. But if we are not interested in such genealogical items we would not hesitate to toss out individual pages titled "Family Register". I like to think about my audience and not all my descendants will be as passionate about genealogy and the preservation of family stories and data as I am.

Subconsciously, something handwritten is considered more worthwhile and important than something typed. Handwritten is unique. Typed may be mass produced.

We tend to save items that we deem important, thus the handcrafted leather journal with handmade paper filled with my messy handwriting has a better chance of surviving through several generations then something I type on 8 1/2 x 11 paper, coil bound. So why not do it all? Type it up and share it. Write it out by hand and keep it in your journal box.

I talked about storing documents and original papers in an earlier post Genealogy and Family Hope Chest Step 5: Original Documents.

I love antiques so I have a collection of various size boxes and trunks. I use them for my document and journal boxes. This little set of three assorted boxes has come in very handy for me. The bottom one is my Journal Box, the middle one is for my mother's journals and the top one stores CDs right now. That will change as I think of more family genealogy items I want to preserve and store.

My Document Box is full so I have a separate Antique Box where I store my journals. I like to keep them separate anyway. You can see that my earlier journals weren't always these nice leather-bound books! What a hodge-podge. But since I have them all together in one nice antique box, I think there's a good chance they'll be kept and preserved by future generations.

Genealogy and Family Hope Chest Step 6: Treasures

We're making good progress in the plan for a Genealogy and Family Hope Chest. We've organized and identified old photographs, and stored them safely after making copies for other family members.

We've separated original documents from photocopies and stored those documents in a document box.

An interesting thing has been happening since I started writing these posts. I've taken a second and third look at my own cherished family items - and realized I have a great deal more work to do in organizing and preparing them for others to have one day. Last night my I created (by hand) a fan chart showing 5 generations of my ancestry. These were added to my document box that I talked about in Step 5: Original Documents.

Now it's time to move on to actual physical objects - the family treasures we have inherited and cherished over the years. Objects such as jewellery, china, family silver, a book that belonged to an ancestor, etc. go into this category. Maybe you have Uncle Henry's College ring, Grandpa's clock that sat on the mantle, Great-grandma's bride basket, your Grandmother's bible. Some objects will be huge, others small.

To Keep or Not To Keep, That is the Question

The first thing you must do is decide whether you are going to KEEP all your cherished objects (they will eventually be passed on in the family) or give some (or all) away to chosen family members. Do you want to safeguard the items and hope they are passed on to interested family members after your demise? Or would you prefer to hand-select family now to take over the guardianship? It isn't an all or nothing choice, you might want to keep some of the family treasures while passing other items on. But you do need to make that decision.

Your basic choice is KEEP or PASS ON. When you pass an item on be sure you have labelled it if possible or that you give information about it to whoever is getting the treasure.

Show & Tell

My grandmother told me endless stories of her family and family heirlooms she had. She showed me the items repeatedly - my grandfather's engraved gold pocket watch given to him by his parents on his 21st birthday, his watch fob and chain, her wedding ring, his signet ring, her grandmother's Prattware pot lids, her mother's special knives and forks, a toast rack her mother used ... and so on.

With each item she told me the story behind it. I knew more about Grandma's precious family objects than I did my subjects in school! Hearing the same story so many times really stuck in my mind. When I was a teenager, Grandma passed on almost all her treasured and cherished family items to me for safekeeping. I am so glad she did because they would almost certainly have been lost otherwise! I was not around when she passed away and no one would have known the stories behind these objects.

Keeping Your Family Heirlooms

Let's assume you are keeping some or all of your family heirlooms. What next? Now you have to decide

1. Do you want the items out where you can see and enjoy them?

2. Do you want to store the items safely until you have decided who gets them or you have passed on and someone else has to make that decision?

Your basic choice is DISPLAY or STORAGE

Displaying your Family Heirlooms

This choice is fairly easy to accomplish - just choose where and how you want to place your treasures in your home. I talked about ideas for displaying family mementoes such as medals and other small objects in an earlier series of posts on Displaying Family Heirlooms


Before you display your items take a good look at each one and see if you can safely label it on the back or the bottom. You want to label each item if possible with a brief description - what the item is, who owned it, who gave it to you and when.

If you can't safely attach a label, this would be a good time to take a photo and label the photo. Hopefully you already did this if you were following along in Step 1 making a list and taking photographs.

If you already have certain family members in mind for some of your treasured items, this would be a good time to add that information to the label or photograph.

Storing Your Family Heirlooms

Perhaps you don't want to display your family mementoes but prefer to store them safely until you are ready to give them away to others or your executors are carrying out your wishes. All you need do is pack them safely and carefully in a clearly labelled plastic storage tub or wooden blanket box or some other container.

It's a Personal Choice

My personal preference is to display my family treasures. Some, like Grandma and Great-Grandma's teacups, I use. I don't want the items packed away where I can't see them, I want to enjoy them and think about the ancestors who once owned them.

When my grandchildren visit, I show them some of the items that I think will interest them. I talk about who owned them, when and where they lived, and how the items were passed on down to me. I tell them that they might one day in the future be responsible for cherishing and guarding some of the objects I'm showing them. My hope is that I can instill a sense of pride and family responsibility as well as eagerness to own and cherish these items too.

Of course I am also trying to do a bit of brainwashing and watching to see which of the grandchildren might be "The One" who will carry on. With any luck there will be more than one! I have my eye on my 11 year old grandson as a future guardian for he is the one who asks for the family stories and who refers to himself as my "history-loving grandson" But I'm not ready to make any decisions right now, I'm still enjoying the wonderful memories and treasures that have been given to me to cherish by others long gone.

Genealogy and Family Hope Chest Step 5: Original Documents

We've taken care of all your wonderful family photos, now let's move on to those original documents in your possession!

An original document is something that is unique, one-of-a-kind. It isn't a copy of a record found in an archive or library and once it is lost, it's gone forever.

Examples of Original Documents

Your original documents might include Great Grandpa's land deed from the 1800s, Grandma's Family Bible, Great-great grandma's journal she kept while taking a Conestoga Wagon across Pennsylvania to Upper Canada, letters written by your father to your mother from WW2 or WW1, Certificates, Receipts for Funeral Expenses for Great Grandma's sister, School Report Cards, original military papers of your great-uncle, the passport issued to your grandmother in the 1920s, etc.

There's always exceptions to the "rule" and it is true that some of these family documents can be found again. The military papers may be held in an archive, a vital statistics registration may be available to researchers, but they are not the original document saved by the family. You can set your own "rules" of course! These are just my definitions/rules for the plan I came up with for my personal Genealogy Family Hope Chest.

Don't Forget About YOU

Don't forget that your own items are important, and one day your descendants will be thrilled that you thought to preserve them. So toss in your Report Card from Grade 2, your Certificate of Good Citizenship from Grade 4, your old diaries, your will, legal papers, Marriage Certificate and whatever else you have that will become of historical or genealogical interest in the future.

Yes, you too may be part of history one day. Did you write about 911 in your journal? About Obama becoming the first African American President of the USA? Perhaps you wrote about a family death and funeral or a family reunion or a birth or marriage. Even if you simply made a one line notation of these events it becomes historically or genealogically interesting. So don't discount your own importance in the Genealogy Family Hope Chest.

The Hope Chest

I think choosing the right container for your treasured documents is very important. You want to maximize the chances that the chest you choose will be kept by one of your descendants. So you need to pick one that conveys importance and that would look good in someone else's home. It should also be small enough to be easily carried by one person, so something like a blanket box is not the best idea.

Why do I call it a Hope Chest? Because I hope it will be cherished and passed on down many more generations!

This is one of the boxes I use for keeping my family documents, letters, papers and journals in. I chose it because it's an antique, it looks great, and it looks like something that should be kept.

Having the documents in a box like this makes it almost certain that at some point in the future one of my descendants will pick it up and take it home. I doubt they'll throw out anything that is inside, because it has an implied importance by virtue of being in the box in the first place! This box is about 21"x14"x6" and I haven't filled it yet.

Start a Hope Chest for your Children

One of the things I did for each of my sons was to gather together their baby books, their little bracelets worn when they were first born, school certificates, report cards, trophies won, and other memorabilia from their childhood. Then I placed these treasures in WW2 Ammo boxes with rope handles that I won at an antique auction. I stencilled their full name on each box to personalize it. Each was given his box when he left home and set up a house of his own.

My sons tell me that they have added their own mementoes since that day, and I feel pretty confident they will pass those boxes on to one of their own children. I don't have a photo of the boxes I bought for my sons but here is an ammo box that looks similar. I wanted something masculine and durable for them. If I were doing this for a daughter I'd choose something more feminine

The next generation to take care of my Genealogy Family Hope Chest might not ever look through it. But I'm willing to bet they keep it and tell one of their children that it belonged to Grandma or Great-Grandma Lorine, and that it should be kept and passed on to the next generation.

Genealogy and Family Hope Chest Step 4: Share those Photos!

Photos are fairly easy to share and pass on. There are many methods but here's a few I have used:

* Scan your original photographs, then print them on good quality photographic paper. Label them on the back (using a proper pen for writing on photos) Mail to family

* Scan your original photographs, then create a collage (Picassa does a nice one) or Memory Book, with text describing each photo. Mail the bound Memory Book to family members.

* Take your favourite family photos to a photography store. Have them enlarged and then choose a nice mat and frame for each one. Give them as gifts at Birthdays or Christmas.

On the left you can see a few of the family photos I have enlarged and framed for myself.

Once you have framed a photo, be sure to print neatly on the back with pen! Put the date you framed it, your name and a brief biography of the subject. I have dozens of framed, labelled ancestor photos on the walls of my house (over 75 at last count) and while I have made copies to send to family, no one else has the huge antique frames I have. Some day my framed photos will be passed on and I want to be sure that whoever gets them next will know exactly who each person is and how they are related to that person.

My advice is to never frame your original photographs. Make good quality copies and frame those instead. You honestly can't tell them from the original! Put your originals (identified on the back of course) in a small, convenient container, and label it. Use several containers if necessary, depending how many originals you have.

I have all my pre-1950 photographs sorted by family (McGinnis, Peer, Vollick, Fuller, Simpson and so on) and I have one small clear storage tub for each. Labelled of course!

For duplicates or photos that I know I want to pass on to certain individuals (such as my grandchildren or children) I bought larger tubs labelled with the name of whoever I want to have the photos. So for example I have a large tub labelled with the names of two of my grandchildren and in it are the photos I already know I want them to have.

My older CDVs, Cabinet Cards and tintypes are in archival folders and binders. You can also buy a lovely container that looks like something anyone would want to have, and put your photos in that.

Choose whatever method suits you best but remember -- the idea is to make it EASY for your Executor to go through your home and carry out your wishes. If your photos are in file folders or dozens of photo albums, they are less apt to be saved or to be passed on to others.

You don't know who will be clearing out your belongings - a spouse, a child, a grandchild... but whoever it is will presumably be grieving and exhausted. They may have limited time or energy to carry out the task! So make it easier for them. Sort, organize and label.

Genealogy and Family Hope Chest Step 3: Categorize!

Okay you have made a list of all your family treasures and heirlooms. You've taken photos of each one. You've added a description of each item. And you've started your own Show & Tell - showing each item to children, grandchildren or other family members and telling them the story behind it.

Step 3 of my plan to make sure family treasures are cherished, preserved and passed on, is to do some categorization. We need to categorize what type of heirlooms we have. We need to figure out HOW we are going to preserve and share our treasured items but each one has its own unique challenges to overcome.

Not every item can be shared and preserved in the same way. I have a method of sharing and preserving my family treasures which is unique to each category. I want to share these ideas with you in separate posts (one for each category).

It's important to get an idea of what you have, where it fits (what category) and then take steps to follow a unique plan for each category. In my plan there are 5 categories of items I want to share with other family, as well as pass down to future generations.

1. Family photographs. Are you the keeper of the family photos? I am, and I believe it's my responsibility to preserve and share these with other family members.

2. Original Paper Items such as documents, letters and journals. This does not mean photocopies! An original document is one that can't be found somewhere else. Once it is lost, it's gone forever. But a photocopy of an entry in a church register, for example, can be obtained by someone else at some point in time. So if you have great-grandpa's letters written to great-grandman, or grandma's daily journals, or your own journals, or Uncle Fred's Enlistment Papers for WW1, they would go in this category.

3. Objects such as jewellery, china, family silver, a book that belonged to an ancestor, any physical object goes into this category.

4. Memories & Stories. These are not tangible. These are the stories that Grandma told you about her childhood or her father. Your own memories count too. Your memory of your mother ironing while singing a song to you goes in this category. You've probably already figured out that these memories and stories need to be written down but I want to talk more about that in a separate blog post

5. Genealogy Research. Yes you are going to want to see your research preserved and I've got some ideas on how to make that happen.

For now, take a little time, check your list of treasured family items and see if you want to add anything to that list. Then start thinking about what categories things fit into. You might want to consider how you think you can best preserve and share those items, before my next blog post.

Genealogy and Family Hope Chest Step 2: Let's Talk!

Step 2 of my plan to preserve and pass on cherished family heirlooms and documents involves starting with your children and grand-children at as young an age as possible.

This part is fun. The idea is for you to brainwash your family! Entice them with stories of each treasured object - who it belonged to, where they lived, how you ended up with it and what you want to see happen to it.

Keep talking to your children, grand children and anyone else who will listen. Tell them the stories until their eyes glaze. Your hope is that someone at some point in the future will actually remember something you said.

You could even tie this in to the Ancestor Cards I made for my grandchildren, and talked about in a previous blog post. Why not create a card for each treasured object and write a description of it explaining who owned it, when, and where and how it came into your possession. Play games with your grandchildren using the cards. if you have a photo of the person who owned the object put the photo on the Ancestor Card and on the reverse put the item photo plus description. Anything that gets your children or grandchildren's attention is good.

My own grandmother told me endless stories of her family. She repeated them several times a year. She showed me objects - her husband's gold pocket watch, his watch fob and chain, her wedding ring, his signet ring, her grandmother's Prattware pot lids, her mother's special knives and forks, a toast rack her mother used ... and so on.

With each item she told me the story behind it. I knew more about Grandma's precious family objects than I did my subjects in school! Hearing the same story so many times really stuck in my mind. Yes I forgot a few, for example I have several teacups Grandma gave me but I can't for the life of me recall whose they were.

The point is to maximize the odds in favour of your family heirlooms being remembered and cherished by at least one member of your family. To do that you need to talk and show and be enthused about each item. I've done this with my sons and my grandchildren since they were little. Now my grandchildren ask to see the items, and they love the stories I tell them of their ancestors.

You'll also have a wonderful opportunity to spend some one on one time with your children or grand-children. You'll also begin to see who might be a potential candidate to carry on the torch. If you are lucky there will be one child who is intrigued and wants to know more, who asks to hear your stories.

That will bring you to other decisions later - such as who will you pass your family heirlooms to - but we'll talk about that in a later post.

For now, start talking!

Starting a Genealogy and Family Hope Chest

Going through my mother's boxes from her apartment, and re-examing Doris' Genealogy Box has made me stop and think. Have I made sure that the genealogy and family treasures in my care are going to be passed on to others for safe-keeping?

I am sure that many of us have such treasured items. Even if we have no family heirlooms we have our genealogy research and papers. I've learned that when a loved one dies, it is not always easy, or possible, to preserve precious documents or heirlooms. Even if saved, how and when does one pass them on to others?

It should be easy. You save everything you think is worth saving, and immediately decide you are passing everything on. Done - not your problem anymore. But wait! Who says the folks you want to pass these treasures on to are prepared to accept them. I'm learning it's not as easy as you might think.

Will Others Treasure Your Treasures?

Another scenario - you have family treasures that you enjoy so you don't want to pass them on to others now, but you want to be sure they go to other family members when you are gone. That's even more difficult to guarantee.

There are logistics involved in passing on family heirlooms and genealogy papers. If you expect your journals to be kept for the next hundred years or more, you should be thinking ahead to the problems future generations might encounter. People move. Families split up. Your great-grandson might treasure your journals but his wife may think they are just taking up space and getting musty and dirty. You might have so many journals that they become scattered and lost.

What about Great grandma's wedding ring? How will you ensure that is passed on and its history known and shared?

Your great-uncle's Military Medals and papers - is it really logical to think that a jumbled mass of documents with some tarnished medals is still going to be kept all together by one descendant and its provenance still remembered?

Who Wants Your Masses of Genealogy Papers!

And your genealogy papers and records that take up 4 filing cabinet drawers or 10 binders. Who on earth is going to want to store those? Even if you have a son or daughter ready and willing, what are the chances that the next generation will accept those 4 filing cabinets of papers and store them safely?

Who Will Carry the Torch?

I've been giving this a lot of thought over the past year and even more so since my mother passed away. As the unofficial keeper of the family photos and treasures in my family, I need to make sure that everything I love and hold dear will go on to the people I think most apt to pick up the torch and continue to cherish them.

I thank my lucky stars that my grandmother passed on most of her cherished heirlooms to me when I was a teenager. She saw an interest from me and she leapt at the opportunity to tell me the stories of who owned each item and what it meant to her.

It must have been difficult for her to let them go in her lifetime but it was a very wise step on her part. Had she waited, it is unlikely many would have been saved when she died, as no one but me knew their significance. And I was many miles away with no say over who in the family was given any mementoes.

Develop a Plan

So I have developed a plan - a Genealogy & Family Hope Chest - for helping to ensure that treasured family items and genealogy papers do get passed on and cherished by others. I call it a Genealogy & Family Hope Chest because you cannot of course guarantee that what you consider important to pass on will be preserved and passed on by others. All you can do is hope. But along with that hope you can take steps to maximize the possibility that what you want will happen!

Step 1

Let's start with Step 1 of the Genealogy & Family Hope Chest

First, make a list. Yes, sit down today and make a list of all the family treasures and heirlooms that you have in your possession.

Beside each item, write a brief description of its provenance - who owned it and how old it is, and how and when it came into your possession. Take a photograph of it or scan it. Do this for each cherished item you have.

Print the photos. You can print 4 to a page or 6 to a page, or print each separately. It's up to you. Make sure you clearly label each photo with the name and brief description of what it is. Yes, you're duplicating your list you just created, but in a visual format.

You now have a written or printed list of family heirlooms with a description of each. You also have a photo of each family heirloom clearly labelled and described.

Put one copy of the list and photos in your Safety Deposit Box (if you have one) This is just to safeguard against losing the other copy!

The other copy (list plus photos) should go in a manilla envelope marked "FOR MY EXECUTORS" and placed where your Executor(s) will remember to go to first. You have written a will and appointed executor(s) haven't you? Phone your executor(s) and tell them where you are putting this envelope and what is in it. (You should already have such an envelope which contains instructions on what you want done with your remains, where your safety deposit box is, a list of bank accounts, lawyer's name etc but that's a topic for another blog post)

This is the Family part of your Hope Chest, don't worry about your Genealogy papers just now. We'll get to those later. You can have a break now and relax. I'll talk about Step 2 of a Genealogy & Family Hope Chest in my next blog post. I think you will find Step 2 is a lot of fun!