What memories will you leave?

Paintings, I have done, a comfortable house, photographs, and four books I have written. Plus many knitted throws .

labazs - if you have a collection of anything then try and find a home for it. There's always someone who wants it.

I inherited all sorts of things and have managed to donate them very successfully. An example would be my mother's 1940's nursing books which I donated to a hospital museum in London. I think the British Museum took a couple of them!

a lot of photos i sort of remember but i think when my parents were alive they got lent out but not returned. Anyway what they did leave i kept. Dad liked aeroplanes vintage ones with boxes of slides and photos of them but i kept them for now. i do not think the girls when i go will keep them or any other slides and photos. they are a different generation

Chestnut that’s amazing ! Well done !

No one is interested in the dead except for the will, they will put everything in a skip, no one cares anymore, we are a lost society

Never assume that children won't be interested in family stuff in the future. I had little interest when younger but something clicked later on and after retirement I researched every branch of the family back to the 1700s!

They may dismiss old pictures with a shrug but after you're gone they might by studying them in detail, absolutely fascinated. Things change.

I have photos going back to my GGGrandparents days and have traced the family trees for my paternal/maternal families plus my partners family. All printed out, alongside Census records etc. Have many certificates too.
Also collected many newspaper articles, surprising what the family got up to over the years!

I don't know what will happen to it all, my youngest son doesn't show much interest in such stuff and he will be the one to deal with it all one day. Possibly my niece will appreciate things from that side of the family.

I have lots of photo albums including those my parents kept, when I decluttered recently I never considered getting rid of them. When I’m gone our ACs can do what they want with them, for me they are important but I don’t expect they will feel the same.

Not me, but a friend. Her mother had a best friend. Let's call her BF. When my friend cleared out her parent's house after her rather pompous and overbearing father died, she discovered at the back of his desk a stash of about 30 years of love letters between her father and BF. It turned out he had been having an affair with her and no one ever knew till the letters were discovered. Not sure how I would have felt about it because they were all good friends - war generation and army people.

Why would your mother do that? How odd!

I have solved several mysteries through family history research, made notes and have everyone stored on Ancestry. I hope one day the next generations will be interested.

I knew most of my mums relatives anyway even without her leaving things . One of my GGM didn’t die till I was 18 and I was an adult before the rest of them passed away . My maternal grandmother died when I was 36 so I knew her very well and my last aunt died last year . She was 85 and I was 72 . My last uncle also died last year . He was 80 . I knew all these people in real life so was lucky enough not to need reminders of them .

knspol

I have been considering burning all the photos I have as I don't think my only DS will want to look at them. Several years ago I went thro them and threw away any duplicates or rubbish ones but I still have 2 large boxes full of them. Think it may be difficult for DS to throw such things away and I could be doing him a favour getting rid of them.

No never! You don't know how your son will feel later on. He may treasure them. Does he have any children or cousins? They may treasure them in the years ahead.

For family members write on the back names, dates and places. Throw out holiday snaps, animals, views because long term they will be of no interest. It's the people who are important.

I have been considering burning all the photos I have as I don't think my only DS will want to look at them. Several years ago I went thro them and threw away any duplicates or rubbish ones but I still have 2 large boxes full of them. Think it may be difficult for DS to throw such things away and I could be doing him a favour getting rid of them.

I meant to add, they were saved on the computer as JPEG files and can be shared with anyone by e-mail or WhatsApp.

I bought a really good Epson scanner which did negatives including my mother's old Box Brownie large negatives, and of course photos. I scanned all the negatives I had because they come out much better, then all the photos, hundreds in total. I now have a digital archive of 19th and 20th century family photos.

Some of the negatives were my family in the 1930s and they were as clear as the day they were taken when the negatives were scanned. I was blown away.

twiglet77

My elder sibling has most of our late mother’s photos and I hope her offspring treasure them when the time comes.

I have recently gone through the photos I do have, and those of my own children, annotating them with names, dates and locations they wouldn’t otherwise know.

Twiglet, if you would like copies of some of those photos, ask your sister or their offspring to download them onto the computer so that they can forward copies to you that way. If you want, you will then be able to print off as many copies as you would like, plus keep the downloaded ones on your computer.

Don't become these 'Strangers in a Box' one day.

I found this some time ago, and I hope you can read it. I'll maybe type it up one day!

I have most of our family photos, even old telegrams announcing grandparents deaths

No, dont bin.

In a way, I consider my photos really belong to my kids.
They can decide what to do with them when I go.
I imagine they will divide them up between themselves.

A good way to keep a family tree is on Ancestry website. They don't show names or ages of living people but I still don't put living people on there. But for your ancestors it's brilliant. You can choose whether the tree should be private (by invitation only) or public for anyone to see. You can invite family members to have access to your tree. I have a tree for my mother, a tree for my father and one for husband's family. That way you can keep things a bit tidier as these people are not related.

Even if your Ancestry membership runs out and you're not paying anything you can still see your trees and add notes etc, just not able to take information from Ancestry unless you have a paid up membership.

I,d like to think my GC will remember me the way I remember my granny who lived with us and died when I was 18 and my oldest sister 27.
There were very few photographs but hundreds of stories about her life and the lives of her family .
My children have heard these stories from me and my grandchildren from their parents.
Memories for me aren,t about things ,memories are carried with you in your head and your heart all your life.
I did ,t keep anything of my parents except a list of herbs and how to grow them written in my fathers beautiful writing when I was newly married.I wear a pendant made from a teardrop shaped sapphire (one of a pair of earrings )given to me for a big birthday and lost one the first time on .My mother died very soon after giving me the earrings and didn’t know I,d lost and I wear it because it was the last gift she gave me.
I know anything of value will be sold ,I have no problem with that I,d rather they remember me as their daft granny,that’s what they,ve called me since my gswas a toddler 23 years ago.
Surely that’s what’s important? Not stuff.

We had a rare meal out a couple of nights ago with one son, DiL and the two teenage DGC, and at one point, the DGC started to talk about their memories from when I used to care for them at my house for several days a week up until they were about six years old.
I was delighted to discover how many things they remembered so fondly from those times - especially as it was always very clear back at the time that they would much rather be at home with their parents if it had been possible! Based on those memories, I will now keep anything related to them, so that the DGC can eventually choose whether or not they would like them when I die.

I am being very selective with photos, and have got rid of a huge number recently, but have sorted and kept any that I think might be of interest to the family one day. This includes family photos going back to my great grandparents on two lines, most of which I have only discovered in very recent years. I have written who the subjects are on the back.

Having done a huge amount of family history over the past two years, and solved a big mystery there too, I have loads of info that I would like to think would interest someone in the family after I am gone, and I shall certainly keep it all so that they have a choice.

I do keep intending to actually draw out (the old fashioned way) a big tree that at least shows the direct ancestors as far back as i have reliably been able to go, and make additional info on each generation available for any of the family who are interested.

Beyond that, I don't think I have anything much worth keeping for them.

Photos with all the people named. My publications - books and articles. Also I have written down all I know about my family and its history. My GC will have memories of coming to my house and all the activities we did together. DD will remember out all inclusive holidays, the cocktails and the dancing.

My elder sibling has most of our late mother’s photos and I hope her offspring treasure them when the time comes.

I have recently gone through the photos I do have, and those of my own children, annotating them with names, dates and locations they wouldn’t otherwise know.