How are you storing information for decendants

My brother in law did as you did visiting churches where family were born/ buried and actually had a book printed with photos of birth certificates marriage and death certificates unfortunately he concentrated on my Grandmothers line and never got round to the other lines but that went back to similar time as you. I have a copy for family to look at but I don’t have the patience to do more so well done you.👏

Tanith, family history research is not for everyone. You require mountains of patience going through old records when you can hardly read the text.
I never enter any names on my tree unless I can prove the person is my family and I never ever copy what someone else includes in their tree.
I have a couple of times contacted people who have included my grandmother in their tree (in the USA).
When I have contacted them to say this lady was my grandmother and I know where she was buried as I was there at her funeral they still don't believe me.

I did my family history for 20 years before the internet programmes were around to help
I ve also had people put entirely wrong info about my Nan who I knew from birth to when I was almost 40 I lived with her when my grandad died when I was 16 till I left home at 19 then she lived with me for her last three years of life so I knew her life inside out but people had her with a son when my mum was her only child when I pointed it out they didn’t want to know, they had wrong birthdates and lots of other inaccuracies it’s very disappointing

I don't use on line family trees, and I am careful what I share with others in case I have any errors, though I don't think I have. I started with 4 'fan charts', and box files, one for each of my parents and DH's parents. The box files are for any notes,photos etc. I have for each family. I also have a file for each family, and some cousins, distant cousins etc. in a vertical tree, showing their dates, marriages, children etc. They are on my computer and frequently printed off. I also file the BM&D certificates and censuses in loose leaf folders. DS1 is quite interested so he gets updates by email, and I share it all with my sister, who is interested. I have spent ages in archives, churchyards etc. over many years and I joined Ancestry. I love the research and going down the many 'rabbit holes' I have found.

I have been researching my family history and that of my husband for many years.
I have over 3,000 names altogether. Some researched more deeply than others.
I have paper copies of all documents, which are also copied and scanned into a family history programme on my laptop. I have uploaded most of it onto the ancestry website, but have kept it private on there as I made the mistake of making everything public in the past, and was happy to share with others, but found some people adding things to their tree which were blatantly incorrect.
I also backup everything onto a standalone hard drive as a safety measure in case my laptop gives up the ghost.
I try and research the times and places of my ancestors and the social history rather than just names and dates.
I hate to think how much I have spent over the years on certificates and subscriptions, but I find it fascinating. I haven't come across royalty yet, my lot were mainly ag. labs or miners, but I have found a murderer and another who was a missionary. Thankfully, my granddaughter shows an interest and she will take it over at some point in the future. I like to look upon it as my gift to future generations of my family.

jeanie99

Tanith, family history research is not for everyone. You require mountains of patience going through old records when you can hardly read the text.
I never enter any names on my tree unless I can prove the person is my family and I never ever copy what someone else includes in their tree.
I have a couple of times contacted people who have included my grandmother in their tree (in the USA).
When I have contacted them to say this lady was my grandmother and I know where she was buried as I was there at her funeral they still don't believe me.

jeanie99 I have had similar problems with people who have no connection claiming my meticulously researched ancestors. Sometimes the names might be the same but the place and date of birth are different but they will not listen.

Someone once came t forgive a talk at our U3A Family History group. He takes people's research and turns it all into an interesting book(s). Not cheap, though!

I've thought of attempting it myself but there are so many strands to both sides of our families I don't know where to start.

t forgive
to give

My late DH was a keen family historian and put his tree and mine of over 10,000 people including stories, online at rootsweb, protecting the living ofcourse. Sadly that free site was taken over by Ancestry without accompanying notes, so he had to pay to look at his own information.

His original research in hard copy is still in folders and box files so is quite handy and accessible it turns out.

When I look at the photos, BMDs and old wills etc it takes me back to happy days searching country graveyards, finding houses our ancestors lived in, or churches where they worshipped.
No regrets.

When the grandchildren were young, I wrote a family story about their ancestors, aimed at 10/11 year olds. The Ancestry tree and other backup information is stored in a folder. Our eldest granddaughter has just had an Ancestry DNA test which she found fascinating, so I think the interest in research has been passed on.

I have my tree on a website made through Tribalpages. It's easy to create and add to. I have a backup file (GEDcom)
This means that the tree is accessible to anyone (although details of living people is passworded)
I also have a box of certificates and photos etc.

As soon as I remember a story from my childhood, from my grandparents, older relatives etc I write it down in full detail. I have done that for over 50 years and when I came to type up the stories, there were enough to fill out all the main relatives from two generations back and also sideways. I have a family tree but I also have a couple of large folders with transparent pages. Each relative has a folder page and into them I have put the stories about that relative, photos etc collected from many family sources. The main thing that does stand out for me is how much courage and resourcefulness the two generations before me had and how they acted in the face of adversity. Very sobering!

I have an old-fashioned box file, at the back of the wardrobe, containing the usual family documentation including undertaker's bills: my Uncle Frank's funeral in 1948 cost £49 19s 6d.

Imagine trying to bury someone for just under fifty quid nowadays......

If you have paper documents, do just make sure they won’t be accessible to anyone with dementia!

Dh once arrived at FiL’s house (he had fairly early dementia) to find that he was in the middle of tearing up and binning a load of the family history research done by MiL some years earlier.

Luckily dh was in time to retrieve it, and we spent many hours piecing it all together.

I recently showed a photo to a cousin I see only rarely and to my great surprise he told me it was my great grandfather! Lovely to put a face to a name on my tree.
Beginning with just a few known facts and some initial research by a cousin, I tracked down lots of information about my grandparents who died when my parents were very young children. Then I joined Ancestry and have been researching on there for about 12 years. I appreciate the hints from other trees, but check them out as best I can before posting them on my tree.
One person in the US is adamant that she is related to ( is a granddaughter of ) my great uncle, who, according to her, changed his name. She has hijacked my family, without any firm evidence, but won’t reveal how she has reached her conclusion. Very frustrating, but I have stopped engaging with her.
I have a few actual certificates, including one for my great grandmother, corrected by her brother, endorsed by the Registrar. Her partner had registered her death as his wife, with his surname, but they were not married. She is buried in a churchyard under her assumed name, but I have not managed to find the grave.
Most of my information is online. When I am less busy (!) I will print more stuff off and sort out my many scraps of notes.

I am also writing my life story in a notebook, by hand. So far it is mostly anecdotes from childhood. It will not be as detailed later on. Events just merge in the memory over the years.

I have a storage box with census copies, certificates, various clippings and photos dating back as far as my ggggrandparents. I was lucky enough to get a lot of information from a relative on my paternal side, she also had the photos so could name the people in them.
I have also made up family trees for the various family lines and added info for people below their branches, where they lived/census/BMD etc
I do have a tree on Ancestry and have found a couple relatives through that.
There was also someone on there (not anyone I knew) who had my mum as someone else, complete with a middle name that my mum never had. I think she must of got enough hints that she had the wrong person as eventually she corrected her info.

I have thoroughly enjoyed researching my family history. I have 2 huge ring binders, one for each side of my family, bulging with paperwork about our ancestors. I have used mostly computer information. The large genealogy sites have lots of information but when I was searching 2 Great Uncles who served in Bomber Command during WW2 I found a site run by one man who had made it his hobby to research them and found a gold nugget. I knew one of my GU's had been a pilot on an Avro Lancaster Bomber which had crashed at Dry Doddington in Lincolnshire shortly after take-off. Thankfully he survived along with 4 other crew members. This little site had the report from the pilot following my GU's plane. Surprising what you can find in the most unlikely places. I have used researchers where I have been unable to physically go to search through the archives.
I have written a potted history of our ancestors for my children to have in the future. There has been countless hours and a fair amount of money spent on getting it all together. I just hope they take care of it.