Succession Planning

 Who would you like to inherit your family history treasures?

This is a serious question. I have heard too many stories of people inheriting Granny's genealogy and tossing it in a dumpster because they had higher priorities at that point in their lives.

A previously unknown cousin contacted me and said "When Great Grandpa Watson died, Grandpa went back to the old farm, cleared out the house, and burned all of the photos and papers, Until my nephew discovered your blog, we knew nothing of our Watson history We did not even know we had Scottish ancestors." I was glad to be able to fill in a lot of missing family history,

Last week we had a visit from a cousin and his wife. I was happy to give them a plastic tote containing about 800 old photos that used to belong to his grandmother, I was really happy that he was interested in having this family treasure, No one else had expressed an interest.. 

But fortunately I also had a good "Plan B", that may work for you too.

After inheriting those photos myself, two years previously, I decided to scan all of those where we could identify the people, upload these photos to the Memories area of FamilySearch.org and tag them to the people's records in Family Tree. And if there was no portrait photo, I would choose one of the newly-scanned photos as that person's portrait, 

Other sites may work equally well. Why did I choose FamilySearch? Personal experience was probably the biggest factor, But there are other important factors.

1. Access is always free. Other sites may move things behind a "pay wall" at any time,

2. Their rules are simple and straight forward.

3, FamilySearch's parent, "The Genealogy Society of Utah" was created in 1894 and has been preserving genealogies ever since.  So I am confident that they will continue to do so.

But whatever site you choose, I encourage you to preserve your family history online in a safe place. That way it will be available to future generations of your family, even if the paper copies are destined to the dumpster.

A Tribute to a family history mentor

While going through some old papers recently, I found some pages from the local history of Riding Mountain, Manitoba, Many of the people there are related to me. Of special interest to me were some photographs that I had not added to the FamilySearch.org Family Tree. Although photocopies of photographs tend to be of poor quality, I took the time to scan them and upload them. If I ever get better copies of these photographs I can replace these. 

One of the people who wrote several articles about these families was Mabel Claire Watson, Henry, Mabel was one of my mentors in family history. She had a love for our "folk". She tried to make sure that no one was forgotten. The following story is told by one of her nieces.

Aunt Mabel very generously, gave me my grandmother's wedding ring. There is a story to it which I will relate.

Grandmother [Mabel's mother Minnie Maud] lost her ring and I am not sure if she knew where or when. One day, 30 years later, (so I was told by Aunt Mabel), a man came to her door and asked her if the ring he had was hers. It was indeed, and she asked who he was and how it had come to be in his possession. He said he now owned the farm that had been my grandparents at the time of her loss, (and I think Mabel said it had been sold twice), and he had been out plowing one day and noticed something shiny. He got off his tractor and low and behold, "THE RING"!.

It is a wide 18 K gold band. It was not inscribed, but the gentleman took the time to look Minnie Maud up to see if it was hers. Nice man!!! True story. Sadly I did not have a daughter to pass it on to, but finally, when I turned 64, God blessed us with a granddaughter, our Abby. Interestingly, I did not know that Mabel's middle name was Claire, and she, (our granddaughter) was named Abby Clair!!

Mabel would have liked that, and that she will inherit her great great grandmother's wedding ring, and the story that goes with it. It makes me smile to think of how pleased she would be. I like to think that she does know!

Sorry, this is becoming a novel. I tend to get carried away.
Nice corresponding with you.

Elinor

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RIDING MOUNTAIN HISTORY BOOK TRIBUTE TO MABEL HENRY The world is a better place because of people like Mabel who have lived among us. Mabel was the grand-daughter of our first local homesteader, James Watson. We are fortunate that he saw fit to settle in this district so that we had Mabel in our midst for a friend. And a friend she was, to all, no matter what their station in life. Mabel was proud of her family heritage, and of her own family. We recall her merry smile as she spoke of her "kidlets", and the joy she took in her grandchildren. Mabel, like everyone else, had her trials and tribulations in life, but she had that inner serenity and a trust in God which brought her through. Her church was important in her life, and she contributed in many ways to the worship and the outreach of the church. Blessed with a lovely singing voice, Mabel generously shared that gift in the praise of God. Mabel was a true Manitoban, enjoying the changing seasons of the year and all the wonders of nature around her. Mabel will long be remembered as one who carried more than her share in community life, as a good neighbor and friend, always ready to help others. She didn't seek praise or recognition for her efforts, everything she did was a labour of love. Mabel had a great capacity for listening and understanding. She was one who could laugh with you, weep with you, comfort you, encourage you and accept you. It was due to Mabel's inspiration that this book had its beginnings. It was she who transformed an idea into a creative effort, supplying information and enthusiasm to give this book its start. It is safe to say that without her, this book would not have been. Mabel was called home to her Master suddenly on Sept. 17th, 1983. Thank you, Mabel, for being our friend.