Donating Genealogical Records

Have no doubt that your family tree research has value beyond the current generations of your own family.

Donating your family history to a local historical or genealogy group is an excellent way to make certain all of your hard work is put to good use. Local Historical Societies and Genealogy groups have a stake in preserving your records for future generations.

 

 

How to Donate Your Family Tree

If you are considering donating your family tree research the best place to start is by contacting your local library. Your local library can help you identify the archives that are best geographically suited to receive your family’s story.

Generally, community groups are interested in local reference records. However, they may have ties to other groups with broader interests such as provincial or state archives.

When donating a rather widespread family tree it may be worth considering breaking it into smaller portions focusing on specific locations.

While it is normal in a large family tree to have a significant geographical spread with ancestors coming from all corners of the globe, a local group may have limited space. Therefore, it is reasonable that they may not want to house large documents unless they are completely location specific.

What to Include with Your Donation

Along with your family tree templates or pedigree charts, you should include either originals or copies of:

• Primary and secondary source documents
• Old photos
• Vital Records
• Newspaper clippings
• Maps

Donating your family tree data is one of the best ways of sharing your genealogy and contributing to the preservation of history in your community. Not only does it help preserve your research for future generations it may be key to helping another family history researcher to break down a brick wall.

However, before you donate be sure not to part with any original items you or other members of your family may want to keep.  Lastly, make certain that all of your research conforms to The Big Five Genealogy Standards and Guidelines.

To learn more about genealogical standards sign up today for Genealogy Beginner’s 30-day free trial and receive Eight, Step-by-Step Weekly Lessons You Can Do At Your Own Pace. Starting with Lesson 1: Genealogy Standards And Guidelines.