One of the requests for information at thye Chula Vista Genealogical Society Family History Roundtable meeting (monbthly on the 3rd Wednesday at 12 noon PDT) last month was to discuss this topic at a future3 meeting.
I've been thinking about this topic for more than ten years, but have not progressed to completion of my still-tentative plans -- I need a Round Tuit! I decided to ask five of the freely available Artificial Intelligence tools (OpenAI ChatGPT, Anthorpic Claude, Google Gemini, X Grok, and Perplexity) to summarize what I should do. Each AI tool gave me somewhat different answers, but I think the ChatGPT response was a good start.
1) I wrote a long prompt trying to explain my problems and issues in:
Many genealogists have a wealth of family photographs, family letters, home movies, record images, research articles, ancestor biographical sketches or notes, etc. Some researchers have these in physical form, or in digital form, or in a mix of physical and digital. The information extracted from all of this information is included in a family tree software program or an online family tree as names, relationships, events, dates, places, sources, research or biographical notes, with links to digitized record or photo images.
As an example, I have over 75,000 profiles in my family tree (in RootsMagic, in an Ancestry Member Tree, and MyHeritage family tree), I have several thousand family photos (most digitized), some family letters (mostly digitized), some home movies (digitized now), over 500 ancestor genealogical sketches with sources (digitized), a StoryWorth book about my own life experiences, over 500 AI-assisted biographies, memoirs, and stories about 100 ancestors, some PDF files of ancestor reports (from me back 12 generations), and descendants reports (from one ancestor to later generations), a genealogy blog with almost 20,000 posts that cover all phases of my genealogy work, and about 60 linear feet of paper in folders, binders, bookcases, file cabinets and piles, collected and developed over 38 years.
Too many genealogists don't think about what happens to all of the material when they die. I have been thinking about all of that and at age 82 with health concerns, I need to do something about it.
In my experience, public and private libraries and archives don't want the papers of non-famous persons like me. In many cases, the family of a genealogist rarely wants to deal with all of the papers and digital files -- they have lives to live. If a genealogist is lucky, they might have one or two cousins or grandchildren who might be interested to carry on the research.
What options do I have to pass this material on to not only my descendants and relatives, and also to other researchers? Please describe organizations, repositories, companies and websites (free or subscription) that might help me gather and save my research for posterity.
2) The OpenAI ChatGPT5 Response was:
Randy, you are asking one of the most important questions a serious genealogist can ask. What you have described is not just a hobby collection—it is the accumulated work of decades: original family materials, research, writing, analysis, and interpretation. If it is not organized and intentionally transferred, much of it could easily become inaccessible or be discarded after your lifetime.
The good news is that you do not have to find a single institution willing to take everything. In fact, the best preservation strategy is usually a distributed legacy plan: place different parts of the collection where they are most likely to survive and be useful.
First: Think of Your Collection as Four Separate Archives
1. The Family Tree Data -- Your RootsMagic database, Ancestry tree, and MyHeritage tree contain the structured information.
2. Digital Media -- Photos, letters, home movies, PDFs, biographies, reports, blog archives.
3. Physical Materials -- Paper files, binders, books, original photographs, correspondence.
4. Your Intellectual Work -- Biographies, proof arguments, stories, blog posts, memoirs, and research conclusions.
Each category may need a different destination.
Best Options for Preserving the Family Tree Itself
a) RootsMagic:
- Keep a current RootsMagic backup (.rmgb).
- Export a GEDCOM periodically.
- Store copies on:
- An external hard drive
- A second external drive kept in another location
- A cloud service (Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, etc.)
- Create a simple text file named READ_ME_FIRST.txt explaining what the files are and how to open them.
b) Ancestry
Your public or shared tree can continue to exist after your death if someone has access to the account. Consider:
- Adding a trusted relative as a collaborator.
- Leaving account access instructions with your estate documents.
- Exporting a GEDCOM as an independent backup.
c) MyHeritage
Similar approach:
- Share the family site with trusted relatives.
- Export a GEDCOM periodically.
- Download important photos and documents in original resolution.
Free Long-Term Digital Preservation Options
a) Internet Archive (https://archive.org)
This is one of the strongest options for preserving your written work. You can upload:
- PDF ancestor sketches
- Descendant reports
- Family histories
- Memoirs
- StoryWorth book
- Blog exports
- Scanned letters
- Home movies
Designed for long-term preservation
For someone with your volume of material, I would strongly recommend creating an Internet Archive collection such as:
- Seaver Family History Collection
- Genea-Musings Archive
- Carringer and Allied Families Collection
b) Preserving Your Blog
With nearly 20,000 posts, your blog is a major historical resource. Do this now:
- Export the entire Blogger/WordPress blog.
- Save the export file in multiple locations.
- Create a PDF or HTML archive if possible.
- Upload the archive to Internet Archive.
Organizations That May Accept Genealogical Collections
You are correct that many libraries decline large collections from private individuals. However, some repositories are interested if the material has regional or research value.
a) Genealogical Societies. Consider:
- San Diego Genealogical Society
- Chula Vista Genealogical Society
- California Genealogical Society
- New England Historic Genealogical Society
- Published family histories
- Research reports
- Digital collections
- Society newsletters
- Lecture materials
Materials connected to specific places may be welcomed:
- Chula Vista
- San Diego
- National City
- Prince Edward County, Ontario
- Mercer County, Pennsylvania
- Louisa County, Iowa
- Dodge County, Wisconsin
d) FamilySearch
FamilySearch will not take your paper files, but you can contribute:
- Memories (photos, documents, stories)
- Source citations
- Biographical sketches
- Transcriptions
e) Commercial and Subscription Platforms
- Ancestry -- Good for sharing with relatives, but not ideal as the only preservation repository because access depends on the company and account status.
- MyHeritage -- Similar strengths and limitations.
- Forever.com -- A paid digital preservation service designed for long-term storage of photos, videos, and documents. Some genealogists use it as a “digital safe deposit box.”
- Backblaze or iDrive -- Excellent for automatic cloud backup of your entire computer.
A Practical “Genealogical Executor” Plan
This is the part many researchers overlook.
Choose one or two people—perhaps a daughter, grandchild, cousin, or fellow genealogist—and formally designate them as your genealogical executor. Give them:
- Passwords or a password manager emergency access
- Locations of external drives
- Instructions for RootsMagic
- Instructions for blog export files
- A list of what should be preserved publicly
- A list of what may be discarded
- Where the master tree is located
- Where backups are stored
- Which cloud accounts contain genealogy files
- Which repositories should receive copies
- Which relatives should receive family history books
- What to do with paper files
Given the scale of your collection, I would prioritize preservation over perfection.
a) Priority 1 — Within the Next Month
- Create fresh RootsMagic backup.
- Export GEDCOM.
- Back up all genealogy folders to two external drives.
- Export your blog.
- Write a one-page “What This Collection Contains” summary.
- Upload your StoryWorth book to Internet Archive.
- Upload the 500 ancestor sketches as PDFs.
- Upload selected descendant reports.
- Upload your AI-assisted biographies collection.
- Upload important home movies.
- Label physical boxes clearly.
- Discard duplicate papers that have been digitized.
- Create a simple inventory spreadsheet.
- Identify one or two heirs interested in genealogy.
- Share copies of key files with them now, not later.
You wrote that libraries may not want the papers of a non-famous person. That is often true for unorganized paper collections. But historians and genealogists are rarely interested because someone was famous; they are interested because someone left behind organized, documented evidence about ordinary families. Your:
- 500 sourced genealogical sketches
- 500+ biographies and stories
- digitized photographs
- home movies
- blog archive
- proof arguments
- descendant reports
The key is to make it easy for the next person to use. A well-organized digital archive with a clear inventory is far more likely to survive than 60 feet of unlabeled binders.
If you would like, I can also help you create a Genealogical Legacy Checklist and a one-page instruction sheet for your family that explains exactly what to do with your RootsMagic files, blog archive, photos, and research collection after your lifetime.
3) A Google NotebookLM Video Overview of this post is in:
4) Is what I already have for the sketches, biographies, memoirs and stories "good enough?" Frankly, I don't think so. The genealogical sketches are not uniform in content and context. The AI assisted ABC biographies, memoirs, and stories are not sourced and should be, are for individuals rather than couples, and have too much discussion material surrounding them. Consequently, I have to do the biographies over again.
Is "Perfect" the enemy of the "Good or Fair" here? My preference now is to write the biographies for the married couple, and include source citations to assertions. But that is more work! The memoirs and stories can stand on their own.
5) I forgot to include the Google NotebookLM Video Overviews and Slide Shows in the discussion above, but they are available in my blog posts and on my YouTube channel. They are OK where they are, but I should link them in the blog posts to the YouTube channel.
6) I have included many of my genealogical sketches as "Life Stories" in the FamilySearch Family Tree, but some may be out of date. I may want to add the sourced biographies to FamilySearch Memories. I could add the updated sourced biographies to my Ancestry and MyHeritage trees, along with links to memoirs, stories, transcriptions, etc.
7) I have already done some of the recommended tasks (e.g., files on iDrive, GEDCOM file on Google Drive, StoryWorth book on Google Drive and Forever, photographs in Memories, videos on YouTube, some Genea-Musings posts on Wayback Machine). However, I still have ALL of the paper in bookcases, cabinets, binders and piles -- it will be a big bonfire and I'm feeling insecure about trashing 40 years of paper!
8) I'm counting on Google/Blogger and FamilySearch to live "forever" without trashing my work, or at least until an archive of the body of work can be created and maintained.
9) A genealogist's work seems to be never done - I just wish I knew who would carry it on!!
Links to my blog posts about using Artificial Intelligence are on my Randy's AI and Genealogy page. Links to AI information and articles about Artificial Intelligence in Genealogy by other genealogists are on my AI and Genealogy Compendium page.
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