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From: "Connie Bradbury" <>
Subject: Re: [APG] Deceased Genealogist's Work Files
Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2005 12:50:46 -0900
References: <BAY4-DAV8A899198E1964051B4975D87E0@phx.gbl> <009f01c508d7$c9b74830$6e41b142@VALUED16AFA648>


I received a phone call from a nephew of the deceased. He was in town to
dispose of, in some manner, his uncle's property. He had five boxes of
genealogy. His uncle had written a book on his paternal line and these were
all his work papers, letters, photographs and one loose copy of the book.
There were also some books and publications. The nephew just wanted to get
rid of the boxes so he could go home. He asked me if the genealogical
society wanted them. The society had no place for them. I told him I would
take the boxes only if he allowed me to go through them, get rid of
duplications, separate what would be considered manuscript material from the
books and publications. Donate the books and publications to the FHC then
see if the archives at the university would take the rest. So, that's what
happened. The university would take the rest if I would process the
collection, which I did. It ended up being less than 2 cubic feet. Not bad
for what started out as five large boxes.

Now, for client files. My situation might be a little different. Most of
my clients are local. I store their files in plastic file storage boxes and
placed on shelves. The name and address of the client in taped to the
visible end of each box. I also have sent a letter to each client telling
them where their files are. My husband and my children all have a list of
the clients, including address and phone number, and where their files are.

I have several small files for clients who are now deceased. In one case,
the daughter who lives in Seattle wouldn't respond to letters nor take phone
calls. Another situation is the client's children did not share their
mother's interest in genealogy. I am certain that if I gave her files to
one of her children, she would haunt me for the rest of my life! Another
file I will probably destroy sooner or later. The client was very difficult
to work with. I wasn't able to help him very much because he argued with me
over everything I found. Those files are in one storage box with the names
of the clients on the box and a list of what to do with the files taped to
the inside of the lid.

This is getting to be a little off topic, I'd better stop!

Connie
----- Original Message -----
From: "astaley" <>
To: <>
Sent: Tuesday, February 01, 2005 6:32 PM
Subject: [APG] Deceased Genealogist's Work Files


> All,
>
> I am in need of some expert advice.
>
> In 1992, a member of our genealogical society (a professional, certified
> genealogist) passed away. The Society was given about 5 boxes of items and
> a
> collection of books from her estate. At the time, someone went through the
> boxes and marked (in general) what they contain. Nothing more has
> basically
> been done with them.
>
> Our Society is in the process of "thinking" about merging with another
> local
> society and several of us are trying to clean-up and clear out our office.
>
> Now the question - what do we do with the professional's work? The boxes
> contain her personal genealogy and professional work. There are letters
> from
> the 1970's (that I have found so far) with clients. There are *lots* of
> pedigree charts. There are composision notebooks of notes (not necessarily
> broken down by personal/professional). There are 3x5 client cards. There
> are
> slides (probably from presentations). There are typed family histories
> (does
> not indicate by whom they were written).
>
> She was an LDS member and probably some/most of her own research is filed
> with them, but to figure out which might be a time consuming endeavor.
>
> I don't want to pitch all of it; a lot of work went into gathering the
> data.
> However, I don't want to do anything that would violate someone's privacy.
>
> Help! Any advice will be most appreciated. If we decide to merge, the
> other
> Society does not have a lot of storage space.
>
> Ann Staley
>
>
>
> ==== APG Mailing List ====
> The Association of Professional Genealogists
> http://www.apgen.org/publications/apg-l/index.html
>
>

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