What Do I Do with This Stuff?

Scrap book! You can buy a large-format scrap book and paste some in. I guess I'd worry about damaging the articles with tape or glue though. Maybe an accordian folder. I know I'd keep the stuff, but I keep everything.

I find old family artifacts help to give me a sense of rootedness - a sense of who I am. I just recently got a photocopied few pages of designs my grandparents made on paper for silver bracelets that my grandpa made. I have one of the bracelets. We have recipes that my grandma kept. Odd things really.

Oh, Roberta. From my perspective you might regret throwing them away. For posterity's sake, if no other, maybe you could find someone who would love to have them. I love the look, feel, smell...even...of old documents. The sense of history...the flight of imagination....the feeling of connectedness to bygone days.

I've kept my father's birth certificate and his soldier's pay book. They're displayed in a glass topped box along with other items of profound importance to me...an accorn from my son and a small coloured rock....

I think you nailed it when you said you found some "family treasures!"

Welcome to A2K Joeblow!

I think that Joeblow has a good idea. Thin things out. Keep what you really think is important. Display the most important stuff. Keep the next most important stuff in a file or shoebox. And toss out the rest.

Depending on the relic--and the area of the country--a historical society might be interested. Some local VFW's and American Legion posts welcome donations of personal military history.

Even if you lack direct descendents, think about nieces and nephews. Is anyone in your generation--or a younger generation--interested in family history?

If nothing else, put them in a box (ideally with an inventory). Remember family papers will increase in value as they age).

The archives at your central library for anything you do not really want? Archiving is a wonderful source for historians...

get a digital camera; photograph them; and store them on cd or dvd.
done!
oh yes, recycle the paper!

BoGoWo - no! Recycle the paper, sheesh.

just so long as you don't 'burn' it!

littlek - hi again!


Bogowo - recycle, don't burn - a worthy message for household garbage...but for family history?

Seriously?

Could be I'm immersed in sentimentality, I suppose, but I'd prefer the real macoy to the computer disc.

Those who forget family history are doomed to recycle it.

let me rephrase my above comment: I think recycling the papers is an atrocity.

Joeblow, did I already welcome you?

You most graciously did littlek, in the new members thread, a few days back.

It's easy for me to recall - I have the whomping total of 28 posts (and counting), to date.

ah! So sad when one's memory goes at such a young age.

But what is Roberta going to do with all that paper?

I'm starting to consider the 'Clean Sweep' approach. That room-cleaner- upper-guy keeps saying - the letters aren't your husband, the painting isn't your mother, the pillow isn't your friend ... I think he makes some good sense. Now, I need to apply several of his lessons, so I'm not quite 'walking the talk', but I'm considering it.

littlek, I'm not a scrapbookie kind of person. And I would be reluctant to put adhesive on the papers. I agree with you that there is a sense of "connectedness" to this stuff. BTW, I'm finding more than papers. I found my first walking shoes. Did my feet fit in those?

JoeBlow, Hi and welcome. I love old papers too. I'm not really considering tossing everything. I'm just thinking about the point of keeping them.

Phoenix, I'm doing exactly what you suggested. Thinning things out. Saving and tossing.

Noddy, I have no kids, no nieces or nephews. Not sure that there's anything of military interest. My father's discharge papers from WWII? Must be a zillion of those around.

Deb, You mean people not related to me might be interested in some of the papers. It never occurred to me. Maybe I'll investigate.

Bo, Thanks for the suggestion. That's not gonna happen, though. Either I keep the papers or I don't.

ehBeth, I thought about the Clean Sweep philosophy. I think it applies in situations where the people saving stuff have no room for it. I've got room. Yes, I live in an apartment in NYC, but I've got lots of big closets.

Roberta, I know that his plan is for people without space, but what he says just makes sense. So many of us attach a lot of meaning to things, when the things, in and of themselves, are of no use to us. I can throw away pretty much anything I've paid for, but I agonize over things other people give me. Silly things. Why can't I throw away two bracelets made out of plastic thread and beads, that the daughters of friends of mine made for me at camp? The bracelets aren't the girls, they aren't even photos, or notes that the girls wrote me. But there they are - daring me to toss them out.

Boida - my dear friend, helen, was an archivist, before taking to messing with people's heads.

Our central libraries LOVE having family material donated. It is a treasure trove of history and such - even personal letters and all that.

I have a lovely letter from my uncle Max, a bomber pilot in WWII, written on D Day - while he waited for his squadron to get their orders to fly over the channel and drop their bombs! He can hear the guns - he WANTS to get in his plane and go.

It is photographed, and shrunk way down, as they did then, to make the mail easier to fly back to Oz.

I have lots of me mum's admirers photies' from all over the WWII theatres (she was gorgeous!!!) - including a group photo from Bethlehem, all drowned in snow!

I have some of her army photos - she was a transport driver - and a de-mobilization letter from their CO.

I have photos of their sheep station in the 20's and 30's - all lovely historical stuff. I will be donating it to the archives.

I DID have my my maternal grandfather's diary - station stuff, all mixed up with personal - including the day my poor wee mummy arrived back from a long stay in hospital (they used to put kids in for MONTHS then - without seeing their parents!!!!! - it expalins a lot about her, but nemmind) all written in big red letters - ecstatic he was, about "Little Nancy's" home-coming. It would have been a wonderful personal thing to have - and invaluable histotically - but - wait for it - my horrible father THREW IT OUT - without asking me - after I left home.