I'm moving from a 4-bedroom suburban home to a small apartment at the beach. I have to sort through 15 years worth of stuff and get it all down to a manageable level.

Well I just hit the geneology storage closet. And I'm throwing it all out - boxes of it - except for a book written by my great-grandfather. That's it.

But I feel guilty, like I'm doing something wrong. Gawd.

;o)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/28/2015 10:19PM by shannon.

Digitize the data, send off the paper to the family genealogist.

^^This^^

Agree with these two! Family pictures and pedigree charts are on my computer and backed up for when I want to view them. Nothing wrong with wondering about one's roots. The Boner.

You're doing what's right for you.

GUILT !!!

I would agree that you should keep whatever seems important. A basic family tree and anything worth reading would be my preference.

The Church hijacks stuff. Any "spiritual" feeling? Well that's
the "spirit" telling you the Church is true.

Eating healthy? Hey Mormons invented that with the WOW.

Genealogy? The purpose for that is to redeem your dead in
temple ceremonies . . .

One problem one has when leaving Mormonism is disengaging the
"Mormon" component of what you do. Genealogy is great stuff,
but it doesn't have to have a "church" aspect.

Ghawd is all powerful, all knowing, so of course he could supply all the necessary info for all the by gone generations. And he's going to have to, for all the Pre-Flood inhabitants, and all the other tribes and nations that didn't keep written records. It is patently ridiculous to suppose that ghawd needs us to do this work.

Not to mention that ghawd would get it right! How many kids have been born whose 'of record' fathers, aren't! I'm sure there are even situations where the mother of record, wasn't!

Now, you could say that those who can do genealogy will suffer some kind of penalty if they fail to 'try.' But a merciful ghawd is not going to punish the dead for what you and I failed to do.

I've made the conscious decision not to do any genealogy. I've taken Jesus' words to heart, about letting the dead bury the dead.

My genealogy (Dad's family) is contained in an impressive book that was published in Utah in 1995. I refer to it to see who is related to who, etc.

Ron Burr

If you were BIC it's likely everybody on your family tree has already been templeized...several times. See if someone in your family wants it. I left the church over 30 years ago but I find that stuff fascinating...especially the outlaws.

There are copies of all this stuff other places - very little is my original work. So there is no point in keeping it all. And I can't even get my grown kids to take their childhood scrapbooks, much less gobs and gobs of famiy history.

I'm simply not interested in all this junk anymore and I need to be OK with tossing it. My TBM in-laws were geneology freaks (stake geneology representatives even). They are Mormon "Royalty" so they are related to every-damn-body on the trail. Whoop-di-doo! I don't care anymore. I'm divorcing their son AND all his snooty pioneer ancestors, too. So there!

As far as my own never-mo ancestors go...I know they are not interested in being dead-dunked into the Mormon church. So I need to let go of that niggling guilt that I have to "get their work done." THOUSANDS of them. ugh.

Mostly, I'm half-afraid that the ghost of some pioneer woman will smack me in my sleep tonight for disrespecting her family and the sacrifices they made in getting to Zion. Or perhaps some lone never-mo guy on my side still wants his work done and will haunt me the rest of my life for not making him a Mormon.

Sigh.

;o)

Perhaps just keep a list (digitized and sent out to everyone in your family or something of the sort) that tells where all of the info can be found. Or something like that. It gets harder and harder to reinvent the genealogical wheel with every passing generation.

My own family had tons of genealogical stuff --- and it all disappeared when my parents died. Now no-one knows where to find a huge amount of information. The younger generation, as they age, are becoming deeply curious about who came from where, and so on. Something to do, I think, with their own children asking questions. Not for religious reasons, but just because people cycle back and forth in being interested in their roots. But the longer the information is out of sight, the harder it is to find.

As people die who knew the answers, we keep finding all sorts of questions that we wished we'd thought to ask. But now,it's too late. I'd give a lot to have a chance to ask my grandmother a few dozen questions about her family. I thought that I knew everything that was important, but now realize that I only knew about the few "special" lines, and everything else seems to be lost.

If it were me, I'd keep my own stuff; offer the ex's stuff to the kids (their father I presume?) with the caution that it will be tossed if they don't want it. At some point they probably will want to have it. I didn't get interested in genealogy until I was about 44 years old – so just because your kids don't care now doesn't mean they never will be.

But in those 10 years, I've done intensive work, maybe 20-25 years' worth, and have collected documents that no one else has seen. I have both Mo and nevermo lines and have discovered new things even among the heavily-researched Mos – facts that were forgotten or swept under the rug. Even TBM lines have gaps in them, if you know where to look.

I wish I'd known enough to ask my now-deceased Mo grandfather about the sister who died when she was fourteen and he was eight. Apparently neither my mother nor her siblings ever troubled themselves to find out, and primary documents on her are virtually nil.

The only real reason I can see for keeping genealogy documents is actually a medical one. If there is a recessive gene in your family for, say early cancer development, you and your kids' doctors will need to know about it. However, per your last response on the subject, it appears that the necessary records are already available elsewhere, in which case I say throw out your copies! You're moving to a new, smaller apartment, and you really don't need either these documents or the guilt trips being thrown on you.

This is your family history. You need to preserve this. If you don't want it, give it to someone in your family who will care for it.

Just because LDS, Inc. uses genealogy for silly purposes doesn't mean you shouldn't keep it. History is part of who you are.

God: the ultimate bureaucrat. Requires that we do paperwork for our salvation.

If indeed He is omniscient and already know who is related to whom, then He's essentially assigned us some busywork.

Agree with the folks above, though. If it's fun for you, keep a copy.

If you have a family loved one or relative who is into doing genealogy, you'd be doing them a great favor by giving it to them, if they don't already have the same info.

I've become interested in genealogy since 2011. That's when I first applied a German Jewish family tree my mom gave me before she died, to an Internet search.

From that I met my genealogist cousin in Israel, who keeps the Jewish family records. He added me to his family site, and there I've discovered much of my Jewish lineage from his endeavors.

When his uncle died, who was AP director for Israel for several decades, the uncle (also one of my cousins) donated all his genealogy and other memorabilia to my living cousin over there. So it may be important to someone other than yourself.

It doesn't have to be for Mormon endeavors to have personal value. I consider finding history on family search is its own reward. Have enjoyed it immensely.

However, I will add I'm not storing it up in paper mode. It's mostly online from the resources of others putting it there over the years, including my late mother who also loved genealogy.

I hated it when I was LDS. Now I'm hooked, and for the right reasons.

If it's space you need, I understand. Doing the same w/downsizing of my house for when I'm able to retire. I have more stuff than I have need for. It's so easy to accumulate, that like you fifteen/however many years later after moving here, I have been donating by the carload to my nearest thrift centers.

And it seems the more I give away, there's more where that came from. :(

I'm a pack rat. Hate to admit it. But there, I've outed myself.

Genealogy can be a few charts and a few specific books or journals and a picture book or two.

The other 11 boxes are duplicates/ not new, or outdated information-technology... when now it can all fit on a few CDs or in the cloud...

Some times you just need to lift the anchor and set sail. It is a beautiful journey out there/ here without all the extra weight/ junk/ extra stuff... not to mention the emotions and feelings attached to them.

You get it moremany.

;o)

shannon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You get it moremany.
>
> ;o)


I love throwing stuff out sometimes.

I love keeping stuff sometimes too: just different stuff.

Thanks shannon

Is your move pretty close overall?
Have fun near-on the beach - and leaving the suburbs - and get rid of stuff you don't need. FEELS SO GOOD.

I bet you can't wait to redecorate!

Don't procrastinate!

(I once tried to read this book on procrastination and could never finish it - I kept putting it down so much... it was that bad)

Next subject. Sleep

There are many people who are very interested in geneology and they are not mormon so I am just saying there is no need to throw away your entire history and all that. Just don't let tscc lies make you throw out all your stuff including your spirituality. Be like a surgeon when separating what is lies and what is tricks and what is your life and your well being. You deserve everything that your life is outside of the mormon lies.

That is your family history. Donate it to your historical society, digitize it so it can fit on a small external drive or in the cloud so that someone who wants it someday can find it. Give it away to a sibling (or at least notify your extended family that if anyone wants it they need to pick it up within __ days).

Throwing it out would be really tragic. No doubt you have non-lds extended family members who will want what you know someday.