After we are gone, is anyone interested in who we were and what we did?

O

Old Tom

New Member
I found a website where I can leave an account of my life's journey. As I get older, my one regret is that I did not find out more about my relatives' lives. I am thinking current and future family members might appreciate knowing, for better or worse, what kind of person I was and how I navigated through life's obstacles. My question is, do you think it is worth taking the time to leave an account of one's life?
 

I guess it depends on what you want. Personally being one of the younger ones here it hasn't been a big deal and hasn't made any difference in my life because most of the relatives are gone. The ones still left don't talk to their relation anymore hardly. As a child I didn't take notes on all the family info cuz I didn't care at the time. I was a kid. It doesn't really bother me now either. I think you should do what's in your heart.

Edit: I do know that my father spent many years journaling about his life to leave for us kids to read later but I doubt I'll even get the chance to see it.
 
I have shared an account of my life and theirs (their early years) with my children over the years, and all I can hope for when I'm gone is that they'll remember some of the funny little stories I shared with them, aside from that, no one else would be interested.

I feel my job is done.
 

Old Tom said:
I found a website where I can leave an account of my life's journey. As I get older, my one regret is that I did not find out more about my relatives' lives. I am thinking current and future family members might appreciate knowing, for better or worse, what kind of person I was and how I navigated through life's obstacles. My question is, do you think it is worth taking the time to leave an account of one's life?
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Many might not appreciate knowing, but one person might. If it's something you wish your relatives had done, then my guess is it's worth it for you to do.

I've done extensive genealogical research and wish so that I could flesh out the stories for the people who've left traces of their lives on deeds, wills, in my DNA tests. I'd love the type record of their life that you're thinking of setting down. Neither of my siblings care at all about learning more about their ancestors and wouldn't take the time to read an account of someone's life. My sister cuts me off from genealogy discussions by asking, "Are we talking about dead people again?" LOL.... it's just not her thing, So realize, you may be setting down something that not everyone will appreciate, but it'll be gold to one person that does.
 
Old Tom said:
I found a website where I can leave an account of my life's journey. As I get older, my one regret is that I did not find out more about my relatives' lives. I am thinking current and future family members might appreciate knowing, for better or worse, what kind of person I was and how I navigated through life's obstacles. My question is, do you think it is worth taking the time to leave an account of one's life?
Click to expand...
Personally, I think it depends on your descendants. Are they interested in genealogy? If so, yes. If not, like the current entitled generation, no. It didn't hit me until Ancestry.com became popular and I spent several years on my family tree for my older aunt until I came to a dead end. It took me a lot of time and researching for nothing basically after she died in 2017. Her kids have dropped the ball. :(
 
There will come a time when unless we do something good for the world.. or extremely bad, none of us will be remembered by anyone..

I'm a daughter, a sister, a mother, an Aunt, a niece, a cousin, ... and a wife...

..one day unless I write memoirs no-one is ever going to know I existed...

Old tom..can you give us the name of the website ?
 
I doubt that 3,000 years from now, some archeologist will be unearthing my home to see what I was like, but I do think we, collectively, will have a huge effect on future thought, and ethics. Each generation sets the stage for the next act. It's up to the next generation to improve on what w gave them, as all previous generations have..

I wonder how much of our era will be available for research thousands of years from now. I don't see a computer server lasting 3,000 years.
 
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Aunt Marg said:
I have shared an account of my life and theirs (their early years) with my children over the years, and all I can hope for when I'm gone is that they'll remember some of the funny little stories I shared with them, aside from that, no one else would be interested.

I feel my job is done.
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my mother did the same thing with us kids.
 
hollydolly said:
There will come a time when unless we do something good for the world.. or extremely bad, none of us will be remembered by anyone..

I'm a daughter, a sister, a mother, an Aunt, a niece, a cousin, ... and a wife...

..one day unless I write memoirs no-one is ever going to know I existed...

Old tom..can you give us the name of the website ?
Click to expand...
Hi hollydolly,

I agree that unless we record our memoirs in a permanent easy-to-find place, we become nothing more than a name and two dates (I got that from the website :). And if my experiences can help someone better understand themselves or help them through tough times, then it is comforting to know that my hard-earned lessons can continue to be valuable long after I am gone. The website is called familystorylibrary.com. It was recommended to me by friends and it allows me to make my data private if I want, available to only people I invite to see it. Also, their privacy policy says that they do not use those popup ads nor sell or use your personal information. My granddaughter is helping with the pictures and a short voice recording. I provide the stories and I have a lot of them :)
 
Old Tom said:
Hi hollydolly,

I agree that unless we record our memoirs in a permanent easy-to-find place, we become nothing more than a name and two dates (I got that from the website :). And if my experiences can help someone better understand themselves or help them through tough times, then it is comforting to know that my hard-earned lessons can continue to be valuable long after I am gone. The website is called familystorylibrary.com. It was recommended to me by friends and it allows me to make my data private if I want, available to only people I invite to see it. Also, their privacy policy says that they do not use those popup ads nor sell or use your personal information. My granddaughter is helping with the pictures and a short voice recording. I provide the stories and I have a lot of them :)
Click to expand...
Thank you for that Tom...I'll have a quick look at it now, as it's late and a more indepth look tomorrow..

Excellent to know they don't sell your information on...

Good luck with yours... :giggle:
 
My mother used to always tell us kids and anybody who would listen lol, her families' history. When her father fought the Turks on his horse and lost part of his finger, his travels from his homeland to America...going thru Ellis Island. You get my drift.
I'll stop there, or I'll get carried away.

I'm glad she did.....
 
Every so often a question about my family pops into my head, unfortunately parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts are all gone, I have 2 older cousins but I actually lived with my grandparents so often the questions come to me.
 
I have one niece who has become the family "historian", but the rest are generally uninterested. Even when I raise the topic of family members who participated in major battles during WWII. I like to think that I was more interested when I was in my 20's and 30's but I am uncertain that I was. I did have the vast majority of photos and records that my niece was interested in and I was happy to ship them to her.
 
never married, no one to leave anything to, my life story, my junker car, my military awards, my old beatup computer....friends want anything then take it, life story is no more interesting to them then theirs is to them?
 
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