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?
With our cremation, we have an online area to write about our life. We aren't doing the old "the good, bad and the ugly" thing, only the "good". Relatives don't want to read/hear about the "bad and ugly" version of a person's life. As far as my relatives lives/history, I, personally, don't care about that. I know what my biological father was like and I'm darn glad I'm not like him!
It might at least be useful to folks doing ancestry searches. They could dot all their i's and cross all the t's. Been there, done that. It can be frustrating. So much of the online information that used to be in the public domain seems to have been bought up by companies who charge fees. If the website plans to charge people for the information, I'd pass it up.
I came to a love of genealogy too late in life to ask questions of those I would have wanted to. My offspring have little-to-no interest in their ancestors. If they ever get interested, hopefully I will have left enough info for them. At least I had fun hunting the info down.....
Thank you for your responses. I guess the decision to create a permanent easy-to-find account of one's life is in direct correlation to the type of family life one has. Thankfully, all the relatives I met were super nice people. My oldest granddaughter has asked me to create my story page, so I have decided to do it. I will create the stories, she will add the pictures and a recording of my voice. She wants her children and her children's children to get to know me after I am gone. I feel a sense of satisfaction knowing that long after I'm gone, someone in the future may benefit from my experiences, and perhaps knowing my health issues, may even save their life. Otherwise, my life just becomes a name and two dates.
Hi Mary, I understand what you are saying. Until, recently, none of my eight grandchildren seem to care about their great-grandparents, but out of the blue, now two of them can't seem to get enough. One of them is very artsy and has fallen in love with my mother's paintings and wants to know everything about her. The other one is going to college out of town and has no family living close by. So, when she needs to get something off her chest, she pulls out her pictures of her great-grandparents and carries on a one-sided conversation with them. My take on leaving my life story is this. It wasn't until I was much older that I got interested in knowing more about my relatives. So perhaps after I am gone, an interested relative will be blown away to find my story which might help them better understand themself's and get through some tough times.
Hi @Wink Cummings May I suggest a modicum of caution when you post your info online, just to the extent of maybe not including details like dates, addresses, companies where employed, etc that might be used by identity thieves, even after your demise? Those details could be included in a hard copy in a safe deposit box or home safe maybe, but I'd scrub them out of any online version. Having once being subject of an identity theft from an online posting, that was basically the advice given to me by the FBI agent who took my case report. That said, I'd love to know what website you're talking about, if you care to share here or in a private message. To answer your topic question, I think yes, descendants will eventually want to know, even if they seem uninterested know. I've been pleased by all the info I've been able to find on some ancestors I didn't even know I had until I got into genealogy. And more pleased when my kids wanted to hear my own life stories.
It might be worthwhile for our own current-day purposes. That process may uncover things we can remediate or accomplish. "The unexamined life is not worth living" -Socrates (purportedly)
Hi Great advice! The website I am getting ready to use, allows me to make any or all of my content private, viewable only by family members I invite. In answer to your question, the site is familystorylibrary.com. The site was recommended by friends. Also, I like that the site does not rely on those popup ads. Instead, their policy says they rely on the one-time fee per personal web page and that they don't sell or give out personal information.
@Wink Cummings ..welcome from Texas! And the yes, I think it is good to leave behind information they need and want. As for doing it online, use caution .
Thanks @Wink Cummings . Now that I see the site, I think I knew about it before and had forgotten. It looks familiar. Much appreciate your descriptions of it. Looks quite useful and really a nice gift to one's family.
I’ll simply become an old ancestor in due time. The only ones who will care are close relatives and that will quickly wane. Occasionally someone. might asked whatever happened to old so and so. Oh, he died a while back. Some of his kids might still be around though. that’s about the extent of most of us.