The role of tha familyElder : General Digest, Vol 12, Issue 4

Now - it just occured to me that when she dies (which I don't expect to
happen soon), I WILL BECOME the family elder, as I am the eldest of the
family of my generation - kind of a scary thought.
SO - are any of YOU the FAMILY ELDER? How do you feel about that role? I
guess I better get cracking on my research.

Just my 2 centavos.

Natalie

Natalie,
You bring up a very important question. I'm probably towards
the younger end of my paternal generation, and somewhere in the middle
on my maternal line, so am far from being an elder. Our little subgroup
here in N. Calif. have discussed this. When I get a chance, I do send
vital copies of birth, marriage, death records to some relatives that
are interested--nothing complete though. Actually I did send a complete
copy of my paternal line to my uncle in Mexico who is very interested,
but he is in his 80's. Hopefully if something happens to him, the info
won't get tossed. His children are not interested either, but he does
have the habit of showing what I send him to others in the family. Some
have told me to send them a copy of my finished product. When is a
genealogist finished!?! :)
Since I'm about 8 years away from retirement, and have two
relatively young children (11 & 14), I feel very overwhelmed by the task
at hand. My 14 year old has already told me that she won't carry on my
research. :( My 11 yr old says he will, but most 11 yr olds will say
anything to make their mother happy. Knowing that I am not immortal,
and that death can come at anytime, I always try to keep my files backed
up in several places. Our subgroup whom I'm connected to also share all
that we have in common, so I feel that I've covered many bases. My
advice is share, share, share. Someone down the line will always catch
the bug, and carry on, so keep these records available to them.
Thanks for bringing this up,
Irma Gomez Gtz de Lucero
N. Calif.