I was so happy to be interviewed once again for Amy Johnson Crow’s podcast, Generations Cafe. It’s a great podcast and I look forward to each new episode.
This week, Amy kicks off a series on downsizing, based on her recent experience in moving her parents from their home of many decades into a smaller space. In this week’s episode, called Downsizing and Family History, we talked at length about how it can be tricky for genealogists to decide what to let go of when they recognize the potential genealogical value of items for future generations.
The intersection of my work as an organizer and my passion as a genealogist is one of my favorite places to spend time, so I really enjoyed this opportunity to talk with Amy. (If you want to learn a little about how Amy organizes her own family history research, check out her How They Do It interview on this blog from July 2017.)
If you’re not already listening to Generations Cafe, I urge you to subscribe. If you’re new to podcasts, Generations Cafe is a great first genealogy podcast to subscribe to! The podcast showcases Amy’s clear-eyed view of genealogy and her excellent communications skills.
So glad to be a tiny part of it!
Amy is an absolute delight! She was the guest speaker at the Missouri State Genealogical Association annual meeting in 2018. I thoroughly enjoyed her multiple presentations. You made an excellent point in the podcast about the downsizing process of family treasures being fatiguing. As my brother and I clean out our late aunt’s home as well as our grandparents’ home (where my two sons and I lived for a number of years), we have realized that going through all these possessions, while enjoyable, lends itself to almost reliving the loss of family members and coming to grips with the fact that now we are the oldest generation, not to mention the obvious “what are we going to do with all this stuff?” question. Emotional fatigue is not the first thing we think about when we are faced with downsizing family items, but it is absolutely true. Thanks for sharing your insight on the podcast!
Thanks for your nice note, Pamela! I agree that Amy was a great speaker at the Missouri meeting in 2018–I loved all her talks!
And thanks for sharing your experience with cleaning out your late aunt’s and grandparents’ homes. That you had to go through that is an argument for downsizing our own stuff while we’re still alive.
Just listened to the podcast while walking in the park. You offer very good advice, Janine. Thank you. We are well aware of our need to downsize our stuff now as we may move from our house to an apartment in the next few years. And, if we don’t, we will at least be doing the children a favour. I take your point about sentimental objects that will maybe mean nothing to the kids…although my 38 year old daughter has already claimed some of her grandmother’s bowls and dishes. Not sure my son will want any but he is was very happy to receive old school reports, piano examination results and his Nana & Pop ‘s war records.
Thanks for your comment, Maureen! I think it’s great that your kids interested in some of these sentimental items!
In the past few years I have lost quite of few older generation family members and, as the family historian, I was the one to receive all their papers and many of their treasures covering over 139 years worth of history. That said, in keeping with your points in the podcast, the real eye opener was when we lost my Husband’s mother and I was the lucky one that dealt with her estate. She had been in the same house for 70 years and yes, going through over 70 years’ worth of her accumulations was very exhausting.. Also, deciding what to keep or not was hard as I was only her daughter-in-law for 29 years and her two sons wanted nothing to do with the process! It truly opened my eyes to what our children (a blended family) will have to do when my husband and I are gone. I have already begun to go through things and started to toss the junk and donate the better things that no one in the families wants (and yes, I did ask). That said, although I plan on living until I am at least 100 (lol), I’m not very hopeful I will complete the task within the remaining 35 years!! One thing I did note as a genealogist is that, contrary to being reminded of my losses when sorting through everyone’s items, I was reminded of stories I had forgotten, which has truly enriched my family genealogy.
Thank you for sharing your experience, Diana. I think you’re so smart to start the process of letting go of stuff now, so your children won’t have to do what you did for your mother-in-law.