As a professional organizer, I see over and over again how difficult it is for people to let go of items they were given as a gift, even if those items no longer serve them. This observation has changed the way I give gifts. As I’ve written repeatedly on my organizing blog, I think it’s much kinder to give a gift that doesn’t have a chance to turn into clutter.
Luckily there are many non-tangible gifts that won’t turn into clutter. And if you have a genealogist on your holiday gift list especially easy, since there are so many fun, clutter-free gifts available, even at the last minute. I’ve updated the list I published last year, I hope you find it helpful. Here are my ideas:
- A subscription to an online service, like Ancestry, Fold3 or MyHeritage
- A membership in a local society (even if it’s not local to your gift recipient) that offers webinars, like the Florida State Genealogical Society or the Southern California Genealogy Society (among many others). Access to the webinar archives is an amazing, inexpensive gift.
- A gift certificate to work with a professional genealogist
- A photo consultation with Maureen Taylor, photo detective
- My Orderly Roots Bundle (you could download it for them and email it, or contact me after you pay for it for a special code they can use to download it themselves)
- Your help with their genealogy (maybe offer to spend a couple of hours on one of their brick walls)
- Your help decluttering or organizing their research space
- A trip together to a cemetery or research library
- Registration for a genealogy conference
- A date to attend the 2023 RootsTech conference together virtually or in person!
As much as I love clutter-free gifts, I do have a suggestion of a physical gift for the genealogist in your life who wears necklaces. It’s the family tree necklace from Lisa Leonard Designs, which you can have made with your own surnames. I adore the one I gave myself back in 2014.
Photo by Lore Schodts on Unsplash.
I know of a professional genealogist who fills in between paid-research gigs with contracts to organize (say) a box of someone’s research, put it into folders, and enter the data into a genealogy database. A friend who has inherited The Box oftten feels too intimidated to start on it. Doing that kind of work would be a serious gift, and it might be easier, faster work for someone who ISN’T in the family–easier to be objective in making decisions and easier to avoid daydreaming and speculating over a 1917 letter from Aunt Hannah. Of course, it would be necessary to draw the limits clearly. Maybe we could make up a gift certificate for ___ hours of genealogical sorting/organizing/filing.
Marian, you always have such great input. Thank you for commenting! That would indeed be a generous gift.
These are great ideas. I also like the gift of genealogical organization.