Thank you, Paul, for introducing this subject. Before you consider where you will leave your research perhaps a good starting point should be - what will I leave for others? I would suggest that since winter is cold, grey and long, it is a wonderful time to do some housecleaning of your files. You could very well come across something you have missed in the past. The end result will be neat, orderly and ready to pass on. Maybe one of your progeny might decide this 'mess' isn't so bad after all and store it for another generation or, wonder of wonders, take an interest in their family and keep it as a starting point for their own hobby. So once it is tidied up and manageable......where should it go? Family first and foremost - in whatever format you decide to give it to them. Paul's gifts are in our files and on our shelves; there for others as long as the museum exists. The families came from this area and this is where future generations will come to do their own research. We are proud to have his work. But not all facilities are the same. Space varies, preservation methods vary and access to researchers also varies. Think well before you donate all those years of work. Ask questions - where will it be kept, how will it be preserved and how easy will it be for future generations to get to it? Probably the last place you would want your work to go would be some basement, shoved in a corner and forgotten. Sad to say, this often happens. A few years ago, we were the recipients of 11 bankers’ boxes of scrapbooks. There is a wealth of material in them but without volunteers to index them, they are stored in the archives………but they are not forgotten! How many times have you gone into a research facility, stumbled on someone's work by accident and found exactly what you had been looking for? It has happened to me and I have been very grateful to the facility and their volunteers for having the material front and centre. Some of the answers to your questions will determine the format of your donated work. Space is a very real problem for some institutions. But don't give up! Paper is not the only method of preserving your work. In fact, it may not be the best. Unless you have used quality paper and ink, the material may deteriorate in time, even under the best of conditions. Staples does it cheap, printers do it better, but not all of us have the money to pay for leather bound books on quality vellum. Another thing to consider is that research notes (not documents) can be too much paper and it may not be necessary to retain them forever. It is the end result of your research that is most important. I don't want to start a discussion on technology on this list but there are good methods of preserving your work that take up little space. CDs and DVDs fit the bill nicely. Software programs evolve, some even disappear and some are just not good enough, but all programs now have the capability of storing media files - old pictures, digital images, sound recordings and video. Everything about your family – including notes and data - can be put on a CD or DVD, if you learn how to use your program. It is not a steep learning curve and your grandchildren can certainly help you with some of it. Think of it as teaching another generation the value of heritage and history. Subscribe to a mailing list for users of your software. Rootsweb has many. In time everything becomes obsolete but any good research facility will keep the equipment around that is necessary to view your work or they will transfer it to a newer format. Let them worry about keeping up with technological advances and ensuring your donation is there for your descendants. That takes care of ‘later’. But what about now? Paper burns and, as horrible as it may be to consider, if all your files are paper they can be lost in a minute. Consider copies to be stored elsewhere – a safety deposit box or a relative’s home. Do you back-up your computer work? Notes can be typed into a word processing program and saved. Data can be input to genealogy software programs. But if your computer crashes, boy, are you in trouble - unless you have backed-up your work or made copies for family members. Backups and GEDcoms, even with their limitations, can be saved on CD/DVD are easy to store. We would certainly have no problem keeping a copy for you now, or in the future. Remember one thing: back-ups can only be restored to the program in which it was created. The possibilities for the loss of your work are limitless but there are ways and places to ensure it is preserved. First and foremost is including the codicil to your will that Malcolm shared with us. Pam Tessier Research Co-ordinator Genealogy & History Research Centre Penetanguishene Centennial Museum & Archives