My grandma passed years ago, I now possess some of the odds and ends no one in the family has strong enough attachment to hold on to.
There are a few things I suspect might be of historical value to some folks. Like high school yearbooks; I’ve reached out to her high school to see if they need a physical copy. Other than that, any advice for where to search for interested parties? Geneology hobbyists? Universities doing anthropology research? I’m willing to put in a few attempts. After a couple attempts and “noes”, I’m fine trashing the stuff.
Yearbooks, government records, teachers license, to the more personal, diaries, photographs that I have less expectation of finding someone interested in them.
Any advice on where to search, fellow lemmies? I am US-based.
Edit: thanks, I’ll def add local museums, libraries, and historical societies to the list. Anyone with any geneology hobby experience? What little I’ve been exposed to them, they’re absolute sleuths, I just don’t know ways to find contacts other than cold calling a random individual. I’m assuming if they do organize, it’s more online since searches for local chapters of some sort hasn’t gotten me anywhere yet.
I’m in the same boat. I ended up with quite a bit of my grandparent’s belongings when they passed. My grandfather was a decorated Navy pilot among other things.
I have his actual flight suit, patents he had, documents regarding his career in and out of the Navy, and a bunch of other stuff. I contacted my local aviation museum, library, etc. and got zero interest.
I fell down a rabbit hole on ancestry.com and while I did find some distant relatives (including a half sister I didn’t know about) I couldn’t find anyone interested in taking anything I have sitting in my garage.
If you want any tips with genealogy, I might be able to answer some questions. As for the “stuff”, I’m also open to suggestions.
IIRC you can attached scanned/photographed content to his profile entry. So at least it’s saved somewhere.