A first cousin of my great-grandfather and his wife had only one daughter. She was a child that they adopted when she was fairly young. Years after she died, a son of that daughter contacted me and asked me if I wanted pictures he had of my great-great-grandfather’s brother and other family members. I said yes after making certain he really did not want to keep them.
He was concerned that no one in his family would want the pictures when he died and, since they weren’t biologically related to the family, he was also afraid that would increase the chance someone just threw them out when he passed away.
There are several lessons here: think about what may happen to your pictures and other ephemera when you pass away and consider how someone may end up with things in a way that is potentially unexpected. The pictures could easily have ended up in an antique mall, flea market, or dump if I had not been given them.
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